INQUISITORIAL RECORDS FROM THE SPACE HULK: INDEFATIGABLE INCIDENT

Three fleet shuttles departed from Aquas Primus, the first carried Victi Primus lead by the young Corporal Haysworth. Haysworth lead six other Scions, two with plasma guns, three with rifles and the platoons medic. Following them came Victi Seccondus lead by Corporal Montgomery. Montgomery lead another six scions armed with rifles and demolition charges. The third shuttle bore Victi Tertius lead by Corporal Finnick the most impetuous man in the platoon. Finnick’s squad was made up of six men armed with rifles and flamers, his squad also contained the platoon communications expert. Leading the shuttles was a small commandeered pleasure craft outfitted with a powerful vox array capable of broadcasting back to the planet’s surface, in the craft were Lieutenant Marius, Sergeant Vorenus, the most experienced man in the platoon and Sergeant Pullo a transfer from the first platoon which had been destroyed on the moon, Pullo was in the hospital at the time but insisted on avenging his former brothers. Scion Maxentius was manning the vox array aboard the craft, he was the most competent vox operator in the Scion Detachment sent to Aquas Primus hence his presence in the Citadel and not on the moon with the rest of the Scion high command.

“Send the docking codes Maxentius, we might as well try to follow protocol,” said the Lieutenant checking his pistol. It was very low on charge, good for maybe nine or ten shots. Most of the men’s weapons were in the same state although the rifles could manage a hundred or so shots due to their larger charge packs. Their equipment had been with the rest of the Regiment’s gear in the outer Citadel and had not yet been properly secured. Thus the Scions were forced to make do with what ammunition they had. After all this was just a simple reconnaissance mission not a combat mission, no one expected mere Scions to clear a Space Hulk that was the job of heavily armed Terminators or better yet the cannons of the Imperial Navy.
“Codes transmitted sir. Codes received sir, it’s an older code sir but it checks out,”
Surprised by the response Marius straightened up in his seat but before he could say anything Maxentius shook his head.
“It was an automated response sir and very slow at that, if the code wasn’t from this millennium I’d say the ship’s wiring must be rotting away but this sir, I can’t explain this,”

The three shuttles docked at three points throughout the Space Hulk. The first squad landed in the main docking bay to secure a temporary command post. The second squad moved to secure the engines to ensure they were permanently deactivated. The third squad attempted to land near the bridge but couldn’t find a serviceable docking port and were forced to enter the ship in the docking bay with first squad and make their way to the bridge from there. Having secured the docking bay third squad set out for the bridge while the Vox Array was plugged into the ships data server to amplify it’s reach while Maxentius began sifting through data to try and learn more about the ship they were on. “This ship is well and truly shot sir but I can get some scraps. It seems it was called Indefatigable and. Wait this can’t be right,” he said looking puzzled and going back over the information.
“Well what is it?” Marius asked as the first squad returned from their patrol carrying several skulls and a few found weapons.
“It says here sir that this ship has commanded by Admiral Yallond but that can’t be right, look there’s even a picture of him here sir,” he said showing the men a flicking holographic image of the admiral.
“It can’t be this ship looks like it aged a thousand years, we came here aboard the Indefatigable no more than a year ago,” Marius said with a hint of panic in his voice “get the squads on the vox they need to know this,”

*

Corporal Montgomery lead his squad through the winding, decrepit passageways of the ship. The men moved carefully at first, inspecting ever corner and clearing as many rooms as they could but as they delved further into the Space Hulk their suspicions grew less and less before eventually falling away entirely. After fifteen minutes Victi Seccondus was almost completely, their weapons once trained on every scrap of shadow were now held limply muzzles down and inactive to preserve the short life that remained in their power cells. The ship’s lighting was chaotic. Lights would spring to life only to died down and then come back on in rapid succession. Entire hallways flashed with blinding illumination only to be plunged back into darkness mere moments later. There was no pattern to it, no rhyme nor reason it was entire chaotic with some lights occasionally exploding and showering Seccondus with harmless sparks.

When the squad was halfway to the engine room they received a barely audible transition. “Alert. Alert. Alert. Hulk identified. Imperial Cruiser Indefatigable. Warp Event killed all aboard. No Contact. Proceed with mission. End. End. End.”
So the men were back about the Indefatigable, not that it meant much to the men of Corporal Montgomery’s squad. They hadn’t spent much time wandering the ship choosing instead to join the men of the hunting parties who scoured the ship’s lower decks where, a few decades ago, some creatures kept aboard as a source of food had escaped and infested the lower piping section. They weren’t a dangerous game but they bred like flies and so the work of the hunters was never done, it was good practice at least.

The squad continued towards the engines eventually arriving and securing the abandoned room which then then rigged with all but one of the demolition charges they carried with them. Corporal Montgomery kept the final charge with him intending to use it to blast away a section of the ship’s interior corridors in the event the men needed a swift escape. Their vox erupted in a flurry of noise, it was entirely unintelligible despite the efforts of the vox specialist who could offer nothing more than a shrug in explanation. A dull scraping noise came from the corridor the Scions had taken to the engine room but it didn’t around any suspicion in the men, noises like this were common aboard a ship and even more so aboard a ruin of one.