Description

13th Legion is Gav Thorpe's first Last Chancers novel, introducing Lieutenant Kage and Colonel Schaeffer's 13th Penal Legion, a band of condemned soldiers whose successive missions serve as both punishment and a brutal test of their worth. Kage is one of the Imperium's most ruthless criminals when Schaeffer selects him for the Last Chancers, sending him and a larger group of penal troops into a succession of increasingly dangerous war zones. From the Tyranid-infested world of Deliverance to the Ork-held ice world of Kragmeer, survival becomes the only measure that matters. As Schaeffer's force is steadily reduced, Kage begins to suspect that the missions are not simply suicidal assignments but part of a larger plan. Their journey ultimately brings the dwindling survivors to Typhos Prime, where they are given a seemingly impossible task involving the fortress of Coritanorum and the approaching Tyranid threat. A distinctive early Imperial Guard novel, 13th Legion explores the 40k penal legion from the perspective of soldiers who have little to lose, combining Kage's cynical survival instinct with Schaeffer's ruthless determination to turn criminals into an elite fighting force.