Just started writing

[marvmoogy]

Hi guys, 

 

I had an urge to write something.  I haven't proof-read this and it is far from perfect, but thought you might like to read this WIP....C&C welcome

 

 

 

“Secondary target identified.  273 degrees, range 34 metres.  Shift fire to address”.

The Captain’s voice chimed through the vox channel unnecessarily.  Whilst the remaining members of the squad and I completed the successful purge of our current target, we were all aware of the incoming xenos threat.  Instinctively, I had already blink-clicked the flashing red rune displayed in my visor to display the incoming target through my autosenses.  Howling Banshees. 

 

I released the activation rune on my chainsword as I pulled the ancient weapon free from the twisted remains of what was once the head of an Eldar Guardain and turned to face the oncoming assault, raising my bolt pistol as I did so.  This would be the nine hundred and twenty seven thousandth, six hundred and twenty first shot I would take with this weapon.  A hit would raise my accuracy rate to eighty seven point six two percent.  I closed the vox link before saying the litany of the marksman.

 

I can see the shot before I pulled the trigger.  I raise the pistol level, knowing exactly when the targeting rune would turn green.  As soon as it does, my physiological enhancements take over and complete the action.  The nerve bundles process the instruction to pull the trigger.  Electrical impulses fly at a speed unachievable by anyone that was unaugmented from my brain.  The signal travells through my body to my trigger finger but also the black carapace beneath my skin.  This signal is automatically processed by the machine spirit of my power armour which immediately stiffens the muscle fibres of the shoulder, arm and wrist.  Once taught, the armour plates rotate slightly giving increased strength to my firing arm allowing less recoil for a faster second shot if my first proved ineffective.  The relocated ceramite panels provide a greater level of protection from any incoming fire.  The armour pieces of my legs move involuntarily as my back foot slides away from the other just slightly to give a surer footing. 

 

I remember back to my first live fire exercise in power armour and the disconcerting feeling of the machine spirit moving without my conscious thought.  My training officer, Sergeant Jerediah explained that the link through the black carapace coupled with the machine spirit of the suit could be a difficult thing to get used to but it would become second nature.  I smile as I remember his words, one of a hundred such explanations that have spared my death over a thousand times. 

 

Body and armour working together as one, the shot lined up, I think about pulling the trigger.  The thought is immediately made reality.  The second nerve impulse fires through my body at an even greater pace.  My twin-hearts are pounding at a rate that would kill any non-astartes, yet my breathing is calm and deep.  I can almost anticipate when the black carapace will transmit this signal to the armour and the servos start to whine around the armour joints of the knuckle of my trigger finger.  The trigger moves.  As it does, I can feel the slightest of resistance from the pistol that has been in my service for the previous one hundred and seventy two years.  The resistance builds, pushing against the force of the armour but in this challenge, there will only ever be one winner. 

 

Before the trigger is even fully depressed, the machine spirit of the pistol is awoken violently.  The trigger pull transmits my wish to the firing chamber and activates the mass-reactive bolt.  Blessed by the Machine God at the unnamed manufactorum on an unnamed forge world, the Techmarines of the Chapter further anoint and prepare the bolt to perform its duty to the Emperor and Imperium.  The explosive power of the ignition sequence tries to pull the weapon from my hand.  Easily creating enough force to break the wrist of a man, the position and strengthening of the armour proves the Emperor has truly blessed this suit of armour.  The bolt exists the barrel and the flash is automatically dimmed in my visor, leaving a ghostly image of the round etched onto my display with only a small bright blotch showing the exhaust of the bolt’s internal rocket motor.  At the point of exiting the barrel, I know the bolt is already travelling faster than the vox chatter still singing out in my ear.  I watch as it accelerates to speeds that make the explosive charge contained within it almost unnecessary.  Travelling on a path straight and true, my autosenses automatically trace it to it’s target.  Before it is even out of arms reach, I switch my autosenses into threat assessment mode.  Various runes immediately flash on my display identifying the current squad strengths and locations of my Captain and the rest of our squad.  Before the screen is fully visualised, the machine spirit interrupts the display to show the flight of the bolt I had just fired. 

 

The mask of the Banshee has grown to the point of filling the screen, although the angle has changed.  It has tried to turn away from the bolt but it is too late.  The impact of the shell on the face plate is enough to snap the xenos neck in two but the mass-reactive shell does not know this.  It hits the face-mask and immediately detonates the small charge at the tip of the round.  The shaped charge punctures the armour allowing the rocket motor to power through the breach and into the soft tissue of the Eldar’s face.  Before the image on the display is automatically light-corrected, the round explodes as the secondary charge is ignited.  

 

 

 

[paulJam]

Hi guys, 

 

I had an urge to write something.  I haven't proof-read this and it is far from perfect, but thought you might like to read this WIP....C&C welcome

 

“Secondary target identified.  273 degrees, range 34 metres.  Shift fire to address”.

The Captain’s voice chimed through the vox channel unnecessarily.  Whilst the remaining members of the squad and I completed the successful purge of our current target, we were all aware of the incoming xenos threat.  Instinctively, I had already blink-clicked the flashing red rune displayed in my visor to display the incoming target through my autosenses.  Howling Banshees. 

...

enough to snap the xenos neck in two but the mass-reactive shell does not know this.  It hits the face-mask and immediately detonates the small charge at the tip of the round.  The shaped charge punctures the armour allowing the rocket motor to power through the breach and into the soft tissue of the Eldar’s face.  Before the image on the display is automatically light-corrected, the round explodes as the secondary charge is ignited.  

 

Descriptive.

Just a couple of proofing notes:  "once the head of an Eldar Guardain and", "The bolt exists the barrel",   "trace it to it’s target" (always gets me)

Would be interested to read this within a larger context, i.e. where and why are you there. Set the scene.

But does what it does as a stand alone snippet. Like the paragraph of flashback.