Baphomet By Night

Warhammer 40,000

by Peter McLean

Assigned to garrison duty on the recently reclaimed forge world Baphomet, Astra Militarum Corporal Cully and Sergeant Rachain find a mystery on their hands…

The war for Baphomet is over. The Chaos cult which brought the planet to its knees has been defeated, and the ruined forge world is back in Imperial hands. Sergeant Rachain and Corporal Cully of the Reslian 45th are assigned to garrison duty in an outpost in a shattered city – a nice easy job… or so it seems. When an attack from the smoke-shrouded darkness leaves several of their number dead with no sign of enemy casualties, the Astra Militarum troopers start to wonder just what is out there.

Genres: 40k, Short Stories, Science Fiction

33 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2018

About the author

Peter McLean was born near London in 1972, the son of a bank manager and an English teacher. He went to school in the shadow of Norwich Cathedral where he spent most of his time making up stories.

He has since grown up a bit, if not a lot, and spent 25 years working in corporate IT. He is married to Diane and is still making up stories.

He is the author of the War for the Rose Throne series, beginning with Priest of Bones, the Burned Man series, and numerous short stories for Warhammer.

Agent: Jennie Goloboy at DMLA

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

They had almost eaten their fill when Cully sat forwards to warm his greasy hands over the flames, and he saw what was lying in the ashes under the roast meat.
It was a blackened set of Guard ident-tags.
He swallowed, and looked across the fire at Kallek and Cinkosky and Rachain. They looked so content, and he knew he couldn’t take that away from them. He looked down at the meat, and wondered which of the missing members of Two Squad they were eating.
Corporal Cully whispered a prayer for the Emperor’s forgiveness, and cut himself another slice.

Peter McLean's first story for Black Library is just one of the best debuts ever, a creepy and disturbing tale about the horrors of war.
Just one of the bleakest and most grimdark W40K tales ever, the Guardsmen planetfall opening scene reminded me a lot the one in the Overlord (2018) zombie movie (coincidence of easter-egg?), and now I really can't wait for reading an Astra Militarum full-lenght novel from mr. McLean.

Sometimes a trooper had to be helped to enter the Emperor's Grace, and that was just how it was.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark, uncomfortable Black Library debut from Peter McLean, this takes place after the dust has settled on the Imperial campaign to cleanse the world of Baphomet of a Chaos cult. The Reslian 45th are sent in to garrison the world once the fighting is over, which to Corporal Cully and Sergeant Rachain seems like an easy duty after their last action. When unexpected resistance breaks out and the green troopers start dying around them, it becomes clear that Baphomet isn’t the break they expected.

It’s SUPER dark even for 40k, and makes for unpalatable reading at times, but it’s also well written and neatly plotted, offering a fresh perspective on a familiar type of story.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2018/05/...

[Aaron Kapner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story!

I've never played Warhamner 40K and have only a cursory knowledge of the lore and stories, but I am a huge fan of Grimdark and the writing of Peter Mclean. His War for the Rose Throne quartet is some of the starkest, harshest, and yet most appealing fantasy prose I've ever read and his lean style comes into brilliant play here in this universe. I hope to read more stories from him set in the Warhammer world.

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, bloody, grim and bloody grimdark... An awesome read, but man was it dark.

[Aurelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book as it was a short story by an author I didn't know but the summary sounded interesting so I gave it a go and it's actually a really good read. A bit sort of generic in the beginning which made me wonder how it was going to turn out, but once the plot actually gets going it's a really dark, creepy story that always had me wondering exactly who was gonna survive until the end.