Hive in the Underhive
First Contact
The crew moved through the wreckage of Sub-Level 32, their footsteps echoing through a forgotten world of rusted gantries, collapsed hab-tunnels, and flickering lumen-strips. The air was thick with the stench of decay and ozone. Strange fungal blooms pulsed faintly on walls where once there had been steel.
They had been searching for Power Cones — unstable archeotech artefacts discovered deep in this zone. The Cones were a vital part of the plan. Potentially devastating explosives, they represented the only heavy firepower available to the Marines in this subterranean warzone.
Then, the Auspex detected motion ahead. At first, they assumed it was vermin… or perhaps an Escher ganger scouting ahead.
From the blackness, they came.
Six-limbed horrors — chitinous, silent, and impossibly fast. Their forms blurred through the gloom, leaping from the walls and ceilings like arachnid predators. They struck with relentless violence.
The Deathwatch took point, bolters thundered as they pushed forward without hesitation. The others scrambled for cover, returning fire as best they could.































