You mark off the possible archeotech cache as you objective, assemble your team, and head out. Jace is slightly more energetic than usual, excited to be digging up bits of the past. Yasha and Mu'randa stick close together, and you purposely ignore their chatter, letting them talk in semi-privacy.

With everyone else being semi-distracted, you pay close attention to your surroundings. Like your last few outings the ship around you is fairly standard imperial construction, right-side-up this time around. The lights are functional, and the corridor is well-illuminated as a result.

You come to an intersection, lacking all signage of course, and check your dataslate, pulling up the map. You check and re-check your location, before finally determining that you are lost. You know that you are still within a mapped area, that you can retrace your steps to find a semi-familiar area, and that there should be something to find in the area, hopefully an archeotech cache. You decide to press onward and try your luck after a brief bit of backtracking. You head back a few intersections and check the map again. Now you are certain something is wrong: What your map shows as a 4-way intersection is in fact a T-junction.

"Jace, I hate to admit it, but I'm lost. Can you give me a hand here? I think we need to head left here, but that's a wall..."

Jace takes the dataslate with the map and stares at it. He glances up and looks at the intersection, down at the dataslate, up at a distinctive mark on a bulkhead, back at the slate, and sighs. "I think this ship had a Tenebro Maze component. A combination of deliberately inaccurate maps and scanner spoofers, designed to mislead anyone attempting to map it. Also useful for confusing or diverting boarding attempts, as the local crew would be familiar with the actual layout. If we're catching the edge of it here, then..."

Jace studies the map some more. "Perhaps that way? Nonono. Need to confirm the edge of the maze. Cache likely to be in the center of it. Back one intersection, take left, note discrepancies, double back, repeat until edge confirmed and corner found. Up a deck? No stairs or lifts evident nearby..."

You clasp Jace on the shoulder, feeling the edge of one or more augmentations under his grubby white robes. "Lead the way Jace. Just try to get us there sometime today?"

Jace nods, still studying the map, and heads off. You gesture to the ladies to follow along.

Three hours later, with some unknown percentage of the Tenebro Maze mapped out, you get a bit lucky.

Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it.

You all but trip over the corpses of two dead Deathwatch Marines. After an initial round of shock and disgust, your team starts making some observations. Their cause of death is rather obvious. One is missing most of their torso, his power armor torn clean through by something with three-clawed hands. The second was killed by the same creature, hamstrings and throat torn out in raking passes.

You and Yasha cover the hallways while Jace and Mu'randa make more detailed observations.

Mu'randa makes a guess at the wounds. "Three-clawed, but too clean for common keratin or bone claws. This was a dedicated predator, specializing in taking down armored prey in high speed ambush attacks."

Jace is more interested in the armor. "Old marks of power armor. One mark five and one mark six, both bearing Deathwatch markings. Left pauldron markings obscured by battle damage or faded paint."

"No markings on the floor, and the dust would have obscured any tracks..."

"Weapons of similar age to the armor. Astartes grade, of course, and gene-locked to the former users..."

Mu'randa lets out a small gasp. "Claw-markings on the ceiling and walls, interspersed with bolter damage. Point of origin for both is a knee-high air duct, too small for a human or Tau to walk in upright. Looks like only one attacker. Hamstrung the one marine, jumped around for a bit, tore the other marine's chest, and came back to the first one's throat."

"Remains desiccated by age. Estimate several decades since last disturbed, going by dust accumulation, assuming a standard rate of undisturbed deposition..."

Your mouth has been growing steadily dryer as their twin monologues run on. "How about we mark this for a Deathwatch Reclamation Team and come back later. I'm getting a bad feeling about this..."

You motion is quickly seconded, thirded, and carried without objection. Jace deploys a beacon, marks the coordinates on the (now updated) map, and all of you begin retracing your steps towards the Beachhead.

Five hours later, you make it back intact, if shaken. You quickly deposit the updated map, mark your chosen objective as as-yet uncompleted, and add in the notation for a reclamation team. You promptly head off to crash out for the night.

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

1) Cleanse: Exterminate the Ghilliam nesting in and around 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.

Addendum: Possible Ghilliam / Hullghast nest in the area. Eliminate if encountered.

Addendum Secundus: Ghilliam presence confirmed. Mission upgraded to Cleanse. Advise against the use of incendiary weapons due to promethium vapor traces. Possibility of catastrophic secondary or tertiary explosions too likely.

2) Recovery: Secure a possible archeotech cache.

Scout's notes: Objective bypassed due to medical conditions and ammunition shortage. Area not investigated thoroughly.

Addendum: Objective located inside a Tenebro Maze. Advise patience, persistence, and good mapping.

3) Reconnaissance: Unusual ship hull signature.

Scout's notes: Scans indicate a hull of non-imperial construction six decks down and two ship-hulls outside of mapped areas. Hull is non-ferric, but also non-organic in nature.