The Chemical Mage

Colm slid into the shadow of the byre, taking care not to step on the dead Ghosts sprawled against the wall. Lacking a battlesuit, he was vulnerable to enemy fire, so careful, careful, and remember that when you’re away from your ship you haven’t got eyes in the back of your head. With a hurried…

Meg cleared the outbuildings one by one. She wasn’t a farm girl. Grew up in Tokyo, thinking that produce grew on supermarket shelves. She didn’t know what all these sheds and barns were for. What they had become was abattoirs. Ghosts lay everywhere, cut down by rifle or machine-gun fire. It didn’t help that they…

The medevac request had come from a settlement called Drumlin Farm. Colm called the local artillery command post, located in a former mountaineering base camp on the island’s central peak, and asked them to lay off shelling the area until he got in and out. Just a professional courtesy. They said sure, we’re out of…

Beep. Beep. Beeeeep. The duty officer on the flight deck of the Unsinkable, an FTL-capable supercarrier, took the call. “Sorry, Sarge, we cannot launch a routine medevac after dark. Call back at first light.” Colm Mackenzie, having opened one eye without being fully aware of it, went back to sleep. Curled on a storage chest…