Somehow, the light level of the slave chambers began to fade. It might have seemed like a sunned drain had occurred to the Dark Eldar ship's power, but something else strange happened as well. The crying and shouting of the slaves began to cease, and Aldaric watched them all pull away from the bars, retreating into the backs of their cells. A numerical value in the corner of his interface display suddenly began ticking down. The air temperature was sharply dropping. 

"They've found us." Aldaric began, just as the shadows before them took to life. He had not been expecting Mandrakes, but it was pretty clear to see what they were: Dark Eldar, demonically enhanced, and designed with one purpose. 

With the speed and accuracy of a biological machine, Adlaric swung his weapon and targeted a flicker of green eyes and patterned glowing runes in the darkness at the other end of the chamber. With deadly confidence, he immediately pulled the trigger only to have his weapon unexpectedly sundered by a blade that appeared out of nowhere beside him. The severed barrel exploded in a bright muzzle flash and the discharged round was send wildly off course. Just as Aldaric realized it, the other creature was already on him, white hair flowing behind its black face as it moved in close. A glowing blade was raised in its one hand, driving downward toward his face. 

Utterly devoid of the fear that the mandrake needed for fuel, Aldaric turned his shoulders and stepped inside the oncoming followup attack. With perfect timing, gauntleted fist met face as the descending blade skidded off Aldaric's armor. The mandrake was knocked back in shock, yet not knocked prone. In this room, the mandrakes were surrounded by terrified and suffering slaves, probably hundreds of them, and their power was peaked. It recovered hastily while Aldaric dropped his damaged weapon in exchange for his powersword. 

It surprised him then, as he had thought his allies had been covering behind him, that a blade lodged itself into the back of his armor. The enemy was all around them, in every shadow, in every suggestion. Attempting to take advantage of the opportunity, he swung his hot, humming powerblade at the still slightly staggered mandrake in front of him, only to miss and be hit again from the enemy behind. Aldaric changed direction out of necessity to better defend his blindside, mandrake blade stuck in his back, but now the battle was a mess of melee mayhem, and they were outnumbered. 

Filled with rage and pride, Aldaric fought, his ferocity a match for the assassins' skill, but it was no walk in the park. Every instant, he was informed of a new attack coming from a new direction and was forced to deal with it. His super-human mind accelerated to match pace until his entire consciousness was devoted to nothing but fighting. Even the mandrakes were surprised by his sudden, well timed attacks. Their blood burned off the edge of the powersword as they surrounded him, jumping in and out through the darkness to try to whittle him down. 

Aldaric had no idea how his brothers fared, but it seemed like the brunt of the attack had descended upon himself, or so he hoped. Due to their constant teleportation, he had no idea how many there were, but he knew his team needed to progress to the bridge as quickly as possible. The Deathwatch battlecruiser was at stake in the naval battle outside.