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"Brothers of the Deathwatch, Assemble!" shouts Brother-Captain Ivar Forkbeard, as he finishes the briefing and brief it was. You are the only defense against the Space Hulk designated Doom of Primus, as it hurtles from the furthest reaches of space to the 10 billion souls on the Hive World of Primus VIII.
You make your way swiftly to the teleportarium. The strike frigate, Ajax, is equipped with such, fortunately.
You feel the ship rock as its macrobatteries hurl city-block sized munitions to a target the size of a moon.
You pause for a moment as the serfs mag-strap the atomic device to your backpack that should prove the death of the space hulk, if they are planted in the right places. The information is uploaded into your suits memory banks.
You pray to the Emperor that your actions find favor in His eyes, for death surely awaits.
You step onto the teleportarium dais.
"Ave Imperator!"
Nemiel steps proudly onto the dais, prepared to meet the forces of the alien, the heretic, and the traitor with holy bolter fire and cleaving blade.
Battle-brother Afan Driscol makes ready to destroy yet another threat to the imperium. Wordlessly he kneels on the dais, one large hand on his claymore pommel and the other on its hilt, sword tip lightly resting on the sacred floor.
Aurilous joins his battle brothers, standing proudly by their side.
Brother Scipio readies his boltgun and checks over his gear. Where his chapter heraldry should be on his pauldron was an empty black field. The astrates was old, exactly how old was unknown.
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The power coils of the teleportarium start to energize and glow.
One of the serfs can be heard singing a little ditty to calm himself.
"There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a starman waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it's all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie"
"Heresy!!!" shouts one of the other serfs and the supervisor pulls a bolt pistol and ends the song before it could infect others.
Aurilous shook his head at the navy’s waste of life. It was like throwing away a chipped tool. Even if you have plenty of them, it was still a waste. But, at the end of the day, it wasn’t his lane, so there was no point getting worked up about it. He waited patiently for the process to continue.
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The sudden burst of power hurls all of you through the immaterium. Your mind barely registers the empyrean and the ravening mouths desirous of devouring your souls. An instant later you are in a different of metal halls. You are on the Doom of Primus. Your dataslate signify that you are ten kilometers away from the primary target and still further away from the secondary targets.
The vox wakes with the following communication: "Kill-Team, Ajax here. Good hunting. Signal for retrieval."
As the group was rocketed through the void, Nemiel took the briefest of moments to look at each member of his kill team. He nodded at what he saw, and if he was gazed upon in turn, he seemed to shine with a radiant inner light seemed to particularly appeal to the maws, as they began to reach towards him, corporeal reality reasserted itself, and then there was a chirping in the vox.
For his part, Nemiel said nothing, but drew his forcesword instead. Unlike the force weapons of other chapters, the blade on Nemiel's forcesword was impossibly thin, to the point where the tip was not viewable by the normal human eye. Likewise, as he drew the blade, it shone with the same light as came from Nemiel during the trip through the void, only his blade was a candle compared to the bonfire that was Nemiel.
Turning to the others, Nemiel said simply "I am the Emperor's sword."
Aurilous looked impassively at the other members of his squad. His role was to keep them alive, or alternatively, to bring back their gene seed. From what he had been briefed on, it was likely that he would have to take the alternative path for at least one of them. And a large part of this role was understanding whom he was fighting with.
The sanguiniary priest held his bolter at the ready. With it's chainsword attachment, it was as deadly in close combat as it was at range. It was not a common weapon, for the bolter or the chainsword alone would be take a strong man to hold. Having both put together, and with the revving of the blades; it would take superhuman strength to use it effectively. Luckily, that is exactly what they all possessed. But with ten billion souls depending on them, would it be enough?
Brother 'Scipio' was an old soul and had an economy of movement about his actions. He took out his Cartograph to make sure it began mapping around them, the dataslate would be useful but Space Hulks were treacherous and a map that updated itself might make the difference between life and death.
The chainsword at his hip stood ready for his call to action. He kept his boltgun in one hand with his flamer over his shoulder ready to be deployed.
"On a Space Hulk with no Tactical Dreadnought Armour. May the Emperor lend our armours' machine spirits strength. Let's keep our eyes peeled for ambushes, traps and hazards." This mission would be a test of skill and resolve.
Afan comes up from his knee after the short ride through the Immaterium, blue armor articulating effortlessly as the overly large brother comes his feet. Sacris blade comes up to rest on his shoulder, the large blade gleaming in the light from his armor.
No sound emits from the brother's vox as he motions down the hall towards the primary target. Without waiting for the other's to form up, Afan begins the long trudge down through the hulk.
"Brothers let us proceed to the primary objective. Brother Afan, will you take point. I will support you next in line. Apothecary Aurilous then and finally Librarian Nemiel holding the rear."
"These passages can be used to our advantage to bottleneck foes. This is a Space Hulk, a test of endurance, even the most skilled sword arm will grow weary against the multitudes we may face here." Scipio will get the group into support range leaving three meters between each marine to minimise damage to the group from area effect weapons. He gets those who are willing into Squad Mode. He details tactics to the others for this place to best use the terrain to their advantage.
”Affirmative.” Aurilous’ voice cracked over the vox.
"Let us go and bring the Emperor's light to a place that has long lacked it's touch." says Nemiel in response to the commands. He the takes up the rear position.
The sanguinary priest followed behind Brother Nemiel, keeping up as good a pace as he could, given the conditions.
5 degrees.
Afan quietly moves through the hulk, aiding his brothers every step of the way. This mission would require all of them to succeed.
Following the beacon that is the Primary Objective, Feliks climbs steadily.
While Brother Feliks applied the work of the machine spirit to the task at hand, Nemiel took a moment to scan the ebbs and flows of the warp for the taint of the psycker, the Daemon, or the unclean.
"Brothers I suggest we space our to within no closer than five meters of each other to reduce impact of explosive and spray weapons while Techmarine Felik's tends to his duty." Scipio moves into position taking cover from some large piece of machinery "Brother Afan, I'd appreciate you being in a centralized position so you can redeploy to counterstrike any enemy assault."
"Techmarine Feliks, do you require more time to examine the machine spirits?"
Afan takes up his ordered position, ancient blade gleaming in his hand as he prepares to leap towards any foe that may accost them.
Aurilous levels his Bolter down the corridor they came from, guarding that approach against any foe who would accost them.
Feliks turns aside from his examination of the plasma engine, "Brother Scipio, the plasma engine is currently active, but with some kind of a problem I have yet to identify; the pulse of the engine is irregular. Perhaps this will aid our Objective, perhaps not. I estimate it more likely that it will be beneficial to our goals."
"Take what time you need, if we need to redeploy for your to divine more about the relevant machine spirits let us know. There's no sign any local forces are aware of our presence yet." Checking his cartography Scipio begins to consider how to advance, considering routes that would avoid attention and hazards... as best he could given the treacherous reputation of Space Hulks.
Feliks simply salutes Brother Scipio before turning back to the plasma engine. He moves to a data port at one of the nearby control panels and directs the servo-skull accompanying him to conduct its own analysis.
Connecting his electro-graft to the data port, Feliks tries to get a better understanding of what is wrong with the engine.
3 degrees success.
Afan stands at the ready, twitching slightly as if reacting to something not quite there.
Aurilous stayed motionless, weapon at the ready. The day was young and his senses were still sharp.
Nemiel hisses and says "This structure is rife with the taint of the immaterium. There may well be the unclean aboard."
Afan makes one of his rare utterances. "Multiple organics inbound from our point of entrance."
The servo skull interface was a failure. Luckily, the smoking port did not set off the plasma chamber.
The electro-graft was more successful though.
Sifting through accumulated data. There seems to be a lot. Quite a lot of data.
Those in sentry/overwatch stations kindly roll Awareness.
Afan's statement is met with a stillness in Feliks. Without turning away from the plasma engine he speaks on the squad vox net, "Brother Scipio, determining the potential impact on our mission of the unusual rhythm in the plasma engine will take some time. I will not be able to respond to external threats. Shall I engage the Engine, or shall I engage the approaching threats?"
"If it is of significance enough to require your assistance we will notify you but feel free to use your discretion if you wish to enter the combat. Brothers overlapping fields of fire on that entry point. Librarian Nemiel will you initiate codex pattern fire for effect."