Cian reacts first, reaching out a curled hand and muttering a line of unwords, "Tainted! Damned by the Warp!" He fumbles at his waist, reaching for a weapon.

You decide not to question Cian's assertion and unsling your lascarbine.

Kathrine pulls an autopistol from the side of her backpack, racking the slide with a practiced motion.

The gun-wielding man-thing dashed forward a few steps and brings its pistol to bear. A single shot rings out, slamming off the floor near your feet.

Havelock has his shotgun out and ready in the time it takes for you to blink. A heartbeat later and it booms, one of the pipe-armed man-things reeling and bleeding from the impact.

The pipe-armed man-things sprint forwards, closing the range in an attempt to get to grips with your party before your superior firepower can cut them down.

Cian finally pulls a compact laspistol from his belt.

Semi-Auto burst from lascarbine: +10% to hit. Magazine is now at 28/30 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit. Target is obstructed: foe in the way: -10% to hit.

Fire at pistoleer: Success! needed <42, got 05.

Damage inflicted: 2d10+4 Energy. Result: 13.

You pull the trigger twice, aiming center-mass on the pistoleer. Both of your shots strike home, the bolts cratering its torso. It collapses to the deck, the naval pistol skittering against the wall.

Kathrine fires a chattering automatic salvo at one of the charging man-things. All six rounds strike home in a grouping no larger than your fist in its forehead. Its head promptly disintegrates into a spray of blood, brains, and bone. It collapses to the deck like a string-cut puppet. Some of the salvo continues on to shred the right arm of of a second man-thing, which slumps against the wall and quickly bleeds out.

Havelock pulls the trigger of his shotgun again. The shot connects, but is wasted on the falling corpse of the headless man-thing.

The two surviving man-things close all the way into melee range with Kathrine, but are unable to bring their pipes to bear.

Cian drops his compact laspistol, a rune-marked blade appearing in his hand. He makes an awkward-looking swing with it, but his blow connects with one of the man-things, ripping a painful gouge out of its right leg.

Your lascarbine is no good in a melee fight, so you sling it and take up your staff.

Kathrine drops her autopistol and pulls a duralloy maul from the other side of her backpack.

Havelock curses at the tight confines of the fight and starts loading fresh shells into his shotgun.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Both of the surviving man-things swing their pipes, avoiding Kathrine's frantic attempts to block with contemptuous ease. The first man-thing hits her in the leg, causing her to grunt in discomfort. The second pipe smacks her squarely in the stomach, causing her to hunch forward in discomfort.

Cian takes another wild swing with his knife but only succeeds in cutting the air.

Melee attack with staff: +0% to hit.

Melee attack man-thing: failure. Needed <30, got 69

You take a swing with your staff, but your target ignores the strike as it swishes past his left foot.

Kathrine caves in the chest of one of her attackers, the duralloy maul crushing the man-thing's ribs with audible cracking sounds.

Havelock snaps his shotgun closed, ready to fire again.

The last surviving man-thing take a wild swing at Kathrine's head, but hits nothing.

Cian takes half a heartbeat to ready his strike, then puts his knife into the head of the last man-thing. You can see the point emerge from the other side before the body slumps to the floor.

Everyone pauses to catch their breath, the air now foetid with the stench of spilled blood and the voiding bowels of the dead man-things. Kathrine snatches up her autopistol, wincing at her injuries. Cian picks his compact laspistol from the floor, along with the naval pistol. After a moment, he hands the naval pistol to Kathrine.

"It isn't tainted, despite the damned nature of its wielder. You can bless it if you like. Probably should, now that I think on it."

Kathrine takes the pistol and studies it, impressed by the large caliber of the bullets. "I think I will, should we survive this little expedition. I've only suffered bruises and contusions as far as I can tell but we have no doctor with us to ease the healing."

You cough, your lungs still aching from the time you spent in the contaminated atmosphere. "Thankfully, the servitor should be just past this airlock. Havelock, take point please, weapons ready. We have confirmed that we are not alone on the Capitalis Congestus."

The servitor itself is something of a disappointment, you muse as you stand over its crumpled form. Clearly a cleaner-servitor of some sort, but its flesh is the ashen-grey of death, its motive unit fouled and shredded by the damaged floor. its sensors are miscalibrated, its optics dim and dull. About the only intact and (apparently) functional part is the memory coil.

Tech Use Test at +30% (+10% base, +10% from omni-tool, +10% from Binary Chatter): extract data from servitor memory coil. Success (and then some): needed <68, got 08. Data recovered: gain knowledge of one random gridpoint, plus two additional random gridpoints.

With a gentle prod from your omni-tool and a few blurts of binary the memory coil slides free of the servitor's cranium. You will need to use one of the data-terminals back at the base of operations to decode the data it contains, but you have a good feeling about your efforts. You eye the remains of the servitor. It is clearly beyond repair, but perhaps some of its parts could be put to good use.

Tech Use Test at +10% (-10% base, +10% from Omni-tool, +10% from Binary Chatter): Recover parts to begin Project Stabby. Success: needed <48, got 43.

Status Update: Project Stabby: 2% complete. Purchase cost of remaining parts now 147 credits.

A few moments work frees up some useful components, though you have now reduced the servitor to so much scrap metal and rotting meat. You leave its remains behind for whatever scavengers may lurk in the shadows and lead your team back to base.

You manage to return to base without further incident and turn in the servitor's memory coil. Interrogator MacWater sets about updating the map while you and your team begin tending to your wounds, recharging powercells, and deciding if filling out requisition paperwork is worth the time.