An unsanctioned mission into a seemingly abandoned medicae facility seems simple… but for Corporal Cully, it could lead to a night of terror and horror that will scar him forever.
#### **Read it because**
After the spine-chilling terrors of his previous story, 'Baphomet by Night', Peter McLean sends Corporal Cully through more horrors, which have to be read to be believed…
#### **The story**
Corporal Cully of the Reslian 45th is bored. Three months on the hive world of Voltoth, waiting for an enemy to fight, have shredded his nerves. Little does he know that what is to come will make him crave those times…
After two decades of battle and facing horrors that would leave many minds broken, Cully thinks he's seen it all – but an unsanctioned mission into a seemingly abandoned medicae facility will test him to his very limits… and beyond.
On the cruel jungle world of Vardan IV, a young Guardsman experiences the horror of conflict for the first time against an overwhelming greenskin horde.
#### **Read it because**
Told in an unusually ambiguous first-person perspective, this story examines what it truly means to be a hero in a universe where few heroic acts are remembered.
#### **The story**
The battle on Vardan IV has been an absolute disaster for the Imperium. Two million soldiers of the Astra Militarum have died among the jungles of the world, lost to the fury of a horde of vicious alien orks.
For one trooper, escape from the slaughterhouse seems assured—until a disaster puts him back in the heart of the enemy, with just a handful of allies. Has the Emperor spared them for a purpose, or does their future contain only horror and death?
Assigned to garrison duty on the recently reclaimed forge world Baphomet, Astra Militarum Corporal Cully and Sergeant Rachain find a mystery on their hands…
The war for Baphomet is over. The Chaos cult, which brought the planet to its knees, has been defeated, and the ruined forge world is back in Imperial hands. Sergeant Rachain and Corporal Cully of the Reslian 45th are assigned to garrison duty in an outpost in a shattered city—a nice easy job… or so it seems. When an attack from the smoke-shrouded darkness leaves several of their number dead with no sign of enemy casualties, the Astra Militarum troopers start to wonder just what is out there.
**Read it because**
We've seen tales about ace Imperial fighter pilots – this takes a different tack with a Valkyrie pilot who is thrown into peril when a mission goes awry.
#### **The story**
Elijan III has all but fallen to Chaos. Servants of the Dark Gods swarm across the world, and only a small contingent of Imperial forces remain – but as long as the Aquila flies, hope remains. And while pilot Salvatoria Grant's Valkyrie flies, she will keep fighting to return the world to Imperial control.
Tasked with transporting an Astra Militarum general who may be the key to winning the war, Grant's mission takes an unpleasant turn and she finds herself in a situation out of her control and our of her comfort zone… but one that could save Elijan III.
Lost in the desert, their vehicles failing and water nearly gone, the Tallarn 236th Sand Lords are in trouble—but even more danger is about to find them.
#### **Read it because**
It's a tense tale that explores the infamous Tallarn Desert Raiders and shows their resourcefulness in the face of near-certain death.
#### **The story**
In the deep deserts of Marbas II, Captain Amareo Thrax of the Tallarn 236th—the infamous "Sand Lords"—is in trouble. His convoy of 28 armoured recon vehicles is down to a mere handful. Water is low and shade non-existent. And morale is as low as it can be, his warriors bitter and terrified. As he reflects on the events that led them to these dire straits, little does he realise that the horror has yet to end…
