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The Guns of Tanith (Novel)

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The Guns of Tanith
Gunsoftanith.jpg
Author Dan Abnett
Publisher Black Library
Series Gaunt's Ghosts
Preceded by Honour Guard
Followed by Straight Silver
Released 2002
Pages 416
Collected in The Saint

Guns of Tanith is the fifth novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett.

Cover Description

In the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, the heretical forces of Chaos are fighting back hard. Dangerously overstretched, their supply lines cut by degenerate enemy troops, the Imperial forces grind to a halt. Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First-and-Only must recapture Phantine, a world rich in promethium but so ruined by pollution that the only way to attack is via a dangerous – and untried – aerial assault. Pitted against deadly opposition and a lethal environment, how can Gaunt and his men possibly survive?

Synopsis

Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: The Guns of Tanith (Novel)

The novel begins with the Tanith First training to take part in the airborne assault on Cirenholm, a dome-city perched above Phantine's toxic Scald. The archenemy's elite Blood Pact have captured the city, which the Imperial forces plan to use as a staging ground for their campaign to reclaim Ouranberg, one of Phantine's largest cities and a major source of promethium. After the Ghosts successfully infiltrate the Blood Pact's defences and prevent a disastrous loss for the Imperium, Lord-General Van Voytz re-considers his approach on the Ouranberg invasion.

A number of Ghosts are hand-picked to form specialist kill-teams, placed in a regime of additional jump-training and covertly deployed into Ouranberg prior to the invasion. Codenamed Operation Larisel, their mission is to kill Sagittar Slaith; the Chaos commander of the Blood Pact holding Ouranberg. Doing so will break the morale of the Chaos worshippers and enable the Imperial forces to recapture Ouranberg with greater ease. The task is made more daunting with the prospect of thousands of Blood Pact troopers and Loxatl mercenaries standing between them and their target. However, the rest of the Tanith First face their own trials as they await deployment; a great unease is brewing between the Tanith and the Verghastite soldiers, and a crime case involving several Ghosts highlights this divide.

The Phantine XX Fighter Corps introduced in The Guns of Tanith appear in a spin-off novel - titled Double Eagle. This is also the first time where the Loxatl are described, as Blood Pact mercenaries aiding in the occupation of Ouranberg.

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