Status Updates From Scourge the Heretic (Dark H...

‘Great idea,’ Drake grumbled. ‘I particularly liked the bit where you nearly rammed us into the wall.’
Barda shrugged. ‘We’re doing the Emperor’s work, right? I knew He’d protect us.’ He cut the power, and the shuttle settled on the seared ground beneath it as gently as a snowflake.

‘I think he has a point,’ she agreed, allowing a mischievous glint to enter her eyes. ‘If it’s good enough for the Emperor, it ought to be good enough for anyone.’ The taste of blasphemy was bitter on her tongue, but she forced herself to smile nevertheless. If she was going to establish herself as someone with heretical tendencies, she might never get a better opportunity.

‘OK.’ Kyrlock nodded. Then he took a tighter grip on the shotgun. ‘Company’s coming.’
Elyra turned her head, feeling the faint crackle of tension against her skin, like the first presentiment of a distant thunderstorm, which meant the presence of another of the warp-touched in close proximity. ‘I know,’ she said.

‘His mortal remains showed signs of daemonic possession,’ Horst said bluntly, hoping to shock them into some further betrayal, but both aristocrats had regained their composure, merely paling at his words in the manner most pious citizens would on hearing the most feared denizens of the warp referred to so casually.

The intruder had come to a decision. One way or another, the inquisitor had to die, now, while he was still vulnerable, before his strength returned. Tearing itself free of its hiding place, it prepared to strike.

The pilot turned to face the gunner for a moment. ‘Time to warm up your toys, sweetheart.’
‘Everything’s ready,’ the woman assured him calmly, her eyes never leaving a panel of what looked like targeting displays. ‘And if you ever call me sweetheart again, I’ll have a new pair of earrings and you’ll be singing soprano.’

‘We’re on our final approach,’ he voxed to the compartment behind him, seeing the red icon of the target edging into the fringe of the display.
‘Acknowledged,’ the strike leader said. Howling like a daemon, clawing the snow from the trees as its belly skimmed their uppermost branches, the drop-ship swooped like a shrike on its unsuspecting prey.

How Keira had managed to penetrate that seething anthill of humanity undetected, and return again, he had no idea, but the girl’s talents were truly exceptional. Not for the first time, he thanked the Emperor for the insight that had allowed him to discern them, and the tutors of the Collegium Assassinorum for honing them so skilfully.

‘Good,’ Claren said, from the warmth and comfort of his command Chimera. ‘Wyler’s got frostbite. You can take over his sentry post.’
‘We’ll be right there,’ Drake confirmed, cutting the link abruptly before Kyrlock could comment verbally. ‘You son of a mutant,’ he added, sure the sergeant couldn’t hear him.
‘Well, it could be worse,’ Kyrlock said philosophically.

Belatedly, he realised that the stench of blood and burning was strong again, and he began to discern fragments of the bridge crew among the wreckage. Swallowing hastily, he activated his vox.
‘Inquisitor,’ he began, ‘we seem to have run into a bit of a hitch.’

As his guide turned to lead the way, his left shoulder came into view, and Pieter glanced at the heraldry revealed there, vaguely relieved at being able to put a name to him at last. Orjen the Space Wolf, the only one of his Chapter to be serving with the inquisitor’s Deathwatch team.