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Meanwhile, [[Lucoryphus]] of the [[Bleeding Eyes]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptor]] Squad, now designated Ninth Claw, leads his 19 soldiers ahead of First Claw in scouting actions, looking for enemies and further potential salvage. They are able to move faster as they are able to burn through bulkheads with melta weapons, (instead of cutting through which First Claw must make do with Deltrian's servitors) as well as crawl through vents. Ninth Claw finds themselves on board a [[strike cruiser]] of the [[Astartes]]. Reaching the power core they discover that it is of the [[XVIII Legion]], the [[Salamanders]], named the ''Protean''. [[Vorasha]], Lucoryphus' second-in-command shuts down the power to redundant areas when they hear [[bolter]] fire, coming not from First Claw but presumably from Salamanders else where on the ship. Lucoryphus takes half the team to hunt the Salamanders whilst Vorasha stays behind to control the power flow and the ships systems.
Deltrian and Septimus have reached the centre of the Mechanicus ship where the [[techpriest]] is hacking through the protection of the main cogitator archive. First Claw is divided up into 3 teams of [[Xarl]] and [[Uzas]], [[Cyrion]] and [[Mercutian]] and Talos and [[Variel]] and all have come under attack from waves of genestealers, recently woken by their [[Genestealer Patriarch|Patriarch]], who are weak and sluggish due to their long phase of hibernation. Of note is that the patriarch makes a move on Cyrion and Mercutian who are guarding one of the flanks. Mercutian's [[heavy bolter]] wounds and drives off the patriarch who comes back later to a vent leading to the chamber where Deltrian and Septimus are. Deltrian senses its presence and sends an unconcerned message to Talos without telling and worrying Septimus.
Lucoryphus and his squad are tracking a Salamander in [[Terminator]] armour who appears to be acting strangely, firing at shadows whilst chasing '''Shar Gan''' down the corridor. Lucoryphus voxes Vorasha and tells him to seal two bulkheads either side of the Salamander whilst Lucoryphus' squad hangs above and drops, ten [[chainswords]] churning into the Terminator.
Talos and Variel return to the techpriest and artificier to stand guard and protect them from the patriarch [[Genestealer Patriarch|Patriarch]] should it attack. Septimus, who has been wondering about his role in this mission, questions Talos on his purpose, whether it is to be bait for the attraction of the genestealers. Talos explains that there is a possibilty that they could be present on the hulk for days and that their armour may need repairing and tending to. Talos is then interrupted by Lucoryphus on the vox. His squad has been killed in a failed ambush of a Salamander. Lucoryphus barely managed to escape himself, having been forced to use a [[melta]] to blast a whole through the roof and soar through enemy fire to escape, becoming wounded in the process. Talos orders him to stand down, to regroup with Vorasha and return to the ''Echo of Damnation'' staying clear of the Salamanders. Lucoryphus confirms this to be his intentions before cutting the link and ordering Vorasha to take his squad and awaken more genestealers and lead them into the Salamanders, attaining vengeance for the Bleeding Eyes against both enemies.
The [[Genestealer patriarch Patriarch|Patriarch]] having sat in the darkness, silently calling its kin to assault First Claw, starts to approach the Mechanicus chamber once more, with its wounds clotted and its strength returned. Talos spots it and along with Variel he waits for optimum bolter range before engaging. Talos finds that the rest of First Claw is engaged by lesser genestealers, meaning he has no access to reinforcements except that of Septimus las-pistols. Deltrian is irritated by the firefight that has erupted 50 metres from him, finding it a slight distraction whilst he tries to by the Mechanicus firewalls and cyphers. He manages to break these and extract 16 hand sized data tablets from the machine, each containing a century of data dating back to the ships forging. He turns, impatiently waiting for the patriarch to be defeated. The patriarch severs one of Variel's legs off at the knee with a bladed limb before Talos wades in with ''[[Aurum (Sword)|Aurum]]'', ramming it into the beast's spine and severing the head. With this done, Deltrian impatiently asks whether they can leave now.
Back on the ''Echo of Damnation'' Talos asks of the Salamander's vessel that brought those that the Bleeding Eyes faced to the system. A bridge officer informs him that they left 2 hours beforehand without even trying to hunt down the Night Lords vessel. Talos orders that they shall follow them and rend them from the warp with all their Claws and salvage all value from their vessel.
