Tag Archives: Imperial Guard

Scions of Elysia – Chris Dows

Scions of Elysia is Chris Dows’ first audio drama for Black Library, and returns to his Elysian Drop Droops characters previously covered in the short stories The Mouth of Chaos and Monolith. This time around the action takes place in the Elysia system itself, as Sergeant Zachariah and what remains of his squad are recalled to aid in a campaign to rid the system of dangerous pirates. Under the erratic leadership of the rash and inexperienced Captain Bandrac, the first mission goes horribly wrong, leaving Zachariah to find a way to salvage some kind of success from the ensuing chaos.

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Forgotten Texts: Dan Abnett Talks Ghostmaker

Regular readers will have seen my recent interview with Dan Abnett, and may also be aware of my Forgotten Texts series, where I look back at stories from the earlier days of Black Library. I recently covered Dan’s short story Ghostmaker for Forgotten Texts – you can find that article here – and while I was chatting to Dan for the main interview I asked a few questions related to that short story to use as an accompanying interview.

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Forgotten Texts: Ghostmaker by Dan Abnett

“You’re Imperial Guard, servants of the Emperor first and nothing else second.”

His second Black Library short story, Dan Abnett’s Ghostmaker introduced the world to Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the proud soldiers of Tanith, who would become Gaunt’s Ghosts. Given the command of three freshly-raised regiments, Gaunt barely has time to reach Tanith before a Chaos splinter fleet forces him to gather whatever fragmentary resources he can and escape to Imperial lines. Haunted by the loss of their world, the Tanith are resentful of not being allowed to stand and fight, but Gaunt is determined to begin the process of putting their unique skills to use on the battlefields of the Sabbat Worlds.

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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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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Four – Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon

For Issue Four of Hachette’s Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection the action turns away from Space Marines and Inquisitors to the Imperial Guard, and a humble guardsman. Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon was first published waaaay back in 2005 and is one of those books that hasn’t quite made it to be an all-out Black Library classic, but is nonetheless held as something of an Imperial Guard must-read. A quick look on Goodreads shows it to be rated at 3.7 out of 5, which is pretty good, while on Amazon (UK) it’s got nine 5 star reviews and one 4 star review! Sounds like it’s worth a read, right?

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QUICK REVIEW: In Service Eternal – Matt Smith

A new short story from a new Black Library author, Matt Smith’s In Service Eternal sees Wing Commander Arden Graves and the pilots of the 41st Antropia Aerial Division in action in the murky skies of the gas giant Antropia. Veterans pulled back from the front lines, the 41st act as both test pilots and air cover for Antropia’s Adeptus Mechanicus cohorts. Responding to reports of missing mining servitors in the depths of the planet’s rocky core, Graves leads his Valkyries in a reconnaissance flight which rapidly escalates into a much deadlier mission.
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QUICK REVIEW: Ork Hunter – Dan Abnett

An old short story first published in the Black Library anthology Words of Blood, Dan Abnett’s Ork Hunter follows Corporal Ondy Scalber of the Jopall Indentured as he and his fellow guardsmen blunder through the Armageddon swamps under the ‘guidance’ of the wild Sergeant Keyser and his Ork Hunters. As feral as the orks they hunt, indifferent to the fates of the ‘skinbait’ Jopall, Keyser and his men are ruthless killers compared to whom the Jopall are careless children. To survive, Scalber will have to adapt to his environment, the enemy he hunts, and the company he keeps.

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QUICK REVIEW : Midnight Rotation – Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett joins the party on day nineteen of Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar with Midnight Rotation, a 40k short story that takes place within his Sabbat Worlds setting. Trooper second class Cawkus, of the Fiftieth Urdesh Regular, offers his take on the events he witnessed in the run up to the destruction of a Munitorum facility under his squad’s watch. Being only a trooper second class he might not have the most strategic overview of events, but he knows what he saw.
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QUICK REVIEW – Yarrick : The Wreckage – David Annandale

The sixth story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign features another big-name character, this time Commissar Yarrick, in David Annandale’s The Wreckage. Previously only available in an event-only anthology, it’s a smart little story looking at what most will see as one of the core elements of being a commissar – the decision of whether or not to deliver the Emperor’s Judgement to an officer. In this case it’s an inspirational, much-loved Captain whose recklessness has led his men into a lethal trap and threatens to doom them all.

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