57: Chapter 57 The War Council prepares to celebrate the Blackrock Defenses holding off Tzeentch Overlord and dropping three ancient coordinates.

After Tzeentch's test waveform was repelled by the Blackstone Defense Line's backlash, the War Council had originally planned to hold a brief tactical summary meeting aboard the Wrath of the Emperor. Captain Oldenburg had already prepared the Third Assault Fleet's damage report on a data slate and placed it on the briefing room table—zero casualties, all Void Shield overloads were within safe redundancy limits, and anti-air ammunition consumption was within replenishable ranges. Sebastian had even retrieved a bottle of malt ale from the hangar, a drink specifically permitted by the codex astartes for consumption on Victory Day. Then, the Brood Queen's quantum-state translator lit up. It wasn't a battle report or calibration data for the defense line; it was three sets of coordinates.

Marcus Aurelian stood at the entrance of the briefing room, having just finished changing the support strap for the fracture in his right arm. He stared at the three coordinates on the edge of the galaxy marked in cold green quantum-state text on the main screen. Each was accompanied by annotations decoded by Nephilak from the Necron Dynasty's most ancient encrypted archives—sealing device components, codenamed the "Void Key." At the end of the War in Heaven, the Necron Dynasty had dismantled an ancient sealing device into three independent keys, which were then kept separately by the Necron Dynasty themselves, the remnants of the Old Ones, and an extinct ancient xenos civilization. The energy signature exposed in the wreckage Tzeentch left in the Cadian Ruins perfectly matched the three keys. Chaos intended to use the backlash from the Blackstone Defense Line to scan for the keys' locations, but the defense line's backlash instead provided the War Council with the complete coordinates one step ahead.

"So Tzeentch didn't intend to break the defense line." Bern took the Psychic Talisman from his neck and placed it on the table; its surface was empty, without even a trace of fluorescence. "He used our resonance frequency to reverse-scan the defense line's underlying quantum encryption layer during the backlash, using Chaos divination to track all ancient artifacts using the same Necron encryption protocols as the defense line. The defense line didn't fall, but He used it as the transmission source for a scanning array." Nephilak's quantum-state communication connected, his living metal cloak churning amidst dark green cold flames. His first words immediately plunged the hard-won relaxed atmosphere in the briefing room back to freezing point: "That ancient device the Necron Dynasty sealed at the base of the Void Gate was called the 'Void Throat' at the end of the War in Heaven. It wasn't meant to defend against Chaos; it was meant to imprison something even more ancient than Chaos. The key was split into three pieces, one of which is buried in an unnamed tomb of the Solemmnace Dynasty at the edge of the galaxy. I do not have that part of the memory—the authorization for that key's coordinates was stripped from my Core Matrix before the dynasty's fall. The command to strip the authorization came from the Overlord Council, with only one note: 'Any single Overlord is forbidden from holding the complete coordinates alone.'"

Following Nephilak's words, the Brood Queen's quantum-state translator added a message from the Sovereign. The Sovereign said that Tzeentch had deliberately left the energy signatures of the key fragments in the Cadian Ruins, wanting the War Council to open the Void Throat in their race to get the keys before Chaos. He was exploiting the defense line's efficiency to help Him break the seal. Marcus then looked at the coordinates on the main screen labeled "Solemmnace Dynasty Tomb" and asked Nephilak if he could take him to the Overlord Council to complete the authorization. The cold green light in Nephilak's eyes focused into two sharp points of frigid radiance: "I can. But the Overlord Council's approval process takes at least several cycles according to the dynastic code—even if I invoke the priority clauses of the void covenant, it can only be compressed to a dozen or so hours. Humans, is your Ultima Segmentum defense window sufficient?"

Marcus turned to Oldenburg. The acting captain projected all available units of the Third Assault Fleet onto the star map, while the Griffin IV command center simultaneously submitted the current ammunition inventory for the Orbital Defense Platforms and the Void Shield maintenance schedule. The conclusion was that, provided Tzeentch did not launch a second round of infiltration and the Tyranid main fleet did not finish massing within the time limit, they could barely spare Bern's Grey Knight strike squad and Sebastian's Terminator assault platoon as a mobile force for the rapid recovery of the key. Marcus was silent for a few seconds before switching the fleet channel into the briefing room and simultaneously connecting the Brood Queen's and Sovereign's quantum-state translators. His voice was level: "The War Council will conduct a high-risk assault operation. The objective: the Solemmnace Dynasty Tomb, to retrieve the first key of the Void Throat hidden by the Necron Dynasty itself. Mission command will be shared by Captain Sebastian and Grey Knight Justicar Byrne. The Necron Overlord Nephilak will be responsible for the Overlord Council's authorization, and the Brood Queen's Gene-Devourer Task Force will carry a Blackstone Resonance Chamber as technical support to remotely interfere with Tzeentch's simulated waveforms within the tomb environment. This operation requires signatures from all members of the alliance—this is not a unilateral Imperial deployment, but a joint authorization from the War Council."

The Sovereign's reply arrived almost simultaneously, with only two lines: "Agreed. Tzeentch wants us to open the Void Throat, so we will open it first—and then shut the door permanently. Condition: Once the Void Throat's seal is broken, all technical archives related to void-class blackstone engines in the Necron Dynasty database must be opened unconditionally to The Swarm." Sebastian stood up and clicked his Power Sword back into its belt buckle, then glanced at the Brood Queen's translator. The last time he and the Brood Queen had fought to the death in the Forge Temple; now, he was about to dive into a Necron tomb older than a Titan alongside the Brood Queen to find a cursed key. He tucked his helmet under his arm and said only one thing: "Lead the way."