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Hello Eurobricks again!

Long time ago, in 2013, Illarion, Artlego and I have published the first part of Xenoarchaeologist, a LEGO photo story set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (the prologue was published on Eurobricks). This story is written in Russian, and translation to English is a lengthy and consuming process. So to make you familiar with Xenoarchaeologist, I decided to do a short recap of each part of the trilogy. This is the first part, The Pyramid of the Dead. The original premise of Xenoarchaeologist is basically Johnny Thunder IN SPACE, but there are many new characters and plots not connected with LEGO Adventurers.

I am sorry about the quality of photos and sets. It is better in the next parts of this story. I hope this would not distract you from the plot.

Warhammer 40000 universe belongs to Games Workshop Ltd. Most of the characters and locations in the story are original.

 

WARHAMMER 40000: XENOARCHAEOLOGIST

PART ONE: THE PYRAMID OF THE DEAD

RECAP

Prologue

It is the 41st millennium AD, the grim darkness of the far future. And there is only war. The humanity is united by the Imperium of Man, the totalitarian and dystopian regime worshipping the God-Emperor. The Inquisition watches the order in the Imperium and executes everyone who is suspected in heresy and betrayal of humanity. And the Imperium is surrounded by lots of enemies: from aliens such as savage Orks and enygmatic Eldar to dangerous Chaos daemons coming from the parallel dimension called the warp.

 

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A human forge world of Sara is attacked by Tyranids, locust-like aliens eating everything they have met. The Imperial Guard protectors of the planet fight back but are overwhelmed by masses of enemies.

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The Imperial High Command of Sara retreats to an underground bunker. The General receives a message that an energy wave of unknown origin has destroyed all Tyranids and Imperial Guardsmen alike at the planet surface.

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After that, the bunker is infiltrated. Not by the Tyranids but by human heretics. Their leader, a man in a top hat, raises his hand wearing some strange red glove, thinking that this would kill the General and his remaining soldiers. But the artifact fails and the heretic has to deal with the Imperials using simple force. His henchmen defeat the General, and he orders them to open the databases and to look for some other exotic weapons of mass destruction.

 

The story

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Meanwhile, at the other end of the Galaxy a cruiser goes through the darkness of space. It is Emperor's Lightning, the ship of Inquisitor Johann Donner.

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Johann serves at Ordo Xenos, the Imperial organization which deals with alien threats and artifacts. He is a renowned xenoarchaeologist and seeks any opportunity to visit distant worlds covered in alien ruins but doesn't like hunting and killing heretics which may be necessary during his work. As many other Inquisitors, Donner wears a hat and a leather jacket. Donner's retinue consists of two people. One of them is Magos Charles Kilrus, a 300 years-old tech-priest of Adeptus Mechanicus who possesses great knowledge about aliens and their technology. His old body is havily augmented by bionics that help him to live longer than most humans and make him a strong fighter. Kilrus wears a red cloak common for tech-priests and a pith helmet, a gift from one Imperial Guard General from Praetoria.

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The second one is Interrogator Patricia Red. In the past, she was a clerk in the Imperial Administratum. Donner saved her from bandits in her homeworld of Medusa IV and offered service in the Inquisition. Now she is a professional agent trained for combat and a remembrancer who records the adventures of the team.

 

Donner's retinue is invited to Anubis, a backwater desert world. Local archaeologists have found some ruins of unknown origins and the planetary Governor asked Johann for help.

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Donner and his retinue fly to Neo-Neo-Neo-Thebes, the capital of Anubis. As many other Imperial cities, it features many gothic buildings. The civilians look at the newly-arrived Inquisitor with curiosuty and fear.

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Donner visits Governor Peregrinus Adamantius. The planetary ruler tells him more about these strange ruins. They are undoubtedly alien but the Imperium haven't met that kind of aliens before.

 

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Donner requests a Land Speeder from the government. He, Kilrus and Red move to the desert.

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But on the halfway the Land Speeder is shot down. It is the work of the Orks, aggressive green-skinned aliens which present a serious threat to the Imperium.

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Donner, Kilrus and Red fight the Orks in the caves under the desert.

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The Greenskins try to kill them with their primitive war vehicles built from scrap and junk.

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Donner and his friends fight boldly but are overpowered by the horde of Orks.

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However, they are suddenly rescued by a team of Eldar, technologically advanced elf-like race of aliens. The Eldar are led by the Farseer, a powerful psionic wizard who can predict the future, and Autarch Erestril, a military leader. The other Eldar are a squad of Howling Banshees, female Eldar warriors with swords, led by Exarch Eyla.

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The Eldar help Donner to defeat the Orks, crushing Greenskins with their swords and psychic powers.

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Johann encounters the Warboss, the overgrown leader of the Orks, and wins the battle with him. Before Warboss dies, Donner asks him how the Orks came to Anubis. The leader tells that some "'umies" brought the Greenskins in their spaceship and promised to give the aliens some Imperial weapons, more efficient than the Orkish ones. Donner suspects that the Governor is the one who brought the Orks to Anubis. But why?

 

Despite many conflicts between the Imperium and the Eldar, the Farseer is peaceful and friendly to Donner, though Autarch Erestril expresses distrust of humans which most Eldar view as primitive monkeys. The Farseer brings Johann and his friends to a Webway Gate, a portal to a parallel dimension which Eldar use to travel between worlds.

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Donner follows the Farseer and goes to the craftworld, one of many giant spaceships where the Eldar live. Ten millenia ago, these aliens had a prosperous empire which was collapsed by hedonism and birth of a new Chaos God, Slaanesh. The remaining Eldar escaped their Fall on enormous space vessels where they live to this day.

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Inside the craftworld there are lush gardens and glaringly-white, impossibly-clean and ornate Eldar buildings. The Farseer feeds Donner, Kilrus and Red with exotic fruits and vegetables. But Johann wonders that the Eldar are vegetarians and the Farseer gives meat and fish only to Murzion, his pet Gyrinx, a cat-like creature which forms a deep psychic bond with its master.

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The Farseer invites Donner to his office to tell him about the origins of Anubis ruins. Kilrus notices that a human face with moustache and a bionic eye appears in Farseer's crystal ball. This unfriendly face keeps watching Donner and his friends.

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The Farseer tells that the mysterious ruins belong to the Necrons. This very ancient race of aliens made a deal with Star Gods C'Tan and was turned into deadly, nearly-indestructible skeleton-like robots. They became the slaves of C'Tan but managed to overthrow their masters. Now the Necrons sleep in their tombs beneath the surface of many worlds, unbeknownst to many humans, Orks and other species. And on Anubis, the archaeologists carelessy awakened them with their excavations.

 

 

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Meanwhile in the capital city, Gustav Carnarvon, the Professor of Anubis Imperial University and the leader of archaeological team, meets a weird, widely-smiling man. He introduces himself as Rudoplh Steiner, a representative of Southern Alburn Archaeology League, some private scientific society. Steiner offers Carnarvon some help with the ruins and vertigious career and Gustav agrees.

 

 

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After the rest in the craftworld, Donner and the Eldar continue their adventure. They return to the webway to find a portal to the Necron pyramid.

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But soon they encounter Dark Eldar, the sadistic rogues which hid in the Webway during the Fall and now raid the Galaxy purely for violence and new slaves.

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Humans and Eldar fight the Dark Eldar as they don't want to be taken and tortured. The Farseer clashes with a Dark Eldar woman and suddenly recognises her face.

The heroes manage to drive the Dark Eldar back. After the battle, Erestril suddenly accuses the Farseer for treason. The Farseer tells he can expel the discordant Autarch from the craftworld but Erestril refuses to go and stays with him until the Necrons are defeated.

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Donner wonders what is happening, and the Farseer notices this and places his hand on Johann's shoulder, giving the Inquisitor a psychic insight into his past.

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Twelve millenia ago, before the Fall, the Farseer was a child and was good friends with his sister. She was the closest and dearest Eldar for him. Later he became an apprentice of renowned Farseer Eldrad Ulthran and predicted the upcoming catastrophe. But many Eldar laughed at him, including even his sister. The Farseer and his allies left their homeworld on the craftworld but his sister remained and presumably died. Despaired and grieving, the Farseer left his craftworld and returned only after many millennia, hiding his real name. And until now he didn't know that his sister escaped to the Webway and became a Dark Eldar.

Johann sympathizes with the Farseer and his loss. They realize that, despite their different races and widespread xenophobia on both sides, they can still be friends.

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Later the heroes are ambushed again by the Dark Eldar, and for this time they bring a larger force. Donner kills their leader, Archon Drizzel, but other Dark Eldar surround and capture Johann and his friends.

 

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Donner, Kilrus and Red find themselves chained to simple beds in some dark building. They see dreadful surgical instruments pointing at them and hear a sadistic voice of the Haemonculus, the mad Dark Eldar master of poisons and surgery.

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The Farseer is imprisoned too. He realizes that he is in a Dark Eldar fortress in the Webway and that his sister is their new leader. She wants to torture her brother by herself and plays with him using her knife. The Farseer reminds her about their happy childhood and tells about redemption. But she refuses and only laughs at his face. She has forgotten her older ways and now wants only to make others suffer to prolong her life.

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Meanwhile, Exarch Eyla and the Howling Banshees infiltrate the fortress and free Autarch Erestril and human slaves of Dark Eldar.

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The Haemonculus unleashes on them his horrible creations made from parts of different creatures.

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And suddenly the Farseer's sister attacks the Haemonculus. She kills him to save her brother but is mortally wounded.

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The Farseer, freed by Erestril, takes a soul stone and desperately tries to capture the soul of his sister. After the Fall Slaanesh wants to devour the souls of all Eldar, and any Eldar soul eaten by this Chaos God experiences eternal pain and torment. Craftworld Eldar wear soul stones which capture their souls after death, and these souls can be brought to craftworlds where they live calmly and peacefully. But the Dark Eldar do not use the soul stones and instead prolong their lives torturing other beings. The Farseer holds the soul stone near the corpse of his sister and realizes that he is late. Her soul has been already devoured by hungry Slaanesh.

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Utterly depressed that his sister is completely dead, the Farseer unleashes psionic rampage on Dark Eldar while his friends fight them.

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He doesn't notice a trap door in the floor and nearly falls into a deadly meat grinder but is saved by his new human friend, Johann Donner.

 

The heroes leave the Dark Eldar fortress and return to Anubis by the Webway.

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They see that a group of humans has already reached the Necron pyramid.

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The heroes reach the pyramid by themselves and enter it.

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They move through corridors made of unknown metal and come to the throne room of Amentekh, the Phaeron of Anubarakh Dinasty. Donner tells Amentekh that he wants to destroy the Necrons but the Farseer says that he has come with peace. Amentekh tells the Eldar that the life of a Necron is eternal suffering and gradual loss of mind and that he desperately wants to have a body of flesh and blood but this is impossible. The Farseer says that Eldar and Necrons, despite their differences and aeons-long mutual hatred, have very much in common these days, and promises the Phaeron that together they may find a cure. But Amentekh refuses the help of the Eldar.

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New visitors enter the throne room. Their leader is a moustached man in a top hat. His right eye is replaced with a bionic monocular, and his left hand is replaced by a hook. Kilrus recognizes the face he has seen in the Farseer's crystal ball. And Donner recalls that he is Samuel Kruger, a fallen Inquisitor who made deals with aliens and defeated Chaos Space Marine forces using summoned daemons. His henchmen are Rudolph Steiner, the scientist and black archaeologist who has learned from Dark Eldar Haemonculi, the Gunslinger, the cyborg with the cannon in his arm, and Johnny "Ace of Spades", the rogue trader and notorious bandit. Kruger says that he was interested in artifacts that can destroy the population of entire planets. He has found such an artifact, the Gauntlet of the Blood Daemon, but after one use against billions of Tyranids and Imperial Guardsmen on Sara, it refused to obey him. Then Kruger found records about strange ruins on Anubis and quickly realized that they belonged to Necrons. He wanted to get the Ether Crystal, the Necron artifact which can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. For this he bribed Governor Adamantius and brought the Orks to stop Donner. Steiner used his connections with Dark Eldar to distract Johann when he escaped the Orks. Kruger says that he did all these atrocities only for the sake of humanity but Donner doesn't believe Samuel and calls him a traitor of the Imperium. Kruger tells that humanity doesn't equal the Imperium and orders his men to fight.

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Steiner unleashes a daemonhost, a Chaos daemon trapped within the human body of Gustav Carnarvon. The daemonhost strikes with his psychic powers but is quickly stopped by the Farseer.

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The Imperial alliance with Eldar, the heretics and the Necrons engage in a three-sided fight. Donner, Kruger and Phaeron Amentekh battle in melee combat.

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But Samuel uses the opportunity, steals the Ether Crystal and escapes the tomb.

 

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Over the entire planet, thousands of Necrons emerge from the surface and kill people in towns and cities with their Gauss flayers.

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Feeling some good fight, bands of Orks brought by Kruger assault Anubis, and the Imperial Guard hold back both the Orks and the Necrons.

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The Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter arrive on Anubis in drop pods. These genetically-enhanced super soldiers in power armor join the worldwide battle with aliens.

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The civilians are evacuated from the planet, as there are no signs of heresy or dangerous virus.

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Donner and his friends emerge from the pyramid to see Space Marines fighting with Necrons. Brother-Captain Tertullian leads the attack.

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Meanwhile, Kruger and his henchmen teleport away with the Ether Crystal. The Farseer and his Eldar leave Anubis too, saying Donner they would meet again.

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The Space Marines commence Exterminatus, the devastating orbital bombardment of the planet. Lots of cruisers burn the surface of Anubis with orbital lasers.

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Thousands of Orks and Necrons die in purifying flames. The latter resurrect in their tombs, only to return and to be killed again. It is unknown whether the Necrons have been completely destroyed by Exterminatus, or the lasers haven't reached their underground tombs.

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Donner, Kilrus and Red returned to Emperor's Lighning. They stand on the bridge with Captain Harold Kane, watching how Space Marines obliterate Anubis, turning the already desert planet into a lifeless rock. Governor Peregrinus Adamantius is arrested for bribery and awaits the execution. Donner swears that he will find Kruger and kill him. Johann and Patricia say that they love each other and that they want to face all these challenges together. They realize that life still continues, despite the awakening of Necrons, the death of Farseer's sister and the destruction of Anubis.

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And in the craftworld, the Farseer thinks about his sister and the Anubarakh Dynasty, two ghosts of the past which have finally perished. He blames himself for his sister's betrayal but later sees Johann Donner's face in his crystal ball. The face of his new human friend. The Farseer looks at Johann and understands that he still has some things worth living for.

 

To be continued in Xenoarchaeologist 2: The Jungle of Doom...

 

Thank you for reading and watching! I hope you enjoyed the story.

Edited by Farseer Petriel

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