Szarekh intercepted humanity's internal interstellar broadcast network. His core matrix swiftly decrypted the encrypted quantum data streams.
What he decoded filled the Necron Phaeron who had once ruled the Galaxy with an unprecedented sense of defeat.
The "Grand Unification Alliance," dominated absolutely by humanity with the Aeldari and Krork in supporting roles, had not merely kept the Tyranids' countless tendrils outside the Galactic Edge, excising them like tumors. Humanity's high command was no longer content with passive defense.
The broadcast announced with fervor that humanity's expeditionary fleets were assembling. They intended to cross the boundary barrier of the Milky Way Galaxy and expand into the endless void from which the Great Devourer had come, purging it utterly!
The level of civilization, military potential, and chilling hunger for expansion this short-lived species now displayed had completely surpassed the once-arrogant Necron empire.
After witnessing humanity's might and terror, Szarekh began inspecting the Necron Tomb Worlds hidden deep among the stars with an exceedingly heavy heart. He needed to learn the current state of his people and assess whether the Necrons still had the means to secure a place in this new age.
Reality dealt him the most devastating blow.
Over the following months, he visited the territories of dozens of powerful Dynasties that had once been incomparably glorious.
Many powerful Dynasties had never even been given a chance to awaken. Upon discovering their tombs, humanity's Great Crusade fleets or the Krork expansion forces had given the Necrons no opportunity at all. They had simply deployed some terrifying gravitational-collapse weapon or planetary fragmentation bomb, physically pulverizing entire Tomb Worlds and the billions of Necrons sleeping within them before they ever woke.
On some Tomb Worlds that had escaped destruction and that Szarekh forcibly awakened, he witnessed scenes that broke his heart even more.