You look about for the docking control console, eventually spotting it behind a blast screen. Well, what’s left of a blast screen. A snapped cable has flayed most of the protective cover away, leaving the console dangerously exposed. There is nothing you can do about that though, except to stay low and hope for the best. You motion Gorlin to stay put, not wanting another Battle-Brother to follow you into the maelstrom of moving machinery. He gives a strangled grunt over the vox and nods as much as the high gorget of his armor allows.

Dash to the docking control console: -10% Agility test.

Success: needed <34, got 27. Hazard Damage mitigated.

You dive in behind the console as another broken cable cuts the air above your head with a hellish scream. Given the amount of damage scattered about the various mechanical mechanisms you have to wonder if the console will even work or if a shutdown procedure will simply cause more things to go wrong. You roll to a knee, hunching as low as you can behind the console, and peer at the status runes dancing across its surface. You can’t make out the meanings behind all of them, not being a member of the mechanicus, but you do have enough knowledge to perform most routine tasks. You grimace as you notice every single rune but one is glowing the sullen red of a danger / hazard status. The one exception, gowing in green, is the fuel servitor supply indicator.

“Gorlin, you’d best get to cover. Everything in this mess is busted or about to be and all of the refueling servitors have full tanks of aviation-grade promethium fuel.”

“Hrngh. Meaning what?”

“Meaning that they are walking bombs roaming about in a minefield.”

“Rrngh. Understood.”

You duck as that same damned cable keens back over the console again. Whatever you plan to do, you need to work quickly.

Shut down the launch catapults: -10% Tech Use test.

Failure! Needed <34, got 91.

7 points of incoming damage from the hazard. -5 for torso armor, -10 for toughness.

Suffered 0 Damage. Armor Breached! It is no longer atmospherically sealed.

You try to activate some of the docking bay controls, but you are disturbed in your task as the damned cable whips across your torso armor. Its lashing tip scores a crease in your breastplate, and you feel the hiss of air escaping from the confines of your Mk. 4 Power Armor. You drop back down behind the console and curse into the vox as you apply your armor repair cement and reseal your Power Armor. The unbreathable atmosphere wouldn’t kill you for several minutes yet, but there is no reason to take chances.

You take the six seconds in which you are applying the armor cement to consider your course of action. Standing back up into the cable isn’t going to get you very far, you would just get whipped again. And with no more armor repair cement to hand, another armor breach could be problematic outside of a breathable atmosphere. You decide to see of severing the crontroll runs inside the console has any effect. Cutting the head off works against organics, why shouldn’t it work on electronics?

Demolish the docking control console: -10% Strength test.

Success: needed <53, got 06. Hazard Damage mitigated.

You kick a maintenance cover aside, ignoring the wax seals you break in the process. Reaching inside, you grab hold of a likely batch of cables and pull. A rat nest of wires and conduits comes free in your hands, and you toss it aside after the maintenance cover. Several of the catapults shudder and grind to a halt. You reach in again and heave another mess of bare copper free. The remaining launch catapults come to a crashing stop. The refueling servitors either freeze or begin wandering in circles as their internal commands fail to deal with their new circumstances.

“All clear Gorlin, let’s get moving.”

“Rrrgh. I’m picking something up on the far side of this place. Not sure what, might just be autosensor interference.”

“Regroup with me and we’ll check it out. No reason to leave a possible foe at our backs.”

Gorlin moves cautiously into loose formation, and you begin to pick your way across the docking bay. Nothing leaps out of the shadows to attack you, but you do notice that your autosenses wash with a slight bit of interference every few seconds. It eventually fades out as you push into the prow section of the Unflagging Resolve, but you keep your bolter ready. Gorlin has his bolt pistol and chainsword in hand, the later emanating the wet purr of an idling engine.

You work your way upwards, heading for the long spinal corridors of the Unflagging Resolve. More than once you catch sight of an unusual shape or bit of movement at the edges of your vision. As you cycle into a section of relatively un-cluttered corridors, your autosenses are hit with a brief wash of vicious interference. It fades as suddenly as it arrives, but it puts you on edge.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“We’re being stalked.”

“Hreh-heh-heh. Foolish to stalk us.”

You let Gorlin’s flash of arrogance pass and concentrate on your surroundings. You lead the way into another shuttle bay, this one only large enough for a pair of shuttles, probably for important officers. Immediately, you sidestep into the shadows and cut the lights. Your helmet drops into darkvision mode, peeling back the shadows. Two figures are backlit, prone in the edges of a doorway on the far side of the hangar.

Gorlin thumbs his chainsword to full throttle and runs towards the figures. He slams into the wall next to the doorway at full speed, clear of the figures probable line of fire.

A sun-bright stream of blue-white plasma fire rakes the deckplates in his wake. You instantly recognise it as a Tau burst cannon, a rotary plasma gun, and are thankful that it missed Gorlin as he sprinted. A direct hit from that weapon can tear a Space Marine in half. Combined with the evidence of autosensor disruption you experienced earlier, you know a tau Stealth Suit is responsible for those shots, and you make finding and killing it your highest priority.

One of the figures in the doorway comes to a knee and lobs a flat disk into the hangar. You know it to be a genade of some sort, and laugh when it detonates in a bright flare of light and sound that your helmet promptly filters away. The foolish tau would have been better suited to throw a flare then a flashbang.

Spot the tau Stealth Suit: -10% Perception test. Keen Senses and Autosenses: +20%

Success: needed <53, got 12.

You push the gain and edge definition on your autosenses, seeking to pick the tau Stealth Suit out of the gloom. You spot it hunching into cover behind a crate, already having displaced from where it had fired its first shot.

Single shot from Bolter (magazine #1 - Standard Bolts): +0% to hit. Magazine is now at 27/28 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit. Target is employing a stealth field (passive mode): -10% to hit. Target is of Hulking size: +10% to hit.

Fire at tau Stealth Suit: Success! needed <63, got 24.

Damage inflicted: 2d10+5 explosive. Result: 14.

Your shot connects, striking the Stealth Suit in the torso to little visible effect.

The second figure in the doorway blindly fires into the room. The shots come nowhere near to connecting with either you or Gorlin, the result of the figure firing blindly into the dark.

Gorlin rounds the corner, charging into the midst of the figures. You hear the wet sound of his chainsword rending flesh and count the figures as doomed in the face of Gorlin’s attack.

The Stealth Suit swings its burst cannon around to point in your direction and lets loose with a second salvo. It misses you, but not by nearly as much as you would like. The shots slag the wall next to your head, the metal burning and running under the impact of the plasma bolts.

One of the figures in melee with Gorlin takes a wild swing with its boxy rifle, but Gorlin evades it effortlessly.

Single shot from Bolter (magazine #1 - Standard Bolts): +0% to hit. Magazine is now at 26/28 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit. Target is employing a stealth field (passive mode): -10% to hit.Target is of Hulking size: +10% to hit.

Fire at tau Stealth Suit: Success! needed <63, got 19.

Damage inflicted: 2d10+5 explosive. Result: 18.

Your second shot hits the Stealth Suit in the head, but again it shrugs off the impact. You debate increasing your rate of fire as you move into what cover you can find behind a buttress supporting the high vaulting roof.

Gorlin neatly avoids the clumsy punch of the other figure in the doorway before casually cleaving it into two pieces.

The Stealth Suit stands its ground and lets out a long burst of burst cannon fire. You watch most of the shots splatter harmlessly where you stood a few seconds ago, but one bolt heats the plasteel next to your head.

Two-round burst from Bolter (magazine #1 - Standard Bolts): +10% to hit. Magazine is now at 24/28 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit. Target is employing a stealth field (passive mode): -10% to hit. Target is of Hulking size: +10% to hit.

Fire at tau Stealth Suit: Success! needed <73, got 58.

Damage inflicted: 4d10+10 explosive. Result: 31.

You fire two shots, striking the Stealth suit in the torso again. This time it staggers and you can clearly see purple-blue blood leaking from the holes in its armor.

Gorlin evades the futile attacks of the last figure in the doorway and decapitates it in return.

The Stealth Suit makes some adjustment to its stealth field, and your autosenses are washed with the heavy static of active jamming. You hear the flare of a jump pack igniting as it attempts to flee.

Spot the tau Stealth Suit: -30% Perception test. Keen Senses and Autosenses: +20%

Failure: needed <33, got 79.

You move to block the doorway, unable to see the Stealth Suit through the jamming. Something slams into a crate in the hangar, and you know it has to be the Stealth Suit, but you just can’t see it through the jamming.

Gorlin stumbles as something brushes past him and takes a wild swing with his chainsword. It bits into something, and the jamming vanishes from your autosenses. The tau Stealth Suit is lying on the deckplate in a slowly spreading pool of purple-blue blood with its throat cleaved open.

“Grrgh. Three unsatisfying kills. These bluebloods can’t fight worth a damn.”

“I’m more concerned with how they got aboard the Capitalis Congestus. They shouldn’t be here at all.”

“Warp’s a fickle thing Marcellus. Let’s keep moving.”

“Two pathfinders, going by their pulse carbines, and a Stealth Suit? That feels like a reconnaissance force.”

“Just means more things for us to kill.”

The next obstruction on your map is a maintenance accessway, parallelling a collapsed section of the spinal corridors. It is partially flooded with water, but your magboots make walking against the current a trivial affair. The Issue is that it is only wide enough for one Battle-Brother, and the one behind will be unable to shoot or squeeze past his fellow. Do you take point, or do you send Gorlin out in front?