INQUISITORIAL RECORDS FROM THE SPACE HULK: INDEFATIGABLE INCIDENT

“Light then up,” bellowed Corporal Montgomery but it was too late. The men fired a few shots but the beasts were upon them in seconds. Montgomery’s chain-sword roared to life and he quickly dispatched one of the vile creatures with a single sweep downwards that caught the beasts chest mid jump. Two scions to his right kept up a furious volley felling a handful of Genestealer while to his left a scions stood impaled in the razor sharp claws of a Tyranid. It slid it’s claws to either side and the scion dropped to the floor in two, perfectly sliced pieces. A blow struck Montgomery in the head and he felt a great force twisting his helmet. A genestealer had a hold of his helmet and was twisting it hoping to break his neck. Seeing this Montgomery released the helmet’s locking mechanism, threw himself backwards and blazed away at the beasts soft underbelly with his pistol. It fell on him and with one last gasp sprayed his face with acid which stung his eyes and burned his face.

Montgomery came to a few minutes later, three of his scions were left standing. All of them had discarded their helmets and looted their former comrades for what ammunition and grenades they still carried. Stumbling blindly Montgomery reached around for something to hold onto but could see only darkness. “Damn lights why can’t they flash now hey,” he joked as two men helped him to his feet. The men looked at him in puzzled bemusement. When the fighting started the sergeant had powered up his backpack lamp and the light still shone bringing some comfort to the men in the dark ship. “Um Corporal are you alright?” a scion asked nervously as he waved a hand in front of the NCO’s face. “Of course now someone get a light and let’s get moving,” Montgomery said fumbling for his own switch and when he found it he stopped dead in his tracks. The light was on. He flicked the switch back and forth and heard the distinct click of the lamp and the faint humming that it made when at full power. It was then it dawned on him, he was blind. The acid had eaten away at his eyes and most of his left cheek showing his teeth. The Corporal took the arm of a nearby Scion and the men left the engine room taking the detonator and final charge with them.

The lights to the bridge burst into life. Corporal Finnick stopped in his tracks and looked to either side. Lining the two walls were dozens and dozens of Genestealers perched upon broken masonry, fallen statues and twisted, deformed metal girders that had fallen from the ceiling. No one moved for a good few moments. “Run,” grunted Finnick into the squad vox and the scions made a break for the Bridge door. Immediately the genestealers reacted, racing to close the distance with the scions before they could reach the door and disturb the Patriarch within. The scions focused their fire on the Tyranids closest to the door, cutting them down with precision fire from their hellguns but it wasn’t enough. One lept onto the back of the rearmost scion and the man fell without a scream where he was torn to pieces by half a dozen of the foul creatures. The man in front of Finnick took an acid ball to the face and was hurled sideways, the man grasped at his helmet trying to wretch it from his head but eventually gave up, the acid must have fused the polymer to his skull, and instead tried to take as many of the Genestealers with him as possible. He took another four down before the acid finally reached his brain.

Finnick shot one Genestealer out of the air as it lept at him, it hung in the air form a second before it’s limp corpse crashed to the deck behind the Corporal. One genestealer made a dash for the door before doubling back, clawed fingers outstretched but Finnick was quicker and grabbed the creatures elongated skull in his right hand. It’s claws flailed wildly at the power fist who’s embrace the genestealer was not encased. Within a heartbeat Finnick clenched his fist and reduced the beasts skull to shards as thick purple ooze coated the once blue power fist.

Finnick reached the door and wasted no time pounding it with all his might, the third blow punched a hole clean through it and Finnick began to tear away strips. The two surviving scions kept up a constant fire to cover their Corporal. Inexplicably the genestealers retreated, they pulled back to what cover they could and began spitting acid at the men by the door. It was a pathetic effort as the men were too far away for the acid to harm them and their helmets could filter out any of the fumes. The scions finally burst into the bridge and immediately secured the door by activating the emergency ‘Hull Breach’ door that came crashing down with lethal ferocity. The scions removed their stuffy helmet and instead wore their berets which made the intricate task of transferring data more manageable. “Start the data transfer,” Finnick said to his two men who obeyed him. Finnick knew that with the emergency door down it would be impossible for the men to leave the bridge the same way they entered. He looked around desperately hoping to find an exit route and his eyes fixed on the ceiling where a large chunk of the roof had been torn out, it looked as though something big, enormous even had caused the damage but the danger meant nothing to the scions, it was face the beast or stay here to die. “Twenty percent done Corp,” said one of the scions transferring data while his companion inspected the bodies of the fallen ships officers. Their skulls were all deformed and strange, they sported clusters of carapace around the forehead area and some had slightly elongated skulls. All expect for one. One skeleton was normal, it was seated in the Admirals chair and the skull was leaning backwards wedged between the rest of the skeleton and the chair’s headrest. It’s jaw was open as if the skull was laughing even in death. For reasons unknown even to himself Finnick gently took the skull and placed it in his backpack, something made this skull different from the rest and it would make a good memento if nothing else. “Almost done,” one of the men said as the other set time delayed melta bombs on the various command consoles, Finnick thought it was overkill but there was no reason not to do it so let the man be.

With the transfer complete Finnick led what was left of his squad through the twisted ceiling. They came out in a low passageway and after a few hundred meters of crawling over scarred metal Finnick motioned for the squad to halt. He took his power fist and began tearing away at what was now the floor. After half a dozen motions he created a hole big enough for the scions to get through and they found themselves back in the corridors of the ship.

“How’s the vox?” asked Marius once he had made sure all of the scions were stabilised.
“It’s shot sir I can’t get any signal at all,” replied Marius who was the only scion still wearing his helmet “I’ve got it configured to broadcast an emergency signal on all channels but something’s blocking it, maybe whatever attacked the crew jammed their comms. Ships this size have scanners that can detect a sent signal and jam it which is probably why we managed to only get one broadcast out sir,” the specialist went on.
Marius nodded and went back to the rest of the scions.
“We’ve got to find that signal jammer and destroy it, it’s the only way we can get a message to the planet,” Marius said to the men who nodded in agreement. If they went to the planet then they’d never be allowed to return. Marius was not about to leave behind half his platoon, over century of combined knowledge, on a Space Hulk to die at the claws of these monsters. He would do whatever he could to bring them back.

Leaving Maxentius behind to manage the vox Marius lead his scions into the maze of winding hallways that he hoped would lead him to the communications hub where he could disable the jammer. Maxentius refused any guards saying they’d be far more useful in disabling the jammer, saying that even if he and the array were destroyed reestablishing communications with the rest of the platoon was worth it. The ten scions went forward in pairs leaving a few feet between each pair so that if one was ambushed the others could give them covering fire. Pullo and Vorenus lead the group, Pullo holding his sword in his left hand while Vorenus carried his pistol and a hunk of iron that would serve as a club. The scions were down to only a handful of shots each and the men knew it, they weren’t scared but were keenly aware that if it came to a serious fight they’d be taking on the Genestealers with nothing but gun stocks and combat knives.

Marius and his scions worked their way through the tunnels, occasionally they came to a fork in the network and had to spit up but never for more than a few minutes at a time. They heard the telltale hissing and scraping of the genestealers but saw nothing. Occasionally a dark mass would hurtle towards them out of the darkness and the men would raise their hellguns but it never came into view. They were being teased but not attacked. The scions grew unsettled, they’d rather carve a bloody path to the communications relay than know the enemy is out there but not attacking them.

Eventually they arrived at the relay station and found it sealed off by large emergency doors. Marius cursed and the scions fanned out but couldn’t find another way in. Unable to breach the door Marius tried to reach Maxentius, to no surprise he found that the line was only static but then had a thought. If he couldn’t broadcast a message verbally he would use the audio code Maxentius used to contact the planet earlier. Marius painstakingly spelled out the code. Channel. Eight. Five. It was a pirate channel the Scions used when off duty. Normally someone played music on it or broadcast obscene stories about their ‘conquests’ but Marius imagined it alone would be unblocked. As far as Imperial Command was aware there were no channels beyond seventy-six being used in this sector and so wouldn’t be scanning for them. He figured he could get maybe a few minutes at most before it was jammed but maybe that’s all he needed. Maxentius understood the message and was soon on the vox. “Brilliant sir I’ve sent the same audio signal to the other squads but have got no response,” Maxentius exclaimed but Marius cut him off abruptly.
“It’s got an emergency shield around it how can we get through it? Do you have any maps or schematics of the ship?” he asked and after a few moments of hurried searching Maxentius replied.
“Yes sir I have them here, it seems that there is a manual override but it’ll take me some time to work it out from here, go dark and check back every ten minutes I’ll keep you informed,”