INQUISITORIAL RECORDS FROM THE SPACE HULK: INDEFATIGABLE INCIDENT

Victi Tertius received the transmission alerting them to the identity of the ship just as they breached the final layer of hull and secured their shuttle with three inch thick metal cables. “Secure the evac route and let’s make up for lost time, secure the bridge,” Finnick ordered hoisting his gigantic power fist from the floor of the Hulk and putting it on. He moved his fingers, slowly at first but soon with much greater dexterity. He had always like the power fist, the hefty weight, the delicate articulated fingers and more importantly the ability to pulversie his enemies with it. He’d only ever killed a single foe in his long career, an Ork Nob on Caaliin Quintus. The power of his blow had pulverised the ork’s skull and sent blood in a geyser straight up showering Finnick in the foul beasts viscous blood. In honor of his achievement he had the weapon named, in bold golden letters inlaid delicately just above the knuckles was one word Capitis or in Low Gothic, Headache.

The men of Tertius Squad advanced with reckless abandon, never once halting to inspect a room or even glance down a hallway. These men were here with a single task, seize the bridge and recover as much data as possible from it’s records. The hallways grew more choked with rubble and debris as the scions got closer to their target location. It seems whatever happened to the ship occurred first at the stern, it was as though the front section of the ship was crumpled slightly. None of the ceiling was in place instead it was scattered about the ground in a chaotic fashion, exposed wires sparked occasionally from the ceiling and what lights remained dangled like jungle vines from the tangle of cables that snaked their way through the ship.

The scions encountered a few stubborn doors which refused to open but they were no obstacle at all for Finnick and Capitis. “We’re on the right path men see there,” Finnick said pointing to a bank of signs that was well rusted and barely legible. “Pontem is what we’re after, let’s see here it is this way men and keep your weapons simmering,”

The men came to the entrance to the ship’s bridge, it was still a good half mile from them but with the bridge in sight Finnick attempted to raise Lieutenant Marius on the vox. “Report Report Report sir, at the bridge. Attempting to gain access. Will report when recovery underway. End. End. End.” the gruff sergeant spoke into the vox headset. He received no response but shrugged it off. He knew that the camera mounted on all the Scion’s backpacks would record his attempt and that was good enough to satisfy any board of inquiry that might arise. Tertius advanced to the bridge, weapons glowing faintly in the crushing blackness of the ship. Curiously this area did not have even a single light to illuminate the area save for a single faint red glow hanging over the bridge entrance. Finick paid it no mind.

With startling surprise the vox in Finnick’s ear erupted in a flurry of static and noise. Half deafened Finnick switched the frequency enabling the rest of his men to received the signal, at least one of them had to hear something he reasoned. They did hear something. All around them came a dull hissing noise mixed with the occasional clanging of metal and the dull scraping of bone on steel. From among the static and white noise every man of Tertius heard a single word clearly. “Tyranid”.

Marius placed the vox receiver back in the array and turned to Victi Primus who had return wit several objects. “Report sergeant,”
“I’m not sure sit but all we can find are bones and ancient scraps of clothing. All the metals rusted and most of the cables are utterly perished,” Haysworth said motioning for one of his men to bring forward two objects.
“What are these?” asked the Lieutenant only half focusing on them, he could swear he just heard something hiss at him. He wrote the idea off as simply some gas venting from a pocket his men had disturbed upon their arrival. “This sir,” said Haysworth motioning to a skull “is a plain old ordinary human skull,”
“Yes sergeant there are quite a lot of this around here,” said the Lieutenant with a hint of annoyance in his tone.
“Yes sir of course sir but I can’t explain what this is,” said Haysworth as he offered the second skull to the Lieutenant.
It was an ordinary human skull. All except for three clear ridges on the forehead. The ridges appeared to be made of a different substance to the rest of the skull and Marius took out a small knife and tried to scratch the substance away. It didn’t budge. It was fused to the bone, no wait it was an integral part of the bone.
“By the Emperor,” exclaimed Marius handing the skulls to the two sergeants for further inspection.
“That’s not all sir we also found a dozen or so of these,” Haysworth said motioning to a pile of finger bones. They were ordinary bones all except for very small almost nail like points at the end of the fingers made of the same substance as the brow ridges.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. Have you sergeant,” Marius said throwing the question to both Pullo and Vorenus who offered no reply.
“Best ‘till last sir,” Haysworth said taking another human skull from the squad medic. The skull had two very clear bullet holes in the rear. It was no suicide and the men knew it. There were hundreds of rusted old stubbers and ships pistols scattered about the floor but this wasn’t a shootout, it was an execution. Pullo tried a few of the weapons but their actions were totally seized up and the ammunition was useless.
“Maxentius get me the planet now they have to hear this,” Lieutenant Marius ordered throwing the injured skull aside in disgust. It took a good while to raise the planet and the signal was poor but Marius was able to report three clear words via an old noise code. Unengaged. Crew. Betrayed.
“Get the vox back on the section channel in case anyone tries to raise us,” Marius ordered but Maxentius was already fiddling with the required knobs and dials to restabilise the vox signal.

The hissing great louder and seemed to be coming from all around them now. Suddenly Marius caught sight of something slinking around in the darkness. As it dashed from cover to cover the light burst in a shower of sparks illuminating the creature for but a split second. Marius’ heart sprung into his throat. “Contact right,” he whispered into the squad’s internal vox. The men understood and began milling around seemingly at random but in reality were taking up defensive positions around the vox array and shuttle.

When the Scions were in place Marius nodded to the two Sergeant’s and walked back to the vox array. “Tell me this is ready to broadcast,” he whispered to Maxentius.
“Barely sir it’s not stable but it’ll take a good five minutes at least to get it working,” he whispered back. The hissing by now had grown deafening and was resembling more of a snake sound than that of escaping gas.
“it’ll have to do give me that,” Marius said and threw his hand out to receive the vox speaker. At that moment the trap was sprung. At least a dozen genestealers burst from the darkness but the scion’s were ready for them. Armour piecing hellgun bolts filled the docking bay. Three of the beasts were felled instantly and at least two had a limb removed but still they came on.
“Alert. Alert. Alert. Enemy contact. Docking bay. Tyranid. End. End. End,” Marius roared into the vox array hoping to give the other squads a fighting chance at survival.
The enemy was close to the Scion’s now and Sergeant Pullo charged to meet them. He fired his last few pistol shots into the first Genestealer putting it down and turned to face the next. Suddenly a spray of acid struck him on the hand and his sword fell from his grasp. The fingers on his right hand were melting away and he collapsed to the ground in pain. Not wanting to be outshone Sergeant Vorenus ran to his aid. He struck down two beasts with his power sword, it carved through their thick carapace with ease. As he wretched the blade free from his second kill Vorenus felt a sharp pain in his back as two talon raked him through his armour. He too collapsed to the floor and dropped his sword. Pullo forced himself to stand and holding his sword in his left hand buried it into the skull of the Tyranid flaying his brother sergeant. He lifted Vorenus to his feet and the two men limped back to the lines of their allies who looked at them with bewildered awe. By this time only a few Genestealer’s were left and they soon retreated back into the darkness.
“Go on run away cowards,” cried one Scion who was immediately reprimanded by Marius.
“Silence these animals don’t know fear, they retreat because they’re told to retreat,” marius said through the squad vox. A few moments later the squads helmets went blank and filled their ears with noise. “Helmet’s off,” roared Pullo who had removed his helmet to better inspect his now mangled hand. The acid had caused no bleeding but had rendered the arm useless with a paralysing toxin.

All the Scions removed their helmets and instinctively replaced them with their signature green berets. All expect for Maxentius who waved Marius off when he approached “thank you sir but I have to keep my ears on sir,” he said and went back to his switched and dials.