Necron Destroyer

"The Destroyers? They are weapons, nothing more, and should be expended as such. They are Necron in form only, having been reborn to a madness deeper than any other so which I have borne witness. Whilst I hold nothing but approval for their drive and efficiency, I can present no logic adequate to justify their ultimate goal. A warrior's proper function is to fight for a profound objective, to leave behind works or deeds greater than himself. Given free reign, the Destroyers would leave behind nothing; not life, nor art, nor glory. Only dust would remain. I am a soulless machine, yet even I feel pity for their victims."

- Szarekh, Last of the Silent Kings

A Necron Destroyer is a heavily altered variant of the Necron Immortal. Their torso is fused to a skimming anti-gravity flyer that enables them to attack faster and further than the standard Immortals. Destroyers are equally broad with a more pronounced spine from which their terrible weapons draw their power. Ferociously quick, the most common use for Destroyers is as mobile fire support platforms. Remaining at the forefront of the Necron force's bloody harvest, they reap a heavy toll on the enemy, the speed and ferocity of their attacks undiminished by their antiquity. Destroyers are equipped with a Gauss Cannon that reaps a heavy toll on their enemies and is especially effective against light infantry forces. Destroyers are even capable of reliably damaging light armoured vehicles. With their superior anti-gravity technology their mobility equals that of an Eldar Jetbike.

History
Destroyers are the deranged agents of annihilation whose sole reason for existence is centred around an unshakeable yearning to quench the flames of life. A Destroyer cares not for borders or allegiance, nor does he make any distinction between the innocent and the damned -- all life is his enemy, and all living creatures are his prey. What makes the Destoyer so different from other denizens of a Tomb World is not his violent madness alone. Insanity infects many a slumbering Necron, though it rarely takes a dramatic form, but instead merely exacerbates the victim's innate eccentricities. Yet even the lowliest Necron Warrior longs for a return to the Time of Flesh, and because its physical form is all that now echoes the living, breathing, soulful creature it once was, it will under no circumstances tolerate further dilution or corruption of that physical form. Instead, for a Destroyer, everything is subsumed into the all-important goal of annihilation. They ruthlessly adapt, augment or expunge any facet of their physical form if it will improve their mission of slaughter. Legs are removed in favour of anti-gravitic repulsor platforms, arms are fused to the workings of Gauss Cannons. Even the Destroyer's senses are reconfigured to better serve target lock and prediction capability, its neural circuitry repathed to improve response times at the cost of any remaining vestigal Necrontyr emotions. None of this is to say that Destroyers do not feel fear. Though they might explain a retreat away as conserving resources, it is a retreat nonetheless, spurred on by a spark of self-preservation that will never quite be extinguished.

What makes the rise of the Destroyers truly disturbing is that they can be found on almost every Tomb World, from the poorest fringeworld to the noblest of Necron dynasty crownworlds. This suggests that the descent into this particular form of madness is driven by a subconscious imperative -- possibly one implanted by the C'tan during the biotransference process millions of Terran years ago. This does not mean Destroyers hail from every level of Necron society. It takes a certain freedom of personality to embrace nihilism with such cold-blooded determination, a level of individuality denied to low-ranking Necrons. Destroyers, therefore, almost without exception, emerge from the ranks of Immortals, the Lychguard and, occasionally, Deathmarks. Most are banished to the outskirts of their Tomb World, dwelling in isolated fortresses ruled over by courts of Destroyer Lords.

A Destroyer's chilling dedication to destruction is a valuable addition to any Necron army. On most campaigns, their brutal efficiency more than compensates for the almost habitual insubordination with which they treat other Necrons of all ranks. The canniest and most thorough nemesors make a direct point of building campaigns around the actions of Destroyers, rather than making doomed attempts to enforce their own battle plan on the twisted warriors. So long as a Destroyer knows that there are other forms of life in their vicinity, it will direct its baleful attention upon their destruction, and has no intellect or focus to spare for such irrelevancies as orders and strategy. Once the enemy is in sight, Destoryers pay little or no heed to their allies, but instead settle into optimised and self-sufficient extermination patterns: shattering enemy formations with long range salvoes of gauss fire before moving into point-blank range to methodically scour survivors from the blackened craters.

Variants

 * Destroyer Lord - This is an alternate form for a Necron Lord where the Lord's torso is mounted onto a Necron Destroyer's anti-gravitic platform, allowing it to rise over the battlefield and dive down with frightening speed to destroy its enemies.
 * Necron Heavy Destroyer - The Heavy Destroyer is a heavier fire support variant of the standard Necron Destroyer. Heavy Necron Destroyers mount the lethal Heavy Gauss Cannon, an even more lethal version of that powerful weapon. The power generating spine of the Heavy Destroyer is much more pronounced and generates more energy than its lighter counterpart, providing their weapon with enormous power. Heavy Destroyers are also equipped with a specialised targeting array that enables them to home in on enemy armoured vehicles, fixing them with their baleful multi-lensed optical sensors before raking them with devastating Heavy Gauss Cannon fire that can destroy almost all opposition.

Wargear

 * Gauss Cannon - Gauss-type weapons are the most common of all guns carried by the Necron soldiery and vary in appearance. Unlike more conventional energy weapons, a gauss projector does not deliver a cutting beam or bolt of force. Instead it emits a molecular disassembling beam, capable of reducing flesh, armour and bone to constituent atoms. Destroyers make use of the destructive force of the deadly Gauss Cannon.

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