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So I had a question regarding space hulks (as you could probably tell from the title) and I was wondering have there ever been any attempts to get a space hulk into functioning order or at the very least an attempt to restore its most basic functions?

Yes. There's a couple Space Hulks used by renegades since you might actually end up with apocalyptic munitions from multiple eras. I think the Soul Drinkers had one, and I'm pretty sure there was a proper Nurgle Chaos Warband using one.

Depends on what you mean by working. Orks use them for transport all the time. They don't restore it so much as "upgrade" it with more guns and make sure it has engines to move and go somewhere to fight.

 cranect wrote:
Depends on what you mean by working. Orks use them for transport all the time. They don't restore it so much as "upgrade" it with more guns and make sure it has engines to move and go somewhere to fight.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
Yes. There's a couple Space Hulks used by renegades since you might actually end up with apocalyptic munitions from multiple eras. I think the Soul Drinkers had one, and I'm pretty sure there was a proper Nurgle Chaos Warband using one.

Thanks for the info, that's cool.

Many space hulks are so dangerous due to alien infestations, warp-spawned horrors or arcane/xeno (maybe malfunctioning) technology that it's not worth the effort to do anything except contain them and sometimes even destroy them. And their movement patterns aren't always that well known. The task force going in to recover the hulk might be stranded on it if it suddenly jumps back into the warp, with no guarantee they'll ever repair enough systems before their supplies run out or something kills them.

Mounting expeditions to salvage valuable tech is pretty common, but trying to get the thing into use? Dangerous in the extreme.

Imperial no. Chaos, renegade, genestealer, and ork yeah. Basically they're a cobbled collection of smashed dead ships. No tech priest would ever allow them to be started up and most of the Imperium is rightfully too suspicious of drifitng wrecks in the warp to do much more than board them.

The Crimson Slaughter is based out of a Space Hulk. If I remember correctly however, there are parts that they haven't cleared out yet, as they use them as crucibles to test the various renegades who come to join them.

Soul drinkers, did. But by that point they where renegades I'm impirums eyes.

It was bodged with all manner of parts from a scuttled fleet.

The most the IOM will do is explore it to try and find any artifacts/STC/Working human tech. The risk of finding a lost treasure is usually worth the risk, but if the Hulk is close to a imperial world or boarding proves difficult then standard policy is to vaporize it.

It's not implausible that destroying a Space Hulk might cause debris that could be a hazard to navigation. Especially in a solar system. The alternative might be to power up a few of it's engines and drive it into a nearby star. Or, get it into working order and use it as a Trojan Horse to invade the Eye of Terror, or some unsuspecting Tau system.

I remember reading about a Imperial ship (a big one too) that was 'reclaimed' from a Space Hulk. I think it was either in the Rogue Trade rpg or some of the BFG material. So there is the potential that some of the 'lost technology' that the Imperium is looking to reclaim, may be whole ships.

Space hulks are conglomerations of ships, rocks, space debris, from all corners of the galaxy and throughout the entire timeline of the universe. Merely fixing and starting one up is impossible, unless we're talking about separating the hull of what used to be a ship from the huge chunk of scrap metal and garbage that is a space hulk. Then its only close to impossible, and one step up from suicidally dangerous.

 LumenPraebeo wrote:
Space hulks are conglomerations of ships, rocks, space debris, from all corners of the galaxy and throughout the entire timeline of the universe. Merely fixing and starting one up is impossible, unless we're talking about separating the hull of what used to be a ship from the huge chunk of scrap metal and garbage that is a space hulk. Then its only close to impossible, and one step up from suicidally dangerous.

"Close to impossible", "suicidally dangerous" sounds like a job for an Ork

Definitely an Ork thing, it's actually what they do.

Not all Space Hulks are created equal. Actually, none of them are. Redirecting one doesn't seem impossible. Reclaiming one doesn't seem impossible. Renovating one doesn't seem impossible. Re-inhabiting one doesn't seem impossible. Repairing some of one doesn't seem impossible. Removing parts of one doesn't seem impossible. Why not a decades long war for Skitarii to remove a xenos infestation from a Space Hulk (be it Genestealers, Orks, Dark Eldar, or Ambuls). Really, only the imagination makes things seem impossible.

A Space Hulk has to be made of at least two different ships, or it's just a Wreck.

 Gobbla wrote:
Definitely an Ork thing, it's actually what they do.

Not all Space Hulks are created equal. Actually, none of them are. Redirecting one doesn't seem impossible. Reclaiming one doesn't seem impossible. Renovating one doesn't seem impossible. Re-inhabiting one doesn't seem impossible. Repairing some of one doesn't seem impossible. Removing parts of one doesn't seem impossible. Why not a decades long war for Skitarii to remove a xenos infestation from a Space Hulk (be it Genestealers, Orks, Dark Eldar, or Ambuls). Really, only the imagination makes things seem impossible.

I was thinking more from a humans point of view. In the span of a decade, the Imperium could build one. Or three. After all, money isn't an issue with them. Unless of course, it is. If one must reclaim a ship from a Space Hulk though, you'd best bring gargantuan pools of resources to the table. Almost all space hulks are infested by xenos. and not all of them are Oks, Genestealers, or Chaos. You can't rely on the fact that whatever Space Marine expedition that was mounted into the things would have wiped out all hostiles, in fact almost gauranteed they haven't. Dangerous things can also come in the form of microbial life, or chaos taints, deadly traps that the Astartes haven't come across. Most importantly, the Space Hulk can warp jump at any moment.

Although, if you were desperate enough to reclaim a chunk of a space hulk, you could always theoretically blast lasers at the thing with a dozen ships in an attempt to seperate the chunk you desire.

The general idea behind a Space Hulks is that there are millions of direct spaceships lost in the Warp. The inscrutable tides of the Emperium smash them together into massive hulks. They drift in and out of the Warp, seeming randomly. "Building" a space hulk would require more details than the fluff provides.