Galaxy 18: Ossuary of Nekhrym

Ossia-Major is a planet made of bone, from the core to the surface. Bones of what? No one really wants to know. The ghouls dig burrows in the fossilised marrow.

Your boots crunch on white ground. Claws scratch below.

The ghouls of Goulia hunt in packs among ribs as tall as towers. They are fast, starving, and know no fear. They devoured an entire colony in one night.

A growl echoes between the ribs. Then dozens.

A titan's skull serves as a fortress for the black knights of Cranium. Its eye sockets are gates, its teeth ramparts. The knights don't speak. They don't die easily, either.

A suit of black armour steps forward in the left socket. Then another in the right.

On Nécrosia, the necromancers raise everything that falls. Your enemies, your allies, yourself. They must be silenced before you strike the rest.

A necromancer draws a circle. The bones all around gather together.

Vertebra is nothing but a bridge: a spine that spans the void. Nothing on either side, nothing below. The black guard holds every vertebra.

The bridge of bone stretches before you. Black armour blocks every segment.

Sépulcra is the tomb where the Horseman's guard of honour rests. It never sleeps. It waits. No living soul has ever gone beyond the sepulchre.

The flagstones lift. The black guard falls into line.

Nekhrym is the world the Horseman of the Apocalypse comes from. He rides between the galaxies and leaves worlds of bone behind him. His axe always strikes the weakest, and strikes only once. His necromancers raise his victims to swell his ranks. The black knights were once his opponents. Now they are his guard. Command wants the Horseman stopped before he reaches the inhabited worlds. You will have to protect your most fragile heroes and bring him down before he gets back in the saddle.

A horse of bone stops in front of you. The Horseman dismounts.