You gather your team and consult the listing of objectives up for completion. You eye the cleanse mission, eager to get stuck in, but leery of detonating a Fuel/Air Explosive quite that large.

"Ok, none of us have flamers or incendiaries, but will plasma weapons set this stuff off? Las? Slugthrowers?"

Jace chimes in "Plasma almost certainly, slugthrowers as well. The detonation of their propellants would do the job. Lasers and hellguns are likely to as well, due to the energy transfer at the impact point of the projectile."

"So in other words, we are limited to un-powered melee weapons."

You glance about. You have Serpentsbreath, though it won't be as effective without the disruption field active. Jace has his Omnisian-pattern Combi-tool, though it will be almost more useful as a warhammer without the disruption field offline. Yasha has a simple metal staff, and Mu'randa has a Kraken tooth dagger.

"Against a few Ghilliam, we should be ok, I hope. So long as there aren't too many."

Seven hours later, and with nine isolated Ghilliam dealt with, you and your team have settled into a groove approaching mechanical precision. Jace at the fore, Yasha at the rear, yourself and Mu'randa in the middle. The long weapons pin the latest Ghilliam to the ground to be finished off quickly by the shorter blades. Jace has killed more than one Ghilliam outright, spearing them with the point of his combi-tool as they charge mindlessly forwards.

Now comes the real test. You approach the fuel silos, well aware of the leaking-gas stench in the air and the small glossy puddles in the dents and dips of the floor.

Jace leads the way into the chamber holding the fuel silos. Nothing jumps you immediately, but you decide against lowering your guard.

Jace points to a control console. Perhaps the fuel can be drained off into another area of the hulk? You shake your head. Doing so would only flood another area and spread the risk of a FAE detonation, or even detonate it as it came into contact with an ignition source elsewhere. Jace shakes his head, and gestures to the air vents around you. Disperse the fumes? If you could get them to cycle out to the void, that might not be a bad idea. You would have to deal with operating in vacuum, but you would be able to shoot again. You nod for Jace to go ahead.

Everyone stays close to Jace as he starts investigating the vent controls. "Ok, I can vent the local atmosphere to the void, but that will leave us on a short timer to get out of here. It will also likely irritate every Ghilliam in the immediate vicinity, and they can probably handle the void better than we can."

Yasha shakes her head. "I may be able to help. You will all need to stay close and keep the Gilliam off of me so I can concentrate."

You look at Jace. "How long after you start the venting will we be able to use our guns?"

"Perhaps thirty seconds. We will need to go back down the corridor we came from and activate the emergency hatch to seal this chamber off behind us and begin to regain a breathable atmosphere."

“If that hatch doesn't close in front of us. Any idea how many Gilliam are left in this nest? Perhaps it would be easier to clear them by hand and then activate the vents on a timer of some sort?"

Mu'randa consults a portable sensor array which has been responsible for tipping you off to Gilliam ambushes so far. "According to this, eight. All within twenty meters of this chamber... and headed this way."

That is about all the warning you get before the first one hurls itself out of the shadows at you. You meet is charge with Serpentsbreath's unpowered point and skewer its misshapen head.

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Yasha deflects the charge of a second one, and sends it to the ground with a blow to the ankle.

Mu'randa goes down with a third on top of her. Her dagger takes it in the chest, but it does leave a deep cut along her cheek before it expires.

Jace hammers the fourth into the deckplates hard enough to leave a dent in the metal.

You have a brief moment to wonder if a stray hit could strike a spark before the fifth Gilliam tries to take you unawares. You manage to parry its clumsy lunge, but are too busy defending yourself to strike back.

The sixth one goes for Jace, who takes its raking attack across the chest. His robe tears away to reveal the metal plates embedded in his torso.

Number seven goes for Mu'randa, still buried beneath the dead body. It throws its fallen companion's corpse aside, taking the dagger with it.

The eighth goes for Yasha, who deftly ducks is headlong rush, tripping it into the one she tripped earlier.

You finally get an opening, and take the head of your Gilliam off its shoulders.

Yasha thumps the Gilliam off of Mu'randa before it gets a chance to inflict any more damage.

Mu'randa gets back to her feet and snags a pointed lump of rusted metal to use as a shiv.

Jace crushes his opponent with a massive horizontal swing.

The two tripped Gilliam untangle themselves and get back on their feet again.

The third surviving Gilliam charges Yasha, who promptly bounced her staff off of its skull, leaving quite the dent. It goes down with barely a twitch.

You step to place yourself between Mu'randa and the remaining Gilliam, rather than charging into a two-on one fight.

Yasha takes a deep breath, and you can feel the air about you heat up slightly. The two Gilliam quite literally freeze in place.

Jace promptly renders them into Gilliam-cubes with two quick swings of his combi-tool.

With the excitement over, you try to tend to Mu'randa. The best you can do is tear a strip of cloth from your clothing and bind it over the wound. She will need some medical attention when you get back to the Beachhead.

Yasha sags, leaning against her staff in her exhaustion. Unleashing her power like that really takes it out of her.

Jace works the console doggedly, ignoring his torn robe and the scratches in his torso plating. "I'm setting the timer for three minutes. We should be well clear of here by then."

"Right. Yasha, Mu'randa, you good to go or do you need help?"

Yasha stands up a tad straighter. "I'll be good in a moment. Just need to catch my breath."

"Mu'randa?"

"All but blind in one eye because of the bandage and a tad woozy."

"Lean on my shoulder and I help you. Jace, start that timer and lets move out."

Your group makes it back to the Beachhead safely. You get Mu'randa to the Medics for proper tending and Yasha to bed to rest up before checking off the fuel silos as cleared and without atmosphere.

The list of secondary objectives hasn't grown any longer despite how long it took you to clear the fuel silos. Instead, there is a note for you from the Force Commander.

"Shipmaster Von Sebastion, we have most of the Malignus Maximus mapped out, and I'm diverting more teams to clearing secondary objectives. Whichever one you don't clear will be picked up as a spare by another team. After that, we will need to discuss a finding deep within the core of the Malignus Maximus that will need to be dealt with by more than an individual squad."

-- Force Commander Tarian Ddu

1) Recovery: Secure a possible archeotech cache.

Scout's notes: Objective bypassed due to medical conditions and ammunition shortage. Area not investigated thoroughly.

Addendum: Objective located inside a Tenebro Maze. Advise patience, persistence, and good mapping.

Addendum Secundus: Tenebro Maze approximately 75 percent mapped. Likely route to objective located.

2) Reconnaissance: Unusual ship hull signature.

Scout's notes: Scans indicate a hull of non-imperial construction six decks down and two ship-hulls outside of mapped areas. Hull is non-ferric, but also non-organic in nature.

Addendum: Hull likely of Eldar construction: advise Psykers and Librarians to use their Powers with caution.