Join the web's longest-running 40K fan fiction competition where every word counts. Fast Fiction is a trial of wit and will, critiqued by community judges, and bound by a sacred 1,000-word limit.
In a galaxy wracked by eternal war, the history books remember only the conquerors, the demigods, and the tyrant kings. But behind the clash of massive armies lies a trillion unheard voices—the doomed, the desperate, and the damned fighting to survive in the worst era imaginable.
Welcome to Cold Open Stories, your home of high-caliber, community-crafted Warhammer 40,000 fiction and full-cast audio productions. We go beyond the front lines to explore the margins of the 41st Millennium. From atmospheric short stories and fast-paced fiction contests to theatre-of-the-mind audio dramas, we welcome you to express yourself and tell character-driven tales.
We forge new storytellers in the crucible of ink and ambition, publishing bold, unrelenting fiction that dares to trespass beyond the pale of convention. In these pages, creativity is not a gift—it is a weapon.
Our productions are wrought with iron will, binding voices from across the void with custom soundscapes to conjure a mindscape both vivid and unyielding—a theatre of the damned, where echoes of fate resound.
We summon those with the will to endure to writing contests where only the most cunning, the most relentless, and the most skilled may carve their mark upon. Here, stories do not merely entertain—they fight for survival.
