‘Ex-excuse me, Sister Magdala, when can I go home?’ asked the small hesitant voice. ‘The Schola Progenium is your home now,’ replied the Sororitas. The child extended her tiny hand to the imposing woman who had taken her away from her mother.
'Why did you leave?' It is always the same question. Why would one leave the safety of a Craftworld? A place with no strife, no scarcity? Why would one risk…
I had not returned to the gardens of Craftworld Alaitoc for a long time. Pink and blue petals drifted from hundreds of pale trees, dancing in an artificial wind whilst…
Everything Ends Featured Story The Featured Story is the grand winner of this theme’s contest. They are chosen by a judging panel including Cold Open Stories Creative Director and Community Judges. Imperium Eternal…
We thought it was a mistake initially. Onboard the Imperial Navy frigate Imperium Eternal, we dropped out of the warp at the Mandeville point for Bakka, intent on returning to the Segmentum naval base.
The decommissioned maglift convulses during its thousand kilometer climb, but the fear of plummeting does not dissuade my haste. Above the dark, ice-sheathed oceans, a stranger awaits.Centuries had passed since…
Blinking rapidly, she gazes upwards as another plummeting star enters the atmosphere, its beautiful, blazing journey ending beyond the mountain ridge.'Carla, come on, he's going to speak,' shouts Arik, his…
She ran, there was nothing else she could do. She was no mighty Sororitas, no fiery confessor, not even a strong enforcer of the Frater Militia. She was but a…
Eight feathers left, their multichromatic lustre slowly turning ashen grey. A feather falls, drifting away on unseen winds. The flesh hound runs not from the crimson corpse mounds crumbling into nothingness…
The heavy bolter thunders, eye-smiting flares belching from the barrel, the grips skinning palms already red-raw and slicked with blood. The fusillade is devastating; her skull throbs, her eyes burn…