Space Hulks

Space Hulks
Among the many dangers of the depths of space are Space Hulks.  These amalgams of many starships, lesser spacecraft, asteroids, void beast carcasses, and even void platforms are among the most hazardous places in the Galaxy.  Each is, by nature, drenched in the unreal energies of the Warp, the radiation of outer space, and the shrapnel of civilizations.  Intermittent gravity, atmosphere, heating, light, and vacuum make them about the worst place for a sustained combat action.  As a result, many parties keep careful track of Space Hulks, either to mark them out for destruction or to use them.  Orks use them as a migration platform for their dirty race (if they lack the means to direct them), or as titanic warships (if they have those means).  Genestealers and other Tyranid organisms use them to spread their taint from star system to star system, or to the crews of boarding vessels.  Daemons may find Hulks that lack Gellar Field defense and possess them, waiting to be carried out of the Warp to an unsuspecting world.
Boarding Space Hulks presents great rewards, however.  The technology of the Imperium has decayed tremendously in the eleven millennia since its foundation.  Space Hulks, assuming they go without slamming into something too large to drag into the Warp, may hold treasures of archaeotechnology that predate the Emperor’s rise to power.  Other ships may have been carrying great wealth, people in stasis, or xenotech.  An Imperial expedition that can secure a Space Hulk for the Imperium can both stymie a serious threat and deliver a great bolstering of power to the region lucky enough to make reception of the vast Hulk.
Some Imperial shipyards are even large enough to pry whole shipwrecks from Space Hulks and rebuild them without disassembly.  These vessels are considered ill-starred by some crews, but if the ships are old and potent enough, that may be a risk worth taking.  The Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperial Navy, the Inquisition, and the Adeptus Astartes keep constant vigil for any Space Hulks that may drift into the sight of the Imperium.

A brief listing, by no means complete, of the Space Hulks of historic importance to the Greater Tri-Sector is found here:
Sigma Golf 7152 (crashed on Foraldshold): This Space Hulk was heavily damaged when it first appeared on the scopes of the Adeptus Mechanicus.  Clearly, at some point, the Hulk had been subject to colossal boarding efforts by unknown entities.  The Adeptus Mechanicus Genetors suspect that the Hulk was subject to a failed capture attempt by an unencountered race of xenos, given the perplexing variety of weapons that the Orks aboard have used against the Skitarii of Foraldshold: the Orks may have simply looted their invaders.  The Hulk is beyond repair, and the Adeptus Mechanicus would dearly like to strip and recycle it once the Orks are purged, if that is still possible.
Predator (crashed on Lossos): A relatively small Hulk, but no less dangerous for it.  The Ordo Xenos has confirmed that thousands of Genestealers sit in stasis aboard this Hulk, awaiting a chance to awaken and infect their prey.  Predator collided with Lossos, obliterating the entire Mining World proto-colony, and only horrifying losses among the Tempestus Scions that were sent to investigate prevented a subsequent disaster.
Inescapable Approach (destroyed): Ordo Xenos Lord Inquisitor Hueng gave the order to destroy this Hulk, before it had the chance to obliterate an Imperial world.  The Navy preferred to salvage it, and even dispatched some boarders to that effect, but the Inquisitor judged the risk too high that the Navy would fail to divert it from the world it was about to impact.  Two hundred voidsmen were condemned by the order, but the alternative, in Hueng’s eyes, would have been far worse.
Unnamed Space Hulk (captured by Motherlode pirates): The pirates of the Motherlode have long since stripped this Hulk for parts and salvage, after it was directed to them by their new First Officer Kirosa.  The stone that caused Captain Kirosa to be slain and in-dwelt by a daemon of Nurgle is gone now, hidden away by the Eldar it slew, but the rest of the Hulk has fueled the Motherlode pirates for years with its value.
Mortifracture (captured by the Iron Hands for the Adeptus Mechanicus): This Hulk was in the process of being reworked by Orks, who were intent on turning it into a super-battleship.  When the Iron Hands learned of this, they staged a hasty boarding action.  Although it cost dozens of the Chapter’s finest to seize, seize it they did, and turned it over to the Adeptus Mechanicus in exchange for a pair of new Cruisers for their fleet.  It was this Hulk’s relatively ‘pristine’ state, such as it was, coupled with its huge Ork population, that first alerted the Cognomen Adeptus Mechanicus to the existence of extensive Orkholds in the Cloudburst Circuit.
Forlorn Sight (Septiim): This Space Hulk arrived in the Septiim system during the height of the Seventh Glasian Migration.  Scans by the Forge Moon of Solstice revealed that the ship was being contested by a force of daemons and Orks, with the Orks eventually emerging victorious once the grip of the Warp on the Hulk faded.  The scans further revealed that the Hulk contained the remains of the ancient Imperial Navy carrier Greenpath, an eight-kilometer Grand Cruiser, which the Blue Daggers suspect of carrying shuttles for a ground invasion.
Dreadful Sight (destroyed): A joint boarding action by multiple Space Marine and Skitarii forces destroyed this Hulk before it could collide with the human colony of Triune.  Its ancient hulls were a painful loss for the Adeptus Mechanicus, but even they judged it was not worth the loss of an entire world packed with archaeotech.
Haunted Coffin (currently in Cloudburst Circuit): This Hulk’s existence is inferred rather than observed.  The genetically-identical strains of Ork Freebooters on the Cloudburst Circuit’s northern edges suggest that their spores are all coming from a single source, and the Adeptus Mechanicus has calculated a vast but randomly-relocating Space Hulk to be the most likely culprit.  However, its location, if it does exist, is so far from the explored regions of the Circuit that there is no realistic chance of finding it any time soon.
Speeding Death (destroyed in the Gothic War): While it was destroyed during the final years of the Gothic War, the Speeding Death was first formed during the 400s century of M40 in the Cloudburst Sector.  The fluctuations of the Astronomican in that period led to the loss of many Rogue Trader ships that had been outside the usual Warp lanes of the region at the time.  Many of them amalgamated into a Space Hulk, which became the Speeding Death.
Ascension of Grey (currently in Drumnos Sector): This vast, wretched thing is the bane of the pirate-hunters of the Drumnos Sector Battlefleet.  The Hulk’s movements are so unpredictable that putting fixed defenses in place is about the only thing the Battlefleet can think to do, as attempting to follow it seems pointless.  The Hulk is gigantic, being nearly sixteen kilometers in diameter, and roughly spherical.  It is so large, in fact, that there is no one faction that has seized control of its interior, although everything from pirates to daemons to a Genestealer swarm have tried.  Even Chaos Space Marines and a horde of Imperial Missionaria Galaxia pilgrims have boarded the Hulk for their own reasons, yet none have seized it.  Chunks have broken off in the past, scattering debris and bits of shipwreck along its path.
Unholy Realms (currently in Drumnos Sector): First sighted in 631.M41, this Space Hulk is a small one, no more than seven kilometers wide.  The Hulk is made up in part of nickel asteroids that the Adeptus Mechanicus Astra Explorators have analyzed, and discovered to be from the YCS186 belt in the uninhabited Drumnos system known as Gholem (for the strange xenos sculptures that decorate the system’s moons).  The Hulk is packed to the gills with stasis-preserved Genestealers.  The Deathwatch would prefer to destroy it, rather than risk a purge where any force they send could be outnumbered a thousand to one, but the Hulk is so ancient and full of riches that the Adeptus Mechanicus would seek any other resolution first, before attempting a destruction mission.
Zeta Hotel 4442 (currently in orbit of ARHM 656): Next to nothing is known about this Space Hulk aside from its astral cognate code, thanks to having been discovered so late in the Imperium’s history.  The Hulk was first sighted when it orbited in the path of the light from the star ARHM 656 in the thin, hazardous belt of debris that separates the Cloudburst and Naxos Sectors.  The original discovery was made by a Techpriest in the retinue of Inquisitor Havermann, who had more pressing concerns, and thus reported the Hulk’s presence to the Inquisitorial Conclave Cloudburst to name at their leisure.  Once it has been named, the Adeptus Mechanicus Basilikon Astra Dominus council on Cognomen will decide how best to map the Hulk, and whether it is worth boarding.  Absolutely nothing else about it is known; not even the number of individual shipwrecks and asteroids in its amalgam.
Zoggin’ Good Time (currently stocking up on supplies at Gorkypark): The nightmare of the Imperial Navy: a Space Hulk under Ork control and ready for stompin’.  The Zoggin’ Good Time is under the command of the Big Mek Drulak Goresmash, an independent Mek Boss, and is currently putting in for trade and supply at Gorkypark.  Deathwatch reconnaissance from Watch Point Gravity identified the Hulk by the name the Orks gave it.  The Deathwatch believes the huge Hulk – over fourteen kilometers long and ten wide – to be a sort of flying carnival, where Boyz can travel from Sector to Sector, gambling teef on when and where they will emerge next, and tormenting unwelcome boarders for sport.  The idea of Boss Bluddwrencha somehow gaining control of the Hulk, perhaps by winning it from Goresmash in a game of chance or skill, keeps the Deathwatch serfs responsible for collating intelligence from Watch Point Gravity up at night.
Loadsateef (currently on border between Cloudburst Circuit and Oldlight Exo-zone): Unlike the Zoggin’ Good Time, this Hulk is outfitted for war, not long-range travel.  This Space Hulk was the one that deposited Big Chief Squiggothrider on Oglith.  It then disappeared back into the Warp when it was done disgorging the Orks on the surface of the planet.  It was originally accompanied by a sizable fleet of Ork ships, and to the surprise of the Imperial Navy, they did not follow the Space Hulk back into the Warp when the Loadsateef re-entered the Immaterium.  This suggests to the Navy’s analysts that perhaps Big Chief Squiggothrider did not command the Hulk, but was instead merely one of many powerful Orks aboard.  The Space Hulk was later sighted again, a mere few light-years spinward, this time totally unescorted.  The Deathwatch is weighing their options for capturing the Space Hulk once the Seventh Glasian Migration comes to an end.
Spectre (unknown, presumed in Naxos Sector): This mysterious blob of dead ships and rotting Tyranid guts has been sighted over thirty times by Adeptus Terra and Adeptus Mechanicus satellites throughout the Naxos Sector.  Unfortunately, it has never held still long enough to be boarded by humankind.  However, the psykers of the Naxos Inquisition have learned through intense scrying efforts that a peculiarly large number of spiritual resonances of some sort exist aboard, immobile.  This leads some Ordo Xenos Inquisitors to speculate that perhaps the Space Hulk contains an intact Aeldari Infinity Circuit or their smaller ship-board equivalent.  Ordo Malleus Inquisitors have a darker explanation, as they often do: the ship may be possessed by powerful daemons that have somehow merged with its cogitator infrastructures.  The presence of Tyranid carcasses bearing unidentified chemical burns on their void-skins raises only more questions: no Tyranid bioships of those forms have ever been identified in the Greater Tri-Sector, so just how far has the Spectre traveled to appear in the region?
Cosmic Stain (currently in Naxos Sector): This horrifying Space Hulk more than lives up to its name.  Formed from the remains of ships across the history of humankind, from early Golden Age colony barques to nearly-new Rogue Trader livestock ships, the Cosmic Stain is a portent of woe and fear.  The Hulk, by means unknown, emits ghastly waves of radiation that act as gravity sinks, disturbingly similar to the Gravitic weapons employed by the early Legionnes Astartes before the end of the Great Crusade.  Any ship that gets too close, from opportunistic scavengers to fleeing victims, risks being sucked into its hull and merged with it by the mutative power of the Warp.  In one notorious incident, an entire Adeptus Ministorum pilgrim barge was drawn into the hull.  Boarders report that the souls of the pilgrims are still aboard.  Wailing specters of its victims fly helplessly around any boarders’ peripheral vision, pleading for mercy from the thirsting daemons that chase them eternally, driving any boarders mad.  Any boarders stuck on the Hulk when it re-enters the Warp will join the damned, as surely as the Emperor protects those who protect themselves from the lure of the Cosmic Stain.
Mortessence (currently in Naxos Sector): A daemon-haunted charnel house of frothing plague, and the enemy of the Celestial Knights Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.  This ancient Space Hulk formed during the Reign of Blood, and despite the most persistent efforts of the Knights, it taunts them with its continuing survival.  Over a hundred Celestial Knights have lost their lives while attempting to clear and capture this incalculably valuable Space Hulk.  The amalgam contains no fewer than nineteen Imperial ships, including an Inquisitorial Longstrike-class battlecruiser not manufactured in a thousand years.  Two of the other eighteen ships are vessels of the Celestial Knights themselves, a Strike Cruiser and a Hunter escort.  Both of them were lost when the Knights attempted to capture the Hulk, only to be denied their prize when the daemonically-infused mass re-entered the Warp.  Quite aside from the sheer value of the Space Hulk, honor compels the Celestial Knights to attempt to board the Mortessence, to avenge the fallen, and purge it of the taint of Nurgle.
Accatran’s Shadow (classified by order of Inquisitorial Ordo Machinum): No details exist outside the Inquisition (and, obviously, Adeptus Mechanicus) regarding this Space Hulk’s history.  Telescopic observations of its hull reveal that its core consists of a dozen small ships and the thirteen-mile long Ark Mechanicus Scalding Truth, lost during the defensive actions of the Basilikon Astra against the mad High Lord Goge Vandire.  Why the Inquisition would take the drastic step of arresting any Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Adepts that attempt to learn more about the ship, why it is named after a Forge World well outside the Greater Tri-Sector, and most importantly: why the Adeptus Mechanicus has no objections to these arrests, are questions no sane mind would ask openly.  Regardless, the Space Hulk is a scourge, having deposited xenos horrors with no name on a dozen worlds around the region.
Spiral of Darkness (currently in Cloudburst Sector): A relatively young Space Hulk.  This ugly lump of steel and Adamantium is made of nine ships, seven of them human, and was first sighted by radio and visual spectrum cameras in orbit around the planet Oromet.  The Space Hulk is currently skidding along in the darkness between two star systems in the Hapster Subsector, but it will fall into the Warp at any moment, so thin is the boundary of the Materium there.  The Inquisition has classified the Hulk as dead, given that it emits zero heat and is completely ballistic, meaning that when it reappears, it may be ‘safe’ to board it.  However, there are no forces available to do so at present.
Circling Crows (currently in Drumnos Ribbon): This Space Hulk’s existence is a closely-guarded secret of the Deathwatch.  Watch Station Shade detected the thing while surveying smugglers partaking of the trade of verboten xenos artifacts.  The Space Hulk dropped out of the Warp, scaring the smugglers into scattering.  Initial scans of the thing revealed, to the surprise of the Deathwatch, that it contains none less than the Deathwatch Battle Barge Eternal Triumphs, one of the four Battle Barges assigned to the Deathwatch supreme headquarters of Talasa Prime, literally on the opposite side of the galaxy.  How in the name of the Emperor one of the most valuable ships in history could have wound up so far from home is a mystery, but the Deathwatch has already tasked Watch Captain Hugo with preparing his Watch Company for a boarding action.  The rest of the Circling Crows is no lesser prize, as it contains two vessels from the Adeptus Astra Telepathica League of Blackships and a colossal Itus livestock barge: prizes beyond value for the resource-hungry and population-rich Drumnos Sector.  However, until the history of the Hulk is ascertained, the Deathwatch and High Inquisitrix Lerica have decided to keep its existence an airtight secret, for obvious reasons of security.  Should the Hulk be taken, however, the Circling Crows will be a staggeringly useful catch for the Imperium.
Maxient’s Cousin (currently in Cloudburst Circuit): Named in derision for the hideous space station it resembles, Maxient’s Cousin was given its mocking sobriquet by Adeptus Administratum Astocartigraphicae Mapper Brunswick, who discovered its existence by detecting the gravity wobble it caused on the dust surrounding his void platform.  The platform, located in the outermost reach of the system Paros, host of the Imperial Exchequer and Mint for the Greater Tri-Sector, is responsible for making and transmitting maps of the huge region for the Segmentum Fortress.  That is too important a task for the money- and politics- obsessed Drumnos Sector Command, and too delicate for the war-shredded Naxos Sector Command, so the job was entrusted to the Paros government instead, who were happy to take the responsibility for the extra prestige it granted them.  The Space Hulk, a clump of shipwrecks and silicate asteroids, truly does resemble the void platform after which it was named, all the way across the Tri-Sector from Paros.  Although the Space Hulk was sighted first in Paros, it was later carried far to the spinward reach of the Cloudburst Circuit by potent Warp Currents.  The Adeptus Mechanicus fears that it might be flung out of the galaxy entirely, although the Navis Nobilite of the fleets of the region suspect that to be highly unlikely.  It appears to have been born of a great collision between the Universe-class Mass Conveyor Kolen’s Bounty and the Imperial Navy Lunar Cruiser Fist of Walsermarch, both reported lost in an assault by Chaos fleets on the Imperial Agri-world Brunnhilde in 210.M40.  The Imperial Navy remains quite dishonored by the unexpected defeat they suffered in that invasion, and would most pointedly look well upon any who managed to reclaim the Space Hulk (and change its name).
The Tomb (currently anchored in Drumnos Sector): This Space Hulk was originally named Harbinger of Darkness.  At the time of its discovery, it was observed drifting rapidly through the outer reaches of the Calivaris Subsector, emitting radio waves consistent with the taunts and ramblings of the Ork.  In 599.M41, the local Imperial Navy and a pair of Deathwatch Kill-teams effected a boarding action, and to their horror, they discovered that the constituent ships of the Harbinger of Darkness had all been of a particular Imperial bend.  The cleansing of the Orks was thorough and vengeful, and when it was done, the Hulk was hauled to the Forge World Monégasque and anchored there.  Typically, a Space Hulk of such size would be held as valued salvage, but the Harbinger of Darkness was instead renamed The Tomb, and consecrated to the Emperor.  This was done, because the constituent ships of the Space Hulk had been quickly discovered to all come from the same convoy.  It had been a colony convoy, meant to occupy a new world at the very coreward edge of the Drumnos Sector, only for every single ship to be sucked into a gravitic shoal and plunge into the Warp.  They were the Glowing Lights colony ship Venture, three Jericho transports, an Itus livestock barge, a Mechanicus colonial pre-fabricated building barque, and an Adeptus Administratum Astrocartigraphicae mapping ship.  Now, the Space Hulk has been turned into a memorial to the victims of the Warp’s fickle tides.  The initial instinct of the Navy was to cover it up, but there were simply too many people in the crews of the ships participating in the boarding for that to be effective.  In memory of those lost, only the Warp Drives and Gellar Fields of the ships were removed.