Explorator - Notable Explorations: Discovery of the Hrud (Unknown Date.M31) - The vile xenos species known as the Hrud was discovered on a world in a region of space the Eldar warned the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorators to avoid. The Explorators did not trust the perfidious xenos' warning and entered the star system anyway, precipitating the first contact between humans and the Hrud sometime during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. Classified as a hostile alien species after they destroyed the Explorator mission to their homeworld, the Astartes of the Iron Warriors Legion undertook a xenocidal war against the Hrud warrens on Gugann during the Great Crusade that nearly exterminated the species. However, Iron Warriors garrisons also suffered defeats at the hands of the Vulpa Strait migration of Hrud on Krak Fiorina, Stratopolae, and the Fortress World of Gholgis in the final years of the Great Crusade, proving that the Hrud remained a continuing threat to the Imperium.Discovery of the T'au (Unknown Date.M35) - The homeworld of the T'au race, T'au, was discovered in the 35th Millennium and catalogued by the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator starship Land's Vision. They determined that its population of sentient xenos were a primitive people at the Stone Age level of development who had only just mastered fire. But over the course of the next six Terran millennia they developed very rapidly as a space-faring species until they emerged as an extremely techncially advanced xenos species that is now seeking to build its own interstellar empire in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy while pursuing an all-encompassing secular ideology known as the Greater Good.Discovery of Inculaba (998.M41) - Explorator Magos Marco Pteronus lead an archeological expedition to the Dead World of Inculaba, discovering a long-lost Adeptus Mechanicus geno-lab. During excavation of the site it was discovered that buried deep within the rock of this barren world were secrets that had lain undiscovered for 5,000 standard years. Secrets regarding a Founding of the Space Marines sometimes referred to as the Cursed Founding. The Cursed 21st Founding was the largest Founding of Space Marine Chapters since the Second Founding following the Horus Heresy. It had taken place in the 36th Millennium shortly before the start of the Age of Apostasy. Upon further explorations of the site, it was discovered that the geno-lab was indeed the site of the secret project known as "Homo sapiens novus," where Mechanicus Genetors attempted to perfect and remove the existing, identified deficiencies in flawed Astartes gene-seed, and ultimately begin the production of new and improved Primarch-like Space Marines. But their project was doomed to failure as the Genetors proved far less skilled in the genetic sciences than the Emperor of Mankind, and their efforts resulted in the development of seriously flawed gene-seed that was used to craft the organ implants for the new Chapters. A secret vid-log of the former project manager revealed the full extent of their failure. The most seriously afflicted Chapters exhibited spontaneous and extreme physical corruption, turning them into a race no longer human or sane. Most of the Space Marine Chapters founded during this time eventually turned Traitor and swore themselves to Chaos or met a gruesome end at the hands of other Space Marine Chapters and the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. Others developed genetic idiosyncrasies, mutations that strained the tolerance of the Inquisition and threatened the Chapter's survival. The Founding itself ended when one of its projects, already corrupted by Chaos, sent a signal through the Warp and alerted the vile Traitor Fabius Bile to its existence. Bile was a former Apothecary of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion who served Chaos Undivided by seeking out new recruits for the Traitor Legions. The Explorator team further discovered that there was a hidden laboratorium that contained three large incubation tanks with an enormous human male floating in amniotic fluid within each one. The physiology of these giants were similar to Space Marines, but the subjects were far larger than normal Astartes. Two of these tubes were obviously damaged, the fluid within cloudy and stagnant, but the third still appeared to be functioning. Autopsies were performed on two of the bodies while the revivification process was begun on the third. An agent of the Inquisition that had been inserted within the Adeptus Mechanicus some years ago reported the disturbing news of the discovery from the archaeological site on Inculaba. A Grey Knights team was despatched to prevent the sacred technology of this site from falling into the wrong hands. But by the time they arrived, they found no trace of the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator team and no sign of their vessel. The site was as bereft of life as a world stripped by the Tyranids. There were no bodies discovered and no evidence of any attackers. Astropaths detected a residual Warp trail, but were unable to discern its direction. The site was then bombed from orbit with Cyclonic Torpedoes and all record of it was expunged from the Imperial bureaucracy. The Inquisition fears that what was on this world is now gone, taken by the agents of Chaos, and that they will eventually rue the day that this cursed place was discovered anew.