The Rigged Fortune was utterly ignoring him. This was good, for the moment. Xepherial was relieved to see transport shuttles depart from the ship, rather than missiles. However, the shuttles bypassed his position without a second thought, all flying directly into a massive rent in the hulk as if their mission were of utmost priority. The former Dark Angel could only guess at what that mission was. At least for now, he was safe. 

Several other ships suddenly began to appear in the surrounding space, each having no apparent relation to the other, and Xepherial realized that this spacehulk was a hotbed of attraction. His excuse was that he had come here on the words of a seer who had spoken of finding a lost brother, among other ambiguous things. Yet it was clear that something had drawn others as well. Xepherial found it peculiar that all  of them appeared to be arriving at almost the exact same time. A quick statistical analysis revealed that it was too unlikely to be mere coincidence. 

Xepherial had no idea if this mysterious lost relation of his was to be found on one of these ships or within the spacehulk itself... or perhaps not at all. A flicker of anxiety gripped him as he remembered the flare of infrared he had seen on [i]-chip's[/i] main display. That little ship had suffered some kind of damage. His armor immediately responding to his will, his greeves' magnetic grip on the hulk released, and Xeph spacewalked over to the "landed" small ship.

It appeared to be intact, still radiating heat from its engines. After a brief inspection, it was clear no living beings were aboard. Using his tech-savy, Xepherial was able to open the hatch and board the craft. What he saw made him stop in his tracts and pray. There were burnt-to-ash bodies, human by the skulls, everything was burned. There were also signs of a battle, several battles, based on the claw marks and other damage inside. But what was most blasphemous of all was the merciless mutation and defamation the once ancient and treasured ship had endured. It had been modified in most unholy ways and was practically beyond repair. It begged to return to the Omnissiah, in final death. Xepherial blessed himself so that he would not come under the machine spirit's wrath. Whoever did this, and killed those people, deserved retribution.

Silently seething, Xepherial synced with the ships' cogitator and gathered information on the last few warp jumps, what direction they had come from, and what had brought them here. There was an unusual signal coming from deep inside the spackhulk. That was all he could gather. Then he noticed a live communications link still left on.

It was quiet, only broadcasting the sounds of static. Xepherial instinctively reached for the transmitter, but inexplicably stopped himself. ... Who would be on the receiving end? What had the seer said about "his own?" He hesitated, then pressed the button. ... He said nothing, and nothing was the reply. Saddened, and perplexed by the unresolved mystery of the last moments of this abused vessel, Xepherial exited back out to the hulk. The bodies, both living and machine, would have to be left behind while he continued his search. Hopefully, this brother of his hadn't been incinerated just yet. He had to explore and to prepare himself to encounter potential enemies. 

Xepherial would return to the location of the large hull breach where he had started and follow the transport shuttles he had seen earlier. Of course, by the time he discovered the parked shuttles, their occupants would have moved on.