u/Dire_Wolf45

For anyone like me who didn't know, there is a short story by Evan Dicken called *Head of the Serpent* that bridges *Lioness* and *First Marshall*. It appears it is only available in digital format.

Cheers.

I just got an alert from an flgs about a HH character series book releasing in mid July. I dont think its a new one as it would be too soon since Zarduk Layak. My guess is it's the paperback of Sigismund.

Anyone got more info?

Edit: I want back to read the ad and the author listed is Guy Haley so not a paperback. And not False Gods either.

So I guess it is a new character series novel. Haley has written quite a bit of Blood Angels material for both the heresy and 40k, so my bet would be on a BA character. The character series is also due for a loyalist, and with the BA being the poster boys of 11th, it makes some sense.

Short story by Miles A. Drake.

I saw a post asking about legal loopholes in 40k and it got me thinking about this exchange between a radical inquisitor and a Death Spectre Space Marine squad leader. How Imperium rules are only as well enforced as someone is willing or able to and how some, including these two, can be pragmatic and not just blindfully dogmatic.

>'You authorised the construction of this station, yes?’

‘Indeed. Eight years ago, after the discovery of the ruin by an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator vessel.’

‘I take it this Explorator vessel belonged to the Dalvarakh Consortium?’

‘Yes. But it was lost with all hands. Its astropathic choir managed to send out a distress cry, but as most of the choir were presumably already dead, the cry was weak. My agents operate in this region to monitor the movements of the Cythor Fiends. They were the only ones to receive the message. My spies within the Consortium are certain that they never learned of this ruin’s location.’

‘Out of curiosity,’ Achairas inquired, ‘what destroyed this Dalvarakh vessel?’

‘Cythor Fiends, naturally. One of their so called Pinion-class stealth frigates.

The wreck is still in-system, orbiting the brown dwarf several astronomical units out. My personal investigation of the wreck uncovered the location of this ruin. I copied the data from the Explorator vessel and destroyed its archive. The Dalvarakh do not know of this. It is possible that what Vemek suggests is true, that my mnemonic censure went faulty on one of the purchased adepts. Or… that one of them was deliberately altered to resist it, and report my findings to the Explorator Consortium.’

‘Or this could be Vemek’s doing,’ Achairas offered quietly.

‘Unlikely. Vemek’s crimes against the Dalvarakh Consortium created a rift between them that will never heal. He could be involved with fringe elements, however – individuals within the Consortium who have pursued the research of xenos technology farther than the others.’

‘What was Vemek accused of, exactly?’

‘Modifying his personal Explorator vessel with holo-fields captured from an eldar wreck.’

>Achairas was silent. He shook his head.

‘I know, you’re probably wondering why I conscripted him into my service.

This isn’t the core Imperium, where purity and heresy are easily drawn lines of white and black. Out here in the Halo, we are on the edge of damnation.

We must tread the grey in between and utilise every bit of knowledge we can to gain an edge. Xenos, natural and unnatural, plague us from beyond the Halo, and space itself seems to want to destroy us. The xenos out here are able to survive. They are able to tread the impossible reaches of the Ghoul Stars themselves. I will learn how they do it. And then I will implement that technology into a grand crusade fleet, and deliver the fiery sword of the Emperor’s judgement into the heart of all the vile aliens populating these unnatural stars. You, of all people, must understand…’

>Achairas blinked. It was an ambitious plan, borderline megalomaniacal. And it didn’t sit well with him. One often didn’t realise that the grey line between purity and damnation had been crossed, until it was far too late.

‘I am a radical, Sergeant Achairas,’ the inquisitor continued, as the group reached the ground access airlock gate. ‘I do what I must for the good of the Imperium. If I am damned for it, then that is the price I will pay.’ He flexed his mechanical arm. ‘I have already given my flesh for the Imperium, the only thing I have left to give is… my soul.’

‘It is not my place to question your conviction, nor your methods,’ Achairas said at long last, his inner conflict evident enough in the tension in his words. ‘My purpose is to destroy the threats to the Imperium, whatever they might be.’ He let the words, the threat, hang in the thin air as he re-donned his helm and gestured for Nym and Sevrim to wheel open the airlock.

When the door was coaxed open, they saw the gouges in the outer hull of the...