Mortis Thule - History: The sighting of a space hulk is a significant one for any void travellers, sure to be logged and studied for possible plunder and hazards to Warp travel. Thus it is not unusual for fairly detailed records to exist of such a vessel, especially one as exceptional as the Mortis Thule.The Inquisition and the Deathwatch are believed to have the most numerous and complete records extant, but even these contain much apocryphal and contradictory information. Such is the nature of the hulk that even the most factual of sightings become spun into legend after only a few short tellings.The earliest suggestions of the hulk's appearance were uncovered on Shinno, an otherwise unremarkable planet rimward of the Slinnar Drift, its native civilisation routinely eradicated during the Great Crusade.Xenos-archaeologists of the 427th Expeditionary Fleet uncovered what appeared to be ancient pictograms dating roughly twelve thousand Terran years before the Great Crusade, indicating a dark shadow in the sky and tales of earthquakes, meteor showers, and invasions of terrible, unnatural beasts.There are few other records until the coming of the Great Crusade itself to the Jericho Sector, but its arrival and the subsequent increase in Warp traffic seemed to trigger further contacts. Throughout the millennia before the onset of the sector's Age of Shadow, the Mortis Thule appeared sporadically across the region and was the subject of many hundreds of boarding actions.It was one such attempt to conquer the Mortis Thule on the empty shoals near Phonos that gave rise to its common name. In the 33rd Millennium there was a joint landing action of a consolidated massive attack force led by Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagos Mitsfian Delphos and Rogue Trader Hyrus Tarrant.After initial successes against hosts of aliens in the main landing zones and breaches into several cargo holds, fighting began anew but seemed to be due to the multiple boarding forces fighting each other. There were few survivors rescued along with some pillaged archeotech treasures, with wild claims of death itself stalking the derelict hulls.Of Delphos or Tarrant there was no sign, and Tarrant's daughter Minerva Tarrant cursed the Mortis Thule to forever be a distant death to her lineage. True to her word, her fleets soon departed the sector though there are rumours the enormous bounty for information on her father's final disposition still stands for House Tarrant.The Deathwatch itself leads numerous, though less well-known, actions against the Mortis Thule as well. As is their wont, through the centuries Ork raiders have often established bases on the many voidships contained in the assemblage, using these as springboards for marauding operations.Deathwatch Kill-teams were called in on occasion when the raids became especially threatening to Imperial systems, but for the most part acted to eradicate the specific menace and (perhaps wisely) did not attempt to infiltrate the rest of the Mortis Thule.There were also at least 37 recorded incursions at the specific request of the Inquisition, including five to rescue or recover valued Imperial agents trapped on the Mortis Thule for unrevealed reasons and one to destroy an interred vessel broadcasting unfathomable Warp-beacon transmissions to parties unknown.Not all have been successful; there are multiple shrines in Watch Fortress Erioch to those who never returned from the space hulk, where those of their Chapters may hold private ceremonies in their memory and swear anew their oaths of vengeance.During the Age of Shadow, the records become less precise; amidst the collapse of the sector, few seemed interested in recording the appearance of even this ominous craft. Those that did investigate it, such as the adepts of Samech before they were lost to tech-heresy, left no history behind of what they found.As Warp Storms increased and sightings diminished, it seemed that perhaps the Mortis Thule was lost to the Empyrean forever.The re-emergence of the Imperium through the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate into the Jericho Reach in the late 41st Millennium also saw the return of Mortis Thule as it began to be detected with greater frequency, especially in the Achilus Crusade's Orpheus Salient. This of course could be attributed to the increased number of Imperial vessels and their travel in the Reach.Some faction-cants in the Adeptus Mechanicus who also study the enigmatic Warp Gate insist that there could be more than coincidence here and strive for greater research on the space hulk's unnaturally growing size. There have certainly been more Deathwatch missions assigned against it in recent years.On manifold occasions Kill-teams have been sent to mitigate the predations the Mortis Thule brings to a system or Warp travel route, acting to keep pockets of the Orpheus Salient from collapsing.With the arrival of Hive Fleet Dagon in the Reach, Tyranid infestations on the space hulk have grown and more missions have been sent purely to burn away Tyranid growths that would have become new mycetic spores otherwise.Some operations have been purely to map out as much data as possible on the hulk's vast interior and the cluster of hulls melded inside, while others have simply been to visit empty space to see if the newest predictions based on history, divinations, and aetheric soundings for the hulk's arrival are accurate.Several have been logged purely as "Omega Vault Decree" with no other data recorded. Information is power, and the Inquisition and the Deathwatch seem to be very eager to gain as much of both concerning the Mortis Thule for reasons they have not shared with any other Imperial agencies as of yet.