Nobody expected Colonel Demios to land in such a desperate state. His warriors were ambushed by a group of Jartamius Prime Necron Warriors in the Gargatun Forest. At first, there were only a few Necron warriors. Suddenly, more and more surfaced from nowhere. Even the fallen reanimated themselves one by one, ready to fight.

Demios knew their weapons were no match for the Necron’s superior technology. The size of the Necron horde was about the same as his army. As everyone knew, Necrons were famed for defeating armies ten times their size. So it was obviously a suicidal challenge. Colonel Demios had to do something to save their own hides.

"Colonel," squawked the helmet speakers, "We are being overrun!"

Colonel Demios changed the cartridge of his weapon and began to pelt more rounds of blazing plasma bullets onto an incoming Necron Warrior. "OK captain, give the orders to retreat. We are gonna leave this forest."

"Roger that," came the reply, cutting of the line.

Colonel Demios quickly established a line with Major Bazzar. "Major Bazzar, are you there?"

"Give me a minute!" Bazzar screamed into his helmet mike. Demios could hear sounds of clashing of weapons and the battle cry of Captain Bazzar.

"Sorry Colonel, I was killing a disgusting flesh-covered Necron," panted Bazzar, as he pumped plasma bullets into the Flayed One to ensure it was dead.

Colonel Demios replied, "I want you to tell all of our men to split up into three groups. One will follow Captain Thuntklaw. Another will follow me. You will lead the last group. Together, we will fallback to our Pelican Dropship and make our way out of here. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, get it done now!"

With that, Colonel Demios slung his Vulcan Burst-Cannon on his back and switched it into a conventional Commander Plasma Rifle. Then he ran towards the north-east direction of the forest, where the Pelican Dropship was.

"Fire on the move!" A voice cried out. "Retreat!"

Soon, the entire Halo force was retreating. Those soldiers who did not get the retreat message or lagged behind were annihilated by the invading Necron horde. Plasma bullets were flying aimlessly from the barrels of the running Halo forces as the Necrons marched forward slowly toward them.

The Necron Lord of the Necron army teleported straight into midst of the running troops and activated a Solar Pulse Bomb. With that, it blinded many of the Halo troopers and stunned them for a few minutes. Then, the Necron Lord took advantage of the chaos he created and swung a C'tan artifact high up in the air. He bent backwards, struggling furiously as the C'tan artifact shone a small green beam onto him. Within a few seconds, the Necron Lord’s soul was possessed by the C'tan Nightbringer and beams of dark lightning began to attack the Necron Lord's body, enveloping him in pure darkness. With that, a Reaper-like creature emerged out from the body of the Necron Lord and swung his immortal scythe at the Halo troops.

With that solitary swing, the lives of hundreds of people were claimed, sending their soulless bodies straight into the air for seconds followed by smashing into the ground. Seeing that half of their army was swallowed up by the cloaked creature, the remaining Halo forces ran for their lives as their morale dwindled. Colonel Demios had never felt fear before. But with the sight of the C'tan Nightbringer, he felt a small tinge of true fear running down his spine and he dashed away from the scene as though there was some kind of repelling force pushing him away.

Nobody dare to shoot or look back at the scene where the great, immortal-like reaper, Nightbringer was. With a cry of surprise, Colonel Demios sighted the Pelican Dropship and directed his men toward it. As though the Pelican Dropship had a magnificent aura around it, the morale of the broken and fleeing Halo forces was restored as they fought their way toward the Pelican Dropship.

The C'tan Nightbringer was soon far away at the back of the Necron horde, nowhere to be seen. This boosted Colonel Demios’ confidence. With that, Colonel Demios mounted his Vulcan Burst-Cannon and fired bolter-plasma like bullets at the chasing Necron troops. After it served its purpose and ran out of ammunition, he abandoned it and ran towards his salvation. Many of his troops did the same and successfully halted the quick advance of the Necron forces.

Within less than an hour, the Halo forces were already in the ship. The Necron horde, however, was far behind the Pelican Dropship. With that, the Pelican Dropship fired its engines up and flew away, mocking the horde of Necrons.

When everybody in the Pelican Dropship thought they were a safe distance from the Necron horde, they went back to their normal activities on the ship. Colonel Demios was in his office, monitoring the security system of the Pelican Dropship when there was a knock on his door and two figures entered his room.

"Captain Thuntklaw and Major Bazzar," said Colonel Demios, with his eyes focused on his computer screen, "although we lost, we still managed to retreat without many losses."

Colonel Demios waited patiently for their replies but there were none. Then, an image on the screen of his computer caught his eye. It showed that a few Necron Pariahs had emerged out from the lockers of the barracks of the Pelican Dropship, killing everyone resting inside with their mighty weapons. Colonel Demios turned around in a quick motion and opened his mouth. However, no orders or words came out as he saw the dead and bloodied bodies of Captain Thuntklaw and Major Bazzar hanging lifelessly from a metal coated hand. Behind them were two lurking, shadowy figures. Colonel Demios felt as though there was a headless ghost beside him.

"Colonel Demios," one of the figures hissed sarcastically, throwing the corpse of Major Bazzar onto the floor, "How have you been doing?"

"Dark...Pariah....Moody.....what..t..the...hell?" stammered Colonel Demios backing away from his seat.

The other figure threw the body of Captain Thuntklaw against the wall and drew out a Death Scythe.

Demios' computer screen displayed the pariahs emerging from hidden areas of the Pelican dropship and the slaughter of the people on board.

"Futile effort in running, don't you think so?" Dark Pariah Moody received the Death Scythe that another pariah gave him.

"How...did this....happen?" exclaimed Colonel Demios.

"Cut the crap!" hissed Moody in a metallic voice, "Now lemme banish you to the worlds of oblivion."

Colonel Demios fumbled for his Plasma Rifle from his hip and fired a few shots at Moody. The Dark Pariah's armour absorbed the impact of the shots as though nothing had happened and Moody knocked away Demios’ weapon with an armoured fist. As Demios fell to the ground to grab his weapon, the Dark Pariah slashed his torso hard, sending him spinning towards the ground near his feet.

Dark Pariah Moody put his foot on Colonel Demios’ head and said, "Die, you flesh-weakling." With that, Moody swiped Colonel Demios’ head off clean with one nice blow from his Death Scythe.