I don't know if it's the insomnia or hearing this without context as part of the Treachery and Betrayal collection, but this didn't do anything like what it seems to have done for other people. I scanned back through just in case I fell asleep and missing something, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

A joint task force of Space Marines are on a planet with some powerful xenos tech underground, so a couple of neophytes are sent to investigate it and report back. They have some misadventure and the the commanding officers/ Primarchs are a bit sketchy, especially Lion El Sketchy.

The most interesting thing for me was the way the underground chambers are giving Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer with the spiralling undergound 'tower'/ inverted lighthouse.

I really didn't like the characterisation and voice acting for the neophytes. I understand they are technically children/ teenagers, but the story goes out of its way to say they are already on the Imperial hypno-sissy porn and indoctrination, so them being as juvenile as they are, while wandering around with bolters seems really off. A bolter itself suggests they have already gone through a lot of training and augmentation, unless the bolter is fitted with all manner of repulsers, because firing a machine gun rocket launcher of that calibre without epic support would kill most people (oof, I hate how tired and lore nerd I sound, but it it really seemed odd and out of character with the Horus Heresy in general).

I was blown away to discover that people seem to love this audio drama, so much so I swear I must have nodded off for a moment when something interesting actually happened. Who can say? Your mileage may definitely vary from mine. ( )