Iron Hands

279

++Priority Transmission: Coding/Delta/Rouge++

++Recipient: Loyal Imperial Commanders – as designated by Commissariat, The Librarius Staff, Inquisitor Baptiste & Canoness Arrea.++

++Subject: Traitors and Executions++

++Author: Andrei Viktorov – Scrivenor-in-attendance to Inquisitor Nikolay Vinogradov++

++Thought for the Day: To cheat is both cowardly and dishonourable++

Attention all loyal citizens of the Imperium!!!

Scanning of sacred books is a mortal sin!

Whispered by Tzeentch, Lord of Hidden Knowledge.

Inspired by Slaanesh, Master of Forbidden Pleasures.

Resist foul machinations of the Dark Gods and buy books from the Black Library.

***********

Thought of the Day: All traitors will be executed without mercy and compassion!

Inquisition is watching YOU!

A WARHAMMER 40,000 NOVEL

IRON HANDS

Jonathan Green

To the DHWFs

A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

First published in Great Britain in 2004 by

BL Publishing,

Games Workshop Ltd.,

Willow Road, Nottingham,

NG7 2WS, UK

10 98765432 1

Cover illustration by Adrian Smith.

© Games Workshop limited 2004. All fights reserved.

Black Library, the Black Library logo, Black Flame, BL Publishing, Games Workshop, the Games Workshop logo and all associated

marks, names, characters, illustrations and images from the

Warhammer 40,000 universe are either ®, TM and.’or © Games

Workshop Ltd 2000-2004, variably registered in the UK and other

countries around the world. Ail rights reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 1 84416 094 7

Distributed in the US by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, US.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookmarque, Surrey, UK.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in

this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or

incidents is purely coincidental.

See the Black Library on the Internet at

www.blacklibrary.com

Find out more about Games Workshop

and the world of Warhammer 40,000 at

www.games-workshop.com

IT IS THE 41st millennium. For more than a hundred

centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden

Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the

will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the

might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass

writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of

Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for

whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that

he may never truly die.

YET EVEN IN his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlcflcets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperors will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.