Dark Eldar of the Cursed Claw Kabal laughed as they peeled strips of skin off the voidsmen who had been cursed to manning these three rooms that contained water recycling equipment. The voidsmen, all immediate family members were screaming and crying out in agony as they were flayed alive. Any pleas for mercy by the humans was answered with laughter from the Dark Eldar, followed by more cruel and sadistic tortures. At the moment the depraved xenos were focusing their torture on a young girl, only around eleven terran years old with dark brown curls and soft grey eyes. One warrior was laughing as he almost casually removed a bit of skin from the centre of the girl's right palm. Her screams echoed through the room while her father cried his daughter's name out. He was holding his right eye in its socket with one hand after the Dark Eldar had pulled it out during his last torture session. Her screams brings a smile to the warrior as the skin was completely removed leaving the tissue underneath exposed to the air. The girl screams even louder when her torturer blew a breath of air on the bleeding wound. The Dark Eldar reaches down with a single armoured finger to force the girl's face up to look up at him, "Slave. This pain is such a delicious banquet. Don't worry there will be more of this when we….."

The Dark Eldar's sadistic speech is literally cut short when his head separates from his body. The other Dark Eldar turn their attention to where their compatriot's body fell to the floor. They see a giant warrior standing in front of the dead warrior. He was wearing dull blue-grey power armour with a dark-brown fur-pelt laid over the top of his backpack and shoulders. A power-sword and power-axe were being held in experienced hands. Both weapons glowed with a light blue light. The Dark Eldar rushed to bring their weapons up to fire. Before they were able to start shooting there was a loud BANG of gunshots and snaps of light that came from the hall out of the room. Autogun shells flew out of the darkness and slammed into the Dark Eldar, splattering blood and bits of armour on the faces of the voidsmen on the floor around the room. Some of the Dark Eldar managed to avoid being killed by the autogun shots and tried to fire back at whoever was shooting from the hall.

The xenos' counterattack did not last long when Lauf charges at them. He tackles the first Dark Eldar he gets close to and cuts him open from just below the hips up to below the ribcage with his sword. Jerking his hand hard he pulls the sword free and hacks into the next Dark Eldar near him. Two of the warriors see Lauf as the threat he is and turn their splinter rifles at him while he was busy impaling another of the warriors. Lauf notices the splinter rifles turning towards him just before they begin firing. Facing the oncoming fire with the dying Dark Eldar in front of him, Lauf uses the body as a shield to absorb the splinter fire from his fellows.

The fire from the xenos shred the dying Dark Eldar stuck on Lauf's sword before he throws the body towards the shooters. It crashes into the two, knocking them to the ground. Grunting in anger as they push the body of their former ally the two warriors cannot react in time as the Space Wolf's axe comes down in a wide arc, decapitating the two. The heads roll across the floor in different directions from the twitching bodies. When some of the other Dark Eldar still alive in the room try to attack Lauf from behind, the armsmen in the hallway keep shooting their autoguns at the xenos, stalling their attack when they get out of the way of the slugs fired at them.

The Dark Eldar dodge the autogun slugs and fire back with their splinter rifles. Changing their focus on the armsmen that began to come out of the hall into the room is a mistake as one of the captives flings his chains over the warrior's head and wraps them tightly around his neck. The warrior clutches at the chain digging into his neck as he tries to pull it away while the voidsman keeps pulling back to kill this monster. When the other Dark Eldar turns to shoot the attacker, four voidsmen tackle the Dark Eldar and begin to beat him with their chains. The Dark Eldar are so busy trying to hold their former voidsmen prisoners from striking them that they do not see the autoguns pointed at them. The sound of the water recycling machines working muffles the autoguns' BANG, leaving only humans alive in the room.

Sergeant Ramiel searches through the Dark Eldar bodies for the keys to the chains around each of the voidsmen's wrists while the former prisoners weep with joy and thank the God-Emperor for sending his angel and armsmen to save them. Lauf looks over the wretches and the wounds they suffered from the Dark Eldar's torture. He sees that the torture of the Dark Eldar killed ten of the forty voidsmen in this room before they got there to save them.

"Found them!" Ramiel pulls the key set off a Dark Eldar body and starts to go around unlocking the chains on the voidsmen. While the armsmen are freeing the voidsmen Lauf walks over to the oldest man of the group. Kneeling beside the old man, Lauf looks at his pale, blind eyes, "Elder. Is your family able to help us get to the bridge without running through the entire ship?"

"I know a way!" The young girl who had her hand flayed speaks up but has a hand quickly covering her mouth,

"Quiet Vylien! That path is too dangerous!" A woman with similar hair colour to Vylien warns as she keeps her hand over the small girl's mouth,

"Let her speak Isherina. The lord Space Marine is asking for our help." Isherina hesitantly lets her hand move off Vylien's mouth, "Go ahead Vylien." The old patriarch smiles at the girl,

"There's a passage the servitors use to travel without getting stuck in the hallways. It starts a bit down that hall and comes out not too far from the bridge." Vylien explains. She pointed down a hallway that left the room. As Vylien was explaining the route to get quickly up to the bridge the armsmen finished unshackling the crew of the room. The chains all fell to the floor as the family gather around the troops and Lauf to listen to their patriarch's decision, "I can show you the way."

"No pup." Lauf interrupts the excited girl. Just looking at her he could see she would not survive any harsh travel, especially if there was fighting. The flayed sections of skin were still bleeding and she was swaying on her feet,

"Honoured Elder. Can any of your family guide us through this passage?" Lauf asks the old man who thinks about who might be useful as a guide within his family,

"Germael. You know the passage. You will show them where to go." The patriarch says the name of a young man who steps forward. The only wounds he has are a few thin slices around his face, shoulders and chest,

"Yes lord elder." Germael says respectfully while Lauf bows, "Thank you elder. We will send your scion back once we get up to the hall." The old man nods as Germael bows to the Space Wolf. Lauf looks at Ramiel while his men reload their auto-guns in preparation for the next fight they will have.

After a minute, Germael begins to walk towards the section of a wall in the hall leading out of the large room with the recycling equipment with the armsmen and Space Marine behind him. When he gets to the right section Germael begins to undo the bolts holding the metal plate to the wall. While he works the armsmen point their auto-guns down the hallway in case Dark Eldar hear what they are doing and come to investigate. Lauf watches the young man work closely. He must be around twenty terran years old judging by his physique and his height of 6'2". Given the nature of void-life and the hard existence he has led, Germael was quite tall with a lanky frame. His pale blonde hair clung to the left side of his face down to his chin in a lazy arc. Germael pulls the last bolt off the covering and the metal falls off the wall. Germael looks up at Lauf with a proud smile on his mouth,

"Here is our path my lord." "Thank you Germael. We wouldn't have been able to find this without you." Lauf thanks the young man though he knows they would have eventually found the path. It would have just taken much longer,

"I am thankful to aid the God-Emperor's angel of death in killing those accursed xenos." Germael says proudly, his faith in the Emperor clearly evident in his light-grey eyes. Two armsmen enter the open hole in the wall and check either direction of the passage,

"Hallway secure sergeant." One armsman calls back to Ramiel. He nods and motions for the other six marines to get into the passage. He looks at Germael, "Let's go voidsman. You need to show us the way." Ramiel says as Germael nods and climbs into the passage with Lauf following behind him. Ramiel picks up the metal plate and puts it back on the wall as soon as he is inside the passage. He holds it in place while two armsmen put the bolts back into place on this side of the passage. When they are done the hallway looks unchanged,

"This way." Germael whispers as he begins to move through the cramped space of the passage, followed by Lauf, Ramiel and the eight armsmen. The last armsman always checks behind them to make certain they are alone as Germael walks and crawls through the twisting passage. At some points Lauf almost gets stuck and has to push against the ancient pipes to squeeze himself through. The metal groans and cracks against the Space Wolf's actions but eventually he makes it through, creating space big enough for the armsmen to move through with ease. At one point, Lauf gets stuck and cuts the pipe above him in frustration, only get blasted in the face with a jet of steam. He growls in frustration as he pulls himself out of the tight spot, his beard now puffed up to such an extent that his face resembles an ancient terran breed called a Pomeranian.

Three armsmen look at Lauf's newly puffed up beard and fight back a laugh at the sight. Their attempt at staying quiet gets a smack to the back of their heads from Sergeant Ramiel and a snap to keep their mouths shut unless they want one of those shadow monsters coming after them. That quickly kills any stifled laughs from the marines while Germael starts to climb a ladder that is at the end of this part of the service passage. Lauf follows the voidsman with the marines behind him. They climb as quietly as possible as each sound echoes through the tunnel above and below them. One of the armsman's autoguns hit the rail of the ladder and a loud echo flew through the tunnel. Everyone on the ladder froze and listened. The echo continued through the passage for several seconds until the tunnel was silent. The armsman who had let his auto-gun hit the ladder had his ear pulled hard by Sergeant Ramiel, "Idiot. If I had more men I would throw you off this ladder as punishment for this stupidity." He whispers angrily at the marine who nodded fearfully.

Ramiel lets go of the marine's head and pushes him to keep climbing. The marine turns and follows the armsman above him as Germael begins climbing again, moving up the ladder towards the passage that leads to the bridge hall. Lauf stays right behind Germael as the light from his frost-axe illuminates the tunnel in a simple bluish-grey glow. Germael finally gets to the top of the ladder and starts to turn the wheel opening the door blocking their path,

"Warp curses! It's jammed up again!" He complains as Lauf and the armsmen get up to see the door. Thanks to the light from Lauf's Frost-axe they can see that moisture has rusted the hinges. Even with four of the armsmen and Germael trying the door will not move,

"I would shoot the hinges. But the noise would give us away." Ramiel whispers as Lauf grabs his axe's haft,

"Stand clear gentlemen." Lauf warns before he swings and cuts through the two hinges. They split with a simple clicking sound as the door easily slides aside when Germael pulls on it. Once the door is completely out of the way, he leads the armsmen and Lauf down the passage, stopping when he hears wicked laughter coming further down the hall. Lauf sniffs the air and picks up various scents, some human, several xenos. He motions with his hand at Ramiel and his armsmen the number of different xenos smells he picks up. He raises his index finger eight times and Ramiel nods in understanding as each armsmen readies their auto-guns for the fight. Lauf looks down at Germael who waits beside him,

"You have done your task young one. You should go back to your family. Leave the rest to us." Lauf says as Germael nods. He turns and starts to climb back down the ladder going down back to his family's section of the ship is located, leaving the armsmen and Space Wolf alone in the hallway. Once he is certain he will be well out of the way Lauf draws his sword in his free hand,

"Ready sergeant?" He looks at Ramiel who simply smiles back,

"Born ready my lord." He answers before nodding to Lauf as they move along the wall of the hallway towards a light that comes from another hallway. Lauf's enhanced eyes let him see the more intricate gothic designs and the rags of banners depicting the history of the captain of this ship on the walls. Lauf had met the captain before they had set off and now knew how close they are to the bridge. He stops just by the corner to the other hall and tilts his head slowly over to see what is on the other side. What he sees makes his blood boil in fury.

Two voidsmen dance around the hall in front of the bridge door. The lack of heads on the voidsmen and the fact that their bodies are being controlled by four Dark Eldar laughing at the pathetic state of the voidsmen and humanity in general. Their armour have the same colours as the previous Dark Eldar they encountered saying that this is just one xenos Kabal rather than a bunch of groups of Dark Eldar being faced by the surviving humans onboard this warship. They comment how these humans are such easy prey and too boring to make it really worth the effort of torturing them. At least now they can provide them with some amusement with their corpse puppets. One of the Kabalite warriors laughs as he lifts the arm up and waves it around. His laughter is cut short when an axe flies into his head, splitting his skull in two. The other three Dark Eldar stare in surprise as their compatriot falls to the ground. They do not get the chance to shake off their surprise when a roar of anger comes from the corner just as Lauf charges forward and stabs the second Dark Eldar through the heart. The other two Kabalite warriors drop their corpse puppet and rush to grab their weapons. As they start to bring them up a blast of light and snap of sound comes from the corner Lauf burst from as the armsmen leap out, firing their auto-guns at the xenos. The concentrated fire from the guns rip through the off-guard xenos and drop them to the ground. To make sure that they are dead, sergeant Ramiel puts a bullet into each xenos' head,

"All clear my lord." He says to Lauf while the Space Wolf kneels beside the corpses of the unfortunate victims of the Dark Eldar. He puts the hands of the bodies on their chests before bowing his head in respect for the fallen. He holds this position for a few minutes before standing up with his sword and axe in hand,

"Very good sergeant. Let's get inside that room and kill the leader of these disgusting creatures." He kicks the body of one Kabalite warrior next to him aside. He walks towards the doors with the armsmen on either side of the hall. Once they get to the doors the mortals stand to both sides and wait for the right signal. Lauf stands in the right position before nodding. As soon as he does the armsmen begin to pull hard to open the doors as quickly as possible. After some grunts of struggling they finally manage to crack the door open. As soon as the doors are wide enough, Lauf glances through the crack.

Inside the bridge he can see blood splatter and pieces of destroyed uniforms scattered across the stations and even a few bodies lying on the floor. But he cannot see any xenos bodies or blood. That concerns him as he pulls away from the crack in the doors. Lauf squeezes his hands around his sword and axe one more time before he looks at Ramiel and the other Armsmen,

"Grenades sergeant." He whispers to the sergeant, who nods while taking a grenade off his hip at the same time as some of the other armsmen ready their own grenades. Pushing up against each side of the door where they wait for the signal from Ramiel to throw the grenades and assault into the room. Ramiel watches Lauf as the Space Wolf places a hand on each side of the doors,

"Get ready gentlemen. As soon as I push these doors open, show the xenos their mistake of existing." He growls while the Armsmen give affirmative hurrahs as Lauf begins to push on the doors. Slowly they open wider from Lauf's effort. Finally the doors are wide enough to let two men in at any one time,

"Now!" Lauf pushes a bit more and moves back as the Armsmen throw their grenades inside the bridge. There is a few seconds of delay between the grenades being thrown and exploding. When the grenades explode two armsmen rush inside with their autoguns ready. When they take two steps inside the bridge they are answered with a hail of splinter fire that tears their bodies to pieces as the Archon in charge of this raid come rushing out of their hiding places, firing their weapons towards the doors and the armsmen still there.

Three Sslyth and six Incubi warriors come out of their hiding places and begin attacking the humans. The three serpentine monsters each hold two blasters and two melee weapons in their four arms while the Incubi all carry the two-handed power weapon they call a Klaive. The Sslyth fire their two weapons each at the armsmen while the Incubi run towards Lauf shouting their joy at the possibility of taking his head. Ramiel and his men dive for cover under the deadly fire from the Sslyth and begin firing back. They quickly pop out from behind the safety of whatever they are hiding behind to shoot a few rounds before diving back before the Sslyth can shoot them. One armsman stays up too long to try and fire off a few more rounds. Several splinter rounds to the chest and an agony of unbearable pain from the poisoned bullets soon shows him the consequence of his mistake before he expires to Ramiel's anger. The sergeant gets up quickly and fires a burst from his auto-gun. The slugs hit his target's eyes and quickly bury themselves into its brain. The Sslyth flays around for awhile, then it falls to the ground twitching, but definitely dead. Ramiel just manages to avoid retribution from the other two Sslyth by ducking behind his cover when he looks over to see how Lauf is handling the Incubi and the sight brings a smile to his face.

The Incubi are elite Dark Eldar warriors and have masterfully crafted Klaives. But they made the foolish mistake of thinking they could take on Lauf in a contest of strength to prove they are the better warriors. As a result Ramiel can see the heads of three Incubi already rolling on the floor while the remaining two try to rush Lauf and throw him off with two different attacks. The large Klaives swing towards the Space Marine and a loud CLANG echoes through the bridge as the Dark Eldar blades meet Lauf's Frost weapons and stop. Lauf twists his weapons quickly, pulling one Incubus' weapon out of his hands. The Dark Eldar goes to grab a knife on his hip but he is not quick enough when Lauf's sword splits the armour on his chest and comes out the back through the xeno's heart. The dying Incubus tries to grab Lauf but he spins around and pushes the body against the remaining warrior before Lauf swings his axe and decapitates the last warrior. Lauf watches the two bodies fall to the ground before he turns to see how the armsmen fared against the Sslyth.

Sergeant Ramiel and three armsmen stand up, the only survivors of the fight against the snake-like xenos. Lauf growls in anger. He had hoped no one else would die at these disgusting creatures' hands when a joyous laugh fills the bridge,

"Splendid! Such warriors you are! Even for such lowly creatures! I have enjoyed this display of skill and am looking forward to seeing how long you might survive in the arenas against true artists of death." Lauf looks over to see the Archon in charge of the force that has attacked this ship come out from behind a chair with a shambling figure beside him. The figure is wearing a purple robe with black gloves covering its arms up to the elbow. Manacles on each wrist are linked to its body by chains. The strangest thing about this being is its head. A silver half-helmet covers the top and sides of a greenish-black orb with a green glow coming from the middle. The back of the helmet has what appears to be a large human brain coming out of it. One of the armsman looks directly into the creature's glowing eye and suddenly falls to the ground writhing in agony,

"Damnit! Don't look at that thing!" Ramiel orders as the Archon laughs before bringing his slave closer to him,

"This will be wonderful to experience back in my tower in Comorrogah. Come pathetic creatures. Let me drink in your fear." The Archon says through the voice box attached to his neck, making his language understandable to the humans standing before him. The armsmen all raise their weapons and start shooting at the Dark Eldar. He laughs as he dodges the slugs, firing his splinter pistol and hitting the two remaining armsmen in the chest and sergeant Ramiel in the shoulder. Lauf gets in the way of the Archon and swings his axe at the xeno's head. The Archon raises a clawed gauntlet and blocks the strike and quickly swings his gauntlet down to turn Lauf's frost-sword from stabbing him in the stomach. The slave near the Archon keeps watching the fighting. As Lauf stops the Archon from shooting him with the splinter pistol or stab him with the claws on his hand, he wonders what the creature is doing watching them. He snaps his head back from glancing at the slave-creature and brings his sword up to deflect the Dark Eldar's strike at his stomach. Lauf turns his sword and swings it back towards the Archon. The Archon moves out of the way of Lauf's swing and rakes his claw across his chest-plate. The claws scrape along the armour, but to the Archon's surprise the claws do not cut through it. They just leave behind the long slash marks on the chest piece while Lauf is able to knock the Archon's splinter pistol out of his hand with a strike from the pommel of his sword against the Archon's wrist.

Trying to stab through the opening, Lauf just misses the Archon as he moves out of the way while cackling excitedly. He looks over at his slave creature that is watching the whole fight. As the Archon raises his hand to say something the creature falls to the ground with a slug in its head,

"I was getting sick of that creature." Ramiel manages to say, clutching his wounded arm while he slumps down against a command console. The Archon stares at his prized slave before glaring at Ramiel,

"YOU INSIGNIFICANT INSE" A sudden pain in the back of the Archon's head is followed by his body pushing forward and slamming against the chair in front of the vox caster as Lauf pushes his axe deeper into the xeno's skull. Howling with fury, Lauf shoves his axe completely through the front of the Archon's head, splitting it in two. He pulls his axe out of the dead archon and wipes the blood off the blade before he runs over to Ramiel and kneels in front of him,

"Looks like you got him my lord." Ramiel mutters as he clutches his arm, "But it seems this won't be a victory I can enjoy." He grimaces as Lauf shakes his head,

"Not a chance sergeant. You're not dying today. No more servants of the Emperor are dying today." Lauf states before he goes towards the command throne and finds the medicae kit. He grabs what he needs and goes back to Ramiel and starts to treat his wound. First he cleans it out, then he covers it with a pad to soak up the blood before wrapping the cloth over top of it. When he's done, Ramiel feels like he can stand up and walks over to the throne and sits down,

"Well my lord. What happens now?" Ramiel asks as Lauf looks around the command throne,

"Now sergeant. Find out who is still alive to get this ship back in order. For me, I will wait here to help where I can before I continue my hunt." He explains which makes Ramiel laugh,

"Well. Thanks to you my lord. I can tell my children that I've seen a wolf stalk through the stars." The sergeant's comment brings a smile across Lauf's lips as he begins to help Ramiel find the highest ranked officer alive on the ship over the ship-wide vox and slowly get the ship back in order as they float through realspace towards the nearest Imperial outpost so they can undergo the proper repair rites for such an attack. Lauf piles the xenos bodies in one side of the bridge as he thinks about the past day. He is still nowhere near finding Ramses. But he did kill a threat to the citizens' of the Imperium and helped save a cruiser. But right now he needed to focus on his hunt across the stars.