Hannabel's initial burst of speed gave their group a significant lead on the Hollow Men. The tunnels were winding, the jutting spars of metal and rocky outcroppings seemingly conspiring to appear in their way. Hannabel flew for their lives, jinking expertly around each hazard. Anika kept a close eye on the auspex. The Hollow Men were still back there, far, far too many of them, and they seemed to be gaining back some of the lost ground. The shuttles in the back were keeping ahead of the enemy, but only just. Then they hit a straight section of tunnel, wider and less treacherous, and Hannabel used the opportunity to push the Aquila to its limits. Engines screaming, they shot through the tunnels, the craft shaking underneath their feet as Hannabel put it through a punishing turn into a narrow tunnel offshoot.

Suddenly, another group of enemy contacts appeared on the auspex. The Hollow Men were putting their home-field advantage to good use. No doubt the scavengers knew every turn, every twisting subterranean passage that wormed its way through the planet. Warning lights started blinking on the control panel, frost creeping up from the edges of the armaplas canopy. There was something else watching them, something beyond just the Hollow Men. A column of the scavengers appeared out of a side tunnel just behind their column, the rear shuttle spinning out of the way to avoid them as its pilot fought desperately to keep his craft out of their reach. Some of the front few opened fire with their torches, bright flares of plasma lighting the tunnels.

They flew past a metal spar that Hannabel was certain she had seen once already. The blackness seemed to be closing in around them, the rays of light from the Aquila's forward luminators looking increasingly feeble as they fought to pierce the oppressive darkness. Despite the dogged persistence of the Hollow Men, Hannabel's skill was beginning to tell, and they were slowly pulling further and further away from the group.

The planet itself seemed loathe to let them go, though, the tunnels stretching endlessly onwards. It had taken them less time than this to reach the frigate, surely. Flying at breakneck speeds through winding passages in the stone, their surfaces worn smooth, slick. Flickering on the edges of vision, the stone undulated rhythmically, the smooth surface taking on a sickly organic sheen. The auspex readouts flickered, crackled, the distance to their ship shooting rapidly upwards, numbers spiraling exponentially higher, higher...

They felt, rather than heard, a scream of primal, animalistic rage as the Aquila shot at last from the tunnels and out into the welcoming embrace of the void. Stars glittered around them, the frost flaking from the canopy. Hannabel spun the Aquila around, flying backwards towards the Sting. The last of their shuttles was just exiting the tunnels, swarms of Hollow Men visible in the darkness beneath the planet, boiling up after them. Then the Absalom guns spoke.

The Fury fired first, dozens of shipbreaking melta warheads slamming into the thin crust of Blight. A volley of missiles fired from the Sting's batteries followed, fire blossoming across the surface of the dead world. The stone blistered and cracked, splitting under the punishment of Imperial ordnance. Both ships fired again, pouring lasers and shells into the planet's surface. The Hollow Men vanished under thousands of tonnes of rock and dust as the tunnel entrance collapsed. Macharius' ships kept up their fire, hammering Blight until every tunnel within range had collapsed in on itself. Only then, as the shuttles were finally landing in the ship's launch bays, did the order to cease fire silence their mighty guns.