From Lexicanum

Extraction

It is the 41st Millenium, a time of War.

The Castobel system is being attacked by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon. Imperial forces are struggling to hold their own. The moon Tantalus is all but lost with swarms of Tyranids engulfing the planetoid. On board the Deathwatch frigate Thunders Word, six brothers are being briefed.

“Brothers,” says the Watch Captain, “Tantalus is lost and is being ripped clean of all life by a foul Tyranid horde. There are still survivors down there and a transmission has reached us from one, near the Promethean processing plant at Pyroclast Gamma 9. Magos Biologis Vyakai still survives and has data important to the ongoing war. Your mission is to retrieve that data and, if possible, the Magos - remember that the data is your primary objective. You’ll be equipped with beacons you can use to signal a Thunderhawk drop pod to extract you, which should be used from high ground, so as to ensure the signal reaches the drop ship., although I’d recommend you use these from as high a vantage point as possible in order that the signal can get through the atmospheric disturbances. The main swarm hasn’t reached the facility yet but forward Tyranid forces are expected to be present. The main swarm will overwhelm the facility in about five hours time - after that, survival expectation of any remaining ground forces on the moon are estimated by our techs as zero. Good luck and may the Emperor be with you.”

"The Emperor protects" the team reply and set about selecting the right leader for the task in hand. Scipio volunteers and is accepted and they prepare by requisitioning grenades and magnoculars - the lack of a Techmarine causing some consternation. Once equipped, they board the drop pod and are soon screaming down through the atmosphere to the crash site.

Having landed and secured the area in the thick toxic chemical soup that passes for air, Morgan quickly scouts around and finds a blood trail leading to the north east, which quickly fades under the shifting sands of the moon. Scipio gathers his force and leads them in that direction, in classic flying V scouting order. Soon, they are approaching a terminus building for the Mag-Train line, its doors hanging open and ruined. As they approached, Seigfried signaled a warning as he spotted movement near the entrance - two Hormagaunts lying in ambush!

The team moved swiftly into attack, Seigfried using his jump pack to move to the terminus roof while Bethsemus, Sven and Morgan moved forward, supplying a lethal rain of suppressing fire. From the terminus roof, Seigfried used a flamer as the others, under the watchful eye of Scipio, closed with the enemy. The battle was over almost before it began, as the devastating firepower of the kill team made short work of the threat.

The team began to search the area, finding little of interest at first. As they breached a heavy door at the rear of the complex, a servitor moved ponderously to life and requested their access code. By way of response, Morgan and Bethsemus shot it, disabling the machine in seconds. Looking around, they found themselves in a control room, with a fully operational energy scanning auspex - unfortunately, this is not this teams specialty.

The team looked at all the incredibly useful expensive hardware at their disposal and searched the building, finding little of interest. In one of the back offices was a metal container, about five feet on a side, obviously a secure storage area for papers and other classified material. Opening it, Scipio was surprised to find a survivor, a lowly clerk who had little information of interest beyond that something bad had happened.

They moved on, past the Promethium storage tanks to the processing plant, a warren of tanks, control buildings, overhead walkways and pipe work. As the team moved through the maze in a slightly uncoordinated pattern, Bethsemus came under attack from three more Tyranids. At first he was hard pressed but as Seigfried and Morgan came to his aid (Morgan having a stand-up battle with a Tyranid leader on top of a storage tank) together with Sven, the battle was quickly won.

Scipio reorganized them and on they went, to a large compound to the West of the crash site. Here, they found a battle of more epic proportions raging, as a forward team of 23 Tyranids were cutting a small squad of Imperial soldiers to pieces. Our heroes eyes gleamed with happiness as they finally found something they understood and they fairly easily turned the tide of the battle.

The squad moved on, towards one of the last buildings they had yet to visit. Scipio sent the guards to secure their extraction point, at the sites communications centre. As they yomped along, following the team leaders instructions to watch the skies, Scipio's prescience paid off. Morgan and Sven both saw winged shapes approaching through the swirling skies and realized that another Tyranid advance patrol was coming in. With the warning, the team spread out and the devastators let rip as though it was a horde coming in. This made a mess all round the kill team, as the shrikes exploded under the heavy weapon fire power of the team.

They reached the building, some kind of heavily fortified command centre and disabled the automated heavy blasters on the roof by firing at them. Using Krak grenades, Scipio blew a ole in the door and peered inside. The interior was a mess, with a hole in the floor looking like the point of entry of the Tyranids. More interestingly, slumped to one side was a figure, badly wounded. They ripped the door off the bunker (Morgan and Sven were not in the mood to trifle) and moved in. Scipio tried to talk to the Magos but quickly realized that he was operating on his implanted machinery and was in a very volatile state. After some time, they managed to get him moving although he would not let anyone near him and headed for the uplink.

Once there, they activated their beacon and checked in with the guards, who told them that two servitor drones were guarding the buildings interior. Morgan and Sven decided, with Scipios guidance, to remove this obstacle. their first efforts only served to draw the drones into the open, threatening the mission as the Magos refused to move to safety. Bethsemus moved to stand between the drones and the Magos and the drones offered little further resistance.


After a few minutes, Scipio nervously began to scan the skies for their ship and was gratified to see a massive shape moving in on them through the swirling clouds. However, as it drew nearer, they realized that it was an enormous Tyranid, which engaged them with waves of psychic energy. Scipio tried to do the same back to it but found its mind beyond his efforts. Meanwhile, the others, aided by the strange weakness of the Hive Master (and the incompetence of the GM), swiftly blew the thing apart. Soon after, they were lifted off the emperor forsaken rock and back to Thunder's Word.

Much to Scipios relief, the Magos was still in possession of the data core and the officer of the day commended them on a job well done, as they were debriefed prior to a spot of rest (or combat practice).