Contents

Cover

The Guns of Enth – Extract

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

The Guns of Enth

R S Wilt

The drop pod tumbled planetward, a comet of crimson and gold, billowing a tail of black smoke across the skies of Enth’s southern polar region. One of its bulkhead ramps had been shorn free by defensive fire, tearing Brothers Ancleto, Clorus and Dershon from their grav-restraints and sucking them out through the gaping tear in the fuselage.

The heads-up display in Brother-Sergeant Metis’ auto-senses still registered Ancleto’s vitals as green until he dropped out of range.

Freefalling, the pod corkscrewed around its longitudinal axis even as it tumbled about its transverse. Warning klaxons screamed, nearly inaudible above the howling wind that filled the crew compartment.

Bound by the constraints of their harnesses around the pod’s central column, Metis and his remaining seven brothers laboured to regain control of their stricken entry vehicle, unperturbed despite the severity of their situation. Transhuman biology and their power armour’s onboard life-support systems negated the ill effects of their terminal descent, while genetic augmentation, psycho-conditioning and collective centuries of indoctrination had long since inured them to fear.

‘Neligo,’ Metis called into the squad vox, ‘can you reach the primary engine override?’

‘Negative response, brother-sergeant,’ Neligo replied.

‘Brother-sergeant,’ Techmarine Ciderine said from the opposite side of the pod, ‘the secondary override is located under a panel by Ancleto’s position behind you. If you could reach it, you should be able to get thrust working and get us back under control.’

Metis grunted an acknowledgement, twisting around backwards and to his right as far as his grav-harness would allow, the oath paper affixed to his left vambrace whipping against his armour. Wrenching open the panel on the pod’s central control plinth, he strained to reach for the secondary engine override switch. ‘I can’t reach it.’

‘Undo your grav-harness,’ Ciderine suggested.

‘Probably not the wisest course of action, Ciderine,’ Metis grunted, still reaching for the switch.

‘I have access to the grav-plates’ manual controls, brother-sergeant,’ Ciderine said. ‘If you can get thrust back online, I can control our descent enough to keep us from liquescing on impact, but I can’t do it from here myself.’

‘What if you activate the grav-plates now?’ Brother Irtren asked.

‘That’s inadvisable this far above the surface,’ Ciderine replied. ‘Without a controlled descent, the torsion from our fall coupled with extreme stress upon the grav-plates would tear the pod apart.’

‘Any other options, Ciderine?’ Metis asked.

‘No.’

Metis grasped his harness and tugged hard on the cinches, to no avail. Planting his feet and leaning sideways, he struggled against the plasteel security cage as he attempted to push himself closer to the exposed switch; for all his effort, he could only just manage to reach it with the tip of his middle finger.

Metis glanced out of the gaping hole in the drop pod’s fuselage: clear blue sky rapidly alternated with the heavy cloud cover that lay above a surface that drew ever closer. Their target, the southernmost of Enth’s orbital defence macrocannon batteries, lay beneath those clouds.

The oath paper flapped against his vambrace.

Upon my honour and the honour of my Chapter, in the Emperor’s name, I will claim the Guns of Enth. Duty unto death, honour to the Howling Griffons and all glory to the Emperor!

Maglocking his boots to the deck, he wrenched at the restraint holding his right shoulder in place, straining as he twisted at the metal bar. With a crack, the join broke free, the forces of the uncontrolled descent beating Metis against his restraint column.

Straining against rapidly shifting centrifugal force, the sergeant reached for the override switch. No longer stabilised by his harness, his arm flailed. Genetically enhanced muscles and electronically motivated fibre bundles tore as he fought to control his limb’s motion.

‘Our current situation highlights the accuracy of Enth’s macrocannon defences,’ Ciderine reflected.

‘What?’ Metis asked breathlessly, striving to reach the control.

‘If you consider how difficult it is to actually shoot down a drop pod, simply based upon its speed and size,’ Ciderine explained, ‘coupled with the statistical–’

‘Brother,’ Metis snarled, lunging towards the actuator. ‘Shut. Up.’

His middle finger hooked over the switch. Forcing it between toggle and bulkhead, he pulled down hard.

The drop pod surged violently, wrenching Metis upward against his surviving restraint as the engines screamed back to life. Arresting its rearward pitch, restored thrust rocketed the pod towards the planet’s surface at near-escape velocity.

‘Brace!’ Metis called, his armour clanging against his restraint.

Ciderine activated the pod’s grav-plates just short of touchdown, repelling the entry vehicle from the planet’s gravity with a bone-jarring lurch – not enough to stop it, but significant enough to arrest the majority of its momentum.

The drop pod smashed down with seismic force, liquefying the surrounding ice floe. It tottered upon the crumbling ice sheet for a few seconds before crashing onto its side with a long shriek of tortured metal, the grinding of ice and a tremendous splash. Icy water poured in through the tear in the hull, which now lay beneath the collapsed pod. The explosive bolts securing the remaining four hatches burst, but the doors’ hydraulic systems were inoperative – without gravity to assist the ramps’ deployment, they remained closed.

‘The doors are malfunctioning,’ Ciderine reported as water filled the compartment around him. He looked down at his grav-harness. ‘As are the harness releases.’

‘I was right to recommend you for Techmarine training, Brother Ciderine,’ Metis scowled.

‘Thank you, brother-sergeant.’

Metis twisted himself free of his damaged grav-harness. Gathering his bolter and chainsword from their arming racks, he worked to extricate Brother Tyge, who was secured into the harness facing his. Metis and Tyge then crawled through the waterlogged pod, freeing their brothers.

‘Help me open this,’ Metis said, pushing against one of the lowermost-facing exit ramps. With tremendous exertion, he, Tyge and Wiek prised the door open.

‘Your servo-arm would be most helpful, Brother-Techmarine,’ Wiek grunted.

‘Indeed,’ Ciderine agreed, cramped as he was against a bulkhead behind Neligo and Fulgia.

Using a span of plasteel wrenched free from Metis’ battered restraint column, they forced an opening just wide enough for a power-armoured Space Marine to squeeze through.

Click here to buy The Guns of Enth.

A Black Library Publication

This eBook edition published in 2024 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Represented by: Games Workshop Limited – Irish branch, Unit 3, Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1, D01 K199, Ireland.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.

The Guns of Enth © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2024. The Guns of Enth, 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: 978-1-80407-985-0

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

See Black Library on the internet at
blacklibrary.com

Find out more about Games Workshop’s world of Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 universe at
warhammer.com

eBook license

This license is made between:

Games Workshop Limited t/a Black Library, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, United Kingdom (“Black Library”); and

the purchaser of a Black Library e-book product (“You/you/Your/your”)

(jointly, “the parties”)

These are the terms and conditions that apply when you purchase a Black Library e-book (“e-book”). The parties agree that in consideration of the fee paid by you, Black Library grants you a license to use the e-book on the following terms:

* 1. Black Library grants to you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the e-book in the following ways:

o 1.1 to store the e-book on any number of electronic devices and/or storage media (including, by way of example only, personal computers, e-book readers, mobile phones, portable hard drives, USB flash drives, CDs or DVDs) which are personally owned by you;

o 1.2 to access the e-book using an appropriate electronic device and/or through any appropriate storage media.

* 2. For the avoidance of doubt, you are ONLY licensed to use the e-book as described in paragraph 1 above. You may NOT use or store the e-book in any other way. If you do, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license.

* 3. Further to the general restriction at paragraph 2, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license in the event that you use or store the e-book (or any part of it) in any way not expressly licensed. This includes (but is by no means limited to) the following circumstances:

o 3.1 you provide the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.2 you make the e-book available on bit-torrent sites, or are otherwise complicit in ‘seeding’ or sharing the e-book with any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.3 you print and distribute hard copies of the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.4 you attempt to reverse engineer, bypass, alter, amend, remove or otherwise make any change to any copy protection technology which may be applied to the e-book.

* 4. By purchasing an e-book, you agree for the purposes of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 that Black Library may commence the service (of provision of the e-book to you) prior to your ordinary cancellation period coming to an end, and that by purchasing an e-book, your cancellation rights shall end immediately upon receipt of the e-book.

* 5. You acknowledge that all copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights in the e-book are, shall remain, the sole property of Black Library.

* 6. On termination of this license, howsoever effected, you shall immediately and permanently delete all copies of the e-book from your computers and storage media, and shall destroy all hard copies of the e-book which you have derived from the e-book.

* 7. Black Library shall be entitled to amend these terms and conditions from time to time by written notice to you.

* 8. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law, and shall be subject only to the jurisdiction of the Courts in England and Wales.

* 9. If any part of this license is illegal, or becomes illegal as a result of any change in the law, then that part shall be deleted, and replaced with wording that is as close to the original meaning as possible without being illegal.

* 10. Any failure by Black Library to exercise its rights under this license for whatever reason shall not be in any way deemed to be a waiver of its rights, and in particular, Black Library reserves the right at all times to terminate this license in the event that you breach clause 2 or clause 3.