Your team is instructed to examine a locked armory not far off of one of the main passageways deeper into the hulk. With the mission objectives distributed, your group of four heads for the armory. Almost immediately, you encounter the reason for the semi-vague maps of the route. Bad flooring is the norm, and more than once you have to mind your footing around gaps.

Eventually you near your objective, and make an unpleasant discovery. Exposed wiring sputters and sparks at random intervals as something shorts out in time to an erratic air current in some crawlspace somewhere. With the armored and (presumably) locked door of your objective in sight, you decide to brave the wiring instead of spending several hours trying to find a way around.

Jace steps up and starts surveying the damage. "The surges are coming at erratic intervals between three and thirteen seconds, but there is enough space for one or two people to stand safely between wires."

Yasha spits on the deck. "You first then Jace. I doubt you'd mind a shock as much as the rest of us would."

Jace nods, waits for a surge to pass, then steps forward and ducks under the first hanging cable. Standing in a new spot, he looks for a way to disconnect the wiring to make the passageway safe. Shrugging, he pulls on a set of heavy leather gloves, powers up the cutting attachment on his combi-tool, and simply cuts the first wire free of the bulkhead. It drops smoking to the floor, with more smoke rising from Jace's gloves.

"There are two more wires that will need removed. Please stand clear in case I mistime one of the cuts."

Shortly thereafter, and with Jace only narrowly missing being fried by another two surges, you stand at the door.

Jace starts prodding at the electronic locking mechanism. Yasha and Mu'randa cover the corridor behind your party. and you stare at the door itself.

"Is it just me, or does this door look clawed on?"

Jace looks up from his investigation. "no, but it is rusted in an unusual pattern..."

He breaks off as you poke a 'rusted' section, and red-black flakes come away. You grimace. "Not rusted, bloodied. No telling how old it is. We may not be alone."

Mu'randa twitches at your announcement, but Yahsa is unperturbed. Jace resumes his work and to door soon opens. Inside, you find the restatements of an armory. There is basic ammunition and grenades aplenty, and your entire team stocks up.

Glancing around, you quickly realize that every weapons locker is either smashed or unlocked. You check quickly but thoroughly and confirm your first guess. There are no weapons to be scavenged here.

The lights in the entry hall flicker and blow out as the power surges back online. Rubicon must have gotten the generator back online. The red emergency light in the armory itself thrum back to life.

Your party quickly falls back on the beachhead.

Upon conferring with the other teams, you are not alone in your suspicions by a longshot. Rubicon's team encountered only a few Ghilliam and a Hullghast chewing on dusty bones that on closer inspection something else had killed. Lord Pyrus reports that the CAT was immobilized when its treads got stuck in some flooring mesh that had been torn up by something clawed or hooved moving at high speed.

The consensus is unanimous, you are not alone in this hulk.

The Force commander rolls his head and cracks his neck as he ponders. "The problem is that we have inconsistent information on the kind of foe we face. Ghilliam and Hullghasts are once-humans mutated by radiation and warp-exposure, but they don't run about on claws or hooves. Nor do they use firearms. So we have at least two, probably three, and possibly more kinds of opposition in this hulk. Fortunately, they aren't present in massive numbers, or our sensors, scouts, and CATs would have run across them by now.

“Thus, phase two continues in reconnaissance mode for now. Helheim and his scouts have yet to report any hostile contact, but their signals are intermittent due to the intervening bulk of the Malignus Maximus. Rubicon, your team will follow their route and try to reestablish contact with them. Once you do, fall back into communications range of the main beachhead and await new developments. we may call you back in for resupply or direct you to new targets.

“Lord Pyrus, you are to take your squad and lead a reconnaissance sweep on the decks immediately below our current position. Mabis' has secured a deck or so down, so poke around three or five decks down before returning. I'll be dispatching another squad under Danus to do the same on the decks above us.

“As for you Master Von Sebastion, I'm inclined to use your team to secure secondary and tertiary objective the other squads have located and left behind. You aren't as heavily armored, nor are you able to tolerate all of the environmental conditions you might run into. Take a rest break for now, then check back in. I'll have a list of targets for you by then.”

You nod, relieved to not be at the very tip of the spear pushing into completely unknown and perilous territory.

When you return three rest-filled hours later, you find the promised list of targets. It is only two items long at the moment, but promises to grow as time passes. None of the entries indicate any particular priority.

1) Reconnaissance: Check the contents of a trio of fuel silos.

Scout's notes: all three silos are stable, but their contents are unknown at this time. Biosigns negative at this time. Bypassing to continue sweep.

2) Sabotage: Shut down a Warp Drive just outside the perimeter.

Scout's notes: Warp Drive is online in tick-over mode. Probably stable, though a major power surge may either re-activate or detonate it. Unequipped to deal with the problem at the moment, objective marked for follow-up.