The 2nd mission

Guts directs the pilot to get in the clouds for a minute to make sure nohing else is after them...

Pleased with this first display of the group's efficiency, Bannus gets back to working the Auspex in a somewhat less demanding environment.

It appears that your tactical maneuvering allowed you to avoid additional skirmishes.

Eventually, Brother Lucian and Brother Ragnar identify the general region from where the signal is originating. From the air, neither the scans nor the eyes detects anything other that smoke, emptiness and devastation in the landscape below. Whatever is there is well hidden and will need to be investigated on foot.

You identify a good landing area with minimal activity that seem your best bet to get off the Stormraven.
How do you proceed?

Bannus takes a quick moment to get a last glance on the landing zone, before turning to the team's leader for suggestions while pondering his own ideas.

Lucian orders those with jump packs to land and secure the site for the Stormraven. This will be Cloten and any others that brought jump jets.

"Alright, the signal came from around here. Well need eyes all around us, and we need to locate caves or buildings where the equipment or survivors may have been secured from annihilation by the tyranid biomass harvesting. Any questions, save them for later. Go!"

Cloten grabs his gear and as the Stormraven drops within a thousand feet of the ground, jumps out, piloting his way to the ground with Bolter at the ready.

Under Brother Lucian's direction, some Battle-Brothers fly down and the Stormraven follow shortly after. Security perimeter is established quickly and no immediate threats are found.

Looking around at your surroundings, you find that the surface of the world of Khnum appears even more hellish from the ground
than it did from the air. The ground is crawling with writhing,vine-like roots and tiny creatures, little more than stomachs on
multiple legs gnaw away at what tiny scraps of bio-mass remain.The land is a blasted desert, columns of yellow-green vapour
ghosting across your vision and making it impossible to see more than a hundred metres. Occasionally, the mists part, and you
catch a glimpse of the true extent of the world’s devastation,before the fog descends mercifully once more.

From your position, you noticed a crater in the south, a valley in the west and a rocky wasteland in the east. The Stormraven pilot ask permission to take his position in orbit to await your call.

What do you do?

Lucian releases the ship to return to orbit. "Come Battle-Brothers, we have three landmarks to guide us. The crater may mark the location of something that was targeted, the valley may be our best chance for caves, and the rocky wasteland could hide an army in its shadows. What say you?"

Bannus simply nods in agreement, suspecting that the crater may have been created by some sort of psychic blast when the signal was transmitted.

After doing a quick check on all his equipment and his scout armor, I'll go scout ahead. I'll keep in touch over Vox and tell you if the way is clear. Guts hands an auspex to Bannus, You'll probably be able to get more milage of this than me. With that Guts starts toward the crater, rapidly being difficult to check thanks to his cameleoline cloak...

Cloten is an advance scout trained to lead the way to the enemy, to smash into and behind their lines while the force marches to catch up. A Deathwatch kill-team is a different only that theit numbers are fewer. Still, he ranges only a little ways ahead, bringing his magnoculars to bear. The swirling gases on the dying planet mage them nearly nearly useless, but not entirely.

Bannus gives Guts the "thank you" nod as he accepts the portable auspex, then without paying much attention to the scouts marching ahead, he loses himself in the device's machine spirit in search of information.

Cloten and Guts branch out further in two direction while the rest of the squad maintain the perimeter and wait for more informations.

Bannus scan's reveal that the soil and air is contaminated with microscopic xenos particules digesting the planet as far as the auspex can go. The immediate scan show no activity, until, after patiently reading and adjusting the auspex, a very slight and slow movement is detected far in the rocky wastelands.

Cloten detect only desolation and emptiness. Not a single sign of activity or even past human presence.

Guts gets a visual on the crater. It looks naturally formed in the transformation of the dying planet. It is empty about 300 meter wide with sharp lip on most sides.

You can practically feel the planet dying all around you gasping for its last breath.

Having detected no threats, other than the movement in the rocky wastes, Lucian orders them to proceed to the crater.