In January 2020, Finland-based part of the Iron Sleet crew and the extended hobby family made first contact with The Primogenitor on tabletop in Kill Team format. The games were played under the streets of Helsinki, below the sea-level in the most fitting setting provided by Alexander Winberg of the Echoes of Imperium.

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++decrypting astropathic communique…++

++parsing…++

++transcription starts:++

For all Imperial forces whom this might concern//

Distress signal: Threat (code 129qsdkH-I) “The Primogenitor“//

CONTENT: Requesting relief force and reinforcements (see memorandum attached)//

STATUS: Urgent//

By the order of General Militant Thetran Diocleton

“This communique contains vital intelligence regarding the threat code 129qsdkH-I, and the current status of our counter-offensive. It is imperative that the implications of our report are taken into account and adequately responded with necessary actions.

Our rapid-counter-offensive forces dispatched by the Astra Militarum Ultima Sector command has breached way in and we have ventured inside the threat. Our trek has taken us through the corrupted amalgamations and kilometers after kilometers of conjoined spaceship husks. Recoinnassance troops and breacher-units paved the way for the rest of the force. The progress has not been without a cost. Men were lost to gravity fluctuations and void pockets while clearing the way, drilling through the hulls and detonating obstacles. Traversing the insides of the hulk has been a gallery of wonders and horrors. We have traveled through vast derelict, gold plated galleries of grand Imperial ships long lost, and through oily and damp, forgotten cargo-holds of lesser vessels. There has been areas and sectors of xenos and unknown origin, some corrupted and twisting where men and women lose their minds, some inviting like returning to a long lost home, only to find out that you have been left behind. Marching towards the core of The Primogenitor is like walking through the history of everything that has been and will be in our galaxy. And, according to our geologus augurs, we are still on the very outer stratums of this vast celestial body, despite the fact that we have already been advancing for days. The initial scans at the launch of this counter-offensive were horribly faulty: We are facing something that can immediately threaten the coreworlds and the Throneworld itself.

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First contact with sentient hostiles were made in enginarium of an ancient and mummified Munitorum barge. Putrid and rotten pipelines and decks were crusted with centuries of rubble, and noxious miasma was choking the men when we entered through the ship’s hull. Disease, waste and excrement of half-organic origin crept in the walls, as an interlude what was going to happen next. Our regiment was assaulted by bloated figures that emanated sickness with their mere presence. Like rot starting to bloom in carcass, they appeared from the edges of the vision of my men and mounted a heavy assault ripping through the lines. The las was nothing to them, and after a brief struggle of a combat we were forced to retreat. By their corrupted silhoutte, our savants were able to identify them as renegade space marines serving one of the main disciplines of the Archenemy.

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On our rout the vox-officers picked up crypted signal-traffic of Imperial origin. We hailed the source as protocol demands in such situations, and we were answered by the Adeptus Astartes Scout insertion cohort of the Tears of Terra Chapter. The noble imperial Astartes had encountered similar resistance. They had been forced to retreat after a bloody engagement with ripworld Corsair-forces, also renegade Astartes in nature. The combat had left them bruised and mauled, but they had inflicted serious damage on their opponents as well. However, the renegade marines had managed to secure a significant amount of munitions in the end.

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We continued our joint retreat, which was soon interrupted by a combined staccato of bolter fire at a junction between two hauler-barges. We had walked straight into an ambush laid down by the Corsairs and the Rotten, which implies that the traitor forces are in a covenant of some sorts, or at least able to cooperate against common enemy. The renegade forces advanced from opposite sides, laying down suppressive fire to disperse our combined forces. Their combined blitz effectively split our forces in two, leaving me and my command elements in between and at the mercy of the traitors, while rest our forces and the Tears split in opposite directions into the hulk.

The division caused by the sudden pitfall did not last for long. The Imperials, Astartes and Militarum respectively, rallied, and mounted a retaliatory attack against the traitor forces to free our command elements from their grasp. Madness and skirmish war ensued. Corsair forces were desperately trying to haul their prize away from the battle and shooting overwatch, while the Rot was harrying the Imperials with hails of concentrated fire. Militarum released the breacher-units and auxiliary forces upon the traitors, stampeding through the renegades to aid their commander. Loyal Astartes of the Tears of Terra dominated the battlefield by sniping the chaos-serving enemies. In the end, the Imperials prevailed, and the Archenemy was driven back towards the core of the hulk into their domains.

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As I transcribe this message, we are currently heading back towards the surface so that this information can be sent by our regimental Astropath. This hulk is a cesspit of corruption and malign forces. We only scratched the vast planet-sized surface, and encountered two formidable forces of the Primordial Annihilator. The threat this hulk poses to the Imperium is far more grave than we thought. I sincerely hope this communique reaches able elements of the Imperium that can deliver this message to Sector control and Adeptus Terra”

++end of astropathic communique++