Hours of travel had been broken for a brief rest. The ten figures were near invisible, their black armour concealed by both the darkness of the hour and the terrain of the dead world. So far they hadn’t found their objective, but they had located occasional shallow graves holding men or machines, suggesting that they were on the right track. For the explorers to leave damaged vehicles behind implied that they had been moving at some speed.

There was, of course, no physical evidence of the presence of the Dark Angels, although the few people at the makeshift starport had been all too willing to tell the newcomers of the arrival of more warships so shortly after the Rogue Trader and Adeptus Mechanicus missions. When the shuttle landed, the locals were very disappointed to see so few men, and were even more disappointed to see that they wore the red robes of the Redemption. It had been difficult to persuade them to transport the men and their “shrine” twenty kilometres towards the area that the Rogue Trader had been heading to, but money had calmed their fear to a manageable level. Of course, after the vehicles had retreated the men unloaded their wargear from the “shrine”, moved on another 20k, and hid it and their robes among the ruins of an ancient building.

Brother Remiel arose and deployed his men in search formation. Befitting warriors who had trained together for almost incalculable periods, they moved silently, only the slightest hints of sign language being required to supplement their near telepathic understanding of each other. Their mission was vague. Certainly Cypher had been here before, his exploration of the tomb worlds of the Necrons not being prevented by previous losses. His more recent pawns had managed to send him some kind of message, and thus there had been the request for the men of the Order to carry out the secondary assessment. Remiel believed that most, if not all, of Cypher’s agents in the Imperial explorations were dead, and that this was probably linked to the presence of Dark Angels. Of course, they could have been killed by the Necrons while waiting for back-up…

They soon found evidence of a struggle, with recently expended bolter shells littering the ground. Occasionally larger casings, almost certainly from assault cannon, were also visible. There was no other sign of explorers, Necrons or Dark Angels, but Remiel was taking no chances. His autosenses swept the area for hidden scanning devices, and he soon picked up the remote Auspex that the Unforgiven had left. Another case of modern technology having lower operational capacity than the ancient devices that his men carried. While Duma’s squad moved, ghostlike, into a perimeter position, he approached Turel, who was already moving towards his leader.

As the most technically adept member of his squad Turel would have responsibility for causing the Unforgiven’s device to fail, without it appearing to the monitors as though it had been deactivated through hostile action. This would take time, and Remiel was acutely aware that time was not on his side. By spending too long in one place they would risk the attentions of the ancient inhabitants of this world. His men had already been fully conscious for over 60 standard hours, of which more than 50 had been spent travelling. Hopefully they would be heading out before daybreak, but if they could find no evidence of Cypher’s agents in the meantime, they’d be pushing their luck.

Turel informed him that he wouldn’t be able to cause the Auspex to malfunction without assistance. However, analysis of weather patterns indicated that a small windstorm would be hitting their location within the next three hours. If they could keep moving until the storm arrived they could take advantage of the natural phenomenon to deal with the Auspex. Unfortunately plasma was right out – the pistols simply didn’t have the range, and the energy signature would be picked up, at least momentarily, by the Dark Angels. With the storm a man could get close enough, but a physical weapon such as a bolter would be inaccurate in the expected weather conditions. Turel suggested that Remiel use his power over the warp to deal with it. With a lack of any other plausible means, Remiel agreed.

In the intervening period they would take the opportunity to scout the surrounding area for evidence of hidden tombs. Once located they would be avoided. Between them Remiel and Duma had ten men – a major deployment for the Order, but only enough to resist Necrons for the briefest of periods before casualties made battle futile. And they hadn’t survived all the upheavals of the last ten thousand years or so in order to die pointlessly in this place.

Another hour of travel led them into the furthest tendrils of the storm, whipping up the loose silt that covered the surface of the entire world. Shortly afterwards they came across the desiccated remains of a large number of human beings, left unburied. Many had been reduced to skeletons and a number of them to even less. Again, signs of battle were visible – and not from the humans whose corpses lay here. More bolter shells, and even some small fragments of a vehicle. Autosense scans showed negative for surveying devices, and a cautious approach was made. Analysis of the shattered remains of the armour strongly suggested a fragment of a Rhino, certainly a 11b of some description. There wasn’t any paint left on it, but Remiel would be willing to bet that it had been dark green. Of more interest, however, was Melchiah’s discovery of a scrap of uniform from one of the humans. It was a match for that of the force that Cypher’s agent had been attached to. Of the agent himself there was no sign.

Another quick rest, and then they started to head back. After disabling the Unforgiven’s auspex and examining the area in greater detail they would head out into unknown territory, moving parallel to their previous course and eventually rejoining the trail. Remiel hoped that they would find somewhere defensible before dawn…