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CROSSED SWORDS

Ben Counter

‘I see fate plays knucklebones with me,’ said Brother Valhid, the crossed swords on his shoulder plate lit by the pale green light from his auspex scanner. ‘Now I have to fight my enemies alongside a Brae.’

Brother Fejulah looked at his fellow Astral Knight through the gloom of the necropolis. ‘And here I was expecting to see the necrons rushing at me out of the darkness,’ he replied. ‘Instead I see a scion of House ban Devolon. I do not know which I would prefer.’

‘Another warrior for our band,’ came a gruff voice from behind Valhid. ‘Soon we shall have an army. Your name?’

Sergeant El’Kura came into the feeble light. The lines of his face were as proud a mark of the veteran as the long service studs in his forehead. Alongside him were the other members of his makeshift squad – four more Astral Knights, in the livery of several different companies.

‘Fejulah, of the Fourth,’ came the reply. ‘I was separated in the crash.’

‘The Fourth have suffered the worst,’ said El’Kura. ‘You have lost many brothers. Down here, our priority is to rejoin other survivors and regroup. I welcome another gun.’

‘I must link up with my company command,’ said Fejulah.

‘The Fourth has no command,’ said El’Kura. ‘I am all there is.’

‘Then I welcome the chance to fight back,’ said Fejulah.

‘I can spare no more time for niceties,’ said the sergeant. ‘We are heading for a structure to our northwest. Before we were cut off from the vox-net we heard tell of a central tomb complex. Other Astral Knights will be using it as a rally point. But we must move now. The foe are hunting us.’

The squad moved off, bringing Fejulah with them. All around them, the depths of the necropolis loomed pitch black, the hints of enormous tombs and monumental statues edged grey in the Space Marines’ enhanced vision.

Brother Valhid cast a glance at Fejulah as the squad dropped into formation. There was nothing in either man’s eyes that spoke of anything but hate.

On the crest of a shattered black stone ridge, where some ancient tectonic shift had crushed a hundred tombs into a spine of broken obsidian, the necrons struck.

The Astral Knights had by that time given a name to the enemy that waited for them on the artificial planetoid they called the World Engine. The necrons were constructs, thinking machines that ignorant human settlers had woken from their tombs on far-flung worlds of the Imperium. There was next to nothing known about them, with only a handful of encounters logged in the battle-histories to which the Astral Knights had access. The Chapter was learning as they fought, and they were costly lessons.

‘Filth on their bones!’ yelled Brother Saahiran, leaping onto a jutting shard of black stone, hefting the weight of his heavy bolter. ‘Take the life from this Astral Knight when a thousand of you k’nib-botherers lie dead!’

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A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS UK.

Cover illustration by Leonid Kozienko.

Crossed Swords © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2015. Crossed Swords, Space Marine Battles, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78251-694-1

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