Contents

Cover

The Brightest And Best – Extract

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

The Brightest And Best

Mike Brooks

Vasila Manatu wanted to do her best. She wanted to achieve great things for humanity, and for the Emperor. She just could not understand why her tutors at the Aquilonis Porta Schola Progenium persisted in getting in the way.

‘Do you understand why you are here?’ Master Sakir said, scowling from behind his desk. They were in the old east wing, which was draughty in the cold winter months and, as now, roasted in the summer. Time seemed to pass especially slowly here. Vasila’s eye was drawn to a winged insect struggling against strands of spider silk laced across a window pane. No matter how it fought, it made no progress against the near-invisible snares which held it in place. She sympathised.

Nazos nudged her in the ribs, and she realised she had not responded, so she ducked her head and spoke meekly. ‘Yes, master.’

It was perfectly true. She knew why she was there. Whether she agreed with the rationale for it was not the question she had been asked. It was not a question she would ever be asked.

‘If I had my way, I would beat the pair of you,’ Master Sakir declared. Despite the fact that age and his service in the Astra Militarum had left him with a wizened frame and one good arm respectively, he was perfectly capable of doing so. Vasila kept a catalogue of all the many bruises she had suffered at Aquilonis Porta, and Master Sakir had long been at the top of the rankings for both number inflicted, and severity.

‘However,’ Sakir continued, ‘the commandant has declared that this may be counterproductive in your cases, or at least not actively beneficial.’ The sniff that followed that sentence left no illusion as to Sakir’s opinion of that. ‘He has ordered that you translate three chapters of the text in front of you from Low Gothic into Antimosian, in the hope that it will encourage you to follow instructions to the letter. Your food rations will be withheld until this is done.’

Vasila eyed the text in question: Treatises on High-yield Hydrofarming, by Lavren Gabrell. It was ancient, bound in leather over wood, and as thick as her twelve-year-old fist.

‘Which chapters, master?’ Nazos asked. Sakir smiled, the smile of a predator who sees something small and fluffy and defenceless in the long grass.

‘The commandant instructed me that I should have you translate three chapters. He did not instruct me that I had to tell you which chapters they were.’

Vasila glanced sideways at Nazos, and found him looking back at her. In order to give Sakir no excuse to punish them further, they would have to translate the whole thing. A typically Sakir twist, showing exactly the sort of inventiveness for which they were being punished.

Well, this would teach her a great deal about high-yield hydrofarming. Vasila could not see a likely use for this knowledge in the future, but she refused to let Sakir win. She would absorb anything he tried to use to punish her, and thereby make herself stronger.

Sakir opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by a whine from outside, which rapidly turned into a roar. He rose from his desk and moved to the window – a shocking occurrence in and of itself, since Master Sakir prided himself on his ferocious and unbreakable concentration. However, Vasila did not think she imagined the slight flinch that passed across his face as the noise grew in volume. Master Sakir had heard this before, she was certain, and it held bad memories for him.

She and Nazos looked at each other again. Then, on the basis that they were in trouble for disobedience already, and Master Sakir had not actually ordered them to remain in their seats, they slipped off their stools and sidled as unobtrusively as possible to the window next to his.

The source of the noise dropped from the sky in exactly the manner it looked like it should. It was blocky, and bulky, and not at all elegant. This was not a craft that glided on the wind or soared delicately through the atmosphere: this punched the air out of its way, and dared it to hit back. It bristled with brutal weaponry, which Vasila’s well-trained brain catalogued without thinking. Dorsal-mounted battle cannon, wing-mounted lascannons and Hellstrike missiles, hull-mounted heavy bolters…

‘Saints have mercy,’ Nazos breathed. ‘That’s a Thunderhawk!’

‘Remain here,’ Master Sakir snapped. ‘Do not leave.’ He turned to look at them, a strange expression on his face. ‘Vasila Manatu! Nazos Zernas! Do you understand? Do not leave this room, for any reason!’

He swept out of the door and slammed it shut behind him. It took a few seconds for Vasila to finally place the emotion Master Sakir’s face had been broadcasting, since it was not one she had seen on him before.

It was fear.

Outside and below them, the entrance ramp of the Thunderhawk lowered, and enormous, silver-armoured warriors began to descend.

Commandant Vissarius paced his office in the grip of an unfamiliar nervousness. He would receive most visitors sitting in his high-backed chair behind his desk of ancient bloodteak, to leave no doubt as to his authority. Higher-ranking officials of the Missionarus Galaxia would be greeted by him on one knee as they descended from their craft. But this…

Emil Vissarius had no context for this situation.

The Emperor’s Angels of Death were on Antimos. The Demeter Sector had been plunged into turmoil three Terran years ago by the arrival of forces claiming allegiance to all sorts of heretical powers, so it was by no means unreasonable for the Adeptus Astartes to have been called in, but Antimos had been spared the war so far, by the grace of the Emperor. That being the case, why had His mightiest warriors come to this world? More to the point, why had they landed a Thunderhawk on the premises of his schola? Was there an imminent invasion of which he was unaware? Had heretics or traitors been uncovered on the planet?

A knock jerked him from his mind’s feverish freewheeling, and he realised he had still not decided how best to greet his guest. He would simply have to make the best of it.

‘Come!’ he barked, placing his hands behind his back and facing the door.

‘Captain Solomon Akurra of the Silver Lions,’ announced Peric, his aide. The young man retreated from sight immediately, and was replaced in the doorway by a figure infinitely more intimidating.

Click here to buy The Brightest and Best.

A Black Library Publication

This eBook edition published in 2022 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 Brightest and Best © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2022. The Brightest and Best, 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: 978-1-80407-175-5

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
games-workshop.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.