White Dwarf Stories covers that little corner of the Black Library tucked away between the covers of Games Workshop’s flagship periodical. Many established writers have gotten their start there, with short stories paving the way for future work. Each installment, we’ll look at a different story and who knows, you just might find it in a future anthology!
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A new White Dwarf, a new Armageddon story! This time, though, instead of Cadians we’re getting to see the renewed conflict through the eyes of the Steel Legion.
If you’re somewhat new to the universe, the mystique of the Steel Legion may not be readily apparent. Loosely speaking, in spirit they were the Cadians before the Cadians were pushed, and in appearance the Krieg before the Krieg were pushed. You don’t see a lot of Steel Legion representation these days, but the players certainly remember.
So, too, does Rusty Zimmerman, who penned the short story Answered Prayers for the current issue of White Dwarf. After the five-month serial The Chronicles of Bain (reviewed here), we’re back to the standalone format with this tale of a Leman Russ detachment left behind on the battlefield when things go horribly awry.
Zim and Vigor
Zimmerman originally broke into tie-in fiction in 2012 with Neat, a story for the Shadowrun universe, and has continued to write for the property (his latest, Dark Synergy, just dropped in 2024). From there, he expanded into Earthdawn and BattleTech1, with his entry into the Black Library stable of writers coming in 2025 with the Death Guard short story, Seven Ships.
Released as part of a digital short story theme week, Seven Ships was my “best in show” pick in my review of Heretic Astartes Week, in no small part down to how deliciously he evoked the feel of the Legion through small details like the glint of mucous off a visor. It also won Zimmerman Best Black Library Debutant in the 2025 Goonhammer Book Awards, an honor he shared with Avalon Irons for Imperfect Engines2.
His next story, Resounding, was included in this year’s Death and Duty: An Astra Militarum Anthology, and I was pleased to see him get another out so soon with Answered Prayers. Here’s a spoiler-free look at the story (with spoilers in the next section clearly marked).
The Story
Zimmerman’s latest takes us straight into action on Armageddon alongside the Steel Legion’s armored 127th, the “unstoppable fist of the Morpheon Line.” Sergeant Valek Aertsev and his crew are part of a glorious push against the greenskin hordes, “six thousand souls riding in over five hundred Chimeras,” pushing back the orks like one shovels snow off a driveway.
If there was one thing the people of Armageddon knew, it was how to kill orks; the more you fought them, the more you had to fight them. The trick was extermination, not combat.
Everything goes according to plan- until it doesn’t. Aertsev’s Chimera, the Faithful Perseverence, strikes a land mine, resulting in an inadvertent mobility kill as one of the tracks is shredded and its vox-array befouled. The rest of the assault pushes forward, leaving them behind in the middle of no-man’s land. Unable to go forward, unable to go back, and unable to call for help, they manage to “lever, heave, and curse” the Chimera into a nearby artillery crater for cover and wait for Imperial forces to return from the assault.
What they get instead are orks. Shooty orks during the day. Sneaky orks during the night. The tank crew and troopers they were transporting face dire straits and long odds as attrition whittles them down. In desperation, they’re forced to send an unsecured vox-call mayday, which would pinpoint their location to friend and foe alike.
And ultimately, the help they hoped for isn’t the help they get.
Impressions
Zimmerman’s last piece, Resounding, felt a little imbalanced due to a lot of character exposition in the early establishment of the story. It’s a difficult balancing act, giving the reader enough of your characters so that they can understand and engage with them, while making sure that the story’s pacing or tone isn’t adversely impacted (I’ll go into this a bit more in my upcoming review of Death and Duty over on Tabletop Battles).
Having only recently read Resounding, I was particularly sensitive to this going in to Answered Prayers, and was pleased to see a much more lean balance being struck. Zimmerman wastes very little time setting up the story, and the necessary character development gets braided together with the forward movement of the plot.
Indeed, he crafts a very tense and taut narrative here. Aertsev’s soldiers are in deep trouble, an island of the Emperor’s will in a sea of green. Time crawls by, with the hours of their remaining life measured in soldiers and bullets3 that they can’t replace.
If writing the White Dwarf Stories features has shown me anything, it’s that I’ve underappreciated the the Black Library content in White Dwarf to my detriment. Answered Prayers is a terrific little tale, and would fit just as well in a Theme Week or in-print anthology.
Bits n’ Pieces (Spoilers)
So here’s where I get to talk about the story’s twist ending. As Aertsev’s crew throws the Hail Mary, we see the story’s title come into sharp focus.
‘Troopers of the Faithful Perseverance, your prayers have been heard. This is Thunderhawk Gamma, of the Blood Angels Third Company,’ crackled through their earpieces and the Chimera’s full-volume speakers. ‘We are diverting to engage your foes with all haste. Retreat within your transport and await salvation.’
Turns out, they’re Blood Angels all right. Blood Angels in black armor. It’s one of those “oh shit” moments that suddenly gives the story an entirely new dimension, and credit to Zimmerman for never naming them as Death Company4.
Indeed, this is one of those stories that, if read by someone new to Warhammer, would leave them genuinely puzzled, for it’s never explained why their Astartes ‘saviors’ then slaughter the Guardsmen just as eagerly as they did the orks. No explanation, no exposition- just a thing that happened in one tiny corner of a future where there is only war. Those can be refreshing for us property veterans, and White Dwarf is probably an ideal place to run them.
While there’s an element of ‘be careful what you wish for’ here, I think the less obvious lesson might be, ‘when Astartes tell you to do something, do it.’ When the Blood Angels tell the Guardsmen to hide in their Chimera, they ignore it feeling like it would be a cowardly dereliction of duty to not do their part in fighting back the rampaging orks. Grimdark lit has a proud tradition of people finding out the hard way that sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing to do.
One of the things I always look for in Warhammer is to see how different authors present machine spirits. There’s this ‘middle ground’ between superstition and supernatural with them, and the sweet spot (for me) plays firmly with the ambiguity in between them5. Zimmerman played it to perfection here.
Finally- and this is totally a nitpick- but I’m starting to get a little fatigued of the “X and Y in equal measure” construction. There’s nothing wrong with it, I’ve just noticed it being used a lot lately and it’s become a little too conspicuous. In fairness to Zimmerman, it’s employed but the once here, and it’s hardly the thing writers can coordinate.
Tabletop Battles has had some commendable coverage of BattleTech’s fiction, and even had an interview with Zimmerman here.
Zimmerman actually managed a double that day, also winning Best IP-Tie In Novel (non-GW) for Violent Inception, his BattleTech serial. Coincidentally enough that was also a split award, shared with Bryan Young for Outfoxed. The man is going places, I tell ya!
Or las-packs, whatever.
If you happen to be one of those unfamiliar with them- as we all were, once- the Death Company are one of Warhammer’s many tragedies. Blood Angels who succumb to the insanity of the Black Rage- alongside the Red Thirst, one of their two genetic curses- aren’t killed or imprisoned. Instead, they don the black and become part of Death Company, used by the Blood Angels as highly-expendable shock troops- one last service to the Emperor. They live in a constant conflict of sanity-versus-insanity, so them killing their own Guardsmen isn’t done out of malice like Heretic Astartes, or out of grim duty like the Grey Knights. It’s because they struggle to be able to tell the difference between friend and foe, a kind of delusion not entirely unlike Age of Sigmar’s Flesh-Eater Courts. This facet of the Blood Angels was examined recently in Mike Vincent’s Pursuit of Redemption (from the recent World Ablaze anthology), but perhaps no better than the extraordinary Deathstorm by Josh Reynolds (I did a Lore & More deep dive on this story here).
For an example of going too far in one direction, look at Aaron Dembski-Bowden whose navigator, Octavia, has conversations with the machine spirit within their ship, Covenant of Lies, in his Night Lords work. Your mileage may vary, of course, but this personified it a little too much for my tastes in an otherwise legendary work.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Jay, and I'm glad you dug it! When I had the opportunity to pitch for a couple short stories on Armageddon, I couldn't pass up the chance to write the good ol' Steel Legion (with a little side helping of Blood Angels). I appreciate the in-depth look at it, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the ride!
There is nothing quite like digging back into the pages of old White Dwarf issues for gems like this. It is where the lore actually finds its teeth, focusing on the ordinary folks caught in the gears of a massive galaxy rather than just the larger than life space marines.
The Steel Legion has always captured the absolute grittiest side of the setting, and there is such a dark, brilliant irony in "Answered Prayers." In a universe that harsh, salvation never comes with a gentle hand. The guard pray for a miracle, and when it finally arrives, it has a gas mask on and is holding a chainsword. The rescue ends up being just as brutal and terrifying as the battle itself.
This is a fantastic write-up of a classic. Russell Zimmerman's work here absolutely deserves the spotlight, and you captured the grim, heavy atmosphere of it perfectly.