Dishonoured

Warhammer 40,000

by Ray Harrison

At Blight's Edge, High Marshal Helbrecht and the Black Templars become embroiled in battle against a deadly foe. Their crusading prowess is tested to the very hilt against the soulless Necrons. Bleeding and beaten, oaths are sworn by Helbrecht and his warriors to avenge their dead and reclaim Blight's Edge from this menace.

Read it because
It's the story of how High Marshal Helbrecht lost his hand! It's been hinted at in codexes for years, find out the truth behind it for the first time.

Genres: Science Fiction

38 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2015

About the author

Working in digital publishing by day, writing by night.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vote: 3,5

High Marshal Helbrecht and Black Templars are fighting a desperate battle against relentless Necron foes lured on the mining world of Schrödinger VII by the turning on of an ancient buried beacon.
And when the xenos abduct their stendard bearer and the chapter flag things just go to hell.
One of the rare Black Library tales where the allmighty godlike Adeptus Astartes lose, outclassed and outnumbered by their smart enemies.
Well done action scenes and I liked a lot how the author fleshed Necrons and Space Marines, but Black Templars'contempt for the mortals they are supposed to protect, and the faith these put in them, was far better descripted in "Helsreach" Space Marine Battles novel by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

A good action packed, desperate last stand/rescue e-short.
Waiting for the re-match between High Marshal Helbrecht and Necron Stormlord Imotekh.

[Andrew Alvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid story, reminding me Nick Kymes' The Fall of Damnos where instead of Black Templars it was Ultramarines getting their butts kicked by the Necrons.

[Anthony Giordano · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What works here are the ways Harrison pens her action scenes, and her depiction of the necrons. She etches them out in very vivid detail, which is crucial because there is very little you can do with them in terms of personality.

Unfortunately, emotion, which should have been a linchpin of this story, is not realized. There is anger, rage, etc., yes. But we really needed to see the pits of despair at the sheer losses, and the peaks of rage from injured pride.

The dialogue here, while not bad, is pretty generic. In any situation, you get some bold declarations, moral statements, and jocular quips. That's pretty much it as far as emotive tools. Well, there is also a scene where a human gives one of the Templars a token of faith that is an almost word-for-word parallel of a scene in Rynn's World.

The taunting in the climactic duel between Helbrecht and Necron Stormlord Imotekh is pretty stilted as well. Honestly, I'd have no idea how to pen goading dialogue between a commander of an ancient alien race and the Master of a Chapter of genetically-engineered superhumans. But this mockery is on a direct-to-VHS action movie bad guy level.

Yet, again, for all the issues I have with Dishonoured, there are still the elements which work. For example, Harrison effectively portrays an atmosphere of time and spatial distortion when the rescue party is searching within an Necron monolith."

You can read my full review of this short here:

http://hachisnaxreads.blogspot.com/20...

[T R Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story of the conflict on Schrodinger VII where the Black Templars fought the Necrons. This story follows two separate plots, the first sees a group of Black Templar’s Sword Brethren try to recover a standard that was stolen by the Necrons, while the other follows, the then Marchal, Helbrecht as he attempts to return to his forces, as well as his first confrontation with Imotekh the Stormlord. This was an entertaining story with some good action and the Sword Brethren characters were all quite interesting. I do, however, think that this could have been expanded and split into two separate short stories, each following one of the plotlines, as I feel that both parts of the story were equally interesting and spending more time on both could have meant developing the Sword Brethren a bit more, and we would have been able to see more of the fight between Helbrecht and Imotekh.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading is that rare beast, a 40k story where the Space Marines actually lose. In the case of Ray Harrison’s Dishonoured it’s High Marshal Helbrecht and the Black Templars on the receiving end of some serious punishment handed out by the soulless Necrons as they try, and fail, to recapture the outpost of Blight’s Edge. Outfought and outmanoeuvred at every turn, Helbrecht’s fury is directed at himself as much as the Necrons, as he and his men attempt to avert disaster and at least retain their honour.

Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...

[Paul Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Templars losing??

It is almost heretical to suggest such a thing but they get beaten soundly by the necrons and this book explains the how and the the why, I would love a continuation of this story

[Michael Tite · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was alright.

It didn't have much gravity to it, but it was an alright story, it didn't feel particularly epic or poignant to me.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice backstory filler. Not much to say its a short story so character development is not huge but the story was pretty good.