Bug Hunt on the Refugee Space Hulk

It's never possible to have an entirely clean evacuation. At soon as one starts loading random Imperium citizens, and void-floating whole modules, derelict ships, and Spacehulk resources together, far more space than you can keep eyes or boots in, stowaways and parasites are certain to get in, like cockroaches. But the Jungle King has had decades of experience fighting the insects of his Jungle Deathworld homeworld back in the Astheneia system, and almost 2 years now of fighting the twin Chaos and Tyranid Cultist revolutions, which also taught him and Scydriel the importance of clearing ALL infestations before they can spread. It's far too easy to lose control, particularly of the rapid-recycling-respawning Tyranid and Deathworld Jungle Bug infestations.

Scydriel and the Jungle King convene the extermination force, and attempt to corner the hiding and sneaking and creeping horde of the Hive Fleet Typhon infestation. They eventually chase, herd, and round-up numerous stowaway Tyranid and GSC cells, most with at least one egg-laying and reproducing population of Tyranid monsters. The escape of any of the small and hard to find tyranid monsters could mean one or more of the infestations would accompany them to their new home, somewhere in sub sector Bardo. The Imperium Refugees of the Astheneia system feel good that they have managed to leave most of the Slaanesh invasion fully behind them, but the nightmare of the Tyranid invasion still overwhelms their thoughts and actions. The nightmare must end! If they are to have good chance of controlling their new neighorhood.

It would be a tremendously bad omen if their problems with Tyranid cultists and monsters actually followed them through the months-long Warp voyage, (a dark transitional time that deserves to have it's story told, but because we're all busy, likely will not), during which the technomagi of FW Sheol manage to extend a Warp Field around the whole massive space hulk at the heart of the Refugee fleet, and has near-total coverage with improvised Gellar Field projectors and routers and repeaters, which seems likely to result in a rough trip, probably for all the varied passengers within the realspace bubble, during the long warp sailing to near the heart of subsector Bardo....

First arriving into the system with the fallen forgeworld that the Mordri-3 and the Necroclade imagine relighting and making their new home. The fact that FW Nimh has recently found STC artifacts in the deep catacombs makes it something worth fighting over. "If FW Nimh really wanted to move, they would have already done so!" Or so the Skeksie-like techno Liches tell themselves and each other, to rationalize their willingness to use violence against those who would otherwise be their brothers, potentially the closest pairing of any two faction forces in the new season 3 narrative, if only they weren't both willing to kill for the same STC knowledge...

## Narrative Outcome : Enemy Mind

Alia sat in a makeshift room constructed of ammo crates and armored containers. A tattered purple Icon banner hung as a partition in the entrance. She was seated in the center of the room, engaged in meditation. Alia could feel the Hive Mind’s presence searching for her. It took all her willpower to keep hidden from its gaze. Since her ascension from a sniper in a dirt cycle gang to Magus of the Xtrovoid cult, her connection to the Tyranids had reached such a degree that they view her as a Synapse node. A rare cult Norn Mother. After witnessing the devouring her home planet Astheneia, Alia became horrified by what the Tyranids truly were and wanted nothing to do with them.

Alia, along with the last remaining cult survivors, hid inside space hulk Isaiah which had long lain buried below the primus hive city. Typhon overwhelmed the last remaining defenders: an alliance of Lamenters and Order of the Martyred Maidens. The space hulk was then grav-exhumed by the Crenellation Forgeship, called Ark of the Mourning of Forgeworld Sheol. The Mechanicus used the Tyranid invasion as a means to purloin the hive city of its archeotech relics. Their grav beams plucked the space hulk along with other artifacts and huge masses, like whole buried hive levels and life-support infrastructure from the city. The Tyranids were kept away by the intense radiation given off the forge world vessel. Space hulk Isaiah was fused to the deadmech forgecraft becoming another crenellation in its cemetery of voidships.

Alia didn’t want to destroy worlds, she wanted to thrive in them, to truly live like a spire lord as she always dreamed since a tunnel child living in the sump. However the call of Typhon at times became too strong. The hunger and the need to satiate it would be crippling and lead her to call out for the Hive Mind’s presence. The meditations helped her regain focus over instinct, master her alpha psyker ability. Her people needed her and she needed them. They were the foundation for her dream of building better worlds.

Alia’s meditation was interrupted by No-man, kelermorph gunslinger, walking boss of the surviving cultgangs. He parted the banner, “we got problems, King’s force is in the oblates, they out for blood. Dangerous veterans”

She pondered, they didn’t have the strength to fight but “They“ did. Unleashing the tyranid warriors was risky: If they escaped her control the admech could learn of the cult’s presence and decide to rad cleanse the entire hulk.

“What choice do you have”? An instinctive voice inside her spoke.

“They will kill us all if you don’t fight. The shadows are a weapon not a shelter. Have you forgotten”? It was the Progenitor’s voice, channeled through her familiar.

She remembered. “Release all of the Warriors”. The Shadow grew closer.

No-man sounded concerned. “All of ‘em “?

Alia’s answer was a scream as the Hunger began to overwhelm her.

“ALL OF THEM”!!!

Space hulk Isaiah has among its contents tyranid warriors in cryo storage. Once used for the Progenitor’s personal guard, it was slain by the Astartes and sisters before the entire brood could be released. They are kept in cryogenic stasis until Alia establishes a synaptic web link with them as the Norn Mother. They are released into the winding tunnels and oblates that space hulk Isaiah has become during it's centuries of genestealer habitation. Previous encounters with the Catachan-style Jungle King had been in the environments of their leader, the King who chose where the jungle fighters’ prowess could shine.

Now the jungle fighters found themselves amid dark and alien corridors, cramped and slimy, the air becoming damp and stale to breathe: A Typhon Warrior’s natural environment. It was butchery by acid and bonesword. Lasguns had little effect against the Warriors' reflective obsidian chitin. The tyranids returned fire with acid so potent its victims felt no pain as their bodies melted. The warriors engaged the guardsmen in hand to hand on all fronts. It took far too many Catachan lives to bring down a single warrior in close combat. No-man ghosted the defensive maze. He shot down elements of leadership among the Guard, timing his shots with the enemy to hid his position. During the conflict he spotted his true target: the Callidus asssain Scydriel! Scydriel avoided his attacks and faced several tyranid warriors in combat, defeating them yet being injured and cut off from her army. More warriors began to surround the assassin but made no move to attack.

Alia emerged from the shadows with dozens of neophytes behind her. Their auto guns trained on the Callidus . Alia stepped forward and spoke.

“Our war is over. We all lost. Gather your dead and dying and leave us to our fate.

With that the cult and warriors returned to the shadows leaving the Assassin bewildered but alive.

The Progenitor raged. “You soft fool! That was the enemy in your talons”! “You are not fit to lead”.

Alia struck the familiar with her staff, leaving it splattered into purple psychoplasm. “ You are not fit to follow “. It reconstituted its form and followed her. It hissed, “You can’t hide forever”.

No-Man walked beside her, back to the main control rooms.

He raised a brow, “Well that was cool…how long till they come fire bomb us”?

Alia answered, “She won’t . They need to get off this graveyard as much as we do. How long before we can detach the hulk”?

No-man opened a service elevator as he spoke.

“Couple more days, more of those deadmechs keep comin’ round the crew sites though” “Good for scrape parts but the operations’ starting to attract more attention”. They entered the elevator and were followed in by a wounded tyranid warrior; A Catachan combat knife lodged in it’s chest carapace. It stood beside Alia, boneswords and head crest lowered in a resting pose. No-man motioned to it.

“So we related to these guys, is that the deal”?

“Something like that”.