Malechta's Treatise upon the Line of Saro.

Malechta's Treatise upon the Line of Saro.

Fifty Third Volume, Chapter Twenty Eight

In the previous chapter Talis Saro spoke with the Sensanarion the leader of the Faction known as the Lighteyes. From these people they had hoped to get information that would help them to escape from the Graveswarm before the two vessels hit the Space Hulk and were drawn into the Warp. This mission had been successful, with the Sensanarion locating a vessel seemingly parked just outside of the Graveswarm.

Having performed detailed scans on the ship and checking it in the Fall of Dorn's data banks they found that it was most likely either the Myalardias Shard or the Corvax Ascendant. The two ships were both found as part of the same Space Hulk, a huge conglomeration known as the Herald of Woe which was captured in Segmentum Obscuras 4500 years ago. Their original planet or date of origin was unknown however they conformed to a variant of the Havoc raider class, which likely put their origin somewhere within Segmentum Solar. The ships were considered very powerful when they were found, The Myalardias was lost three thousand years later in an altercation between the ship and Chaos marauders. The Corvax meanwhile went missing far earlier only 2000 years after being found, seemingly falling prey to a terrible warpstorm in the Ultima sector. Neither ship had been seen since.

The ship had definitely been parked outside the area where the graveswarm could not reach it. This was definitely by design rather than an accident it was far too precise a position to be anything else. The detailed auger scan of the ship showed signs of battle, but it was not terribly damaged, and it did not seem to have power. It was exceedingly well armed however, and the outer layers of armour have been extensively carved with images of the emperor and other scenes of war and battle. The Gun ports were open and every single weapon had been run out as if for heavy combat. There were no signs of battle damage however.

Having found the vessel that might allow them to escape from the graveswarm Talis Saro wished to waste no time in examining it. He and the officers of the Treasurer planned their trip to the vessel, taking heavy void suits with them, and eschewing a large force of armsmen so they could take a smaller more agile lighter. This combined with their choice of pilot, the eminently skilled Hedrion, should hopefully ensure that they could reach the ship through the roiling chaos of the Graveswarm. With them they took four armsmen, Sergeant Gervath, and three of his troopers, Hushk, Galy, and Ragan, all of them skilled and loyal men. Not knowing what they would face in the other vessel these armsmen discarded their shotguns in favour of some of the Bolters that the Treasurer held in it's holds. To this they added a bulkhead cutter, one of their vials of Sacred Machine Oil, and also the High Enginseers Servoskull.

Thus prepared they set off, and almost immediately almost came to disaster. As the lighter came out of the lee of the two conjoined vessels a large piece of debris that had been shielded from their sensors smashed into the side of the lander tearing one of the Thrusters from the lighter. Luckily this was only one of the directional thrusters, but if the pilot Hedrion had not been as skilled as he was surely the Line of Saro would have been ended. Indeed after his eventual death Hedrion was honoured by the Line of Saro in their Chapel of the Honoured, not solely for this action of course.

The upshot of the impact however was that the Pilot was forced to take considerably more time than expected to get through the Graveswarm safely. Given the time critical nature of the mission however, and the three day deadline before the Fall of Dorn would find out about the impending impact, the addition of a total of 8 hours to the trip could later have proved catastrophic.

Eventually however they cleared the Graveswarm, and approached the vessel. Much has been written on the vessel that they found, including Magos Luna's own Musings on the Vessels of the Rogue Trader Saro. Most of these writings however do not capture the awe the officers must have felt upon seeing the vessel for the first time. The vessel was not of the standard imperial design with a prow leading back to the bulk of the vessel. Instead either side of the main body two huge wings or vanes projected from the body, making the vessel resemble nothing more than some form of stooping hawk or other raptor. Every inch of the hull, other than where there were signs of minor battle damage, had been carved with images of the Emperor and battle, giving the vessel a very martial bearing. Although easily as long as an imperial frigate or small cruiser the vessel was exceedingly sleek, built for speed to allow it to hunt down the merchant vessels that should have been it's usual prey.

Hedrion slowly circled the ship allowing the officers to view it. Every one of it's weapons had been run out ready for combat, allowing them to see the formidable armaments the vessel carried. Certainly the ship was well armed, but there was no sign of life, nor of power. The initial survey done, Talis instructed Hedrion to search for a method of ingress into the ship. When they found it however, it was in no way what they were expecting.

As a raiding vessel the ship had been built to swiftly transship cargo from the vessels it took to itself, and to aid in this it had a huge main airlock on the underside of the ship. They had expected that they would have to manually open the doors to this airlock, but when they approached they found that the doors to the airlock were open. Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth they resolved to enter here, with Hedrion extending a walkway into the vessel and once they were on the other vessel he withdrew staying some 200 metres from the vessel to prevent anything present on the ship threatening the lighter.

The officers and the armsmen began to walk slowly in their bulky void suits across the enormous open space of the airlock. Eventually they came to the inner doors of the airlock, and it is here the first mystery of the ship presented itself as these inner doors were also open. As the High Enginseer was able to tell them that should not have been possible, as most ships had a number of ways to prevent this from happening not least of all because it would have caused the air in the connected sections to be vented into space.

Their concern was increased when they reached the door to the main parts of the ship and found that every part of the walls and even parts of the roof were covered in wax oath seals, with small scraps of prayer script hanging from them. They could not read the scripts however as when they attempted to lift one from the wall it crumbled to dust so ancient was it. The oath seals were everywhere, some had gathered in the corners where they had been deposited when the air from the section had escaped through the locked open airlock. Even more disturbingly as far as the eye could see every other door had been locked open, even the doors that should have deployed in the case of a hull breach had been disabled. The auspex built into the Servo-skull of the High Enginseer continued to report that there were no signs of power, or movement, nor any life other than them. They pushed further into the silent vessel.

The Engineering section was obviously their first port of call to find out exactly what damage had been done to the vessel. So they began to make their way aft through the ship with Ishigo leading the way and two of the Armsmen Galy and Ragan bringing up the rear. They walked on hearing only the sounds of their breathing echoing in their ears from the suits vox systems. Every door they came to had been jammed open, and here and there existed signs of the previous crew. They found evidence of meals half eaten sucked into the corners of common rooms, frozen smears of food still present upon them. Some turned slowly end over end through the air.

Every corridor seemed exactly the same, with no signs to denote what each section was, and it soon became obviously the if the doors had not been locked open in some cases the officers would not have been able to spot them at all, so well would they have been hidden. The Navigator Loka had previously served on a vessel with a similar system, called a Tenebro Maze, a hellishly complicated system that when powered would actually shift the corridors and confuse any attackers that made it onto the vessel. In fact even though the system was not powered it was still causing them to become slightly lost, keeping them from easily reaching the engineering systems.

Sadly the knowledge that the system was present did not help them actually avoid it's influence. However as they were already pushing towards the rear of the vessel they resolved to continue. Every door they passed had been locked open, as if someone had resolved to vent the entire ships atmosphere, although why anyone would perform such an insane action the Officers could not understand. So they pushed further into the deserted and silent vessel. Passing down a corridor with what looked to be common rooms on either side of it. Suddenly the silence was broken by a pier cing scream through the vox of their suit and a spray of blood from the rear of the group. As they turned they saw Armsman Galy flying away from them propelled by the spray of blood from the stump of his leg. The man was already dead, and there was no chance for them to rescue him. All of them whirled pointing their weapons in all directions, but apart from a rapidly fading auspex return there was no sign of the Assailant. Ichigo wasted no time asking Armsman Ragan what he had seen but all he could say is that something had rushed across the corridor behind them and slain Galy on the way past.

It has been shown before how Talis Saro cared very deeply for his crew, and this was a crime that could not be allowed to stand. Leading his Officers and the remaining Armsmen he rushed into the room the assailant must have entered, but apart from a few now frozen drops of Armsman Galy's blood spinning in the air there was no sign. They pushed through the room and found another door, leading into a corridor that looked far more technical than the previous one, with cables and other such trappings of the ships machine spirit. Both the Navigator and the High Enginseer agreed that this corridor would most likely not be part of the Tenebro maze and possibly posed their best chance to reach the engineering sections, despite the constrained nature of the corridor. Talis agreed, and falling into single file they began to move down the corridor. Not wishing to open themselves to similar attacks to that which they had already received they began to close the doors on either side of the corridor as they passed them and marking them as having been closed.

However it was in a larger room that the assailant struck once more. They were in the process of crossing a larger room, some form of auxiliary air processor room, with a corridor running across it. Obviously the assailant had been waiting for them too be strung out across this room before attacking, and indeed waited until the mid point of their group before launching itself down the corridor towards them. The Enginseer had only enough time to note the auspex return and begin to shout a warning befor a huge creature of brass and adamamantium plate hurtled into the room and tore it's huge flensing claws through the body of Armsman Hushk.

The Armsmans blood rushed into the air forming strange crystalline shapes as it froze, and the creature gathered itself to leap for the opposite door and escape. However the Officers of the Treasurer were heroes of the Imperium, and although the creature was far faster than a normal man, they were able to attack it before it could escape. The Astropath, no doubt guided by the Emperors hand fired upon the creature first, but obviously sensing his intent it interposed the body of the dead armsman between it and his hellpistol. However in turning towards the Astropath, iy had opened itself to the Navigator who used his hellpistol to shoot it in the chest, now revealed to be a screaming human head and torso. The shot struck in the upper shoulder of the torso blowing a chunk of the grey flesh from it. Then Talis Saro himself fired, and seeing the weak points in it's armour, fired his plasma pistol at them causing them to buckle and melt. The torso hanging in it's web of copper wires and tubes turned to him and silently snarled, but that was the last thing it did as Ichigo opened fire upon it with his bolter. Firing upon the plates weakened by his master he was easily able to penetrate the armour and render the torso to so many chunks of flesh, with no mind to guide it the machine fell silent.

Almost the moment that it fell the High Enginseer began to examine the machine. The machines legs ended with clawed feet, and its arms ended if finely made mono-molecular claws. On the shoulder to the rear of it's chest there was a large injector containing three different drugs although one of the vials was almost empty. For it's size the creature had displayed a very high degree of agility, and the Enginseer was impressed with the craftsmanship. Soon however she revealed what she knew, the machine was most likely something known as a Murder-Servitor, a magnificent piece of the Omnissiah's grace. More importantly the Murder-Servitor had connections on it's back that showed it most likely had some form of power alcove. If they could find a powered alcove they could use that to help them locate the engineering section, or at the very least the control room for the Servitors themselves. However it would not be as simple as looking for a powered circuit in the dead and silent vessel, as no doubt the servitor alcoves would be heavily shielded. This allowed them to be more effective in boarding situations, so they could attack the invaders from surprise. However using her knowledge of the Omnissiah's secrets the High Enginseer believed she might be able to locate one such alcove.

As she began to prepare for her search however Ichigo performed one last service for the fallen armsman Hushk. Using his ancestral blade he sliced open the remains of the mans Void suit and cut the barcode from the back of his neck. Although it sounds somewhat barbaric this was at the time considered a great honour amongst the servants of the Line of Saro. The barcode would be taken and cured, and then added to the rolls of such skins in the Chapel of the Fallen, set aside for such in which also stood the Lectern of the Roll of the Triumphant where such names as Garyle Viyle were written so that their acts would never be forgotten. For servants whose actions were not quite noble enough to gain them inclusion onto the roll, were if their death was truly in the service of their masters could be certain that their flesh at least would hang near to it's glory. Pempsliders charcoal drawings of the Chapel of the Fallen are still considered works of art, despite them being his preliminary sketches for a work of art sadly uncompleted due to his death from the Frotish pox. The Life of Pempslider has been well documented in Hulsens Diagram of the Artists, and of particular note is the section detailing Pempslider's meeting with the Rogue Trader and the resultant pitching of the artist from a first floor window. Having examined the diaries of the Rogue Traders of the Line of Saro, I can confirm that such a meeting took place but the altercation was most definitely provoked.

However we are dealing with the events considerably before that altercation so many years later.

The Officers decided to continue moving towards the rear of the vessel, however as they did so the High Enginseer communed closely with the auspex mounted in her Servoskull. Eventually her diligence was rewarded as the briefest flicker of power was located behind a wall panel that seemed exactly like every other wall panel in the corridor. Given the corridor was very small they realised that only three of them would be able to position themselves to fight the Murder-Servitor that was slumbering inside the alcove. Never wishing to place his crew in danger and remain safe himself, Talis Saro positioned himself to the left of the alcove and Ichigo to the right, Luna however was required to stand before the alcove to remove the covering.

Using her mechadendrite and the tools at her belt she carefully disconnected the covering and not allowing any of the metal to touch the rest of the housing lifted it clear. The alcove was revealed and despite the size of the Murder-Servitor sleeping within the alcove was very very small. The servitor was folded into this alcove like some form metal jigsaw and due to the enginseers skill it had been prevented from realising as yet that it had been exposed. Realising they had only a few seconds before it awoke and attacked them, Ichigo and Talis aimed their weapons and opened fire. In a matter of seconds Ichigo's bolt pistol and Talis Saro's renowned plasma pistol had reduced the servitors chest to so much twisted metal and charcoal. Such was the speed of the machine however that despite it's demise taking only a fraction of a second, as it died one of it's claws scraped a scratch down the faceplate of Talis' voidsuit raising a keening squeal that echoed over the vox.

As it fell the injector on it's back fired twice more pumping drugs into a body that no longer functioned. Not willing to risk the possibility that the drugs might effect a miraculous cure, Talis severed it's head with one blow of his power sword. The alcove now empty the High Enginseer began to work on the mechanisms inside, and shortly a series of emergency lights winked on in the corridor. At the Enginseers command, the lights had turned on to light the route to the control room for the Murder-Servitors.

Even with the route illuminated for them it still took one and a half hours of slogging through the Tenebro maze to reach the place the power for the Murder-servitor alcoves was emanating from. Upon reaching it they were very surprised to find it was a complex of rooms still with sealed bulkheads, bulkheads that were also welded shut and covered in oath seals requesting the Omnissaih's grace. Checking the auspex Luna informed them that behind there were considerable power signatures, and some movement signals, but no lifesigns. Both the Astropath and the Navigator confirmed that there was no trace of warp emanations.

With this information Talis positioned his followers to breach the door. The officers and Sergeant Gervath were positioned at the far wall to allow them to brace themselves against any outpouring of gas from the sealed sections. Armsman Ragan meanwhile cut through the base of the door and them using the magnetic boots of the void suits positioned himself on the roof to complete the work, keeping himself out of the line of fire. As the cutting proceeded they noticed a large outpouring of gas from the slowly unsealing doors. This was followed by a series of impacts on the doors as debris was sucked along in the wake of the escaping air. However these impacts were followed by the clawed hands of another Murder-servitor. It wrenched the door open and carried along with the gale of escaping air charged headlong towards the Armsman sergeant. Luckily for him however the effect of the wind was to throw off it's aim and it's monomolecular claws carved a set of deep gouges in the wall behind him. Stepping closer Ichigo levelled his Storm-bolter at the machine and opened fire. Although it was fast enough to dodge the first of the bolt shells the others smashed into it, blasting chunks from it's fleshy parts and shredding mechanisms.

The guardian dispensed with they entered the fane to the Omnissiah beyond. It became quickly obvious that the previous denizens of the ship had arrange things to attempt to keep the Murder-Servitors on line as long as possible. In the Main control room a small plasma generator no larger than a Rhino transport had been placed, and engineering servitors set to watch over it. The room itself had been filled with a purely neutral atmosphere, having been filled from compressed gas canisters. Indeed this was most likely the only thing that had kept the generator from exploding, as they found that according to it's readouts it had been running for one thousand six hundred and fifty seven years none stop. Expended fuel lay all around the room, as did other engineering supplies.

Pressing on through to the next room they found the first and only body of the crew upon the whole ship. The desiccated corpse of a high Magos on the floor before the main control panel for the Murder servitor controls. Luna wasted no time in accessing these controls and instructing all of the servitors (some 2000 of them in all although only six were active at any time) to return to their alcoves and power down. Once done they felt rather than saw two of the servitors turning from the door to the fane where they had been stalking towards them. Luna also finally disabled the Tenebro maze, which although it had appeared to be powered down had in fact been on a low power setting and had been confusing and misdirecting them.

Realising that they were running out of time they proceeded to the engine room to check on their status. Every power generator on the ship (with the exception of the small generator in the central datacore) was dead. The engines meanwhile had been sabotaged by the Mechanicus, using the rites of sabotage. These rites, first laid down by Techno-magos Ishar Velliance, were created to render a ship unusable by the enemy. In one way this was a good thing, in another a bad. Luna knew exactly what damage had been wrought on the engines, but the damage was very thorough, and would take a considerable amount of time to fix.

This ascertained they moved on to the bridge, finding it had also been locked shut and the doors welded.

Reclaiming the vessel would be a long and difficult process, not least of all due to the lack of air, however as they made their way back to the lighter already plans were forming in the Rogue Traders mind.

We will discuss these plans in the next chapter.