Short Fiction Round-Up Volume 3: "Vorax" (Matt Farrer), "Luna Mendax" (Graham McNeill), "The Gates of Terra" (Nick Kyme)

Coming to you this time, three stories with a unifying theme: they all take place within the yellow light of Sol, though none are on Terra’s holy ground (well, as far as I know… jury’s out on the last one) after the outbreak of the Heresy. While this theme unifies them, the stories, characters and quality are all varied. I thought it’d be cool to do this themed roundup as the recent Weekender featured an announcement that the HH narrative will be moving definitively into the Solar System Campaign which leads into the Siege of Terra. Seems premature to me, but BL know what they’re doing… right??

Vorax by Matthew Farrer: Before ‘Cybernetica’ delivered on the promise of more, it seemed for a while like the Horus Heresy series had straight up forgot about Mars. (Nowadays everybody wanna talk, like they got somethin’ to say…) All these stories of Space Marines (mostly from the Shattered Legions) having desperate battles in the far corners of the galaxy when there was already a Traitor stronghold on Terra’s doorstep apparently going ignored. ‘Vorax’ was no more than a tidbit – an Advent Calendar Quick Read that in some ways serves only as a glorified advert for an expensive resin model made by Forge World. Yet somehow, it manages to be one of the best Heresy stories BL has put out in recent years. I’d compare it to Farrer’s seminal ‘After Desh’ea’ in the way it arouses my interest in a faction I’ve often found boring and one-note. I don’t wanna say that in its few pages, ‘Vorax’ is “better” than Graham’s whole ‘Mechanicum’ book was at showing scrapcode corruption and the madness that reigns after Mars declares for Kelbor-Hal… but… Well, I seem to already have said it, don’t I?

The story of ‘Vorax’ is rather basic and in fact can be summed up in a sentence. On the Ring of Iron, the Mechanicum traitor Ratiomancer Rhaal torments loyalist Enginseer Arrys, but is interrupted by some Vorax automata, who horribly murder him. The end. (Spoilers.) But like most of these Quick Reads, the story isn’t the appeal, it’s the way the authors can deepen and augment the background to this huge conflict. Farrer is one of the best in BL at showing us a new side to old, boring scenarios. Plus, homeboy can write – his flashy yet somehow terse style, florid in dialogue but brutal in combat, is one of my favourites after Dan Abnett. Here, he excels in showing the details of physical change wrought in Mechanicum operatives by the Mars scrapcode and their embrace of Kelbor-Hal’s new regime. Disturbing and horror-influenced, but somehow more believable than a lot of the more ‘gross’ stuff in HH. He also manages to tell us the current state of the Mars conflict and its blockade in subtle ways, making me wish for more of this from Farrer – a novella at least, or several more Quick Reads – to flesh out the Ring of Iron conflict. Still, I think any stories on this subject would be welcome, regardless of the writer – it really seems like a rich area that the series hasn’t mined yet.

In a short story like this characterisation often has to be done using broad strokes and clichés. Yet Farrer gives Rhaal a distinct and convincingly unhinged voice – it’s a very different approach from the dispassionate, brusque canting of Rob Sanders’ Dark Mechanicum creations. I’ve grown to enjoy Rob’s work in that area but this is still my preferred portrayal of Martian insanity and evil. Importantly, the Vorax themselves are a terrifying force of nature, and it’s a shame that as far as I know they haven’t shown up in any other Heresy work to date.

Sadly, the main problem with Vorax is that it’s so bloody short, and that its nasty, brutish ending makes it seem more like a prelude to a longer work than a self-contained narrative. I can only hope… but considering how infrequently Matt’s stories appear, it seems unlikely. For those who want more evil Mechanicum stuff from Matt, his novella ‘The Inheritor King’ from the Sabbat Crusade anthology also deals with corrupt machines, though in a very different way. For those who just want more Heresy stories from this guy, well, I’m right there with you. 9/10

Luna Mendax by Graham McNeill: At first published only in an event-exclusive anthology (which I was lucky enough to get my hands on), ‘Luna Mendax’ is an important chapter in the Garviel Loken story. Luckily, BL have finally put it out as an eBook, something they probably should have done in tandem with the release of ‘Vengeful Spirit’, since it’s an explicit prequel to that book. But oh well, since it’s out, it seems petty to complain.

‘Luna Mendax’ sees Graham McNeill take over as the writer for Loken for the first time since ‘False Gods’. Ben Counter may not have changed Garvi too much, but James Swallow made him fully insane and delusional, giving him the mantle of ‘Cerberus’ for his rather unsurprising return from the grave in ‘Garro: Legion of One’. Then John French took Loken on with ‘Grey Angel’, writing his shattered confidence well but involving him in a rather strange Caliban-centred plot hole which may or may not ever get a satisfying resolution.

When we meet Loken he’s working to build a beautiful garden, in a deserted hab-dome on Luna. Yeah, it’s a bit of a cliché for an old warrior to be working in a garden and musing on the nature of peace, an easy shorthand for the fact Loken is tired of war and wants to, well, retire. But after that slightly annoying intro, ‘Luna Mendax’ becomes a nice curiosity, an enjoyable HH story for those who don’t insist on their BL material brimming with violence, ichor and innards. Not only does it fill in the gaps between ‘Grey Angel’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’, it also fills in the gaps after ‘Legion of One’, and that’s appreciated. The mission to Caliban in ‘Grey Angel’ is discussed at length, but the wilfully obscure nature of Loken’s findings are passed over, which is probably a smart decision. Graham also dials back the mad frothing of the ‘Cerberus’ insanity to show a more realistic portrayal of a warrior recovering from a deeply traumatic event which left pretty much everyone he had ever known either dead or his sworn enemy.

Loken’s memories are a mess, which gives Graham an opportunity for several flashbacks. These emphasise one of the things I like most about Graham’s writing: he really loves ‘Horus Rising’ and is unashamed of showing it. This writing showed a marked improvement in characters established in that first novel. It also gives Graham a chance to press ‘reset’ on the character of Loken and have him revert to his pre-Isstvan III self as his memories come flooding back. No more screaming insaniac, no more borderline-catatonic PTSD victim. 

Perhaps that’s a little disingenuous, throwing away other authors’ work on this central character, but I think it worked well to have the ‘old’ Loken back for ‘Vengeful Spirit’. And, yeah, it helps that I like Loken a lot. While Garro has reacted to the upheaval of the Heresy with explorations of religion and worship of the Emperor, Loken seems to be walking a more difficult path with less certainty in the answers, and that’s part of what makes him the ‘Grey Knight’ I like most (well, after Varren).

Lastly, it also sets up one of the weirder arcs in ‘Vengeful Spirit’, if I recall right – Torgaddon’s soul is devoured or trapped by a daemon, which ends up inhabiting Grael Noctua’s body, and I guess this is him asking Loken for help? Man, I hope that once gets as crazy a payoff as the setup seems to promise.

If there’s any complain I can level at ‘Luna Mendax’ – apart from the kind of lame opening – is that I would certainly have appreciated more of an insight into how Loken sees Malcador and Garro. It’s odd how Garro and Loken weirdly never seem to be in the same place at the same time since the Heresy started (not while Loken’s sane, anyway). These two squaring off, or maybe just fighting back to back, is something I’m really looking forward to.

My favourite Heresy stories are often the ones which have little in the way of combat, focusing instead on exploration of characters. I’d take this moving, elegant story over the similarly structured – but in my opinion, hugely overrated – ‘Last Church’ any day. 8/10

The Gates of Terra by Nick Kyme: The last of our three Sol system stories begins strong with a Malcador/Dorn discussion that, well, doesn’t suck. Very mysterious; they’re discussing the inevitability of Horus reaching the walls, the Edict of Nikea, and the importance of using every weapon available to them, even ones they must keep from the Emperor himself. Impressive, eh? As it starts to get interesting, the narrative shifts to… Arcadese. Remember him? The Ultramarine from ‘Forgotten Sons’. As a heavily augmented wounded veteran, dealing with feelings of obsolescence and a creeping suspicion his Legion have abandoned him, I found Arcadese a fairly interesting character. We last saw him leaving the dying planet Bastion after the failure of his diplomatic mission there, swearing to avenge his friend Heka’tan of the Salamanders, and to kill as many Traitors as he could before death claimed him. So what’s he up to now?

Battling a strange, indefinable feeling of wrongness – as if recovering from a head wound – Arcadese finds himself in a besieged fortress helping to hold off the full vanguard of Horus’ armada, including the grim monolith of the Vengeful Spirit. To make matters worse, in the sky Arcadese can see… Terra. That’s right, the war has come to the heart of the Imperium already. Arcadese is on an orbital station in the Ardent Reef, and he must hold as many of these ships off as he can. The situation is hella grim and with World Eater drop-troops and their daemon allies right at the fortress door, the Ultramarine must prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice, knowing it will never be enough to stop Horus.

BUT WAIT. As Arcadese dies, it’s revealed the whole thing was a simulation, psychically implanted by Librarians working at the behest of Malcador and Dorn (hence the conversation in the beginning). The Siege isn’t happening yet, dummy! The war is definitely a little further along here than we’ve gotten in the main novels’ ‘timeline’, since the Warmaster’s attack is considered to be imminent and the Imperium has knowledge that daemonic opponents will most likely be faced.

Honestly, I sort of love this weird twist ending, though the justification for it is flimsy at best. The ridiculousness of using this kind of intensive training rather than traditional simulation runs is handwaved away (in fact Malcador literally says there’s “no time” for that discussion). It hardly seems the most efficient way for the Astartes of Terra to prepare. And putting it into practice for such a relatively small group of Marines, especially one including a warrior of dubious effectiveness and stability like Arcadese? I’d like to have a few of these plot holes filled in, but there are aspects to ‘Gates of Terra’ which make me think it’s a really cool idea. Maybe this ‘battle-conditioning’ will just be used for the leaders of the forces who will be sacrificed at the various ‘waypoints’ before Terra can be reached… or, maybe we’ll never fucking hear about it again, like so many cool ideas floated in short stories. (Remember when the World Eaters went to dig through the ruins of Prospero? Apparently BL wants to act like this never happened.)

Any Malcador story will give you a few juicy morsels of information about the future of his shadowy network of underlings, and this is no exception. Another of Malcador’s Astartes, the Librarian Umojen, could be another potential Grey Knight. Then again, it’s revealed here that there are hundreds of these loyal Astartes being run through the psyker-induced simulation runs, from many different Legions, and each of the ‘trainees’ are overseen by Librarians of diverse Legions as well. This puts Malcador’s pool of potential Grey Knights at levels so high that it seems pointless to even have a conversation about Grandmaster identities.

This was apparently first published in French as part of the French Games Day 2012 Chapbook and, well, at times it seems like there’s been some Babelfish use here in preparing the English version. One character is referred to as ‘Lieutenant’ throughout and I’m not sure if this is because Arcadese admits to not knowing the character’s name – though he feels he should – or if it’s just been translated BACK into English from French and some weird shit has gone on with the phrasing. “Lieutenant had vanished from sight in the hellstorm” surely would read better as “The lieutenant (or ‘The nameless lieutenant’, or ‘The mysterious lieutenant’) had vanished from sight in the hellstorm.” This shit does make a difference, people, and since Nick Kyme also works for Black Library as an editor, you’d expect it to be picked up. Likewise, some of the sentences seem very terse, even to the point that words seem to be missing, and again, I’m not sure if this is intended to show Arcadese’s brusque manner or just a fuckup in translation. And sometimes words are there which shouldn’t be: ie the “cracked view-screen screen” mentioned in passing.

On my first readthrough, I felt pretty enraged that the Siege of Terra, even the prelude to it, was being introduced in such an off-hand way, in a fairly mediocre story. I went into my second reading of the story knowing that the apparent Siege was really a red herring, which made it easier to swallow, though it doesn’t get any less bland. There are some moments of ‘pretty okay’, maybe even ‘great’ void combat here, but Kyme’s characterisation of Arcadese here doesn’t really add anything new to an UItramarine I’d actually found pretty interesting previously. Add to that the fact that most of the combat sequences had me close to yawning – well, I’m far from proclaiming this a classic. However, I really like the direction hinted at in the ending, and while I’m not particularly bothered with finding out what happens to Arcadese specifically, I do want to know where this particular storyline goes. And as a “Fuck what you just read, it was all a simulation” moment, I’d take this over ‘Rules of Engagement’ for sure. 6/10

So there you go. Three stories about the Sol system. I guess we'll be seeing stuff like this a lot more in the next few years as the Legions begin their march back to ‘where it all began’. We’ll see how that turns out.

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