Thus elite Imperial forces are sent aboard to clear out infestations and determine if anything aboard the hulk is valuable enough to merit recovery. The hulks often consist of starships and items of technology millennia old, and the recoverable technology can be of immense value to the Imperium, and especially to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Imperial Navy, and all Imperial forces and authorities as a whole, have standard orders to survey such objects and to report their location. These monstrosities often drop in and out of the Warp, threatening to carry Chaos Space Marines, Orks or Genestealers that have entered stasis who can launch attacks upon the unsuspecting planets of the Imperium. As the Warp jump of space hulks is essentially made in a random direction, this gives them the advantage of surprise over Imperial or Asuryani forces. The Orks, the Genestealers, and even Heretic Astartes Renegades use them occasionally to invade other worlds.

Space hulks have many times been used as a means of transport by certain unsophisticated factions. Since the hulks often exit and re-enter the Warp seemingly at random, searching or traveling within them is dangerous in the extreme. Many times they are so huge that they have their own atmosphere and gravity. For the board game, see Space Hulk (game)ДЇor the video games, see Space Hulk (Video Game) and Space Hulk: TacticsДЄ Blood Angels battle barge approaches the space hulk Sin of Damnation.ДЄ space hulk is the term given by the Imperium of Man to the wreckage of a starship or a mangled twist of various starships and artificial debris found drifting through the vacuum of the Milky Way Galaxy without apparent direction.

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