Gallowfall

The lore bits:

-For millions of years, thousands of the galaxy's race have used the Warp to travel the stars. Countless ships were lost to the tides of the Warp and its unpredictable rages, ripped apart by its Space and time defying energies and stitched together into obscene shapes.

-Few races in the galaxy excel at fighting aboard and harvesting Space Hulks more than the Leagues of Votann. Though Space Hulks can prove dangerous to their fleets and holdings, they are seen as great opportunities to amass resources and treasure. The Kin have developed incredible techniques to harvest the Space Hulks and they take pride in the courage it takes to get the job done.

-The Kin are always looking for Space Hulks to salvage. The Kin even have the means to track Space Hulks whether in Real Space or the Warp. The Kin can predict the routes of Space Hulks and interject them. The most remarkable ability the Kin have in this regard is that they can harvest Space Hulks while they are in the Warp. The brave Kin salvagers are fitted with heavy armor and equipped with miniature Gellar generators, for the extremely hazardous operations. In addition to that, the salvagers are tethered to their ships with long warp-shielded cables.

-Using their tested and tried methods and technologies, the Kin have salvaged countless space hulks. In one notable example, the Space Hulk Warp-Rek 127 was boarded by the Kin as it was drifting toward a star. Racing against time, the Kin looted the Hulk's treasures and dismantled it completely to the last bolt in a matter of weeks.

-Chaos Beastmen are a common sight aboard Space Hulks. Many of them consider the Space Hulks to be gifts from the Chaos Gods so they seek to transform them into colossal temples to the Chaos Gods. Each kill, each sacrifice, and each weapon seized is dedicated to the gods. There is a legend of a Beastman chieftain, Vozaac Redhoof, who succeeded in taking over an entire Space Hulk. He named it the Herdstone of Herdtones and used its ancient vox systems to broadcast challenges to the wider galaxy. So far all who answered his challenge were slain, their heads and broken bodies offerings to Redhoof's Thristing Gods.

-The existence of the Gallowdark stretches so far back in time that it defies the imagination of the Necrons and the ancient Aeldari.

-Among the thousands of ships that make up the amalgamation of the Gallowdark, are ships belonging to the Feline-Repiltian race called the Garar lyaq'war and the Gaarneth Pact-slave caste.

-The Lurk is a region of the Gallowdark that's avoided by all but the most desperate. The pitch-black region was inhabited by ghoulish once-humans who were the descendants of humans who were enslaved aboard an Ork ship. Over the generations, their eyes atrophied and they were reduced to
grotesque forms. The Lurk collapsed during the upheaval caused by the impact of Dyad of Zaffre. The bitter ghoulish degenerates fled the Lurk and encountered an Emperor's Children sorceror who had been freed from his sensory deprivation cage by the impact. The leering heretic used his powers to dominate them.

-The Kin are a clone race built from stable genetic information to be robust in body and mind. They possess the unbreakable resolve to achieve the goals they set for themselves, as well as a highly conservative mindset. This makes them extremely dogged foes but also steadfast allies.

-Cloneskeins are stable mutations that run in the shared Kin gene pool. The gene pool is broad and diverse. Through it, they are blessed with dense muscles, exceptional core strength, higher red and white cell levels, and great physical endurance. The pool also bestows on the Kin dimmer souls than humans.

-There are rare Cloneskeins that bestow on the Kin access to "barrier tech" that allows the psychically gifted kin to connect to the Warp. Other Cloneskeins grant infrared or energy spectrum vision, better reaction times, or endurance to extreme gravity and temperatures. Many of these Cloneskeins manifest physically. Taking the form of stony faces, strangely colored eyes, or emitting chemical odors.

-It's difficult to befriend a Kin. Their familial and genetic bonds are so ingrained that the moment an individual or race is perceived as standing in the way of the Kin's interest they are seen as an enemy immediately. For the Kin family always comes first.

-The hazardous and unforgiving lives of work and toil aboard their fleets or within holds resulted in the Kin developing a strict moral code that sees wastefulness and laxity as the greatest of sins. For to waste or neglect one's work could result in death and disasters. This conservative culture influenced their language as well. The Kin rarely speak and when they do they do it tersely.

-Wildly accepted truisms by the Kin are seen as truths, ultimate expressions of supreme good sense. For example, "It's kin" which means that the course of action or an object belongs to or was created by their race which indicates its durability or reliability.

-The Kin's obsessive survivalist tendencies make them have a voracious desire to hoard resources. Their hardwired scarcity mindset sees their entire race embark on a collective endless quest to harvest raw resources wherever they are found.

-The Kin do not acknowledge the other races as having any measure of sovereignty. Non-Kin territories are all open for conquest. If the other races do not strike trade agreements with the Kin or abandon their worlds, then the Kin would have no qualms about eliminating them. As long as the rewards are worth the risk, the Kin are more than willing to wage war.

-The Kin are as aversive to wastefulness in war as they are in peace. They do not enter a war until they thoroughly analyze the risks and the rewards. They are not a people who would fight for lost causes, not for them the desperate last stands or hopeless charges. Despite their hardy resolve, the Kin see no cowardice in abandoning wars that are too costly to wage.

-Despite all this calculation and analytical method of warfare, the Kin are not a robotic race. When they wage war they do so with passion and gusto, singing war songs, roaring oaths, and cracking jokes in the face of death.

-However, some foes could crack the Kin's war pragmatism. The Orks do so more than any other faction. Increasingly, The Tyranids have earned the ire of the Kin for the sheer and utter desolation they leave in their wake. Foes such as these who had heaped repeated insults and shame on the Kin become subject to a Grudge. The Kin then would spare great amounts of resources and expend many lives to see them annihilated even if they harmed themselves in the process.

-Kin technology is of superb durability, reliability, power, and efficiency. Even the most basic Kin trooper is armored and armed at a higher standard than other races. The guns of the Kin bear superficial similarities to the Imperium's weapons. However, they are superior in almost every respect.

-Beastmen possess robust and strong bodies that possess agility and dexterity that allow them to be excellent climbers allowing traverse terrain that is normally impassable for baseline humans.

-Throughout the Imperium the Beastmen suffer severe persecution. On many worlds, they are hunted down and slaughtered en mass as unclean mutants. On Imperial worlds where they are tolerated, beastmen are indoctrinated into self-loathing and told to atone for the crime of their existence by serving mankind without question. Beastmen are treated like beasts of burden or servitors and thrown into the most dangerous work environments. In times of war, Beastmen are given simple weapons and are used as cannon fodder or shock troopers.

-Despite their appearance, the beastmen possess human reasoning and intelligence. Many of them understand the injustices inflicted on them by the Imperium. So many of the beastmen succumb to the lure of Chaos and start to see their mutations as gifts from the gods. They rebel against their Imperial masters and seek out heretical lords that would favor what they are.

-Not all Beastmen join Chaos due to Imperial mistreatment. Some Beastmen are born to uncorrupted human parents. If they are not killed, they are often abandoned and are picked by Beastmen herds. Then there are the Turnskins. Humans who turned into Beastmen by exposure to the Warp. These unfortunates are so enthralled by Chaos that they themselves don't recognize it as they edge toward damnation.

-Some Chaos cultists seek to transform themselves into Beastmen seeing their powerful forms as blessings of the Chaos Gods. They endure tortuous corrupting rituals seeking out this curse. Not all of them gain what they want. Some are torn by the energies of Chaos and others are transformed into Chaos spawn.

-Large Beastmen herds will always dominate the warbands of lesser followers of Chaos. But due to their lack of technology, they cannot wage war across world after world. This means they are forced to work with other followers of Chaos.

-Some Chaos warlords value the strength and viciousness of the Beastmen seeing them as worthy assets. The majority, however, do not. Chaos Space Marines feel greater contempt toward the Beastmen than they do toward their human and mutant followers. They will throw their lives to waste the enemies' munitions. Chaos Knights view beastmen no better though the Bastmen revere the war engines as avatars of the Chaos Gods. Traitor Guardsmen commanders tend to cling to their Imperial prejudices against Beastmen and view them with nothing but disgust.

-Beastmen respond to the contempt directed at them with contempt of their own. So unless directed toward a collective goal in the name of the Chaos Gods, the Beastmen won't think twice about warring against other servants of Chaos and sacrificing them to the gods.

-An Admech autopsy of a Chaos Beastmen revealed that it has superior strength, speed, endurance, and agility to humans. Its large lungs and swollen heart would have allowed it to maintain a strenuous physical effort, with no rest, for prolonged periods, suffering only a little physical stress in the process. There is evidence that the Beastman possessed rapid regeneration that allowed it to survive wounds that would have killed or crippled baseline humans. Though the beastman possesses bovine features, its teeth structure, and short digestive system suggest it's a super carnivore.

-The autopsy also revealed that the Beastman's brain is quite human but with superior sensory ability in hearing, smell, and sight. The examination of the prefrontal cortex shows a greater fight or flight response coupled with a tendency for aggression.

The story:

The general intro:

Though, a speck compared to the immensity of the Gallowdark, the Dyad of Zaffre was no small ship by imperial standards. It smashed into the Gallowdark like a harpoon through a whale. Its impact would start a catastrophic chain reaction aboard the Space Hulk. The resulting shockwave caused dozens of energy and fuel sources as well as Warp drives to explode. In a matter of minutes, the entire Gallowdark suffered quake after quake with sections of it being flooded with flames, radioactive fallout, and Warp energy. Various regions of the Gallowdark ruptured with some dislodging from the Space Hulk to drift away in the void.

For those who survived the cataclysmic eruptions, It was a time of death and turmoil. It was also a time of plenty and greed. The devastation had exposed many of the Gallowdark's hidden treasures. Caches of ancient technologies were uncovered waiting to be claimed.

The impact also had another consequence. Signals long trapped by the mass of the Gallowdark were freed. Distress calls that would finally be heard.

The Kin intro:

A prospect of Kin, belonging to the Trans-Hyperian Alliance the most far-traveled of the Leagues, has been tracking the Gallowdark ever since it emerged into Real Space. The prospect name was the Waymakers and they were led by Toryk Farsrtdd, a Brokhyr Iron Master who took great pride in his inventions. He sought to claim the bounty of the Gallowdark to help maintain the technology of his League for generations to come.

Another objective was added when they received distress signals from aboard the Gallowdark. They belonged to centuries-old Ironkin from their own League. The Ironkin are true AI and each possesses a unique body. They have incredible machine intellects and can mimic the social behavior of the Kin perfectly. This meant that the Kin saw the Ironkin as family. The Kin are loyal to whom they consider family. Family is all. Whether of flesh or iron, Kin are kin. There is no difference in status or worth between the Kin and the Ironkin.

The Hearthkyn Salvagers, veteran warriors, and highly skilled Hulk delvers were briefed about the mission. They were tasked with marking the relics and technologies of the Gallowdark for later salvage, that was their primary mission. Their secondary mission was the rescue Ironkin but it can be discarded if the risks prove too high. Though the Kin valued their familial bonds keenly, they also were pragmatic in that they sought to maximize the returns for their effort.

Immediately after arriving at the Gallowdark's location, the Kin knew that their operation would be a complicated one. The Gallowdark suffered immense damage and it was breaking apart. The Kin marked the largest drifting wreckage so that other Kin, regardless if they were from their league or another, would find it and salvage it. They saw it was better that the Space Hulk's resources be claimed by any Kin rather than fall into the ignorant and unworthy hands of the other races of the galaxy.

The Kin began work on the main mass the Gallowdark. Seeing as the Ironkin were located deep within the Space Hulk, they used their ship's HYlass banks to carve an easier shorter passage through toward the Ironkin. Slicing through the outer layers of the Gallowdark as it convulsed from internal eruptions was a risk but it was deemed worthwhile by the Kin. The faster the Salvagers could reach the Ironkin the safer they would be.

One of the Hearthkyn Salvagers squads was led by Theyn Anhad. She was regarded as the finest of the Theyns in the prospect for her superb skill and discipline. With her on the mission, the Kin did not doubt that the Ironkin would be rescued.

The Beastmen intro:

Unknown to the Kin, the Ironkin were in the possession of a Beastmen tribe called the Bullhooves. They ruled a territory called Gods' Hollow with brutality and savagery. The existence of constant warfare against the Orks, human Chaos cultists, Genstealer cults, and other beastmen tribes has hardened the tribe. To them, the Gallowdark was a gift from the gods. It was their home where the hunting was good and the meat was plenty. They thrived and received the blessing of the Chaos Gods with each worthy sacrifice.

Across thousands of years, the ancestors of the tribe had come to the Space Hulk in a variety of ways. Some arrived already mutated, some were humans mutated by the energy of the Warp, and others were born to horrified parents,

The upheaval aboard the Space Hulk had killed many of their warriors and toppled and destroyed a number of their herdstones. The destruction of these structures was an insult to Beastmen. Most importantly they were a grave insult to the dark gods whom they worshipped. It had to be avenged.

Then news arrived of new invaders. The Stunted Ones. They were tech-worshipping blasphemers, Their mere existence was a slight against the gods. Hundreds of them are trespassing on the God's domain. The Bullhooves would not tolerate this, especially the Fellgore ravagers of Knagol Steelfur, the elite of the herd stronger, smarter, and faster than all the rest. They were determined to gore the Stunted Ones and stomp them flat beneath their hooves for the glory of the gods.

The story begins:

Steelfur had already killed many of the recent invaders. The long-eared pales ones with the spiky armor, the Drukhari. The ones with beaks and quills, the Kroot. Both kinds of aliens were good hunters but they were no match for his Fellgores. Their skulls and arms were now offering to the gods and their meat was food for the Beastmen. But these weaklings weren't the only invaders in the Beastmen's home, the Gods' creation and gift.

Steelfur's Fellgores slaughtered Beastmen from another tribe. The Fellgores realised that these weak Beastkin were fleeing from the enemies making their to Gods' Hollow. The Fellgores stalked this enemy's trail.

Steelfur could not catch their scent. He only trailed the carnage the enemy left behind them. The Fellgore's shaman gained the insight to recognize the foe. The shaman said that the threat was of metal and energy but it was not the armored warriors of the false man-god. Steelfur knows this foe already and he must let the gods direct his senses they will reveal it to him. The shaman placed his bloody filthy hand on Steelfur's forehead. By the power of the gods, his senses were expanded and sharpened. He heard, smelled, and tasted this enemy. It was the Stunted Ones. Thieves who invaded their Space Hulk before. The Steelfur had defeated them then and what was left of the thieves was placed at the foot of the herdstone to serve as testimony for their transgressions and blasphemy and to act as a symbol of the god's favor for him.

Now the Stunted Ones have returned. Surely seeking to reclaim what was taken from them. Steelfur vowed that they would fail and that the beastmen would feast on their fat flesh. He had defeated them once and he would see them defeated again.

Alarming the other Beastmen, Steelhfur set to work on an ambush.

Anhad's squad linked with two others before marching toward the signal. It was then that the Beastmen sprang their trap. Steelfur could feel the Space Hulk breaking apart. He would see his home avenged. He threw himself at the Kin. He bashed one Kin to the ground and drove his corrupted chainsword into his helmet. He then rounded upon a charging Kin and vaporized his top half with his plasma pistol. This was far from enough invader blood split for Steelfur. He roared and leaped into the thick of the battle,

Anhad avoided the charge of a beastman who attempted to gore her with his horns. He impacted the corridor wall and his horns were stuck, allowing Anhad to bury her plasma axe into his spine. As she withdrew her axe she received a report from the Kin ship's Voidmaster. He told her that the Space Hulk was about to be drawn back into the Warp. They must hurry.

The Beastmen shaman could feel the swell of the Warp. The Space Hulk was about to return back home to the Warp where it belonged. He harnessed the flooding energies of the Warp and he channeled them into the weapons of two Kin who were blasting apart the Beastmen with their explosive firepower. The two Kin's weapons exploded tearing into them with sharpenel and splashing the corridors with their blood.

Though, Anhad sprinted as fast as she could she could not save two of her squadmates from being hacked to death by a three-limped Bastmen. All she could do was avenge them. She severed one of the Beastman's arms and blew its head off with her bolt pistol.

The Space Hulk was beginning to shake violently causing the Beastmen and Kin to stumble and fall all over the place. Anhad could feel the power of the Warp press against her mind. With the Hulk dangerously unstable and with so many of her kin dead or seriously wounded, she was doubting her course of action.

The Voidmaster contacted her again and told her to get out of there. If she doesn't get out then they are going to lose her and the Ironkin. The Space Hulk will enter the Warp but the Kin could still track it. They can find the Ironkin again.

Anhad protested saying that the Space Hulk might break apart in the Warp. They would lose the Ironkin forever.

The Voidmaster responded by saying that it would pain him greatly to lose the Ironkin but his pain would compound if the Kin lost her and her warriors too.

Before Anhad could reply she vomited inside her helmet as unnatural forces gripped the Space Hulk. She was slammed into the ceiling and back into the ground. Waves of crimson and purple energy flooded the Space Hulk reaching even where Anhad and the Beastmen were fighting. Anhad realized she was too late. The Space Hulk was entering the Warp.