Brother Vielle
"Daemons of the darkest hell were they. Corpses of steel. Leering skulls. Burning eyes bright and ruddy. The chariot drew next to the bell tower, hovering in the air at its rider's command. Its noise was as a nest of hornets in the fire... yet louder and various in pitch, rising higher as the chariot ascended into the sky. I looked upon the rider's steely face and he stared at my plight laughing. Evil runes burned about his robes and bright gems shone forth from his ghastly shroud... blue like the night under the moon Arilan."
Brother Vielle was the last survivor of a hermitage on Adric IV, which had been destroyed by the Necrons. He had hid in the hermitage's bell tower, where he alone was, he claims, spared by the Necrons themselves having been cast aside rather than slain. He would later be interrogated by Inquisitor Hoth who would torture him for first hand information what he saw of the Necrons. In particular he would describe witnessing the effects of a gauss weapon on others.[1]
"I... did not see clearly... save that which blasted me from the tower. A black weapon, encrusted with sparkling gems and gleaming as if wet, in the shape very like a pistol such as warriors wear. The daemon gripped the weapon in a claw of steel and I felt its discharge as if caught by a tempest. I was cast down the tower's stairway. Yet I believe I was spared, for I was not struck but merely cast aside by the blast, while our great bell, blessed of the Emperor's Own Touch, was shattered and its pieces fell to the ground... broken metal amidst the dead..." (transcript breaks into indecipherable raving)
"Attend brother. Of their armaments. Tell us all!"
"Elsewhere I saw but twisted light, a haze like the hottest summer's heat flickering over the landing pad at our retreat. The distortion of the air was something like this - a rending of the air itself, not flame or light or bright star-shine as I have seen our weapons vomit upon the foes. Yet where the lance beams struck was wrought such unthinkable destruction! I witnessed my own Abbot dance upon that spear of agony, his flesh peeled form him layer upon layer, his skin flayed first revealing bloodied flesh, his flesh to tendon, gut and gristle, and then only his bones until nothing. All this I saw distinctly ad the agony of it, for he was not killed but dissected living, of that I am sure, until he was simply gone... yet all this happened in a heartbeat... a heartbeat"
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 217 (UK), pg. 29 - Necron Raiders by Rick Priestley
