Kill Hill (Short Story)
Author | Dan Abnett |
Publisher | Black Library |
Released | March 2012 |
Editions | ISBN 9780857876546 |
Kill Hill is a short story by Dan Abnett, published online in March, 2012, as part of Black Library's celebration of its fifteen year anniversary.[1] It was later included in the 15th Birthday Collection (Anthology).
Contents
Cover Description
Priad of Damocles, of the Iron Snakes of Ithaka, reaches the end of a long and gruelling campaign against orks. All he has to do is survive to reach Kill Hill...[1]
Synopsis
It is the last day on Koram Mote for Priad, Astartes of the Iron Snakes Chapter. There have been many previous days; fifteen years worth of them, in fact. Tasked with an undertaking to Koram Mote by his Chapter Master, Priad had been commanded to hold the attention of the swelling Ork clans of the world, to become such a scourge to them that they would look to eliminating him above all else, until the day would come that Battlefleet Reef Star would arrive to purge the ork worlds of the system. Priad has undertaken his task diligently and well, becoming akin to a mythic monster amongst the Orks of Koram Mote over the fifteen years of his mission, but today...today is the last day.
Instructed to wait for pick up at the summit of the highest point on the western continent of the world, Priad makes his way up the slopes of Bar'ar Atyok - Kill Hill - to achieve extraction. The Orks that infest the peak bar his way, but they cannot slay him. Orks are not the smartest of creatures, and despite Priad's creation of such a number of corpses that, if they were to be piled atop one another, they would be the highest peak on the continent, they have still not realised that the Iron Snake cannot be felled...especially not on the last day.
Slaying a final warboss standing in his path, Priad arrives at the extraction point, and boards the waiting Thunderhawk. His fifteen year undertaking is over; he wonders what the Chapter will have him do tomorrow.
Characters
- Priad — Astartes of the Iron Snakes Space Marine Chapter