The Scouring of Adaravax

	Arriving in the system first was the pride of the 501st Expeditionary fleet, Dead of Night, a fierce Vengeance-Class Grand Cruiser plated in stone gray and matte blue-gray of the XIVth Legion. The void around the great vessel burst open with the entry of several escorts, support craft, and reinforcements. The edge of the system lit up with the violet hues of the empyrean as the 501st began to move further into the system. The fleet had picked up the remnants of an ancient distress signal from the 2nd planet in this system, a rocky world kept warm by the red giant at its heart. 

	Aboard the bridge of the Dead of Night, Red Star Chapter Master Agafon waited with barely held patience for the initial auspex sweeps to be completed. The bridge of the ship was a buzz with chatter, movement, and excitement. Beside Agafon stood Celera Tryon, Ship Mistress of the Dead of Night. As well as General Rasbutin of the Urshan Tundra Fighters, the militarum contingent accompanying the chapter and the expeditionary fleet. Initial scans were coming in and the trio were discussing initial plans for how best to approach the world. The signal was centuries old by this point, and yet long range scans indicate active human presence.

	“By the Emperor!” Agafon bellowed out, his thick accent giving the impression of anger. “I’m surprised that ancient signal yielded something.” His thick brown beard, clean and well maintained. A scar along his cheek making his smile seem cruel despite the jovial tone in his voice.

	“Aye Lord, I didn’t think we’d find much here.” Celera said, bringing up the newest suite of scans and info to the central holo display for them to see. “And it seems to be considerable. A dozen hab complexes with human life signs across the planet, it appears as though there had been more but…” Her tone seemed concerned, her fingers moving across the dataslate in her hand as she double checked the scans before pushing them to the front. “We seem to have an issue.” 

	“And what exactly do the scans show ?” General Rasbutin inclined his head with curiosity as the hololithic display shifted to show the incoming planetary scans. Thick crimson masses below the planet’s crust showed teeming swarms of non-human life easily numbering in the tens of millions.”By the void, what are those things?” The old general sputtered, not quite sure what to make of the readings.

	“Unsure just yet. Initial scans show subterranean tunnels and chambers that run deep beneath the mining hubs. They seem to be lined with a thick metallic coating that obscures auspex readings deeper down.” Celera stated calmly as she continued to go over the reports and readings. “We’ll need to get on the surface to gather more information on what we will be dealing with, I fear.” She looked over to Agafon who had remained silent, observing the hololith and listening to the Ship Mistress.

	“We will attempt to establish communication with the inhabited mining hubs, if we can learn what they know then we will save time. Deploy scout craft to the surface to gather more info on these tunnel structures and those overtaken mining hubs.” He said, jovial tone gone and replaced with stern authority as he set the plan in motion.”If we can establish a line to the humans down there, offer them the mercy of the Emperor, beloved by all, if they refuse then they will be fuel for the fire that burns this planet.” His voice thick with resolve as he slowly began to take his leave of the bridge. “I shall make further preparations among my marines, forward all subterranean scans to my quarters Ship Mistress.”

	“Aye Lord, as you command.” Celera whipped the bridge into a frenzy as orders were given and sent down the chain of command with haste as the astartes left to prepare.

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	The surface of Adarax was a craggy landscape of dull browns, grays, and reds. The earth was so rich with iron and other metals in some places that glimmering seams of it could be seen with the naked eye in the distant mountains and valleys that filled the horizon. In the distance stood the last large scale mining hub on the planet, known as Bastion to the locals, which had stood against the Vulgare since they arrived on the planet. According to the locals, they were giant bugs capable of chewing through metal and rock that arrived in a storm of meteors one night barely a century ago and have been a problem ever since. Pushed from the mining hubs that acted as home for millenia, the Vulgare have made their homes in the old mining facilities and chewed away at the processed metals for their hives and tunnels. They were all too happy to accept the assistance of the 501st Expeditionary Fleet in dealing with the giant insects in exchange for joining the fledgling Imperium. 

	The thunderhawk rumbled and shook as it entered the atmosphere in a blaze of fire, loaded with astartes prepped and geared The first team with the honor of going into the tunnels was led by sergeant Szymon, a younger lad with long brown hair and a rare youthful charm that is rarely seen amongst the XIVth, who’d shown his metal during the Ceres campaigns. Now he led a squad of 20 battle-brothers through Bastion’s densely packed hab blocks as they marched towards the lower levels. The humans here were strong, though malnourished and crammed too densely for the intended population limits of these mining hubs. Scrawny mortals backed into narrow spaces and ramshackle homes as the heavily armored giants of the XIVth walked through, whispers followed behind them as their heavy ceramite treading gave the illusion that they’d not be overheard.

‘They’re massive, are they really human?’

‘Surely they are robots of some kind right?’

‘No no, they move too well for robots. They must be monsters’

“A far cry from the folks on Terra.” Uriah called over the squad vox, cut off from the ears of the Bastion’s residents.

“You’re not wrong brother, but they are Imperial citizens now. If we’re lucky, they’ll bulk up with some food in their bellies and fill the Legion’s ranks.” Szymon replied as he led them onto the heavy elevator that would lower them down into the mines. It had been sealed for a decade and they’d be the first to go down.

“You really think they’re worth it? Can’t say I’m impressed sergeant.” Uriah rebutted as he checks his bolter with the rest of the squad, luckily they had a few specialists with melta guns at the ready. They weren’t sure just how durable these insects would be.

“Neither were we before we were plucked from the streets of Ursh.” The bulkhead sealing off the mineshaft began to open, the old servos for the door crunching and straining from years of disuse, rust and age. The squad lined the edges and prepared themselves, bolters over the side and lights flashing on into the dark maw opening before them. “It’ll be like running through the catacombs of the old city brothers, just with bigger bugs.” Szymon continued.

“Bah, those catacomb crawlers were nothing to be afraid of. You really think these bugs will be any worse?” Buris asked, the jovial tone in his voice lacking any fear for the bugs down here.

“The Vulgare are about 10 times bigger than any catacomb crawler, and if the auspex are right, as heavily armored as we are.” The sergeant clarified, pulling the lever to start lowering the squad of Astartes down the mine shaft. It was empty, thankfully, but what should have been a rock shaft was lined with thick strands of thick steel fiber coated the walls all the way down as the astartes swept their lights from side to side. 

The elevator reached the bottom floor, a large natural cavern sprawled out before them. The walls and ceiling had long since been coated in the wet shimmering metallic strands they’d seen on the way down. Without needing a command, three astartes begin to perform auspex sweeps of the material and the cave around them while the others set a perimeter. Sergeant Szymon took point at the opening of the largest tunnel that seemed to run further down into the planet’s crust. Kneeling down at the threshold of the tunnel, he noticed the metallic webbing was on the floor going down the tunnel as well, but the cavern space had been left bare grey stone. He looked it over with some curiosity. Why would these bugs not cover the floor in the cavern? They certainly didn’t lack materials to use for it, he went to touch it when the ground began to shake violently from the direction of another tunnel to the west. Another curious marine had touched the metal flooring at the threshold of that tunnel. The echo of skittering and clicking metal reverberated down the tunnel and to the squad of astartes.

“Everyon! Form defensive lines, get those melta guns primed and ready to fire.” Szymon called out, running towards the tunnel as he began to coordinate his team. The skittering grew louder and harsher, an endless cacophony of metal on metal sounding like a machine ripping itself apart, echoed up the shaft as glints of light from their lumens started to reflect back to them. Segmented plates of metal overlapping down the length of creatures that must have been atleast 10 feet long and twice as wide as the average astartes.Their mouths were a mess of rock crushing mandibles around a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, thick and keen and approaching rapidly. 

Bolter fire barked like a storm crashing down beneath the earth as the XIVth unleashed living hell on the oncoming stream of bugs. As bolter fire struck its mark, metal plates dented, cracked, and broke off with enough abuse, but the creatures were resilient. Many still pushing forward if the strike failed to kill outright