Segmentum Solar
Europa
Northern Hemisphere
41st Millennium
The air on the surface of the ice moon Europa, seemed to twist and distort as the Death Watch kill-team teleported down to surface. The kill team moved out with a Sergeant of the Blood Ravens at the front. He raised his hand to his vox, his voice deep and confident, "Terra's Might, this is kill team, deployment successful, heading to bore hole now, over."
"Rodger kill team, proceed with mission. Terra's Might will be on station, if you require support, over." The Vox Operator aboard the mighty vessel, replied, in a tone that suggested that, they would probably not find anything.
He turned to his squad and looked at the only other Blood Raven, who was holding a Mk VII flamer, "You ready?" the Marine nodded and said,
"I am always ready." This Marine's voice was female, and she was not alone, the Space Wolf holding a bolter, was also female. The Marines wielding heavy bolters were from the Ultramarines and Imperial Fists the kill-team's Apothecary was also from the Ultramarines. The Inquisitor leading the mission was called; Gregorio Thandarius.
The Blood Ravens Sergeant Allejandros Xandero checked his plasma pistol and power axe, that plasma pistol had been used at first by Blood Ravens, Captain Thryptos of the Third Company, and he intended to honour the late Captain's memory; at the same time that Athena Xavier, Freya Helgadottir, Augustus Thallius, Thareus Brekken and Selanus checked their weapons and equipment as they did so, Inquisitor Thandarius briefed the team, "I know that you were briefed before teleporting planet-side, but this is what, we know about the mission: An Adeptus Mechanicus, exploration team dropped out of contact, two months ago; they were investigating the sudden appearance of some sort of structure that showed up on a thermal imaging scan. Six weeks later an entire battalion of Guardsmen from the 82nd Harakoni Warhawks was sent in to investigate, after a brief transmission, saying that they were planet-side and entering a bore hole, presumably made by the missing team, soon afterwards they went out of contact as well. This was their last transmission."
He pressed a series of buttons and played the recording of a voice, thick with terror, panic, desperation and at times distorted by static, gunfire and screams, human and inhuman, "This is Guardsman…lis…we are under, attack, by…Xenos…left flank, l…, th…ve acid blood, I repeat, they have…d. Suppre…ire on the…ank! Sen…sitance…ow, we…re…o be…run. I…peat, sen…tance n… NO, NO, ARRGGH!!" The transmission ended in a blood curdling death scream and waves of static.
Thandarius's body language was grim, "We have to believe that the battalion was destroyed by an unknown Xenos threat, and," he pressed a few more buttons, and brought up a map of the building, "this," he continued, "is the target building, it is twelve kilometres under the ice. The bore hole is five hundred metres to the north of us. So we head to the mouth of the bore hole and check out the camp there and get a vehicle, then we move to the structure. Let's move!"
"The Guardsman said that the Xenos had acid for blood." Apothecary Selanus stated as they started to walk off to the bore hole, "It may be some new kind of Tyranid, because that is the only species I am aware of that has such a characteristic." He theorised and continued, "Even if it is not then we will need your superior wolf senses Sister Helgadottir." He switched to a private comm. channel, "Other members of my Chapter doubt your worth and I agree with them. If however you manage to convince me otherwise; then I will personally send a petition to Lords Calgar, Cassius and Tigerius to change their ruling and induct females into the ranks of the illustrious Ultramarines. But until you do I will agree with the rest of my Chapter; that does not mean however that we are allowed to fight with one another; to survive we must be united in a common cause."
"My thanks Brother," she said in a pleased tone, "And I intend to make sure that you keep your word."
The building in question looked like a pyramid of some sort, each side was different, and it looked like someone had taken the sides of four different pyramids and stuck them together. All in all; it was without a shadow of a doubt built by Xenos and the very thought of vile aliens, being in the Segmentum Solar and so close to Holy Terra itself, made the kill-team seethe with righteous anger and hatred.
"Suffer not the Alien to live." Xandero snarled the Death Watch maxim at the very idea that an alien race would dare to raise the ire of the Imperium by intruding in its very centre! These aliens would and must be punished, for their transgressions by being completely exterminated. "You are correct Brother-Sergeant." A smooth female voice said through his helmet's vox he recognised the voice as belonging to Athena Xavier, "They will be destroyed, but you need to focus. Besides, Battle-Sister Helgadottir and I suspect that the Ultramarines and the Fist are sceptical about our competence and worth."
Xavier groaned in frustration; the concept of female Astartes was relatively new, about one hundred years old; and as such some of the more traditional Chapters such as the Ultramarines, Grey Knights, Imperial Fists and the Black Templars were very much against it. The Black Templars even went as far as insinuating that the Chapters that allowed females into their ranks to be heretical and corrupt. Threatened with action by the combined forces of the Space Wolves, Salamanders, Raven Guard, Blood Angels and Blood Ravens; the Black Templars finally went off to vent their anger on the foes of Man by launching yet another Crusade.
The controversy all began when the Salamanders Chapter successfully managed to augment a sixteen year old girl from the planet Armageddon, who not only rescued a Veteran Sergeant from the Orks but later supported his squad as they made their way back to base using an abandoned sniper rifle they had found along the way.
As the case was so extraordinary the Salamanders Chapter's officers had to vote on the decision of what to do with her, and after the Chief Librarian had declared her to be free of taint; the Chapter Master made the deciding vote and she was transformed into the first ever female member of the Adeptus Astartes. The Salamanders quickly shared the information with the Space Wolves, Raven Guard, Blood Angels and Blood Ravens Chapters; but within the first week of her being inducted, the Inquisition learned of the new addition to the Salamanders Chapter. To say that they were very angry about the changes the Chapter's Apothecaries had made to the gene-seed; would be a massive understatement and the Salamanders probably would have been declared heretics, if they had not told the Inquisitor that the Space Wolves knew about it as well. The mention of the Space Wolves caused the Inquisition to back down, knowing full well of the attitude of the Space Wolves on matters such as these; the Inquisitor decided that it was not worth risking a repeat of The Wars of Compassion and let them go.
The chatting between the team members continued as they stalked towards the camp at battle-march speed. Within half an hour they had begun the approach on the first entrance; that however was done in complete and utter silence. The only noise being the sound of an auspex scanner that Selanus had activated and the slamming of distant shutters in the howling wind accompanied by the haunting sound of creaking, groaning metal.
Xandero approached the console that would open the door when he saw that it was damaged; sighing he aimed his plasma pistol at the door and fired; melting the lock. The door was quickly opened by Xavier and Xandero; they stood aside as Selanus and Thandarius entered covered by Thallius, Brekken and Helgadottir; Xandero and Xavier swiftly followed.
As the team entered the complex Xandero stopped and spun around to face the door, with his pistol being swept from side to side in search of a target, Helgadottir looked at Xandero and asked him, "What's wrong Brother? Not getting scared are we?"
"Selanus get here and start scanning and tell me if you find anything. I thought I heard something," Xandero said ignoring Helgadottir's jibe. Selanus strode up to the Sergeant's side; with his bolt pistol drawn and swept the auspex scanner side to side. After a tense minute or two; Selanus looked up from the scanner and shook his head, "Negative contact Brother Xandero, the area is clear according to the scan." Xandero nodded and replied,
"Thank you Selanus. Brothers and Sisters, proceed with extreme caution from now on. I want regular vox contact and no-one and I mean no-one goes anywhere on their own. I think that this place may not be as abandoned as we first thought."
"We should check the rooms as well as the command center and vehicle depot in case there are any survivors or evidence of what happened here." Thallius said while gesturing to the unlit-corridor with his heavy bolter. Thandarius nodded and turned to the squad, "Agreed, we should check the rooms in groups: Selanus, Thallius and I shall take the right; Xavier, Xandero, Brekken and Helgadottir will take the right. Go!" The kill-team separated into their designated teams and began to search the rooms. Helgadottir had an auspex scanner of her own and she switched it on then set it to what Selanus had his on; which was motion tracking.
Xandero looked at Helgadottir; who shrugged and said, "I always try and have an auspex scanner with me; I am a Space Wolf but it does not make me thick." She smiled and continued; with a rather unhealthy amount of enthusiasm, "Just a whole lot more reckless and fun!"
The four Marines slowly approached the door and waited as Helgadottir scanned it for any motion. She shook her head and decided to wait five seconds before giving in to her head-strong nature; snarling she suddenly kicked the door down and went inside. Xavier winced at the noise as the door slammed into the ground, which in a quiet area seemed to be very, very loud; swearing he hissed, "Damnit, Freya keep the noise down! I do not want to walk into an ambush and lose someone because of your recklessness!"
"My apologies Brother;" her voice came from the inside of the room, "but unfortunately; there is nothing in here; the window is broken and the person's lunch is still on the table. But apart from that; there's nothing and no-one to be found." She walked out of the room and gestured to the next room; when Selanus called in over the vox,
"The area that we are in has sustained damage from what looks like small arms as well as explosive damage; the size of the blast damage would suggest that the charges used were frag and low yield survey charges."
The Marines continued searching the rooms and found no-one; they regrouped and moved down the corridor; finding yet more weapon impacts, explosive damage and equipment that had been moved to form a barricade. It was instantly clear; however that the barricade had failed to hold the xenos back: blood-coated, shattered equipment and weapons lay everywhere with parts of the walls, the roof and floor scorched and pockmarked by lasgun, hellgun and flamer. Once inspected it was clear that other places had been melted by what looked to be highly concentrated acid. But what was most disconcerting was the stark lack of bodies, human or otherwise.