Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Space Hulk - Dark Angels Campaign (Opening & Mission 1)



In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy and destruction of Caliban, the First Legion had desperately salvaged what was left of their home world to create The Rock.  Essentially a mobile fortress made of the remnants of Caliban and used as a base of operations for the Dark Angels, the sons of Lion El’Jonson began their holy quest to hunt down those they had once called brothers.  Where once they had fought side by side and would have gladly given up their lives for, now all that is left is bitter hatred that can only ever be quenched through retribution and blood-shed. 

The Dark Angels traveled tirelessly across the stars to see through any possible leads that may lead them to The Fallen.  Guided by the Legion’s Inner Circle, they mercilessly pursued those that had betrayed their gene-sire through treachery and deceit.  As The Fallen spread further away from Segmentum Obsurus, the Dark Angel’s hunt became ever more difficult.  Even with the aid of the Legion’s Epistolaries, it seemed as if their quarries had vanished, leaving not even the slightest psychic trail behind for them to track.

As the Angels will realize, most of The Fallen have taken refuge within the Eye of Terror.  The renegade Dark Angels waited patiently within the warp, guided by their Chaos gods.  They waited for centuries, anticipating for a sign as to when they may come out of their hiding.  Despite their newfound faith, the starships that carried the traitors were not immune to the Immaterium’s voracious powers.  As time passed, the Gellar Field Devices installed to allow starships and its occupants to survive the extremely hostile environment of Warpspace would weaken and eventually collapse, allowing the denizens of the Warp to tear inside the ship to reach and consume the souls of all living things aboard.  As for the ship itself, the adamantium hull and superstructure would be similarly distorted and warped into a mangled mass, floating lifelessly within the Warp until by chance it collided with another ship to create a space hulk, before returning to real space. 

c. 580.M40
Chief Librarian Ezekiel received a distressed call via astropathic communication signaling a massive space hulk sighting.  Traveling dangerously close to a commercial route used for industrial trading by the Imperium, complete annihilation through fire would be disastrous as the debris left in its destruction may hit and destroy numerous merchant ships not built for space warfare.  The most disturbing aspect was that the communication was immediately lost after transmission and never recovered, despite the combined efforts of the Chief Librarian, senior Epistolaries as well as the other astropaths and psykers aboard The Rock.  Not only was psychic communication rendered impossible, but the use of their latent powers became more difficult by the minute.