The Battle At The Foot Of The Pyramids was the climax of the Arrizon Necron War; at the foot of the monstrous Necron Pyramid, Rough Riders including Kansaas Jayhawks of the Imperial Guard clashed with a force of Necrons before the pyramid wherein their Lord resided; the Rough Riders broke through the Necrons to directly attack the pyramid and Lord. The Necron Lord was literally torn apart in hand-to-hand combat, it and its bodyguard Immortals
Background
In 999.M37 Necrons entombed in the agri-world Arrizon awoke; their rising devastated the planet, burning much of the once-fertile world to desert. The Necrons then set out to slaughter all of Arrizon's populace.
The tribal chiefs hurriedly armed their people and formed them into militias to fight the irresistible metal tide while Union Army reinforcements under General Edward Canby were rushed in from all over the Eastern Union, among them the 21st Kansaas Jayhawks Regiment; the Union Army troops joined the tribal fighters against the Necrons, but it was immediately clear that standing and fighting the Necrons would needlessly sacrifice thousands of men; Canby planned a surprise attack against the grand Pyramid that had sprung from the ground where it was believed the Necrons' Tomb Lord could be found.
A half-breed mutant named Duran Anastasio scouted a path to the Pyramid and led a force of Rough Riders under Colonel Jennison of the 21st Kansaas to it; brushing aside scattered resistance from the surprised Necrons, they attacked the pyramid at daybreak.
The Battle
- "Men, drive for the Pyramid! Stop for nothing; not me, not your own brother!"
- —Colonel Jennison
Colonel Jennison hurriedly deployed his troops and drove for the pyramid, instructing his men to 'stop for nothing'. The Rough Riders were met by a swarm of Scarabs, summoned by their lord to delay the Imperial soldiers: thousands of scarabs were smashed and destroyed by horses' hooves and their riders' weapons, but the Scarabs had served their purpose to delay the Rough Riders and break up their ranks.
Kansaas Jayhawks fight their way through Necrons to reach the pyramid
Necron Warriors were deployed to stop the Rough Riders, supported by Immortals and Necron Destroyers; the fast-moving Rough Riders plowed through the Warriors before the slow-witted abominations oculd react to them: the Immortals cut down dozens of men, but the lightning assault of Jennison's men cut down many Immortals as well before riding onward toward the towering pyramid. Hovering Destroyers pursued them, but the shifting cut-up ground they moved through sheltered the Rough Riders from the worst of the Necrons' fire.
Other Necrons were thrown into their path, including Wraiths, Triarch Stalkers, and Triarch Praetorians. But even a party of Flayed Ones that teleported onto the battlefield were simply run down; cheering, the Rough Riders reached the base of the pyramid while the Necrons they had passed struggled to try to catch them.
Once there, the Imperial soldiers were met by the Necron Lord and his Lychguard; apparently surprised and unnerved by the suicidal attack, the Necron Lord engaged the Rough Riders himself. But in a few moment's of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, the Lychguard and Lord were literally torn apart; maddened by the bloodshed and death, Rough Riders threw themselves against the Necrons, shielding their comrades with their dying bodies so they could close and hack the Necrons apart with swords and grenades; even the Necron Lord succumbed to this suicidal attack, blasting apart Colonel Jennison before being torn down by a dozen Jayhawks.
Aftermath
With the Tomb Lord vanquished and the pyramid destroyed, Necrons all over the planet deactivated and self-destructed; the pyramid sank in upon itself and burned to a crisp. No technology or information was to be gained from the defeat of the Necrons.
Though the Necrons were defeated, Arrizon was devastated: most of the planet burned to desert and most of its population killed. New settlers eventually came there to claim the empty desert land, and eventually Arrizon was rebuilt, but the tribal natives resisted the new settlers, laying the foundation for centuries of conflict which weakened Arrizon and drove many of its people into the arms of Chaos.
The war with the Necrons did not end with their defeat on Arrizon; Arrizon proved to be only the first of over a dozen Necron tombs that awoke across large portions of the cluster; for over a decade man and Necron were locked in a desperate bloody struggle to the death.
Veterans of the battle for Arrizon played a crucial part in man's eventual victory over the Necrons: having first-hand experience in combatting the Necrons, they were dispatched to lecture other units on combatting them.