Deathmark

"Once you are marked, there is no escape."

- Illic Nightspear, Master of Pathfinders

Deathmarks are the snipers and assassins of the Necron forces, appearing from apparently nowhere and striking with terrible precision. Their name is fitting: once give the "hunter's mark", their targets are almost certain to meet their deaths scant moments later. Like most Necrons their technology lies far beyond the realm of human comprehension and they can effectively phase in and out of normal space-time at will. Their victims will assume that they have been ambushed, that the Deathmarks teleported onto the battlefield. The reality is that they were already there, waiting out of phase for just the right moment to slaughter their victims.

History
For countless millennia, Necron Deathmark Squads have served the Necron nobility as snipers and assassins. Even when they were beings of flesh and blood, Deathmarks had a reputation for cold-hearted precision and patience. Now, housed in tireless cybernetic bodies of necrodermis, Deathmarks are more deadly than they ever were in the Necron's Time of Flesh.

Deathmarks are as much part of a Tomb World's army as Immortals and Necron warriors. However, tradition dictates strict rules concerning their use. Ancient codes forbid the deployment of the Deathmarks against Necron nobility, or against other "honourable" enemies. Most alien foes are considered far from worthy by the Necrons until they have had a chance to prove otherwise on the battlefield, and few enemy commanders encountering Deathmarks live to tell the tale. This gives the nemesors full license to employ these assassins as he sees fit, regardless of how traditional or hidebound they are. After all a corpse is a corpse, and little taken to benefitting from its new honourable status.

At a battle's start, Deathmarks seldom take position with the rest of the Necron army. Instead, they slip sideways out of reality into a hyperspace oubliette, a pocket dimension from where they can monitor the ongoing conflict for days on end, waiting patiently for the opportune moment to act. Deathmarks choose this moment carefully, and are most often allowed to do so by the army's commander, rather than ordered into action as most Necron forces are. Biotranference has done little to dull the Deathmarks' predatory instincts and most nemesors are content to trust to this. From their hyperspace sanctuary, Deathmarks can spy upon the deployment of enemy commanders and reinforcements by tracking the initiation and target points of enemy communication channels, teleport beams and orbital descents with childish ease.

When a target is tracked and established, the Deathmarks exit their oubliette to appear upon a ridge, ruin, or feature that affords an unobstructed view of the target. From there, they place the hunter's mark from which the Deathmarks take their name -- an eerie green halo plays about the target's head, glowing brightly through five dimensions, and ensuring that the Deathmarks will never lose track of him no matter where or how or how far he flees. This mark lasts around an hour, laughably long for a Deathmark, but the target rarely does: he will be lucky to last for a few seconds before their synapses are torn apart from fire from the Deathmarks' long-barrelled synaptic disintigrators.

Wargear

 * Synaptic disintegrator - this rifle fires a compressed leptonic beam that destroys synaptic tissue.