Tome of Minis

Last year I had a go at Black Library's horror submission, sadly I wasn't successful, but I had fun writing it, and dived into the lore around the Astra Militarum and the Indomitus crusade. I found in writing it, The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook was an essential resource. I've shared the story on FanFiction.net for anyone who is interested.

This story follows Linus of the Astra Militarum, who seems to have been left behind on an unnamed planet on the Eastern Fringe. There, he must face an unexpected threat, and in doing so will find his own humanity is in the balance.

His eyes darted around the room, hungrily taking in as much detail as he could. Nothing seemed out of place. There was nothing there that didn't belong there. What the- a thought cut off by the sudden sound of the generator. The door had been opened.

With laspistol raised, Linus edged closer and closer to the door, hoping to get a glimpse of what had opened it. He could see into the room, though there were plenty of places something could hide. He stepped forward; but was halted in his tracks as the door suddenly closed in front of him.

"Damn it!" he cursed, kicking the door in frustration. "Okay, let me think. If there's something here, then what's it trying to do? Why hasn't it attacked directly? It seems all over the place." Talking to yourself when you think there's someone or something else there, somehow didn't feel quite as crazy. It didn't however make him feel any better about this situation. He put his hand to his forehead, covering his eyes.

"Am I going mad? I'm going mad aren't I? Why am I talking to myself?" For all his training, the stress and frustration of not knowing what was happening was getting to him. His mind was filled with so many questions, it didn't have a chance to answer any of them before thinking of the next.

The only option now was to open the door to the machine room, and search it. Linus felt he needed more firepower first, just in case. Who knew what he might find? Mounted on the wall at this end of the room, the opposite end to the ladder, were a few lasguns hanging from the wall. He took one down, and turned the gun over in his hand, it was charged and ready to go. With a satisfying click, he changed the firing mode from its 'safe' setting to 'repetition'. Now he was ready.

He pressed the button next to the door to open it, and stepped back. The door slid open, and the usual cacophony of machine noise exploded out of the room. Linus looked around once, and raised the lasgun up so the stock was resting against his shoulder. He breathed deeply, and stepped over the threshold into the room.

If you like the sound of that, you can read it in full on FanFiction.net.