Adger was fed up with following orders and sick of being treated like a liability. He was capable, and he was going to show everyone that he was ready to be treated like a real man. These thoughts had been bouncing around Adger’s mind for the past few days, goading him. The dock was quiet at the moment. The loading…
‘I wish to be a great Captain like you, father.’ His father rustled his hair. ‘I think you will be.’ His father picked him up. ‘Look how tall and strong you are, especially for someone from a feudal world!’ He looked at Hudson’s mother. ‘I suppose my genetics are showing true, as usual.’ Warm sun and an easy ocean breeze…
Prologue Its name was Nyx Infernus. A daemon in the form of a dire wolf dredged forth from Old Night. In my head it ran on four elongated legs ending in wicked hooked claws. Its eyes were the colour of blood, as was its entire body. I called it Di Yu. Hell. But it wasn’t like this. I wasn’t like…
The basilicanum had been constructed during the glorious heyday of Sicara V. Once a thriving agricultural centre in the system, mercantile greed and exacting tithes had long stripped the planet bare, leaving an impoverished dust bowl. The world now scraped by as a rest-stop, on the pilgrim trail that marked Saint Kildare’s historic crusade through the sub-sector. Its inhabitants lived…
I awake only to find a miasma of my living chamber. Sweat runs down my face. I look up and see that the ventilation duct is dead. A thick coating of spider webs tells me that it’s been dead for a long time. As I wake up, I remember that it died years ago. Why I never bothered to make…
‘You’ll never get chosen if this is the best you can do!’ Shouted Chen as she vaulted another conduit. Mariz clambered across behind her, red-faced and panting. Sweat sheened his round face and soaked his coveralls. He cursed under his breath as he watched Chen’s lithe form round the corner of the companionway ahead of him and picked up his…
Their lips form murmured chants praising Him, the God Emperor of Mankind. The hymn they sing is unforgettable, the first thing they were ever taught, the basis of their being. Rare for their breed to hold such piousness but when reasonable men forfeit memory for the power of innocence, they must have faith in the righteousness of their actions. So,…
‘Accursed Devil, thrice damned is all thy race’ – Johannes Miltonus, M2 The shuttle descends out of the sun, its slab sides resolving from dark shadow into the familiar blue and white heraldry as it prepares to land. It comes in across the lake, the down draft from its engines creating waves that dissipate into ripples by the time they…
A half dozen beige and brown aircraft stood inanimate in the Valkyrie depot at the edge of the airfield, steam drifted off the idling dual Vector-Turbojet engines. Mechanics and ground crews worked on the large aerial transports, repairing and re-arming for their next sorties. Atena stopped as she arrived in front of the final Valkyrie in the row. Unlike the…
