Dark Imperium (Anthology)
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This article is about the anthology. For other uses of Dark Imperium, see Dark Imperium (disambiguation). |
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| Author | Barrington J. Bayley, Andy Chambers, Ben Counter, Robert Earl, Matthew Farrer, Simon Jowett, William King, Neil Rutledge, Gav Thorpe | |
| Editor | Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones | |
| Publisher | Black Library | |
| Released | 2001 | |
Dark Imperium is an anthology of short stories by various authors, edited by Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones. It was first published in 2001 and is currently out of print, although several short stories were re-published in the anthologies Let the Galaxy Burn and There Is Only War.
Works included:
Apothecary's Honour
by Simon Jowett
His Company destroyed, an Apothecary of the Avenging Sons Space Marines must fulfil his oaths and safeguard the gene-seed of both the living and the dead.
Daemonblood
by Ben Counter
Battle Sister Aescarion of the Order of the Ebon Chalice pursues Castus, Champion of Nurgle, determined to bring him to repentance.
Nightmare
by Gav Thorpe
A young boy is troubled by his nightmares, in particular by a beguiling Voice that seeks to lead him on a crusade against monsters.
The Lives of Ferag Lion-Wolf
by Barrington J. Bayley
Ferag Lion-Wolf, Champion of Tzeentch details his rise to glory as a servant of the capricious Changer of Ways. For Ferag, life is good: gifted with sorcerous powers, beautiful mutations, and military genius, he has crushed enemies throughout the Eye of Terror and risen to rule eight Daemon Worlds. While entertaining a lesser lord in his palace, Ferag confides that his rise to greatness began even before his turn to Chaos: as a primitive on his native Feral World, he became a renowned warrior after slaying a ferocious beast; recruited by the Purple Stars, he became an equally renowed Space Marine, valued for his tactical genius and ferociousness in combat alike; after he turned his allegiance to Tzeentch, his patron gifted him with even greater success, routing rival daemon armies of much greater size. The only place higher for him to go is true Daemonhood, and that apotheosis cannot be far away...
As he nears the end of his tale, a stray brick falls from one side of his palace and hits Ferag on the head - and suddenly he is back on his feral world, a lowly savage who has never been a Chaos Champion, a Space Marine, or even an ordinary warrior; he is simply a cultist in a minor Tzeentchian cabal on his planet, who has just botched a simple job of stealthy murder - and as punishment, his cult is about to perform the ritual that will transform him into a Chaos Spawn. As further punishment, his lord - known with good reason as "The Great Betrayer" - has tormented him with heady visions of a completely different life. Just before the ritual is completed, Ferag's mind snaps as he tries to decide which of his two lives was the one he truly lived.
Small Cogs
by Neil Rutledge
Colonel Soth of the Ulbaran 8th regiment of the Imperial Guard finds himself ordered to hold a position against Eldar raiders. His regiment, turned out for ceremonial duties and therefore under-equipped and impractically dressed, must prove themselves as combat capable, physically and mentally. A small group of scouts infiltrate the Imperial lines and Colonel Soth and a small group of loyal Guardsmen must stop them before they reach a temple crucial to the world's defence.
Setting
Characters
Angels
by Robert Earl
Almost forty summers ago, the monsters came to Pasternach. They slew everyone they saw and threatened to wipe the community out completely. And then the angels arrived.
Characters
Note
The unidentified Space Marine Chapter is described as having blue and green livery. To date, the only known Chapter with these colours is the Warmongers; as such the astartes in this story may have been from the Warmongers Chapter.
Hellbreak
by Ben Counter
Commissar Von Klas is a numbered man. When the Dark Eldar came for his regiment, they decreed that ten percent of the humans be kept for entertainment. Von Klas is the last of them, the one in a million, and he intends to give his Dark Eldar captors the greatest show they'll ever see.
He is marched, unarmed, into a grand arena inside Commorragh, and matched with a Wych. Much to the surprise of the crowd, he defeats his opponent. His captor, the Archon Kypselon, is displeased, and sends von Klas to his favoured haemonculus to be tortured to death. The haemonculus relies more on fear and hypnotic suggestion than on shackles or guards, which would be enough for a lesser man than von Klas, who turns the tables on his captor and escapes his prison, freeing a number of other Imperial Guard captives along the way.
von Klas says his plan is to occupy the "temple" at the center of Kypselon's quarter, a monument to his Kabal's success, in order to draw the Dark Eldar forces away from the nearest spaceport, allowing them to escape the planet. But in private, von Klas knows they have no hope of escape, so he has another objective in mind.
Infiltrating a mobile factory belonging to the Kabal, von Klas and his men kill the Eldar overseers and liberate an "army" of several thousand human slaves, which allows them to occupy the temple. Kypselon is enraged and sends his entire might against them. The human defenders are slaughtered, but von Klas triggers explosives, collapsing the temple on top of human and Eldar alike, depriving Kypselon of the lion's share of his military forces.
When von Klas regains consciousness, he is sharing a cell with Kypselon, who was overthrown by a rival Archon. Von Klas is satisfied; he knows that they are both marked for death, but he is a mere "mon-keigh," and his end is certain to be far quicker than Kypselon's will be.
Setting
Characters
- Imperial captives
- von Klas, Commissar originally from Hydraphur
- Rahimzadeh, of the Tallarn Desert Raiders
- Ibn, of the Tallarn
- Kep, of the First Penal Legion
- Scleros, Adeptus Mechanicus lexmechanic
- Dark Eldar
- Archon Kypselon, leader of the Kabal of the Broken Spine
- Yae, leader of the Cult of Rage
- Verredaek. haemonculus
- Exuma, Kypselon's Dracon
- Sybarite Laeveq
- Xaron
Battle of the Archaeosaurs
by Barrington J. Bayley
The Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus are the mightiest and most glorious engines of war controlled by humanity...aren't they?
A Mechanicus Explorator Fleet identifies ABL 1034 whose Dark Age of Technology-era Human population has regressed to using Stone Age technologies, but it's attempts to establish a military base are foiled when the base was all but destroyed. To secure their foothold, the mechanicus deploys two Warlord titans: Lex Et Annihilato piloted by Princeps Gaerius and Principio non Tactica piloted by Princeps Efferim, and the Imperial Guard of the 5th Helvetian Regiment lead by Colonel Costos and Commissar Henderak, releiving the 1st Ixist Regiment Regiment and it's expedition equipped Leman Russ and Basilisk tanks. On landing planetside, the Titan legion encountered the ancient and rotten remnants of five Gargants, all destroyed – soon they encountered the beasts that had defeated them: two Archaeosaurs. The Titans fought the great beasts, and the Principio non Tactica fell while Lex Et Annihilato was greatly damaged, and the 5th Helvetian Regiment all but destroyed. At dawn as repairs finished on the Lex Et Annihilato it's fate came: dozens of Archaeosaurs, enough to cross the horizon. Seeing the danger such beasts posed to the Imperium should they fall into enemy hands, Princeps Gaerius called Exterminatus down upon himself.
Know Thine Enemy
by Gav Thorpe
Xavier, a new Battle-Brother of the 4th Company of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter discover that no matter how courageous, careful and experienced in combat you are, the most important factor in warfare is still intelligence.
The Wrath of Khârn
by William King
Khârn the Betrayer leads an assault on a Slaanesh temple as internecine war rages between the servants of Chaos. But has he met his match in the insidious servants of the god of excess?
Ancient History
by Andy Chambers
Press-ganged and made into a gunner on the Imperial ship Retribution, Nathan discovers that there are far, far worse things that can happen to you in the grim darkness of the galaxy than simple forced labour...
Snares & Delusions
Chaplain De Haan of the Word Bearers has a vision; the exodite Eldar ground underfoot, his mighty towers piercing the sky and great sacrifice made to Chaos. And for it all to happen, all he has to do is set his eyes on the heart of Varantha...
Hive Fleet Horror
by Barrington J. Bayley
A tale of Hive Fleet Kraken and a fugitive Adeptus Mechanicus Genetor.