You bite back an urge to shout out a contact report and dash forward to the corner, bolter at the ready. You round it, already dropping into heavy contact mode. You take a fraction of a second to take in your opposition. The chansword-wielding Marine is tearing into a mob of Chaos Reaver Cultists, perhaps thirty of them. Individually they aren’t much of a threat but in these sorts of numbers, operating as a blood-soaked tide, they can prove dangerous. The source of the spray of bolt rounds looms behind them; a Chaos Marine in full Terminator Warplate, combi-bolter held in one fist like a child’s toy, a power axe casually dragging along the ground.

You thumb the fire-selector lever from single shot to full automatic. Your left hand pulls a fragmentation AP grenade from your belt. “FRAG OUT!”

Throwing frag AP grenade: +0% to hit. 3 grenades remaining. Range is short: +10% to hit. Horde is at least magnitude 30: +30% to hit.

Throw grenade at Chaos Reaver Cultist Mob: Direct Hit! needed <93, got 91.

Damaging a Horde: weapon damage is 2d10, weapon has Blast 5 characteristic: +5 additional automatic hits (+10d10 damage): rolled 59 damage. Critical Hit! One damage die rolled a 10: inflict a further 2d10 damage. Result: 63 total damage = 6 magnitudes of damage to the horde. Damage type is explosive: +1 magnitude of damage.

Total damage to horde: 7 magnitudes.

Your grenade lands neatly in the middle of the mob of cultists. Seven of them are torn to shreds by the blast, but the remaining twenty-three keep coming, utterly heedless of their losses. The unknown Deathwatch Marine effortlessly reduces their number to nineteen, cleaving four heads from four sets of shoulders in a spray of blood, and still the horde keeps coming. They lash out at the unknown Deathwatch Marine, but their monomolecular edged axes find no purchase in his armor. The terminator raises his combi-bolter, essentially two bolters lashed together and slaved to a single trigger, and unleashes a hail of fire in your direction.

Dodge incoming fire: +0%. Failed: needed <44, got 68.

19 points of incoming damage. -4 for head armor, -10 for toughness bonus.

Suffered 5 damage to the head. Armor breached! It is no longer atmospherically sealed.

You try to roll out of the way, but the range is too short and the incoming fire too accurate. You feel at least two misses scream past you at uncomfortably close ranges, but one of the incoming bolts connects with your faceplate. You come to your feet and blink away the blood that leaked from your temple before your Larraman’s Cells scar the wound over. The horde will have to wait, you decide, the Chaos Terminator is simply too big of a threat to ignore. Your little finger hits the magazine selector and you swap to your limited supply of Hellfire bolts.

Full auto burst from Bolter (magazine #3 - Hellfire Bolts): +30% to hit. Magazine is now at 24/28 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit.

Damage inflicted: 8d10+20 explosive. Result: 75.

Fire at Chaos Terminator: Success! needed <93, got 48.

Spoiler: Critical Hit Chain

Critical Hits! A damage die from three different shots rolled a 9 or 10 (Hellfire Bolts): inflict a further 6d10+15 damage. Result: 140 total damage done to target.

Critical Hits! A damage die from three different shots rolled a 9 or 10 (Hellfire Bolts): inflict a further 6d10+15 damage. Result: 200 total damage done to target.

Critical Hits! A damage die from two different shots rolled a 9 or 10 (Hellfire Bolts): inflict a further 4d10+10 damage. Result: 244 total damage done to target.

Critical Hit! A damage die rolled a 9 or 10 (Hellfire Bolts): inflict a further 2d10+5 damage. Result: 265 total damage done to target.

Critical Hit! A damage die rolled a 9 or 10 (Hellfire Bolts): inflict a further 2d10+5 damage. Result: 283 total damage done to target.

Your burst strikes true into the Chaos Terminator’s breastplate. For one horrifying moment it resists your shots, and your mind flashes back to watching Ultramarines First Company Terminators shrugging off the impact of armor piercing tank shells, but it gives way a moment later. The Chaos Terminator staggers back a step, then its knees buckle as much at the armor will allow. At last it crashes to the deck face first, shaking some debris free form the ceiling to bounce ineffectually off its backplate.

The unknown Deathwatch Marine hews into the horde with wild abandon. If it wasn’t for the Deathwatch Iconography on his warplate, you would think him a mindless berzerker. Eight more of the Chaos Reaver horde falls to his chainsword, leaving only eleven in the fight. They don’t give up, and at this point you suspect that they won’t give up until they are all dead. They lash out with their axes again, but all they hit is air and deckplate.

You switch back to the standard bolts in your first magazine, and take a few seconds to aim. It wouldn’t do to hit your battle-brother now that this fight is all but won.

Full auto burst from Bolter (magazine #1 - Standard Bolts): +30% to hit. Magazine is now at 22/28 rounds. Range is short: +10% to hit. Took a half-turn to aim: +10%. Firing into close combat: -20%

Fire at Chaos Reaver Horde: Success! needed <83, got 37.

Damaging a Horde: weapon damage is 8d10+20: rolled 74 damage.

Spoiler: Critical Hit Chain

Critical Hit! One damage die in two different shots rolled a 10: inflict a further 4d10+10 damage. Result: 74 total damage.

Critical Hit! One damage die in two different shots rolled a 10: inflict a further 4d10+10 damage. Result: 104 total damage

Critical Hit! One damage die rolled a 10: inflict a further 2d10+5 damage. Result: 124 total damage

Critical Hit! One damage die rolled a 10: inflict a further 2d10+5 damage. Result: 146 total damage = 14 magnitudes of damage to the horde. Damage type is explosive: +1 magnitude of damage. Total damage to horde: 15 magnitudes.

Your four-shot burst tears into the massed ranks of the Reaver Cultists. Bolts punch through one cutist to detonate inside a second or third Emperor-forsaken victim. In a thundering heartbeat, the only beings left standing in the blood-drenched corridor are you and the Unknown Deathwatch Marine.

He staggers to the side, helmet sweeping the hall in front of him, searching for something to kill. Finding nothing, his chainsword drops from nerveless fingers, and he punches the bulkhead hard enough to leave a dent in what you assume is raw frustration. You take a momet and apply your repair cement to your helmet, sealing the hole and making your Power Armor atmospherically tight again. He shudders and shakes for a long moment, blood dripping from his pauldrons and chestplate, before he punches the bulkhead again and stoops to collect his chainsword. As he turns to face you, you catch sight of the chapter icon on his shoulder plate; a white sawblade surrounding a blood drop on a field of black. With that piece of information, much is made clear to you.

“Ultramarine,” he growls, “what brings you to the depths of this miserable pile of wreckage?”

“Recovering you Flesh Tearer. Your armor’s beacon went active, and was detected.”

“Hrngh. Thanks for the assistance then. I was wondering how I’d kill the big one without any charge left in my chainsword or bolts for my pistol.”

You nod at his Mark eight ‘errant’ plate with its high gorget. Such warplate is usually only given to promising field officers, that the added protection might offset the chance of being singled out and picked off. “You looked like you could take it out, I thought I’d speed things along. Marcellus, by the way.”

“Grrngh. Gorlin. I hope you have a base of operations, and some means of contacting the Inquisition. Ironside is going to want a report, much as I dislike writing them.”

“Let’s get going then, we have a ways to go.”

“Rrrgh. Lead on, just don’t get between me and the fighting.”

Mission 0: Asset Retrieval Complete

Stockpile Update:

918 rounds of 0.75 caliber bolt ammunition. suitable for your bolter and bolt pistol. 136 rounds of 0.75 caliber Hellfire bolt ammunition.

Specialist rounds for special targets, Hellfire Ammunition bypasses all natural or organic armor, and liquefies the target from the inside out.

12x frag AP grenades 13x krak AT grenades 99x units of armor repair cement, for patching armor breaches in the field. Enough combat rations to feed your squad for half a year.

Rewards: The Marks of Duty

+500 XP

+1 Renown: Completed all primary objectives

Current Level: 1 (out of 8)

Current Renown rank: 1 (out of 100) - Deathwatch Initiate