The throne room was shrouded in gloom, the only light source a dull red glow emitting from the device sitting on the pedestal to the side of the room. Multiple bodies were slumped around the space, black figures in varying states of unconsciousness brought on by the intense energy released by the devices activation. Quiet had descended over the room, and there was no sound safe for the harsh, raspy breaths of its occupants and a dull hum resonating from the source of their unresponsive state. At the back of the room, the tallest figure stirred, shaking her head to clear the fog from her mind. Blinking open her luminous green eyes, she clumsily removed herself from her throne and stumbled over to the device, or rather, to the prone form lying at the base of its resting place.

Queen Chrysalis, having completed her perilous trek to reach her objective, eyed her target and debated on the most effective way of rousing him from his slumber. A swift kick to the torso proved to be an adequate measure and the scholar Transfusion jolted awake, his slumber violently interrupted by his Majesty’s Hoof-of-Wrath©.

“Gahh what? What happened? Why does- Ow! that stings, whatever is wrong with you mor…” Transfusion trailed off as his eyes traced the offending Hoof all the way to the face of his Queen, a face which he was positive could frighten even the most infernal daemon from Tartarus back to its lair. Its physically impossible for a changeling to sweat, as they do not possess sweat glands, but if they were able to Transfusion would currently be drenched in liquid fear.

“Transfusion,” Chrysalis stated in a monotone voice “Can you kindly explain why I woke up, covered in my own drool and no progress to show for it?” Chrysalis said, gesturing to the unknown device, quietly humming away on its pedestal. “Can you explain why all of my subjects appear to have collapsed after a certain ‘Intellectual’ decided to meddle with an unknown device?” Transfusion decided that now was not the time to point out she was the one who ordered him to activate it “Can you explain why you cannot achieve one task, one simple task?” Chrysalis started to raise her voice, and the other changelings in the room began to stir, awoken by the lecture.

Transfusion was paralysed with fear, the Queen was known for her temper and nothing irked her more than failure.

“Well, Transfusion? What do you have to say for yourself?” The Queen’s voice had lowered in volume, her sudden calm tone doing nothing to calm his nerves, rather it sent a chill down his spine. The other changelings in the room, the four soldiers, now fully awake, gazed on the scene fearfully, knowing full well what the Queen was capable of after the failed invasion a month ago. Transfusion’s body had begun to shiver, terror shooting through his mind, possible punishments that the Queen could enact dancing in front of his eyes.

He tried to voice a response, but all that came out was an “Garbpfft”.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at her scientist’s response and she raised her right foreleg above the head of the snivelling individual in front of her. She began to bring her hoof down, intending to deliver a dreadful blow to her cowardly changeling’s critical cranium. The ebony, hole-ridden hoof sailed through the air, its destination clear and tr-

Rip!

The sound of reality tearing itself apart froze the hoof in the air, and all eyes turned to the right of the room, where a large spiral, five times the size of Chrysalis forced its way into existence. Chrysalis could only stare as the spiral materialised, its menacing black glow seemingly leeching what little light was left in the room. Her heart beat in her chest, a feeling of despair filled her heart as out of the spiral advanced skull faced, black bipedal figures, footfalls echoing around the cavern like the beat of a war-drum.

ISA subsection of the Department of Security and Intelligence, Listening Station 236377B
Subspace Transit Station, five hours after beacon activation

Commander Chalmers inspected the twenty Soldiers in front of him, two squads of ISA specialists referred to as wraiths. Each squad was made up of ten men or women, soldiers hand-picked by the ISA from the multiple branches of the UIP Military and, as a result of brutal training, extensive genetic and technological enhancements, rigorous mental strengthening and state-of-the-art equipment transformed into highly efficient black-op’s soldiers experienced in the arts of murder, infiltration and subterfuge.

Each soldier was equipped with smooth, black, light-absorbing armour crafted from classified composite-carbon nano-tubes with an insulating layer of artificial muscle. The armour was fully self-contained, incorporating life-support and emergency trauma systems as well as a compact fusion-core that served as a power source for the suit. Each soldier had adapted to sleeping inside their armour and as such a soldier could remain in their suit in an operational capacity for eight standard Imperial months.

Each wraith was armed with a EQ1898 rifle, a fully automatic carbine that fired antimatter-infused munitions. This was made possible by UIP weapons engineers, who came up with the idea of rather than utilizing regular ammunition magazines to construct a way of allowing a weapon to fabricate its own ammunition using ‘energy packs’, high powered batteries that replaced conventional magazines. A soldier could recharge these packs by interfacing them with any powered amour or by placing the packs near a source of heat or light. The method of charging the packs by exposure to heat or sunlight takes far longer than by conventional means but allows a soldier almost an infinite amount of ammo. At the stage of current production only specialist forces of the UIP, such as the ISA department, had access to antimatter based weaponry with mainstream troops utilising laser and plasma based weaponry, with some still even using ballistics weaponry due to a matter of preference.

Each wraith was also carrying a sidearm or PDW (Personal Defence Weapon) of their choosing and these ranged from sleek laser pistols to bulky plasma pistols, fusion handguns and a corporal in wraith team three even had an infernus gun, a compact flamethrower that could be used with one hand. In addition to ranged weaponry each member possessed a powered monomolecular blade that could either be used as a conventional combat knife or, when the weapons power-field was activated, a knife capable of cutting through plate steel. Many wraiths had also armed themselves with an assortment of explosives, anti-personnel traps, small blades, plasma cutters, wrist-mounted blade gauntlets and assorted backup weapons. All in all it created twenty specialist soldiers armoured in state of the art armour and carrying enough weapons to take down a small country. Whoever said that preparation was just for boy scouts?

The Commander’s musings were interrupted by the opening of the rear doors of the transit area and the slightly-less-then-majestic arrival of the members of the science team. Nigel could not tell where the scientists began and the equipment ended.

“Zarkrof!” Nigel yelled, his helmets external speakers giving a harsh electronic edge to his voice “I said to bring only the most important equipment needed for this mission, why does it look like you have seventeen laboratories worth of gear strapped to your assistants?”

Zarkrof glanced behind him, the four other scientists from a range of fields including Electronics, Weapon Engineering, Metallurgy and even a Viral Warfare Biologist attempting to manoeuvre a black sealed case the size of a small car through the door with the help of an anti-grav lifter. The scientists were dressed in white hazmat suits, armour covering vital areas and with cases and bags secured with all manner of straps and clamps covering their bodies. Each scientist had a holster with a small laser pistol strapped to their hip with the exception of Zarkrof, who still possessed the large, black handgun given to him by the Commander and, Klaus Steiner, the Weapons Engineer who for some unknown reason was sporting a large, brutish looking pump-action ballistic shotgun in a holster across his back.

“With all due respect, Commander, we have no idea what is waiting for us on the other side and due to the nature of subspace tunnelling we have no estimate of how long we will be stuck out there. If for some reason we require access to chemicals or extra weapons then we at least have the tools require to synthesize basic supplies.” It was a valid concern as subspace transportation was notorious for its drawbacks, mainly that the tunnels created were only one way. Commander Chalmers was aware of this and as the listening post they were currently on was not issued any portable subspace generators the plan was that once their mission was complete the team would activate a long range communications beacon and would have to await extraction from the UIP navy.

“Fine, Professor, you can keep your toys, just realise that our main priority is the Emergency beacon itself, all other matters are secondary, and that includes the welfare of your equipment,” the Commander conceded with a huff “How soon until you will be ready for departure?”

“We are ready to leave right know Commander, we, ahem, 'borrowed' this lifter from Supplies so transportation should not be an issue.”

“Good, I’ll contact Lieutenant Takinata and inform him that we’re about to depart,” Nigel stated as he turned to the direction of the portal generator. He walked two meters before looking over his shoulder. “Oh, one more thing Zarkrof”

“Yes Sir?”

“Where in the seven circles of Hell did Klaus get that shotgun?”

The atmosphere in front of the swirling maelstrom in the Transit room was both of excitement and nervousness. The Commander and every single one of the wraiths had all travelled by subspace before, where the only member of the science team to do so was Klaus, the shotgun-toting Weapons Engineer who had served a ten year stretch with the Department of Exploration.

The wraiths were busy checking their equipment, ensuring that nothing would come loose and get lost during the transit while the science team were busy discussing amongst themselves as to what could possibly be awaiting them on the other side. Nigel had already transferred command of the Listening Post to Lieutenant Takinata, a capable Intelligence officer of forty three years. He had also arranged for a UIPN ‘Murphy’ class Cruiser to be on standby for the team’s extraction.

The diplomatic pull one received from being a high ranking officer in Intelligence almost offset the often bland assignments he was gifted. Content that everything was in order he faced the uninviting blackness of the subspace tunnel.

“Alright, wraiths move out first with me, secure the surrounding area, eggheads stay at the rear and shut up until everything is in order, everyone got that?”

“Acknowledged,” came the reply from the two Sergeants commanding the wraith teams through the headset built into Nigel's helmet..

“Yes Sir,” replied Zarkrof, the science team’s Hazmat helmets lacking internal communication devices, instead relying on the external speakers built in.

With a final nod, Commander Chalmers drew his sidearm from his holster, identical to the one he gave Zarkrof, before stepping into the portal, the wraiths flanking him with rifles drawn and ready while the scientists cautiously advanced behind the commander, their precious equipment trailing behind on the lifter.

Nigel emerged from the portal, stepping into a gloomy cavern, his helmet's low-light optics automatically compensating for the gloom. The room appeared to be constructed of some smooth ebony substance, nether metal or biological, and according to his suit's sensors they were located underground. Over to his left he spotted the object of the mission, a metal cylinder glowing with red text, sitting on a pedestal seemingly constructed out of the same material as the surrounding cavern. A noise caught his attention and he noticed several forms surrounding the pedestal. He mentally commanded his helmet to enhance his vision and he could not believe the resulting image.

Staring back at him like a deer caught in the floodlights of a Main Battle Tank, were what he could only describe as black, insect-like equines with holes in them. Five of them, which he estimated to be four foot tall, barely coming up to his armoured waist, possessed solid blue eyes with what he assumed was an pupil in the centre. Four of the beings possessed a jagged horn sprouting from the forehead and appeared to be covered in heavy chitin, no doubt some form of armour. All four appeared to be suffering from severe starvation.

The fifth figure cowering beneath the sixth and most imposing one, which he assumed was the leader, looked slightly shorter than the first four, which, combined with the lesser amount of amour this fifth one possessed, convinced him that the first four were some sort of soldier or guard caste. The other major difference between the shorter one and the ‘soldiers’ was that it possessed dark green hair as well as a dark green tail, unlike the assumed soldiers which just had bald heads and jet black tails. Also, its horn was slightly longer, although it did not apear to be as sharp as the previous four.

The sixth and tallest figure, around five feet tall, seemed the most responsive, it gaze moving from the Commander’s visage to the twenty wraiths slowly fanning out of the portal, the muzzles of their guns pointed at the abnormal equines. What caught Nigel’s attention most was the that instead of having a pair of solid blue eyes, the leader equine had what appeared to normal eyes with deep green irises, granted the size of the eyes were huge, their size assisting Nigel in identifying that the owner was absolutely terrified. Also of note was the flowing cyan blue mane and tail as well as the jagged, twisted horn atop it’s head, almost double the length of the other equines. Nigel also took note of the equine’s sunken face and skinny form, no doubt it too was suffering from starvation.

“Permission to engage Sir?” The leader of wraith team seven, Sargent Perkins inquired.

“Negative, form a protective perimeter around the scientists, as soon as everything is through I want to try to establish communication. If they attack use lethal force as a last resort, I’m guessing that they played at least a minor part in the beacons activation, so any infomation we can retrive from them would be useful.”

“Roger,”came the reply, the wraiths halting their advance but still training their weapons on the unknown creatures. By this time the scientists had all disembarked from the tunnel, the science equipment in tow, and were staring wide-eyed at the equines. What surprised Nigel the most was the hungry, almost predatory look that the Xenobiologist, Zarkrof, was sporting through his helmet visor. Clearly the Doctor’s curiosity had overridden his earlier anxiety.

With an anti-climactic ‘pop’, the subspace tunnel closed, returning the room to its former state, all twenty six members of the first response team standing opposite the insectoid equines. Seeing that everyone and everything had made the trip smoothly, Nigel decided that know was the perfect time for introductions. Striding forward, handgun at his side pointed down at the ground so as to appear non-threatening, he began the all-important first contact speech, specifically prepared by the UIP Department of Diplomacy for situations just like this.

“Greetings, On behalf of the mighty United Imperium of Planets, I hereby extend the greatest of pleasantries in the hope of formulating a magnificent- bollocks!”

Well, it would have been a great speech if only he hadn’t tripped over a rock, landing on top of the pedestal holding the device with an ear-splintering crunch. .