For a moment, I panic. Spreading from my second heart, I feel ice spread within my chest and immediately begin to calm as E-SIM pumps drugs into me. Subjective time around me slows as I engage all my minds in calculating a path to victory, or at least survival. As the Wyrms come to a halt, I realise that it is not force of arms that will carry the day, but what carried those arms in the first p...
2023-09-29 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAnonymous pterodactyl, Gian Mabilin, and Phantom; thank you for donating to Herald of the Stars. Your kindness keeps me warm, fed, and writing.
I step out of the Thunderhawk on to Kinbriar, twenty four days after our first assault on the North Tomb. The turbofans of the blocky orbital assault craft throw small quantities of dust and grit all around me, pinging off my armo...
2023-09-25 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostNil, thank you for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. I couldn't keep posting so regularly without your help.
I have made a few small alterations to Servitor descriptions and behaviours to chapters 117-119, as well as some edits to sentence structures. There are no plot changes.
I sit up straight and take a calming breath, “Explain, ...
2023-09-22 15:16:46 +0000 UTC View PostAifer, Faelyn Kitsune, hoedenman, and timothy combs, thank you so much for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Without your efforts, I wouldn't be able to spend so much time writing.
“Maeve, Eire, Thorfinn,” I say, “That line of Chimeras isn’t that effective anymore, now that the Necrons are so close. Ideas?”
“We could always have them charge en m...
2023-09-18 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWatching the live footage from multiple angles is harrowing. The green, molecular shearing strikes of gauss weaponry and flickering beams of particle weapons pound our armoured convoy with perfect accuracy, punching through armour with ease.
With the Necrons finally firing their guns, we’re able to pick out their emplacements but we don’t fire back as, thanks to the bombard...
2023-09-15 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Posthuge thank you to Charles Urquhart, Milamber, and Daniel for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. I pictured your dedications on the macro-shells in the upcoming conflict as I wrote it: WWII bomber style, with handsome lads and buxom lasses!
I desperately pat my hand against a rubber mat as Odhran holds one arm behind my back and uses his knee to force my body...
2023-09-11 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAfter weighing up the pros and cons, I choose the full bionic conversion as that will save me a hundred thousand souls later on. By the time it is complete, my entire body, apart from my brain, will consist of myriad mechanical devices that mimic and exceed the human body many times over, likely putting me on par with a Custodes, or maybe even a Primarch. It is hard to compare as I’ve never s...
2023-09-08 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAn huge thank you to Liam, MysteryCPU, Trebuchet, and Liam. Yes, two people from the opposite sides of the pond with the same name signed up in the same week. A first for Herald of the Stars! Thank you, all of you, for supporting my work with your own.
As we disperse from the meeting, Maeve approaches me. Her two aids follow behind us and start up a quiet conve...
2023-09-04 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostRead_Repeat, Leandro, and Zach Wilson, thank you so much for subscribing to Herald of the Stars. I am delighted and flattered.
“Your representative has taken impromptu medical leave and is now unavailable,” I say. “Who among you will replace him?”
Isenedor, Daenthala, and Caervan glance at each other, silently gesturing to each other.
...
2023-09-01 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA big thank you to Kordie 1, SamStrike, Ryan, and Hudson Hicks for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Your efforts are my inspiration.
During the following three weeks, preparations for a ground war against the Necrons continue without pause or, at least, any snafus that reach me for arbitration. I keep multiple sensors on Odhran, the other four marines, and Ylien at all tim...
2023-08-28 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next two hours, the Astartes corpses recover their colour. Their scars and studs disappear and their shaved heads and jaws sprout new hair. Sergeant Odhran rapidly loses muscle and bone mass as his missing arm regrows. All five of them de-age, changing from buff, middle aged men, to fresh faced twenty-five year olds.
At the two hour mark, an electric pulse restarts the...
2023-08-25 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFrom one moment to the next, Iron Crane transitions into realspace alongside every wrecked vessel. We appear in the middle of an ongoing battle between the Kinbriar Necrons and the Yme-Loc Craftworld Eldar.
Just when I think we’ve escaped one certain doom for another, there is a ripple through Materium that I can only detect with my third eye. Iron Crane’s sensors gl...
2023-08-21 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostTyrTheFallen, Mathew Piece, and Semsius thank you so much for contributing to Herald of the Stars. Your efforts are the shoulders I stand on to maintain my own.
As we approach the exit of our one hundred and seventh jump, large shapes appear on our sensors. Quaani and I observe them from within the Warp sextant tank.
I cut our thrust profile down to zero ...
2023-08-18 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA big thank you to mly85lc, David Josefsen, A disgruntled nondescript squirrel, Nicholas Eden-Smith, Nomad Pestilence, Kyle Peterson, and Jakob. I really appreciate your donations.
Quaani returns several hours later and my Fleet Command officers each pop by over the next twenty-four hours to greet Quaani and express their enthusiasm at his return. Quaani checks...
2023-08-14 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostA grand thank you to Ben Hansen, thomas huang, Patrick Wells, and Josh4n for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Without your efforts, this would be a much shorter story!
Quaani is more savvy than I expected for someone just out of a biotank and yet to adjust to new implants; he queries Sadako for directions and quickly finds my private kitchen and scans the embedded co...
2023-08-11 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostRobert Hinshaw, Alex, Tvukkek, Krawn, and peachfarmer69, thank you so much for donating your personal labours towards Herald of the Stars. I could not post so often without your help and encouragement.
“That can’t be real,” I say. “It’s absurdly big.”
++It is not real. The vessel is a data structure, much like the portal you built, but signifi...
2023-08-07 15:00:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe next four weeks go as planned and the only discovery of note is the high percentage of metallic asteroids, a whopping thirty-two percent, four of which is adamantium. With the data gathered from the system we are able to create a model of how it was formed and realise two of the rocky planets in the system collided fifteen million years ago and their shattered remains are easy pickings.
... 2023-08-04 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA huge thank you to asdfqwerty123, william wallace, Jum, and Jeremy Humphrey for signing up to Herald of the Stars. I am thrilled by your generosity.
After my date I review what the fleet has been doing in my absence. The noosphere capsule is rather comfortable but I get up anyway and visit the shipyard and connect to the vessel’s sensors to see what is going...
2023-07-31 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI place my hands palms up in the middle of the table and Brigid reaches out and holds my hands.
“Brigid.”
“Yes, Aldrich.”
“Will you be my girlfriend?”
Brigid’s eyes widen slightly, then she pulls back slightly, still keeping a strong grip on my hands, and giggles.
“Oh, Aldrich. I was expecting you to ask me on a proper date. Not one of these pretend...
2023-07-28 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA big thank you to Samuel Steinike for supporting Herald of the Stars. Without your help I wouldn't be able to dedicate so much time to this project.
Brigid is already waiting for me at the rooftop veranda at the top of the teahouse. My guards sweep through the room then withdraw. Fortunately they don’t try to pat down my date.
Brigid stands and we embr...
2023-07-24 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostA big thank you to Jeff Fischer and Grissa for donating their personal efforts to Herald of the Stars.
I have rearranged parts of the last chapter (101) and added an additional five hundred words (19/07/23). None of the content is vital to the story, but I was thinking about food and wanted to work out how sustainable these big vessels really are. Having gone to a...
2023-07-21 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA huge thanks to Justin Gray and King Henry V for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. I love sharing this story and wouldn't be able to dedicate so much time to it if it wasn't for you and many, many others.
After four years of labour, my third eye grows enough to use it and I gain sufficient skill in simulations offered by E-SIM in my eye’s use that I feel confident in nav...
2023-07-17 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostA hundred thanks to Shadman for sponsoring this chapter as we close out this arc.
I laugh, “I wondered if anyone would ask, Uurad.”
“There is an extra something to your presence,” says Uurad, “that goes beyond a mere size increase, yet somehow it seems familiar to me.”
“That is remarkable. Before I tell you, what do you sense?”
“May I i...
2023-07-14 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostA huge thank you to: Stefan, SHADOUX9, focusx2, lars jonas karlsson, Huihai, Rory Daniels, and Alexander Colton. This chapter is for you.
Commodore Domelch de Búrca pulls a spherical holo-projector from her belt and tosses it into the centre of our circle. Air ripples around it with an odd afterimage as the anti-gravity effect activates and the device stabilis...
2023-07-10 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostJoeJ09, Biomass, WierdWhirl, GreeN, Eich8noe, Kyle Sorensen, christopher Reiber, Fili, and Kromnal Greyskin, thank you for giving up your time and money to read Herald of the Stars. It really encourages me to keep writing.
A young woman clears her throat and the amusement ceases.
“I am Commodore Domelch de Búrca. A rather empty title for now and, befor...
2023-07-07 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA huge thank you to John Angelidis, Gonzalo León, Apollo Above, J A.D, Daft Wully, Aggammenonn, Hello 1939539es, Chai Chang, and Lucas Gossett. I really appreciate you acknowledging the worth of my labours.
It has been two weeks since my transformation. Carefully monitoring my third eye during this time suggests it will take at least three years to grow and th...
2023-07-03 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostMany thanks to Void_Reader, Erwin Hunter, Snak, QuakDoktor, Landon Sweeny and Yonatan Novetsky for sponsoring Herald of the Stars. Aldrich appreciates the extra sacrifices. He's going to need them to get through his next trial!
I approach the altar in the navigator chapel. It has been cleared of religious icons and, stacked in metal crates around it, are silver...
2023-06-30 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“There is something different about you, Magos,” says Yelien. “You are not an easy man to read. Old, at least, I can tell that much. That, and hate. Not the ignorant disgust of thoughtless bigotry you humans wallow in, but something personal. It makes your offer surprising.” He spreads his arms in a wide gesture, “You offer, not equality, never equality,” he giggles, the ...
2023-06-26 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostI am on holiday this week and will not be replying to comments or messages for approximately three days. Chapters will release as normal.
The race continues for another twenty minutes. All the scores from the buggies who actually completed the race are fairly close, though Team Arachnid takes the win, despite being the last over the finish line and barely withi...
2023-06-23 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostA huge thank you to christian Mordal Anderson, Althaelus, Vincent Locatelli, and Sebastian for giving up your time and money for Herald of the Stars. You definitely get some free bets for this race!
I am on holiday this week and will not be replying to comments and messages for approximately seven days. Releases will continue as normal.
T...
2023-06-19 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post