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Defiant – Extract

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Defiant

Andy Clark

Jennika Tan Draconis marched her Knight, Fire Defiant, along a rubble-strewn street. A lance of House Draconis Knights followed in tight formation. The flickering runes on her strategic overlay showed more Adrastapolian war engines striding down parallel roadways, guarding the flanks of her advance. In the wake of each lance came a Sacristan Crawler; the heavy vehicles crunched over debris and wreckage on their armoured balloon tyres.

Towering saints looked down upon the Knights as they passed, their sombre features wrought in marble, their hollow eyes doleful. Each statue stood taller than a Warlord Titan. They lined the primary roadways of Pyrodiah’s capital hive, Castigorum, in their hundreds. The cowled stone giants flanked every gothic hab-block and reliquary-manufactorum, palpable reminders that Imperial judgement was omnipresent.

Jennika found herself stiffening beneath their regard on several occasions, her jaw clenching. She wondered if it was because of Donatos, and the aftermath of all that had transpired there.

‘Status check, sires and ladies,’ she voxed on her lance’s closed channel.

‘Hale and ready, my lady,’ replied Sire Dyros and Lady Elayn Dar Draconis, almost in unison.

‘Bellicose, my lady,’ said Sire Jaekeb Dar Draconis with relish.

‘Rein in that draconsfire, Sire Jaekeb,’ said Jennika. ‘This is a live warzone, not a tilting field. You are one of my lance, now act like it.’

‘Yes, my lady,’ replied the young Knight, sounding unrepentant.

‘Necrons should not be underestimated, Jaekeb,’ said Sire Dyros. ‘They’re implacable, undying, and everything we’ve seen of them during this war suggests powers and weapons we cannot begin to comprehend.’

‘With respect, sire, they didn’t appear undying at Piety’s Mount,’ said Jaekeb. ‘They emerged from their tunnels and we crushed them underfoot like rock-roaches.’

‘Piety’s Mount was a skirmish, Jaekeb,’ said Jennika. ‘The Sacristans believe those necrons had just awakened. They were disorientated, unsupported. You weren’t at Furia Fields, or the defence of Daebyn’s Shrine.’

‘No, my lady. I was not,’ replied Jaekeb.

Jennika heard his resentment, but chose to ignore it. She understood his burning need for glory. She had felt it once herself. But a ruthless war like this wasn’t the time or place for a warrior who had just Become to begin weaving his tapestry.

The war for Pyrodiah had been raging for months before they even arrived, and had only escalated after the drop keeps of Adrastapol rained down. Jennika’s Knights had succeeded in stemming the tide of android aliens that spilled up from below, and had rescued the planet’s defenders from annihilation. Yet despite their success, the fighting had been fierce and casualties were steep among the Pyrodiahn defence force and the Knights themselves.

As First Knight of Adrastapol, she had ensured the fiercest fighting fell to her more veteran warriors, rather than those recently Become. Logically, she knew this was in order to secure victory. Yet in her more introspective moments, she questioned whether it was also because she recognised elements of her younger brother Danial, as he had been on Donatos, in each of them.

Before the crown.

Before their father fell.

Scowling, Jennika expanded the vox to address her entire force, which comprised four lances – all the Knights that had been operating with her when the message was received that Governor Beatifica needed rescuing. With necron anti-aircraft weaponry rumbling up from the depths all over the city, aerial extraction was no longer an option. If Jennika’s Knights could not complete this mission, nobody would.

‘First Knight to all lances,’ said Jennika. ‘Maintain shield discipline and keep a weather eye on your auspexes. Stay alert for any sign of tectonic activity. Remember, this enemy can emerge from underground, or even from thin air, and their weapons will flay you and your steeds down to sparking metal and red flesh.’

‘Thank you, Lady Jennika,’ came Sire Olphrec’s blunt reply from the head of the westernmost lance. ‘Dracon knows we’ve all fought the necrons recently enough, eh? Needn’t coddle us, my lady.’

Jennika’s eyes narrowed. Olphrec had stayed just on the right side of propriety since the campaign began, but his every utterance seemed expertly calculated to test her authority.

‘A complacent pilot is a chink in his steed’s armour,’ said Jennika, the sharpness of her own tone irritating her. ‘Just keep your eyes open and your weapons ready.’

Maintain calm and dignity in all things, whispered a voice from her throne. That, or settle the matter on the duelling field, said another, fiercer ghost. Olphrec dishonours himself, came a third voice, a dry old echo. He is beneath you. Yet Jennika noted that even amongst the ghosts of her throne, some voices murmured quietly together beyond the range of her thoughts, and she couldn’t help but wonder if they sympathised with him. House Draconis had become more progressive under High King Danial’s rule, but Jennika’s appointment to First Knight was still unique for her gender.

There were those who did not approve.

Before Olphrec could engage in further barbs, a rune lit in Jennika’s peripheral vision. It signified a priority vox-hail from Deathwatch Captain Azkarael. She answered it with a blink-click, opening a hardened channel.

‘First Knight,’ said Azkarael.

‘Captain Azkarael,’ replied Jennika.

‘Status?’ asked the Dark Angel.

‘We are less than half a mile from the governor’s compound,’ said Jennika. ‘No direct resistance thus far, though strategic auspex suggests that the Mordian Iron Guard are being hammered from coordinates eight-one-four through five-five-one.’

‘Make haste,’ said Azkarael, and Jennika heard the thump and thunder of boltgun fire in the background. ‘We will penetrate the inner tomb complex within the next ten minutes. We will then plant and prime the purgator warheads. The governor must be clear of the primary engagement area before they detonate. Segmentum command require her to be fully debriefed in order to determine why this war had become such a debacle before your arrival. Beatifica has much to answer for.’

‘I am aware, captain. You already informed me that the entire hive will collapse into the resultant pit,’ said Jennika. ‘We are Knights of Adrastapol, oath-sworn to see our duty done. Rest assured, it will be done.’

‘Just so,’ said Azkarael. ‘Brother Shorrgath will transmit a three-minute alert prior to final detonation.’

‘Understood,’ said Jennika. ‘Good hunting, captain.’

‘Emperor go with you,’ replied Azkarael before breaking the vox-link.

Jennika’s eyes darted skywards as a pair of necron fighter craft screamed overhead, spiralling in a lethal dogfight with a trio of Imperial Thunderbolts. As she watched, one of the Imperial craft took a direct hit, green fire leaping from the necrons’ guns to tear away its tail assembly. The fighter hit a marble saint, decapitating the statue in a ball of flame. The remaining craft swept on, vanishing between crumbling hab-stacks. Jennika shook her head grimly and increased power to her steed’s motive actuators.

‘This war has already cost too much,’ she murmured. ‘We won’t lose the governor as well.’

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A Black Library Publication

First published in Servants of the Machine-God in Great Britain in 2018.
This eBook edition published in 2018 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd,
Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by John Michelbach.

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ISBN: 978-1-78572-982-9

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