"I still suggest..."
Guilliman paused for a moment. Somewhat helplessly, he looked at Hades, who wore an innocent expression before him. The primarch raised the hand holding a quill and rubbed his forehead.
"You don't need to handle paperwork right now—Hades, your foremost duty is to placate those Tech-priests first. I believe Ferrus has already shown you the visitation requests Terra has received over the past day."
Unexpected changes always came swiftly. To Hades, the Necrons' declaration of war was like walking down the road perfectly well, only to suddenly get kicked by a hulking man—
Yet there had been signs long ago. Before this, he had often exchanged meaningful glances with Trazyn the Necron, colluding in all sorts of mischief.
The Necrons who discovered this had been very direct. They immediately opened with assassination attempts. When they failed to kill him, they applied pressure and demanded that the Imperium of Man hand over Hades. When that pressure failed, they decisively declared war.
Perhaps that was the confidence of a race.
They were confident that humanity posed no threat to them.
But on that point, perhaps the Silent King had not miscalculated. Before this, Hades and Guilliman had already estimated the outcome of the Imperium of Man fighting the Necrons—either total annihilation or mutual destruction. No matter what, humanity would suffer catastrophic losses in a war against the Necrons.
But that was absolutely not a reason for the Imperium of Man to hand the Underking over to the Necrons.
Hope came only once. To Roboute Guilliman, and to the Imperium, the Underking was clearly that hope within reach—not to mention the loyalty and aspirations the primarchs held toward him.
If the Underking fell, the anti-Psychic Power system supporting the current vast Imperium would collapse in a cascading avalanche.
To the