The Long Retreat
‘What the frak is that?’ Corporal Joriah Hask tutted as he looked to his watch partner, Guardsman Kant.‘Stop gawking, Kant. You're Cadian.’‘I’m serious,’ said Kant. ‘Something big’s coming.’Hask felt like he’d…
The Pride of Silas Prov
Deep in the bowels of Kulograd, production lines hum every hour of the day. It’s long, hard work, with no time to rest, though nobody complains. Most of them remember…
Ivory Souls
Do you trust me?Even a few days ago, I’d have sneered at the red-haired alien’s question.Of course, that was before my fellow guardsmen tried to cut my throat.I don’t remember…
The Handbook
Sergeant Cooper dropped his lasrifle, turned his back and ran for the toilet. He went for the last made in the freshly-digged trenches, the one he had previously assigned Private…
Fifteen Lashes
The woman had felt each of those fifteen lashes dig into her skin and muscles. The executor, one of the cadet commissars, had been anything but slacking in his task.…
On Auru One
Segmentum ObscuraNachmund SectorAgriworld Auru OneAurun 22nd Regiment, Imperial Guard Trooper Dwyer rolled the filter of his tabac stick between his fingertips, before bringing it to his lips. He patted his camo…
Happy Birthday, Sergeant Corde!
How many years? To look at the lines on her face you’d think it had been at least a decade, but that’s not what the chronometer said. She stuck to numbers she could trust.
Home Sickness
Recalled to Yujua. Those three words spread through the camp like wildfire. Pak can see it in the men’s faces. Wonder. Relief. Six years of war in the green fields…
The Way Back to the Garden
We’re all going back home one way or another, preferably the same way we’ve all come to be here. I spend my days walking, have been for a while now.…
Breach Point
++ FOUR MINUTES OXYGEN REMAINING ++The mechanical voice grated in her ears, heard only by her. Artificial and sterile.Trooper Ginny Csilter drifted lazily in the null-gravity. Around her, a twisted,…