Chapter 1: Initiation

Uriel laughed. "I thought it was the duty of the young-bloods to give the elderly battle brothers a taste of exhaustion, not the other way around." He grinned under his helmet and laughed. "But think what you like, brother."

His grin soon turned into a scowl. Only rarely did blessed tech fail so innocently. There were darker currents shifting here; he could feel it. Uriel wordlessly followed Myrrdochs shift and followed after the rest of the squad keeping formation in case of an ambush.

They neared the location, and came to the crest of a hill. Myrrdock raised his hand to a halt just
before the top. the other side was covered in the densest vegetation they had encountered on the planet. His hands flashed in battle sign, easily readable aside from a few brief symbols. Bilus was to head on alone, while Uriel and Myrrdoch spread twenty paces to either side of Bilus' advance point and await his pulse to follow, and any potential instruction.

Without a word, Bilus dropped onto his stomach, and mechadendrites appeared from his back, picking him up in a way that made him look more insectoid than marine. A mechadendrite extended with an optic lens, and peeked over the ridge. Keeping low, and using his mechadendrites to haul himself along, he crested the hill, and disappeared into the low brush.

Myrrdoch moved along the ridge, 20 paces. He primed his weapon, and checked the edge of his combat blade, and waited.

Uriel watched Bilus transform in an almost awe-like state. It was amazing what the Machine Spirit was capable of. He absentmindendly flexed his bionic hand before checking his battle-gear absently and almost habitually.

He followed the shift in formation and took up position himself. He dropped low and prepared himself for anything.

Myrrdoch received the signal to advance, and signed for a low advance. He crouched as he crossed the peak. He looked through the brush, and found Bilus standing at the edge of a meadow, just behind the trees. He advanced until he stood at his shoulder.
"No sign?"
Bilus shook his head.
"Auspex reads a null zone, encompassing this entire meadow."
Myrrdoch closed his vox link, and went silent while discussing the situation with his captain.

Uriel blinked and decided to add a stupid and obvious question to the conversation. "How is that possible? What sorcery could be at the center of this?" He strained his enhanced eyes scanning against the horizon. "None of our briefs mentioned anything that could cause this."

Bilus turned to Uriel.  "There are many reasons that our auspex might not be gathering telemetry in an area. Many of the same reasons could block out ranged vox broadcast. Some benign, others less so. The disappearance of a squad may indicate a hostile reason, and we should be prepared,  but it could be coincidence. "
He turned to Myrrdoch and told him to send the news of the current situation up the line for guidance.

Myrrdoch nodded, and disappeared back over the hill, and returned shortly after.
"The rest of the squad will be seeing up a perimeter, and we are to continue our search. This null zone stretches for roughly two hundred meters ahead by one hundred. This meadow is only one small area."

Bilus nodded. "Looks like we do this the old fashioned way. Fan out, put thirty meters between us, we have a sweep to do. I'll take the center. Let's go."

Uriel nodded in agreement. He quickly checked his weapons and uttered all the proper prayers under his breath and off the coms. Looking out into the distance his thoughts half in search of valor and half in thought of the squad incommunicado he looked towards his squad mates and began to move in unison with them.

Roughly halfway through the 200 meter length, Myrrdoch sounded a ping in his helmet, and an objective found rune loaded itself into the vision of Bilus and Uriels helms. This was followed immediately by Bilus selecting a fall back rune, and transmitting it. Mryydoch had something oddly head shaped cradled in one of his mechadendrites, as the group quickly fell back behind the ridge.

"A helm from one of the missing squad members." Myrrdoch said. "I'm sure this can be of use".