Second necron faction encountered in the ash wastes

Outpost 436 was a remote vehicle storage and repair facility located far behind the front lines on Hexis. It was garrisoned by only a single platoon of guardsmen from the Sycorax regiments, who had been stationed there to recover from psychological trauma sustained in combat against the forces of chaos. After one standard month they were due to be re-evaluated by the Medicae Animo and then either returned to front line duty or signed off for humane cleansing by military internal security. No one was expecting trouble and readiness was poor so it was almost 20 minutes before officers realised the perimeter sentries had gone silent.

As troops began to run half dressed from their barracks, corralled into action by the shouts of their officers they were astonished to witness the forms of Necrons wandering around the camp, apparently examining the stationary forms of parked vehicles and heavy equipment. The automated sentry guns and warning sensors had all spontaneously deactivated and gone into hibernation.

As the troops waited uncertainly engineers finally succeeded in getting one of the superheavy tanks started up, an ancient Baneblade called Nobilem Dignitate. As it rumbled forward the Necrons finally took notice of the lumbering war engine and attacked, but rather than focus all their firepower against it they appeared to shoot it with one type of weapon at a time is if testing how it responded.

Not caring about the reason for this bizarre behaviour the Baneblade opened fire, blowing away huge chunks of the milling Necrons. Having tested the vehicles armour and firepower and found both to be formidable the Necrons seemed to fade out of existence along with the destroyed remnants of their dead.

A report of this strange incident was filed with central command and was flagged for investigation by military intelligence, but when officers came to interview the witnesses they had all already been executed by the Commisariate for dereliction of duty due to their shoddy perimeter security protocols. All security picts were found to have mysteriously shut down along with the base defences during the incident leaving no evidence the event had even taken place.