Brother Priad of the Iron Snakes Space Marine Chapter's celebrated Damocles Squad fights in a series of engagements against the enemies of mankind, from the traitor legions of Chaos, to the vile Dark Eldar, to the ravenous Ork hordes The world of Ball Solock in the Reef Stars is attacked by the mythical Primuls, also known as the Dark Eldar. The relatively primitive weapons of the backwater world are ineffective against the beasts. The primary clerk to the High Legislator of Fuce, one of the preeminent city-states on the world, activates an ancient machine to summon help from the distant Imperium, and the Iron Snakes space marines. Help arrives in the form of a single soldier, Brother Priad of Damocles Squad. The clerk, Perdet Antoni, insists on accompanying Priad on his excursion, and the soldier also takes a hunting hound, Princeps. To help Antoni survive in the radioactive zone near the crashed ship, Priad injects her with a strange substance. The Primuls, who, as it turns out, are actually less an invasion force and more the survivors of a crash landing, are wiped out, mostly by Priad, although desperate circumstances force Antoni and Princeps to battle a couple of the foul aliens as well. The last of the Primuls, carrying a massive jawbone that is mostly pulverized in a grenade explosion, dies laughing, though the reason why will not be clear until the end of the book. Back at Fuce, Antoni is startled to discover that Brother Priad, who has fought so adeptly, is not a high-ranking marine, but rather a simple foot soldier with only one year's prior experience. Priad leaves the clerk the two remaining teeth from the destroyed jawbone, and returns to his chapter.
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The next section occurs a few years later, on the world of Rosetta. The full Damocles squad fights to clear a refinery of an infestation of Chaos cultists, combined with the forces of the Dark Tusk traitor space marines. They succeed in the battle, though at the cost of the squad's leader, Brother-Sergeant Raphon. Priad is appointed the new leader of the squad, and finishes the mission. The team tries to restore the plant to operation, but an examination of the facility's log reveals that the oil pumped by the machines carries the contamination of Chaos. Damocles makes their escape and demolishes the facility.
On Eidon, the Iron Snakes take part in a large campaign against the Primuls. Librarian Petrok, a powerful psychic high in the Snakes' command structure, feels that Damocles squad, stationed on the periphery of the battle for Eidon City, will need his help. When he finds them, he discovers them hard-pressed by an entrenched group of Primuls. With Petrok's help, Priad and the other marines first break the Dark Eldar fortification, then slaughter a large group of retreating Primuls using their location as an escape route from the main battle. Exploring the fortification, the squad finds a pile of explosive charges set on a phosphorus deposit, where they will collapse the city as a final revenge. The squad, at great personal risk, remove the charges, barely getting clear before they go off.
Damocles is next a part of a deployment to Ceres, where they are put under the command of Imperial Inquisitor Mabuse. The squad is sent to check a set of rural villages for a harvest-cult of Chaos God Khorne. In Hekat township, the marines are beset by a daemon-beast in the thrall of the cult, and one of their number is taken for sacrifice. The battle-brothers kill the beast and rescue their comrade, but are mobbed by the entire village, corrupted by Chaos to a man, on their way out. The squad battles their way clear, killing almost the entire village, but at a terrible coast -- the life of squad Apothecary Memnes.
The squad returns to the homeworld of the Iron Snakes, Ithaka, to rebuild their numbers and resupply. Two of the slots in the unit are easily filled. But Priad's choice for the Apothecary spot, Khiron, has been imprisoned, after killing a fellow marine. When Priad goes to visit Khiron, he notices that, while the jailer perceives Khiron as ranting like a madman, he is actually sitting calmly. Khiron claims to have killed the other marine after noticing an unusual and unearthly smell, indicating the presence of a daemon, although he also claims the creature escaped since he neglected to burn the body. Priad discovers that the creature has infested another marine, Captain Skander, and uses a flamethrower to destroy it once and for all. Khiron, now proven innocent, has unfortunately already gone out to face a ritual suicide at the maws of the waterworld's giant sea-wyrms; Damocles quickly deploys, fends off the sea-beasts, and recovers their new Apothecary.
The next duty of the squad is on Iorgu, where they are to stand as an honor guard at the coronation of a new boy-king. Priad discovers that Inquisitor Mabuse is undercover on the world, investigating the death of the previous queen, who he believes was assassinated. After the coronation ceremony, a warp storm springs up, and riots ensue. The plant's nobility demands that Damocles guard their escape,. but Mabuse requests their aid stopping the source of the storm, the removal of the planet's sacred relics from their storage, where they seal an ancient evil. Mabuse and the marines battle through the forces of chaos; although Mabuse himself is fatally injured, Priad replaces the artifacts to their rightful place, saving the world. While the nobles complain of Damocles' abandonment, the dying Mabuse records a testament to redeem their honor.
In the next section, Damocles is training its petitioners, the next generation of recruits. One of them goes missing, and it surmised that he is enacting a forbidden rite of the chapter, the test of the trench. In the process of rescue, Priad discovers that the entirity of his squad has perfomred the dangerous and outlawed rite. He finds the petitioner dead at the bottom of the trench. The squad is recalled to the chapter-house, where they find that Ganahedarak, another semi-feudal world, has fallen under attack by a horde of Orks. A full 25 squads are asked to deploy, but Priad, in punishment for the actions of his men, refuses to put his team forward. Instead, he takes them to a glacier on Ithaka for grueling training. While at the massive ice-scape, the squad is visited by Petrok, who informs Priad that he has had dreams of ill-omen involving Damocles and Priad specifically. A bear attack wounds the luminary, and Damocles returns with the Librarian to the chapter-house. At their fortress, Petrok's dreams reveal that the undertaking on Ganahedarak has gone poorly, with Orks present in vast and unfathomable numbers. Petrok rallies a relief force and goes to the aid of their brothers. The combined unit is able to break free and escape the embattled world, though only at the cost of 61 precious space marines. The chapter regroups and strategies; Petrok and Priad compare their dreams, involving a meadowland and a black dog, and figure out that the dreams point to Baal Solock. Damocles heads to the world. While there, Petrok reveals to Priad the significance of the dream: the Orks have been spurred to frenzy by the theft of their sacred artifact, the jawbone of a warboss, by the Primuls, who wish to use the primative creatures to overwhelm the humans. Priad returns to the surface to find that the vagaries of space travle have resulted in forty years passing on Baal; Antoni is now an old woman and the High Legislator, the first woman to hold that rank. They search for the remaining teeth, and Priad reveals that a part of what has given Antoni her longevity was the injection he gave her, which contained space marine blood. The Primuls attack, and the full strength of Damocles squad is used against them, fending them off. The squad departs with the teeth, one of which is used to clone a replica of the original jawbone, and used to divert the Ork hordes to the homeworlds of the Dark Eldar. The other tooth is left at the bottom of the Ithaka trench by Priad, as a tribute to all the squad has given for the Empire.
Best part of story, including ending:
This was Dan Abnett's first Warhammer 4ok novel to seriously use the franchise's signature Space Marine super-warriors, and his aptitude in building a specific cultural context for his characters shines through. While other writers in the franchise often treat the Marines as basically regular soldiers only really strong, Abnett emphasizes the monasticism and inhuman nature of the protagonists.
Best scene in story:
There is a repeating emphasis on the Snakes Chapter's rituals, such as the Rite of the Giving of Water, which begins in the second section. These scenes do a lot to place the warriors in a very specific context.
Opinion about the main character:
Priad is a great protagonist. He's mostly humble and a near-perfect warrior, but at the same time, moments of anger and weakness push through to make him relatable to the common reader.
