On way to a mission you craft passes through a Nebula. Everyone of your crew is knocked out and your spacecraft is stopped. Your commander wakes up with only a few of your group. Your diminished squad are unharmed and still armed, and you find a random collection of equipment from your ship but no prepared orders. You are in a room that could be part of a Space ship - there is only one door from the room. The Commander sets up your squad to get out and investigate and get back to your ship...

In our game this is what happened (better if the players don’t see this, the less they know the better)....

The four Commanders wake up in separate closed rooms, each only has a few of their squad, a random selection of equipment, and a scattered recall of some orders…

Lt Primus McSwaff the Imperial Guard Squat picks himself up and readies his three men "Right you lot, lets get oot o' here and back to oor ship. Tavi pick up the gear, Paski get oot that door an' see what's g'ang on." He swears internally no Lascannon – typical. They soon find the usual Alien scum; Orcs, Gretchin and a couple of Androids and a few Chaos Warriors that litter these space hulks and make quick work of them. They start to clear a path through the corridor and into the first few rooms.

Sgt Ilson a Grey Knight in terminator armour finds himself in a similar situation but with only two of his Terminator squad, but one of these is a Librarian. He has some equipment but not his preferred choices and his scrambled brain can remember some basic orders. Then he looks down realising he is standing on green coloured teleport pads – an alarm rings in his head. With a metallic call he calls out “Squad get off these blasted pads. Form up and let’s get out of here.”

Sgt Kay an Ultra Marine recovers in his room. This looks like nothing his training prepared him for. He vows to himself whatever captured him will pay! Time to get out and start killing Aliens. He looks over his remaining squad with just one marine missing, checks the equipment they have and grasps one order in his muddled brain. He gives his squad their orders “Jacks take point, you two provide cover. By the Emperor let’s clear this nest of its filth!”

The Exarch Executioner Craich stands and slowly scans the room, his well trained warriors likewise stand prepared for any attack. His men are all armed with Shuriken catapults – so no heavy weapons. His displeasure at the lack of his preferred choice of equipment is only indicated by a squaring of his shoulders – yet his warriors notice it. Without a word his squad form up and move out. He takes a quick look at the teleport pads before leaving the room - they could be the way out - but he will explore and clear first.

As the Commanders move out they find only a single corridor in a section of what looks like a space hulk with several rooms off it. In each of the rooms they are assailed with frag grenade attacks, laser defence attacks, doors on lock down, the occasional bulkhead door locking the hapless warrior, then there were a few stasis bombs, a vortex grenade, a cave-in and Genestealers that seemed to have a preference for the Grey Knights in their Terminator armour. One by one the continuous assault kills off a warrior from each squad. As the rooms are cleared and the traps discovered they notice the Aliens are more aggressive shooting as soon as they are discovered, yet there were no Dreadnoughts. As they clear the last remaining rooms they find another set of Teleport rings – each set of teleports are of a different colour. None have any form of control pads.

The Ultras following Sgt Kay are the first to test the new teleport rings out. They have not cleared the section they started in, but run onto the pads as soon as they discover them. Sgt Kay and his final warrior find themselves in the same section as Sgt Ilson of the Grey Knights. This was the first time any of the squads were aware that anyone else was in this nightmare. Sgt Ilson had just cleared the new teleport room of some Gretchin and was making his way through the last two remaining rooms to remove an Orc, a Chaos Warrior and an Android his scanner had revealed. He was in no hurry to try out those Teleport rings. He was now on his own after a laser defence cut apart the Librarian and a Genestealer ripped apart the other terminator. The newly qualified Sgt Kay with his one remaining Marine fell-in behind the large imposing Terminator figure of Sgt Ilson. As they dispose of an Orc, the last room reveals an Android and a Chaos warrior who shoot at Sgt Illson but do no damage. A warrior from the Ultramarine squad manages to locate a Fusion Gun in the room that contained the Orc. In his eagerness to prove himself he takes position and prepares to shoot the Chaos Warrior. A little too slowly, Sgt Kay sees the error of his warrior and orders him to redeploy. As Sgt Ilson was in the direct line of fire between the warrior with the Fusion Gun and a Chaos Warrior. They then clear the final room containing an Android and a Chaos warrior. Sgt Ilson turns on Sgt Kay and in his metallic voice states “You are a disgrace to the Emperor and unfit to command.” He then attacks Sgt Kay and kills him. But instead of the Marine body dropping in front of Sgt Ilson it dissolves and shatters like a hologram, at the same instant so does the remaining Ultra Marine with the Fusion Gun who falls to the floor. Sgt Ilson scrapes his boot over the area that should contain the body of the Ultra Sgt, then looks at the Fusion gun with disgust and makes his way to the teleport rings. “Time to get out of here” he thinks as he pats the Alien artefact he found earlier.

In a new section, Sgt Kay wakes up with his men in a green teleport room being fired at by two Gretchin!! The nightmare begins again. The Ultras make short work of the Gretchin and realise they are unharmed but they have the same equipment as before. The inexperienced Ultra Sgt decides he needs to clear these areas of all Aliens if he and his squad are to escape. He informs his squad of his intentions; giving orders and then they make their way out of the room and into a different section they had not encountered so far. Sgt Kay is aware that one of his minor wounds remains with him from the previous combat. What on earth possessed the Grey Knight terminator to attack him? Was it real? Or an effect of the teleport? The rooms in this section contain Aliens but no further traps.

Exarch Executioner Craich is pleased with his squad’s performance. Not a single casualty and his initial section cleared. In an orderly fashion they stand on the newly revealed teleport pads with weapons at the ready. In a split second they find themselves in another section. In front of them they witness a battered Squat Commander rapidly making his way towards them as a Genestealer looms behind him. They shoot at the Genestealer but fail to kill it. Lt Primus McSwaff jumps on the remaining spare pad and he and the Eldar are transported again! McSwaff had to leave Tavi behind who was caught in a Stasis bomb room with an orc and a Gretchin just as the Genestealer appeared and attacked him. The Squat commander was slightly wounded by the surprise Genestealer attack. The rest of McSwaff’s squad were dead as they moved and bled through the various rooms. The new room is empty of threats and McSwaff turns cautiously to the Eldar he is sharing the teleport pad with and says “Well laddie you seem to be in the same mess as me’self.” Exarch Executioner Craich ignores the Squat and looks around with his keen senses and detects that this is the same room he started in. The randomness of the teleport would indicate to Craich that eventually there must be a final destination to get out of this. He moves to the door with his squad and confirms his thoughts. McSwaff chatters on about his brave men who took on these dastardly traps and died in the attempt. McSwaff says “Now as I was saying I figure there must be an overall control switch or room to get oot o’ this place”. As the noisy Squat moves down the corridor Exarch Executioner Craich signals to his men and they make their way back to the teleport pads they had just left. Craich holds up and looks closely at the Alien artefact he found in the first sector. Then carefully putting it away he steps on to the pad. McSwaff turns round hearing the teleports activate “Now that’s not very polite. Where are those Eldar off to in such a hurry? Oh well suppose I should try and do the same - In for a penny in for a pound as me ma would say.” The Squat commander makes his way back to the teleport pads the Eldar had just disappeared from.

Each Commander experiments with the teleports dealing with any Aliens who are unfortunate to be in the room when they appear. The Ultra Sgt Kay clears a section then moves on to clear out a new sector and also finds an alien artefact. All bar Sgt Kay are determined to find the last teleport. They no longer bother with searching outside of the teleport room. McSwaff is the only commander without an alien artefact, he is unaware that his last remaining guardsman Tavi escaped the Stasis bomb and killed the Orc and Gretchin trapped in stasis with him. Only to for Tavi to then be shot down by a Chaos warrior. Sgt Ilson and Lt Primus McSwaff, have teamed up by this point, are the first to arrive on the Black coloured teleport pads. Through the door in the next room they meet an Android and an Orc. They concentrate their fire on the Android and fail to kill it in the first round. Later they take out the Android but fail to kill the Orc. The orc stands up to several rounds of fire from both until it finally goes down. They then make their way around the corridor – McSwaff leading the way and taking on the traps - until they find a door that opens to a room with a bulkhead that appears to have some kind of force field over it. Standing in front of the door are two Chaos marines; one with a heavy weapon; the other a commander. The Squat and the Terminator make quick work of the two Chaos warriors and approach the strange door. McSwaff notices the slot at the side of the door and Sgt Ilson considers the alien artefact he is carrying. Then McSwaff says “Can’t figure this one out. But I feel it in me bones there must be a control room for that door and those blasted teleport pads. There’s one more room back there – let’s check it out.” Sgt Ilson is inclined to agree with the veteran Squat so lets him take the lead – the end must be soon. As they round the corner of the corridor they set off a trap and are attacked by another Android and a Chaos warrior. As they are dealing with this the Eldar arrive on the Black teleport pads. Finding no resistance and hearing the sounds of Marine fire in the distance they quickly set out. The Exarch moves his squad into the room with the protected Bulkhead door.  He approaches the force field and takes out the artefact. Nothing happens. The next warrior tries holding the artefact – still nothing happens. This goes on until the very last warrior notices the slot at the side of the door. He orientates the artefact and pushes it into place – the force field drops and the bulkhead opens. The Eldar make good their escape. As McSwaff takes out the Chaos warrior he catches movement to his left. McSwaff shouts “Sgt Ilson I see those Eldar there making straight for that room… Hoi, would you believe it the beggers have the force field down and …. getting out! Come on Sgt let’s get back to that room and get out of here. I have a feeling we are running out of time.” Sgt Ilson responds as he decapitates the Android “I bet they found one of these Alien artefacts – it could well be a key of some sort.” McSwaff open eyed looks at the strange object “Never saw one of those in my travels. I hope it’s enough for us both to get oot.” They head back up to the door and after a couple of failed attempts manage to get the force field down and the bulkhead door opened. They both step through.

Meanwhile Sgt Kay clears his second sector, and with his men dead and gone, he bravely forces is way onto a third sector. This is a new area and very quiet. All the doors are jammed open. He moves out of the room and into the corridor. Up ahead he hears the recognisable crunch step of a large Dreadnought from the room up to his left. Then a whir click crunch from another Dreadnought from the room up to his right.  He stops in his tracks. “Now this is too much” he thinks to himself. He quietly backtracks into the teleport room he came from. Fortunately the door of this room does not look down the corridor, but is instead is off to the side. He has some time to think and act. Since his second revival he has not seen any other squads – apart from the team of Eldar who appeared briefly in a teleport glared at him then disappeared again.

Sgt Kay thought to himself “I am missing something here.” He has seen several Green teleports, a white, a red, and a yellow. “Maybe prime colours are needed” he muses. As he carefully looks around the pads he notices a small panel on the floor. “Ah here it is – White, Green 1, Green 2, Green 3, Green 4, Yellow, Red, and here is Blue” The hairs on the back of his neck stand up – the large Dreadnought is heading his way. “Okay Blue it must be” as he stands on the pad and presses the blue button. In his hurry he failed to spot the Black button against the black panel display. Sgt Kay arrives on the Blue teleport pad facing a Genestealer. He shoots and kills it and looks about. “No this isn’t right either, all the doors are open here” His ears pick up the sound of Dreadnoughts patrolling this sector as well. Getting to the panel in the floor he looks again at the buttons “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 …. Wait there is 9 a Black button in the corner” he thinks to himself – why did he miss that. He is feeling fatigued and dizzy, he thinks it must be his wounds. Just then the front of a Mark VII Dreadnought appears from the left hand side of the doorway. Crouched on the pad he presses the black button. As soon as he arrives he tries to run through the room, but each step seems to take an eternity. He feels agonizing pain through his head like drills are burrowing through to the centre of his skull. With tremendous effort he gets to the second room but watches in horror as his weapons and hands appear to dissolve in front of his eyes. He feels like his soul is being ripped from his body as each of his atoms implode on themselves.

Mcswaff, Sgt Ilson and the Exarch Executioner Craich are all revived and step out of some strange kind of stasis pods. Each of the few warriors who fought with them are also safe and well - if not a little shaky. As they regroup and watch each other warily they turn to see the Ultra Sgt and his squad start to desiccate in their pods. The giant statue of Sgt Ilson appears to glare at the powdered remains of Sgt Kay and the deep metallic voice says “Fool.”

The remaining commanders locate their own ships but there is no sign of their extra warriors. They realise they were fighting in a virtual world – none of what they experienced was real.  They are on a Chaos base cut from a large asteroid. The Chaos Lord who sprung this trap did not expect anyone to get out. After some stalled communication, the Eldar agree that to eliminate this threat will be in their best interest. A temporary alliance is forged and they set about to dig through the computer records to try and locate and find out what happened to their missing men. They work out the Stasis pods they were in are designed to keep the victim alive and busy while the machine copies then draws out the soul that is twisted and sent off to the Chaos Lord. After a while they find what they are looking for – a location of a solar system in an uncharted part of space. A secret base for this Chaos Lord. Time to destroy this asteroid base and head after their new prey.