Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: Vengeance of the Immortal – Gav Thorpe

The latest Adeptus Titanicus story, Gav Thorpe’s 40k e-short Vengeance of the Immortal follows a maniple of Titans from the Legio Praesagius (who you may remember from Honour to the Dead) as they clash with traitor Titans on the world of Placia Mundus. The focus is on princeps majoris Sythika as she rouses her Warlord Titan Evocatus and leads the maniple into battle, where her Titan’s fiery animus becomes as much a hindrance as an asset. Evocatus is an ancient machine with a long memory, and the appearance of a familiar foe stirs painful memories.

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Forgotten Texts: The Dead Among Us by James Wallis

“You’re not the man you were. What have they done to you in that temple of ghouls?”

Set in the cold heights of Middenheim in winter, James Wallis’ short story The Dead Among Us is a bleak tale of death and dark magic in the Warhammer Old World. When the murder of an anonymous woman draws his attention, the man who was Dieter Brossmann – once a wealthy man, now a black-clad priest of Morr – sets out to discover her identity but finds himself facing something dark and insidious. Troubled by his past and determined to walk a grim, lonely path, he’s well placed to uncover the truth behind what’s happening in the City of the White Wolf.

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QUICK REVIEW: Ordo Sinister – John French

A digital-only Horus Heresy short story by John French, Ordo Sinister is the first Black Library story to feature this particular Titan Legion, who have only recently been explored by Forge World in their book Inferno. Taking place during the Webway War, it sees a single Titan holding back an entire daemonic incursion on its own, for this is no ordinary Titan. Commanded by Prefect Hydragyrum, controlled and powered by…unconventional means, Borealis Thoon is a Psi-Titan.

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Forgotten Texts: Rites of Passage by Gordon Rennie

“The trap was set.”

Set in the darkest depths of the underhive, Gordon Rennie’s Necromunda short story Rites of Passage sees five young juves of House Orlock braving the dangers of Hive Bottom as part of a ritual that will see them emerge as men…if they emerge at all. Hidden amongst the shadows and bolstered by fearsome technologies, something is stalking the five of them, something much worse than the rival gangers that they expected to face. If any of them are to survive, it’s going to take more than just bravery and a loaded laspistol. Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Hoppo’s Pies – Guy Haley

The latest in a growing line of new Blood Bowl fiction, Guy Haley’s short story Hoppo’s Pies focuses (perhaps unsurprisingly, considering Haley’s predilections) on the ‘Grotty Stealers’, a goblin team long past their prime. With an increasingly decrepit and ill-attended stadium, a team full of inept players, and rising debts, Coach Diglit mourns his days as a player even as he worries about how to keep the team going. Just as his fears seem about to come to fruition, a chance encounter leads him to a plan that might just save both the team and his own neck…involving pies.

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Forgotten Texts: Last Chance by Gav Thorpe

“Just my type of scum!”

The story that introduced us to the 13th Penal Legion, Gav Thorpe’s Last Chance was first published in 1998, two years before Kage, Colonel Schaeffer and the rest of the Last Chancers were fleshed out in the novel 13th Legion. We first meet Kage sprinting through sniper-threatened no man’s land and stumbling across a platoon of Mordian Iron Guard, clearly keen to be anywhere other than where he is. After arousing the suspicion of the platoon’s Commissar, he regales the soldiers detailed to guard him with the story of how he ended up under Schaeffer’s dangerous command.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Fall of Malvolion – Dan Abnett

Available as an e-short for the first time, 11 years after its publication in the Let The Galaxy Burn anthology, Dan Abnett’s The Fall of Malvolion is a standalone ‘Astra Militarum’ (that’s Imperial Guard, to you and me) story featuring the Mordian Iron Guard. When troopers of the Mordian 15th uncover a nest of genestealers on the agri-world of Malvolion, it becomes a race against time to evacuate the population before the inevitable waves of tyranid monstrosities descend upon the planet to feed. Malvolion is well defended, but against the tyranid hordes even the staunchest Imperial defenders are hard pressed.

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Forgotten Texts: Grunsonn’s Marauders by Andy Jones

“Yer one of us now, lad.”

An early Warhammer story from back in 1997, Andy Jones’ Grunsonn’s Marauders introduced readers to the titular band of roguish adventurers – the dwarf Grimcrag Grunsonn, Jiriki the elf, young Imperial Envoy Johann Anstein, and the wonderfully named barbarian Keanu the Reaver. You can probably work out the tone of the story just from the names! It sees the four marauders taking on a quest to find a powerful magical relic, on behalf of a friendly old wizard. As you might expect, things don’t turn out quite as simple as they hope, and much adventure ensues.

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QUICK REVIEW: Heloth – LJ Goulding

Previously only available in the limited edition Visions of War: The Art of Space Marine Battles, the Scythes of the Emperor short story Heloth sees LJ Goulding continue to lay the groundwork for his novel Slaughter at Giant’s Coffin. We join the action partway through a mission, the remaining Scythes of 2nd Company falling back under the devastating assault of the tyranids disgorged by a crashed hive ship – the titular Heloth. With their captain dying and little hope remaining, things are looking bleak for 2nd Company…and the entire Chapter, in fact.

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Forgotten Texts: The Black Pearl by Chris Pramas

“I was afraid…to face up to what I had done…”

In Chris Pramas’ classic Dark Angels short story The Black Pearl, the young Interrogator Chaplain Uzziel leads his brothers in a mission so important it could change the face of the Chapter. The prize, so valuable it’s worth risking everything for, is nothing less than the legendary Lion Sword, the whereabouts of which was revealed during the interrogation of one of the Fallen. Standing between Uzziel and the sword are the Exodite eldar of Lughnasa, but can he really trust the word of the Fallen? 

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