|
|
It
is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor
has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth.
It is the dark millennium. To be a man in such times is to be one among
untold trillions.
It is the millenium of endless conflict. Forget the promise of progress
and understanding, for in the cruel, grim future there is only war.
These
are the tales of those times.
| |
| |
>10,000
words |
| |
Contains
horrific elements |
| |
Is
less than entirely serious |
NOTE:
The pictures don't have anything to do with the actual content of the
stories (apart from the first one, that is)
| |
| Sanctioned
Psyker Arha Vhuna is a unique pysker, one of the strangest ever
to fight alongside the Emperor's finest in battle. And if the
invading Tyranids aren't enough for her to worry about, there
are other - darker - enemies lurking in the shadows. Death is
just the beginning...
One of
my most popular stories and one of my personal favourites. A sequel
is planned.
30,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
| As
Captain Idelaun and his Imperial Fists face a Chaos onslaught
on the Hive Shrine of Pallatus, an unexpected intervention changes
everything.
This
was a story I started working on for the Planetkill
competition run by the Black Library, but it came too late
for me to turn it into a full synopsis and writing sample, so
I never submitted it. This story represents what I thought the
BL might have been looking for - Space Marines in peril, pitched
battle, big set-pieces, blockbuster action sequences and a twist
in the tail. It is not my usual kind of story, but I have tried
to take what I thought the BL template was and do something I
liked with it. If you are looking for bolters and chainswords
on this website, look no further...
16,100 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
To
the other inhabitants of the crumbling hab-block, old Gilden Mehlman
seems like just another veteran of the 60 year-old war that liberated
their homeworld. But Mehlman hides a dark secret from his neighbours,
and his past is coming back to haunt him.
A very
dark story, this ventures into stark horror, and is another of my
personal favourites. One for the Stephen King fans, perhaps.
22,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
Please
Don't Feed The Warboss |
|
|
|
Tech
Adept Mumpsimus is having a miserable life, but surely being asked
to keep an eye on a captured Warboss in a cage is an easy enough
job?
A much
more light-hearted tale than my others, this one seems to have struck
a chord with ork fans (and aren't we all secretly fans of the green-skinned,
football hooligans of 40K?). No? Well, it was a rhetorical question
anyway.
5,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
When
veteran Sergeant Krajken of the Raven Guard accidentally kills young
Ricardo's father, both the Marine and the boy find their lives forever
altered.
Set
on Cadia in the 32nd Millenium, this is a bit of a character piece,
although there is some full-on (and, for me, rare) Marine action,
especially towards the end when Krajken faces Nauzagedyn.
17,350 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
On
The Execution Of A Heretic |
|
|
|
| A
criminal gets his just desserts.
This
was a particular take on some events that were occuring in the
news at the time I wrote it. Answers at the end, if you don't
get the fairly obvious allusion while you read.
1,200 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
A
nameless scribe narrates his chilling encounter with the subtle
and deadly forces of Chaos.
This has been through a few versions.
I even de-40k'd it and submitted it for publishing. No luck, sadly!
5,500 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
An
ancient horror finally arrives.
A very
short story, this one came about when I realised there was one event
that had to happen on thousands of Imperial worlds sooner or later.
<1,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
The
Adeptus Astronomican intercepts an unusual signal.
Another
very short one, and you will need to know a bit about the Necrons
to get it.
1,000 words
Story link
>> |
|
| |
The
Grey Knights cannot resist the bait as the forces of Chaos tempt
them closer. The trap is set but will anyone survive?
A story
told from the point of view of Chaos, and in particular the Lady
Viscerion, who is a nasty piece of work. This was originally written
for the Black Library compo at the beginning of 2006.
7,300 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
Naughty,
naughty Inquisition...
Just a
bit of fun.
300 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
An
Inquisitor's account of his pursuit of a devious heretic through
a unique city-scape.
I was a
bit fed up with the fact that most stories I read had Inquisitors
in them, and then hang-it-all if I didn't go and write one of my
own. It is a bit different, though.
11,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
Being
a simple tale of revenge.
A darkly
humorous series of vignettes as a self-trained assassin goes about
wreaking his revenge on just about everybody. Oddly enough, this
was the first proper short story I wrote in the 40k universe.
5,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
The
Regrettable Ice-World of Juridicae |
|
|
|
The
formidable Sergeant-Major Drake looks back on a lifetime of unfortunate
injuries.
Just
a bit of fun, I had actually jotted down the idea for a story like
this some months ago. It owes a lot to a short story by Michael
Moorcock lampooning his own fantasy characters, and also to Bill
The Galactic Hero.
1,800 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
A
noble and virtuous man teaches a lesson in duty and faith.
This
is what I think a children's story might be like in the schoolrooms
of the Imperium of Man. I
based it partly on the Acians in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the
New Sun, partly on the Anarres civilisation in Ursula le Guin's
The Dispossessed and partly on an old Christian children's
book called Listen and Do, which you can see scanned in
at Flickr (parts of which I filched for the opening of Chapter
2 of Heaven's
Altar).
1,000 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
Everyone
has to blow off some steam sometime, right?
Just a
daft wee piece I threw together in response to a writing challenge
(Khorne in 60 Seconds) by bad_badger. Took me a lot longer than
60 seconds, though.
300 words
Story link >> |
|
| |
Argo-Navis
is one of the most dangerous and one of the most valuable star-systems
in the Imperium. Captain Keir, a lowly but loyal commander of a
Planetary Defence Force cruiser, makes a discovery that threatens
to not only throw the system into chaos, but Keir's personal beliefs
as well. In a galaxy of god-like men and unthinkable power, can
one man make a difference, or will he be broken on Heaven's Altar?
Perhaps
not being the cleverest of people, I decided to start writing with
a novel instead of a short story. The result was the Prologue of
Heaven's Altar, after I had spent quite a while working out the
background. The characters and setting were obviously inspired by
Patrick O'Brien's Master & Commander series, which I love whole-heartedly,
and which prompted me to start writing in the first place. I make
them more my own as the story goes on. If you can get past the fact
that the Prologue and Chapter One should be (a) one-half their current
sizes and (b) properly re-written, you should find the remaining
Chapters really rather good. I do 
I am working on Chapter Seven at the moment.
82,952 words so far
Story link >> |
|
|
|
