Just One More Taste
Meat comes in all shapes and sizes, be it the thick slabs of muscle that the Orks flex so proudly or the lithe pale flesh of the Aeldari rippling with…
The Punishment for Loyalty
Jone was still adjusting her psy-dampening hood and juggling a mug of recaff when she entered the choral antechamber. Master Furth had been in the tank for the last eight…
Jinx
Never show your hand, no matter what life or the moment has dealt you, be it a curse, an unquenchable anger, or a pretty girl. You might have an edge…
Fast Fiction XIX
Just One of Many 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.…
Airlock
The airlock is small and dark. The exterior door is illuminated dimly by a square of hard yellow light cast out from the interior bulkhead window. I sit staring at…
Lockwarden
I carry many keys, but only one held any importance to me then. It was to an empty cell. Deep below the Imperial Palace, there is a terrible place, and…
Guardians
‘Eat.’ A woman’s jovial voice and the soft clinking of porcelain against wood brought him out of his thoughts. Markendaya Orpehus Jangseung, Shield-Captain of the Aquilan Shield, looked down to…
Turnkey
As he stoically paced down the oppressive corridors of the Ordo Malleus facility of Golgotha-III, snaking tendrils of psychic energy from the prison inmates sought his mind, finding no purchase.…
One of Those Days
001>> Set Time=00:00 where hab/chrono=THDOE0906/637(26) Baumis hurried down the hall, dodging neighbours and the occasional vagrant, pulling his coveralls on as he went. Chance and a quirk or orbital dynamics had…
Monachopsis
There is a thudding from the basement again. Obed sighs and leans back in his chair with a rusty squeak. He knows the noise well, but he tries not to…