Edmund Latham

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Ninety-Two

Oakenbear, HenryMorgan, Dirk Gent Lee, Daniel batt, and rat; thank you for sponsoring this race on Herald of the Stars.

I am on holiday for the next week and will not be replying to comments for approximately ten days. Chapter releases will continue as normal.

I cycle through thousands of pict-feeds. Over half of my personnel are watching the event. Many are crammed into bars, or have hired a meeting room with their comrades for a priva...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Ninety-One

Many thanks to Mehmet Aslan, Lord McDeath, NCwehe, Tilazt, Klatue, and Leendert Kortlever for your generous sponsorship. Writing would be much more difficult without you.

E-SIM has a lot of different personal shields available, including the displacer field that is supposed to randomly teleport the user up to a hundred metres just before they take a fatal blow.

That isn’t the module that catches my attention though. At the end of a rather long tech-tree, E-SIM h...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Ninety

A huge thank you to Rodney Maestrado, Eric, Mortlock, KrackenScat, Valderan, Viktor D victorious, and Jean Banninga. Your support encourages my personal discipline and without discipline, there would be no Herald of the Stars!

Over the next few months, I invite all my most senior officers for a chat at the promenade. I enjoy the endeavour and the more social setting allows for private complaints and queries that might have otherwise been left to fester. I hop...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Nine

David, pa77y, Coldfire142, SpicyGrapeSoda, Swampfox, Clay Ferguson, evilperson41, and JOEL MOSELEY. Thank you for your fabulous financial encouragement!

I ping the waiter and he arrives a couple of minutes later.

“What will you have, Magos?”

“I’ll take herbal rose blend and a shortbread as well as the shrimp stir fry and the bilberry blancmange for dessert. Oh, and a light beer.”

Brigid raises an eyebrow, “I wasn...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Eight

Matt Henderson, Patryk Rys, tobias merz, Turean Allan, Guisarme, demus_wiesbadan, Michael M, and Olof Dahlström. Aldrich thanks you for sponsoring the shells in todays epic explosion.

The explosion starts with a bright, blinding flash followed by a searing eruption of melta fire as the buried macro-shells detonate. Hundreds of thousands of orks die instantly, their bodies sublimated by the sudden heat. The ork shield strains and contains the immense explosion beneath i...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Seven

A huge thanks to Merrybean, Kyung Hyun, Togashi, Filip Passeri, Igors Zvaigzne, NONAME 0, and John curtin for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Many orks will be sacrificed in your name today.

Beneath the thunderous shadow of furious clouds looms a grand, lumbering tooth, three hundred metres tall and sixty metres wide. A crackling energy field projects from its point in a large, oval bubble two kilometres long and five hundred metres wide.

Sixteen squigg...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Six

The Distant Sun’s orbital bombardment on the ork positions, Barrel, Pan, Embers, and Ash are completed without further complications. During this time, Commander MacCrane finishes organising our counter attack into four groups and the stellar corps depart six hours after the bombardment ceases.

The terrain is impassable for our armoured vehicles as I don’t have anything that can fight in a shallow, growing lake, so we load twelve armoured...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Five

Lambert, Jack2, and SVDDXNLY, I am delighted you are sponsoring Herald of the Stars. This orbital bombardment is for you.

“Trainee officer Ridel,” says Seoras, “Targets for bombardment are the rear rok mass, now designated Barrel, and the three shards in order of proximity to Barrel: Pan, Embers, and Ash.

“All bombardments are to proceed with up to two lance strikes for targeting strikes, then a melta...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Four

Thank you Hulg Gohen, Kevin, Daniel Mackie, and Box Slayer for supporting Herald of the Stars. You all made me smile.

I wince, “Questions like possession experimentation and other foolhardy sorcery are why many imperials believe the tau empire, despite its impressive technology, is a self correcting problem.”

“No need to be rude, Magos.”

“That isn’t my opinion. However, you need only consider the steps that resulted in you sitting by m...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Three

Diego Jimenez, Krimo, EU-Nox, Philipp Duckwitz, and Mikkel Poulsen thank you so much for supporting Herald of the Stars. It really gives the motivation to keep trying and write every day.

“I do not view hope as a poison, Envoy Lynu, so long as both parties remain genuine and cooperative, that is.”

“Yes, Magos. You have made that abundantly clear. Now, there is something I wish to ask of you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Is there anything you ...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Two

While one thought stream enjoys the view and ponders future plans, another watches the scouts’ recordings of the crash site. It’s a mix of picts, vids, and auspex that the stellar corps and its machine spirits have laboured over to produce a virtual construction of the zone, free of all the visual artefacts and scummy weather that make planning an offensive from the original recordings a mind bending endeavour.

The simulation shows that the rok slammed into the planet wit...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-One

Many thanks to Chris, Stx66, and zamir islahi for donating ammunition to the the current conflict.

Six armoured companies of leman russ tanks and mechanised infantry patrol between the sixteen forward bases and two armoured companies are close enough to respond. They start to converge on Dôl East Prime within a minute of the orks dashing past the barely functional first line of floating concrete bunkers.

Being three times faster than the tanks...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty

Much gratitude to koala, John Growcott, TheSoraRyuu, and Ryo5678 for your greathearted gifts. Thanks to your efforts I have the courage to sit down and write everyday.

I leave Thorfinn’s office and return to my quarters where I remove and dismantle my armour, checking it for defects. While my power armour is stuffed with sensors, there is no guarantee they are all working properly, no matter what is reported to the armour’s machine-spirit.

The machi...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Nine

The False Crab, Retexks, Ethan, Birbman, Boltarus, and Louis Kasser. Thank you for gifting Herald of the Stars a valuable portion of your time and money.

“Are you listening, Aruna?”

Aruna appears on the desk, though only I can see it. The machine-spirit has a simulated ork pinned beneath its paw.

Aileen and Thorfinn follow my gaze, then look back at me, their expressions studiously blank.

“Aruna is ever present, Magos. Do not waste its...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Eight

Many thanks to Mikołaj, Althepal, and Максим Шрам, for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Aldrich raises a glass of the finest amesec to your continued good health.

I leave the navigator spire and pass multiple security checkpoints on my way to the closest train station. The station has two tracks, one stacked on top of the other for travelling in opposite directions.

A rectangular, chunky carriage, three point five metres wide and twelve metres...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Seven

Thank you Daniel Chekanov, abowden, Dan Lamb, Barnabas_11, and Nolan wonderous donations. They really encourage me to keep writing Herald of the Stars.

“That will be all, Daithí. Let’s move on to your lesson. Don’t just sit on the command throne, connect to it. I will watch over you.”

“Yes, Magos.”

I oversee Daithí’s practice, connecting to the command throne with a secondary cable and guide him in how to parse that much data. He c...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Six

Christian Mordal, Patrick Bean, Jan Tholen, Random, and adam beech for purchasing Distant Sun's war bonds.

This is the final army list chapter.

I collate everything in my head that Daithí has told me and say, “We have seventy-three squadrons, nineteen of whom are assigned to logistics support for the Stellar Corps. A total of seven thousand and eight personnel, eight hundred and seventy-six class one D...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Five

Thank you, the3face, Hazza Vanderbyl, Aidan, nightly, Ethan Hand Casel002, brett thomas, and Tyler Gibbs for offering the fruits of your labours to my own.

Daithí continues his report, “There are forty five armoured companies. Thirty contain three tank squadrons of eight tanks each for a total of twenty-four tanks per company. That’s seven hundred and twenty tanks between thirty companies. The other fifteen armoured companies have ten artillery batteries...

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Four

I haven't quite decided on how I view the this chapter and the next two I am working on. On one hand, you can't get much more Warhammer than making an army list and I enjoyed writing it.

On the other hand, the level of detail in this and the following chapters are not vital to the plot, but some down time is needed after several chapters of fighting and knowing what assets Aldrich has before a campaign lets one imagine how he might fight it and why.

Herald of the Stars: Chapter Seventy-Three

Many thanks to Hydraswarm, Billy Nguyen, Alexander Scoggins, Alexander Bloom and Paroxysm DK for you generous contribution. I hope you all have a fabulous Easter, should you choose to celebrate it.

I noticed that, on occasion, I have been incorrectly writing Erudition's Howl as Omnissiah's Erudition Erudition's Howl is the intended name for Aldrich's destroyer and I shall endeavour to keep it that way! 2023-04-10 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post