499.M42.
The four hundred and ninety-ninth year of the 42nd Millennium.
Within a star system in the Centaurus Arm of the galaxy, the Lord of Tyran and the Tyran gods were temporarily residing on a planet made entirely of metal.
Qin Mo sat atop a Living Metal device of unknown purpose, chewing on portable rations from the sector while watching a datapad playing a sector television channel.
Mimic sat beside Qin Mo, keeping him company, while the other C'tan went about their own business.
Burner vented destruction and hatred for traitors across this Necron Tomb World. Saranoga and the Void Dragon collected abandoned technological creations, while The Chronicler compiled a history of this weak Necron Dynasty's downfall.
"Why have you been paying so much attention to the sector lately?" Mimic watched the datapad with Qin Mo. "Are you homesick?"
"Of course. I haven't returned to the sector in fifty years." Qin Mo kept his eyes fixed on the screen, nodding in response to Mimic's question.
Fifty years.
Fifty years had passed since the victory of the Golden Crusade. The celebrations had not lasted long, because Guilliman, Lion, and Sanguinius had to immediately turn their attention to another enormous threat facing the Imperium—the Necrons, who had suddenly begun awakening on a massive scale.
The Tyran Sector had also been drawn into this war and could not stand apart as another human power.
Because forty-seven years ago, an expansion into the Ghoul Stars had been interrupted by the accelerated awakening of the Necrons.
Colonies had been overrun, colony ships destroyed, and the entire colonial region had instantly become a war zone. The expansion had come to a halt.
While Qin Mo launched retaliatory operations against those Necron Dynasties and prepared the sector for the coming war, he took the C'tan to seize