Halo Artefacts

[The Hive Mind]

Halo Artefacts
"I have looked into the expanse of soulless darkness that waits beyond the gates that man should not dare to pass. I have seen the death light in the eyes of those who walk that forbidden land."
—from the personal reflections Inquisitor Hastur Whitlock

Halo Artefacts, or Halo Devices, have been known to select Arch-heretics, recidivists, and the Ordos of the Inquisition for millennia, ever since renowned Explorators and Rogue Traders of antiquity returned from the Halo Stars bearing these devices, along with tales of corpse stars and disturbing pict-records of dead Xenos Worlds.

The Artefacts defy analysis by tech-augury and are nearly imperious to age and harm. The corrupt amongst the Imperial masses long ago discovered that, through dark transformation of body and mind, some of these xenos devices can grant life eternal. The body is restored to youth and the passage of years no longer weakens the flesh. Other Halo Artefacts were found to possess stranger and greater powers, their unholy potency behind the rise of a number of infamous Arch-heretics. As centuries passed, the Artefacts were sought by masters of the occult and became legends amongst the power-hungry, associated with dire heresy and corruption. Nonetheless, perhaps a few score Artefacts have changed hands for vast sums since the Calixis Sector came into being, and the opening of the Koronus Expanse in the 41st Millennium has added to their number.

Halo Artefacts have many forms, but most are small and easily confused with odd jewellery, small pieces of armour, or even curious, abstract miniature statuary. Some are irregular spheres, some segmented ovoids a handbreadth wide, still others small scarab-like objects. All are clearly xenos in origin, made of an unidentifiable metallic material, and their texture and surface patterning calls to mind the shells of insects or skins of lizards.

A Rogue Trader might win a fortune to dwarf his noble inheritance in the trade of a single Halo Artefact won from a Dead World of the Koronus Expanse, but he risks both life and legacy to be burned alive, for that is the fate of all who are discovered by the Ordo Xenos to have touched such vile corruption. Or worse, the Artefact might call to him, merge with him, and drag him down into an eternity of corruption, the nightmare legacy of xenos creators long vanished to dark aeons.

Every Rogue Trader of note knows the bloody consequences that fell upon the Lord-Captains Balastus Irem, Rafe Longinus, and Eduard Majessus in the fifth century of the 41st Millennium as a result of their suspected dealings in Halo Artefacts. Wealth beyond measure exists in a hundred other forms in the Koronus Expanse: crux-gems, precious ores, xenos beasts for the circuses, and worlds brimming with heathen riches. Yet dead stars and eldritch biers upon lifeless Xenos Worlds sing their siren song, and there are always some who will listen.

The Transformed
There are those who seek the power offered by Halo Artefacts. These individuals become physically bonded to the device they have obtained and are transformed over time into undying inhuman monsters. The powers granted by a Halo Artefact come at great cost: a body, mind, and soul corrupted by ancient alien technology. Those who meld with a Halo Artefact are ultimately doomed, fallen prey to xeno thirsts and waking nightmares that come to rule their every moment. Many of these transformed monsters flee into the depths of the Koronus Expanse, where their transformation, and the unnatural thirsts that accompany it, can be hidden in places beneath undiscovered suns. Some amongst the Ordos Xenos look at Rogue Traders who spend much time unseen in the depths of the Expanse and shun the company of others, and wonder if they have become something other than human while walking the unexplored void.