Moving forward, it seemed increasingly likely that there was nobody home. The sump rat had scurried away, no longer registering on Anika's auspex, which wasn't picking up any other life signs either. The first proper sign that something had gone wrong here was spotted by Granos, as he and Anika moved past the hanging door. A trail of dried servofluid on the floor led through a shredded grate on the left, into which a mangled sentry servitor had been shoved. Getting it back out would be difficult, but they didn't have to; another dead machine was slumped behind a stack of crates. Its heavy stubber still had a full magazine. Anika spotted more unpowered picters, and a bundle of cables - neatly sliced through - that helped explain why they were all unpowered.

Strangely, the door to Thule's workshop didn't seem to have been forced. It was open, but undamaged, its lock disengaged. Easing inside, the group found Thule. Or at least, what was left of him. The shop had been ransacked, drawyers pulled out, papers scattered, screens and dataslates smashed. A Tarantula sentry turret, mounted to the ceiling, had been torn to pieces, its components and ammunition scattered across the room. Thule was lying in a pool of dried blood and torn robes, clearly quite dead. The attack looked like the Stalker victims Anika had seen previously, even at first glance. The tech-adept, who bore few augmentations to make the task more difficult, had been taken to pieces with a blade.