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Rumours abounded in the Angel’s Blessing that night. The city was on the verge of open rebellion. Macharius had been wounded at the new war front. Macharius had been killed. The Death Spectres had gone off-world to deal with an ork invasion fleet. Plague had erupted on Karsk V and would be coming our way soon. We sat in the dark and drank our rotgut and tried not to pay too much attention. We were looking for distraction. That night the girls brought a friend. She was tall, dark, and strikingly pretty with dark hair cut very short. Her name was Anna. I studied her as she sat opposite me. She seemed quiet and self-possessed and calm. She had the competence that nurses always have but she was distant. ‘She’s as new around here as you are,’ Yanis said, as if making a joke. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Anna smiled a little coldly, I thought. ‘She means I just transferred in to St Oberon’s. I was working two levels down in the old Flat Tunnel Hospice.’ ‘Might as well have come from ano...

‘You ready for when we meet the bastard?’ Anton asked, glaring around the interior of the Chimera. A score of troops looked at him. It was cramped in the compartment and his voice seemed too loud. There was no question of who the bastard was. He could only mean one person: a preacher of the Angel of Fire. The armoured troop carrier raced through the street. There had been another sighting and we had been sent out to break it up and take prisoners if we could. '야 너네들 개자식들 만나러 가는거 준비됫냐?' 안톤이 키메라 장갑차 내부를 둘러보면서 물었다. 20명의 병력들이 그를 쳐다봤다. 장갑차 내부 객실은 비좁았고 안톤의 목소리는 너무 큰 것처럼 보였다. 개자식이 누굴 말하는거냐는 질문은 나오지 않았다. 그는 오직 한 사람을 의미했을 것이다; '불의 천사'의 설교자. 장갑 병력 수송차가 길거리를 질주했다. 적이 발견되었고 우리들은 그들을 분쇄하고 가능하다면 포로를 잡기 위해 파견되었었다. I pumped the shotgun. It was audible within the armoured hull even over the roar of the vehicle’s engines. ‘What do you think?’ I had listened to all the stories. There were few things that the survivors always agreed on. Las-fire did not slow the psykers. It made them ...

The next day we stood on the walls and watched the army depart. Endless lines of massive battle-tanks roared off in advance of troop carriers. Valkyries swarmed in the air over them. Titans strode gigantically through the red murk of the dawn. The air vibrated with the passage of the army. Our words seemed to resonate inside our chests when we spoke. 다음날 우리들은 방벽 위에서 군대가 떠나는 것을 지켜보았다. 거대한 전차들의 끝없는 대열이 보병 수송차량의 선두에서 으르렁거렸다. 발키리들이 그들의 공중을 가득 메웠다. 타이탄들이 새벽의 붉은 어두움 속을 성큼성큼 거대하게 걸어나갔다. 대기가 군대의 행군으로 진동했다. 우리가 말할때 가슴팍에서 목소리가 울리는 것 같았다. ‘We should be going with them,’ said Anton. ‘We should be in Number Ten.’ I wasn’t going to argue with him. If there was any justice in the galaxy we would have been out there in the Indomitable. The lieutenant would have been leading us and Oily and Henrik would have been with us. Instead we were with all the other troops of our hastily assembled company, standing guard on the walls of Irongrad, watching the army leave to go with Macharius to new conquest...

I crouched behind the wreck of an autocar while a bunch of maniacal gangers took pot-shots at us with their home-made pistols. A slug ricocheted off the hood of the vehicle and bounced through a shop window, shattering the glass. ‘Just like the old neighbourhood on a feast-day night,’ Anton said, rising and snapping off a shot with his lasgun. Somebody screamed. Anton dropped back into place and grinned. ‘Makes me nostalgic,’ Ivan said and whistled through his iron teeth. I could tell he was thinking of taking a few shots himself or maybe even charging. He had always been fond of a brawl in the old days. 미치광이 갱단 한무리가 우리들에게 사제 피스톨 권총으로 기습공격을 가하는 동안 나는 오토카의 찌그러진 차체 뒤에 웅크리고 있었다. 탄환 한발이 차의 후드에 튕겨나가더니 상점 창문을 맞추고는 유리를 박살냈다. '꼭 그 성축일 날 밤의 그리운 고향사람들 같은데' 안톤이 일어서서 라스건을 한발 갈기면서 말했다. 누군가가 비명을 질렀다. 안톤이 차 뒤로 몸을 숨기고는 씩 웃었다. '아 추억에 잠기게 되는구만' 이반이 그의 강철 이빨 사이로 휘파람을 불고는 말했다. 나는 그가 여러발 총을 갈기거나 심지어 돌격할까 생각하고 있다는 것을 알아챌 수 있었다. 그는 그 옛시절에 무척이나 격투를 애호했었다. I stuck my head up and gaz...

En masse we marched in triumph through a great arched gateway, flanked by two fire-winged angels fifty times as tall as a man, and passed into the depths of Hive Irongrad. Behind me stretched out long lines of grey-uniformed soldiers. Up ahead massive tanks roared like victorious beasts. In our hundreds of thousands we strode beneath banners that showed our regiment, our unit and our triumphs on a thousand different worlds. The High Command wanted no one to be in any doubt that the legions of the Emperor had returned to reclaim this world in His name. 승전 기념식에서 우리들은 한 쌍의 불의 날개를 가진, 사람의 50배만큼이나 거대한 천사들이 옆으로 늘어서 있는 거대한 아치 관문을 지나, 아이언그라드 하이브 시티의 깊숙 한 안으로 한 덩어리가 되어 행진해 들어갔다. 내 뒤에 회색 군복 병사들의 열이 펼쳐져 있었다. 앞쪽에는 거대한 전차들이 승리를 거둔 짐승들처럼 으르렁대고 있었다. 1천개의 다른 세계들에서 온 우리의 연대들, 부대들, 그곳에서 거둔 승리들을 나타내는 깃발 아래에서 수없이 많은 우리들은 성큼성큼 행진했다. 총사령부는 황제의 군단들이 황제의 이름으로 이 세계를 다시 되찾기 위해 돌아왔다는 사실에 그 누구도 어떤 의심도 품을 수 없도록 만들고 싶어했다. I felt odd, marching along behind the tanks instead of driving the Indomitable. It had be...