The Urani-Surtr Regulate, a Prospect of the Leagues of Votann painted in rugged military green, was currently enduring a hellish existence in the southern Galactic Core. They were besieged on three fronts by the Ork Warboss Bogrok, the Necron Samnokht Dynasty, and a splinter of a Tyranid Hive Fleet.
The fleet currently scavenging the Space Hulk belonged to the Angrund kindred of the Regulate. Given their precarious situation, they were meticulous. Squads of Kin in thick void-armor entered the hulk, returning exhausted and battered, but laden with salvaged technology and raw materials.
"Father! When do we kill-slay! When!"
Queek ground his chainsword against his armor, the screeching of metal mirroring his own restless agitation. He had never seen a "Stuntie" before, yet a soul-deep hatred burned within him. He felt as though he had been born specifically to sever their thick, stubborn necks.
Gnawdwell remained calm, restraining his ward. "Not yet. When we strike... it must be a death-blow!"
The Mors fleet engaged its Warp-engines, vanishing into the empyrean to shadow the Votann transport fleet back to their home. When the "junk-pile" fleet finally re-emerged into realspace, trailing trails of baleful green fire, they were exactly where they needed to be.
A debris-cluttered boarding pod, carrying a hundred Gutter Runners and an Eshin Sorcerer, was jettisoned like a piece of space trash toward the largest Votann vessel.
The Votann sensors flagged the object, but the Kin paid it little mind; space debris was common, and their void shields would simply vaporize it. However, at the moment of impact, the Grey Seers aboard the Mors fleet harmonized their power. For a single millisecond, they warped the void shield's frequency. Instead of being incinerated, the Skaven pod slammed into the hull intact.
THOOM—!
The bridge of the Votann ship shuddered. Alarms blared.
"What was that? Get a team to the hull, now!" an Einhyr Champion barked. The momentary shield flicker was an anomaly he couldn't ignore. To a human, it would be a minor glitch; to the Kin, it was a failure that demanded an investigation.
They found nothing but the mangled, unrecognizable wreckage of the pod. "I'm filing a grievance against the shield-techs for this," an engineer grumbled, beginning repairs on the "impact site."
They didn't see the shadows moving. A pack of Eshin Skaven, wearing radiation-scrubbing cloaks equipped with crude optical camouflage, had already dissolved into the ship's infrastructure like a virus.
"Yes... they are inside!" A Grey Seer hissed, clutching a triangular obsidian totem and cackling.
Gnawdwell nodded. "Good. Queek, prepare the boys. We are going to make the Stuntie-nest smell of rat!"
Days later, the Angrund fleet arrived at their Hold World. As the massive star-port began offloading cargo, the Eshin saboteurs slipped down into the planet's depths. A few Gutter Runners were spotted and gunned down by alert Kin, but the Votann didn't think much of it, unidentified xenos pests were a dime a dozen in the Core.
"Yes-yes... Beard-things... carelessness is the blade that stabs your heart!"
Deep within the subterranean vaults of the Hold, an Eshin Assassin twitched with inexplicable excitement. He coiled his tail around a Weeping Blade and drew two more with his paws.
A squad of Einhyr Hearthguard, warriors in massive, green-painted exo-armor, marched into the vault to secure the perimeter. Suddenly, a green blur hissed through the air. A Warpstone star, thrown by hand to remain silent, bypassed the Hearthguard's sensors and shattered against a warrior's faceplate. The Warpstone-infused edge rotted through the reinforced glass and buried itself in his skull.
"CONTACT!" The Hearthguard roared, leveling their Rail Rifles at the shadows.
Slugs capable of punching through Terminator plate tore several Gutter Runners apart, but the Assassin moved with supernatural fluidity. The Skaven threw Warp-smoke canisters, choking the air with green fog that jammed all local vox and thermal signatures.
"You are dead-meat, hairy trash!"
The four remaining Hearthguard opened fire, but the Assassin was already airborne. He threw more stars, forcing the Kin to dodge and creating the opening he needed.
Three Weeping Blades whirled like a cyclone. The Assassin's tail flicked, launching a blade like a javelin that pierced a Hearthguard's neck seal. He landed, spun, and slashed twice across the chest of the next warrior.
"Nngh—!" Despite his resilience, the Kin fell as the Warp-toxins on the blades turned his blood to sludge.
One warrior tried to activate his Hunter-Seeker auto-aim system, but microscopic Warpstone dust had already fouled the delicate electronics. The armor was dead.
The Assassin let out a sibilant laugh. He lunged, parrying a desperate swing with his twin blades while his tail snatched his discarded sword back and drove it into the dwarf's throat.
In less than five seconds, the finest soldiers of the Votann League were dead.
"Beard-thing! You are finished-done!" the Assassin hissed.
The final Hearthguard didn't flinch. He reached for a thermal grenade to signal the Hold, but a Gutter Runner's star pinned his hand to his armor. A second later, twenty more stars riddled his body.
"Time is short! Move!" The Assassin pulled out a triangular brass icon of the Horned Rat and used the dwarf's blood to paint a summoning circle on the floor.
On the other side of the veil, the Grey Seer Lord caught the signal. "They come-come!"
The Mors army was ready. Queek was vibrating with a need to kill.
A dozen Grey Seers shrieked in unison, their staves erupting with arcs of emerald Warp-lightning.
"YAAAGH! THE HORNED RAT'S GIFT!!"
In a flash of baleful green, the entire Clan Mors fleet vanished from the void, plunging directly into the heart of the Votann Hold.