Available either as a standalone e-short or within the Dan Abnett-edited Sabbat Crusade anthology, Rob Sanders’ The Blood Bound is an Iron Snakes short story which follows on from an early Gaunt’s Ghosts tale. Sergeant Porphyrian and Squad Orpheon have been tasked by the Ordo Hereticus to investigate the disappearance of a Commissariat ship carrying the notorious heretic Sholen Skara. Finding the defiled corpse of the vessel in orbit above an eerily silent Imperial world, it soon becomes clear that while their orders are to retrieve Skara alive, that might just be easier said than done.
