“ Good . Surprise will serve us well at this stage .” He replaced his helm , and stepped forward to join his brothers . “ This war has gone on for too long . We must break this rebellion , before this siege burns the world to ashes .” He received a flurry of confirmations across the squad ’ s voxnetwork , as his fellow warriors began to ascend from the crater ’ s depths .
Across a half-dozen landing points across the city , identical squads began to emerge from their own drop pods , clearing landing zones with inhuman efficiency . Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter , transhuman warriors that represented the pinnacle of warfare , each the veteran of centuries of conflict against mankind ’ s deadliest foes . They moved out with a well-deserved confidence , ready to bring their might to bear against this well-entrenched foe .
And though they did not know it , all but five would be dead before the day was out .
CRITICAL COMMENTARY
This piece of franchise fiction attempts to mimic the literary style often employed by novels written for the Warhammer 40,000 franchise , a sci-fi storyworld set in a gothic vision of the distant future . More specifically , it is an attempt at a truncated version of a typical Warhammer 40,000 novel ’ s opening chapter , with a focus paid to establishing the novel ’ s setting , and introducing two primary characters ( Colonel Arctura Loft , and the Space Marine Horatius ) that would be the novel ’ s primary point of view characters .
The piece consists of three segments , separated by dinkuses , the first of which being a section establishing the planet ‘ Montulax ’ as a setting ; such an opening is common in Warhammer novels , as the franchise itself spans an entire galactic setting . As such , many Warhammer novels choose to centre themselves on a single world or location devised for that novel alone , allowing for a contained story to be told that doesn ’ t ultimately disrupt the overall status quo of the setting ; Dan Abnett ’ s novel Necropolis ( Abnett , 2000 ) is an example of this habit and a primary inspiration for the approach taken in this piece , with the first chapter establishing both the planetary setting itself , the current conflict , and several of the characters whose narratives will be followed during the novel . The world of Montulax can be rescued by our Imperial protagonists , or be utterly destroyed , without affecting the wider setting in any meaningful way ; as a storyworld originally established for a tabletop game , it is rare that a Warhammer novel truly upheaves the setting in any major way , as killing off noted characters or destroying factions would only serve to hamper the sale of models representing said characters and factions .
The other two segments both introduce a primary character each ; a human military officer , and a transhuman Space Marine . These roles were chosen to again reflect a common trope within Warhammer franchise fiction , the human deuteragonist paired with the Space Marine protagonist , providing a more relatable viewpoint that counterbalances the emotionally stunted , inhuman killing machine that is the Space Marine ( Dembski-Bowden , 2020 ). Furthermore , as the Warhammer setting establishes that Space Marines are exclusively male , the human sidecharacters are often used in the more recent novels as an avenue to include female characters that would otherwise be excluded . Both of these quirks hold true in this piece as well ; Loft ’ s segment is written with a more introspective focus to it than Horatius ’ action-focused segment , and she would serve as this hypothetical novel ’ s primary female representation .
The two characters introduced also fit a common
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