Within mere seconds, the Space Marines had already completed their first exchange with the Necrons.
More importantly, the clash had revealed vital intelligence.
The living-metal bodies of these Necron warriors were exceptionally durable. They could withstand several consecutive hits from heavy bolters and suffer only minor damage and deformation.
Their gauss weapons, provided they hit, were enough to kill a Space Marine outright.
That intelligence had been bought with the life of an Ultramarine who had stood too close and been focused down by the Necron warriors.
The Blackstone barricade he had relied upon was disintegrated by gauss disassembly beams, and the Ultramarine sheltering behind it had no choice but to endure the enemy fire with his power armor.
Yet the Mark X power armor still proved its worth. When the Necrons concentrated their gauss beams on him, the armor's built-in energy shield blocked the first few shots.
Only when the following gauss beams flooded in was the energy shield overloaded. Left with only the adamantium plating of his power armor, the Ultramarine was stripped apart—armor and all—by the gauss beams.
The adamantium collapsed as though it had turned to sand. The black carapace, muscles, and bones of the battle-brother it protected were peeled away layer by layer, and his superhuman modified organs were utterly destroyed before they could even take effect.
The Ultramarine did not even have time to scream before his body scattered into the wind.
A warrior loyal to the Emperor had fallen, yet the other Astartes showed no emotional reaction. They remembered the consequences of being hit and became even more careful as they evaded the enemy's attacks.
Having witnessed the power of the Necron warriors, Hill and the others frantically searched their minds for a countermeasure. Every trait of these damned metal skeletons was compiled