The chance sighting of a hulk, apparently inert, and drifting through real space, was the first since a disastrous Blood Angels engagement over six hundred years ago. The hulk was spotted by a Rogue Trader who was exploring the edge of the Segmentum Obscura. Its captain approached the hulk but, fortunately for the Imperium, decided against a boarding action. Instead, he returned to human space, and notified Battlefleet Obscura.
From the Rogue Trader's data, the vessel was conclusively identified as a Genestealer-infested space hulk and code-named 'Sin of Damnation'. Like its predecessor, the vessel was still dormant, relying on its near invisibility to escape detection. Like all hulks, it was a unique combination of technologies. The ship's origins could span galaxies and hundreds of millennia. Intact, it could yield enormous value to the Imperium.
Three Gothic class battlecruisers were despatched to investigate - the Intolerance, the Indestructability and the Righteous Power. As the ships travelled towards the hulk an astropathic request for help was broadcast, which was promptly answered by the Blood Angels. Their First Company was on its way back to Baal, and could easily make a diversion. The Blood Angels arrived a few hours after the Imperial ships, and the commanders immediately held a conference on the flagship, Intolerance. It was decided to attempt a boarding action, and, if this failed, the hulk would be fusion bombed down to a fine powder by the three Imperial battlecruisers.