18,736
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
m
→Overview
These supermassive accretions of wrecked void-craft are inconstant, erupting into and out of realspace without warning on misfiring warp engines. Centuries can go by between sightings of documented hulks, often appearing far from where they were last encountered. But whenever they appeared, the doctrine for probing a hulk was well established. The first and most essential duty of any Mechanicus expedition was to render all warp engines inert, locking the entire assemblage in place and putting an end to its nomadic, rampaging odyssey.{{Fn|20}}
This doctrine typically consists of using the expeditionship's ship sensors to probe for power signatures. Then upon shipfall, releasing hundreds of [[servo-skull]]s and cyber-altered task units from a chosen staging point to probe beyond the outer edges of the macro-agglomeration, past which most ship sensors can perceive only the strongest of signals. The autonomous surveyors document any all ships or organisms they come across. If a surveyor is met with violent destruction, it is identified as a zone for military forces to be sent once their primary duty was complete. That being the disabling of any warp engines. The scout-constructs identify any hint of active warp signatures and forces are sent with expediency to those locations to render any warp engines inert.{{Fn|20}}
Space hulks are dangerous, as they are commonly used as a means of transport by certain unsophisticated factions. [[Ork]]s, [[Genestealer]]s, and [[Chaos]] renegades use them occasionally to invade other worlds. {{Fn|19}} As the warp jump of space hulks is essentially made in a random direction this gives them the advantage of surprise.{{Fn|4}}
