Short Fiction Challenge: Star Commanders Adventure
The PaintMarine over on Facebook fed a story prompt into ChatGPT (which you can read here ) regarding a Buzz Lightyear themed Soace Marine Chapter. A conversation over on the Fluffenhammer Facebook group got me into a writing mood, and i’d like to set the same challenge to anyone who is up for it.
30 minutes to write a microstory using the prompt and beats of the AI generated tale. Give it your best shot, and a big %^£_ you to machines. XD
The lumen flashed it's erratic blink, bathing the room in stark greens and purples in quick uneven succession. Captain Celeritas stared at the lumen for a measure of time between a second and a millennium. It meant only that at long last, The Star Commanders chapter had come to the end of a journey long since started. A mission that could finally be completed and logged in the Fleet's records. Celeritas was not one to call on the feelings of fear or anxiety, but something gnawed at his mind, knowledge that over the next few hours, his beloved Chapter would either flourish, or fail. The signal came from Silvestris, an orb of miners and industrial production where any natural resources had long since fed the ever-hungry maw of the Imperial War Machine. Celeritas spoke into his vox, mobilising his warrior brothers to battle
The Solanum touched down with a blast of superheated force that crushed the rock smooth under it's weight. At it's head, Celeritas stood, gazing over a world that he knew he had visited before, but had no memory of. It was the curse of his geneseed, to loose personal memory over time, to remember only the missions and combat, but never a name. Never a past. Never where they had come from. The Star Commanders only ever had one directive: Finish the mission.
Plasma blasts and laslife tore chunks from the ancient temple walls over Celeritas's head. He barked new orders into the Vox, and Brother Proten responded with heavy weapons fire, bringing down the far side's roof onto the foul Xenos that had met them in this arcane place. Celeritas felt that creeping familiarity again, as if he had seen those swirling robes before, heard that song of fear and despair in an earlier time. No matter what the cause, Celeritas answered with a beat of his own, adding the sound of his instrument of destruction to the storm of sound around him. And yet, there was something here not quite right. The Xenos moved between movements, folding and shifting rather than running and jumping. Something wasn't right
Celeritas's hand closed on the dark crystal in the subterranean chamber. It pulsed errecatly, reminding him of the lumen that had alerted the chapter to this world. It drew the eye, and filled the room. It promised him that next time, he would not be dying from a thousand cuts, that his brothers would surive. Next time.
Ceretias held the crystal, and was still.
The lumen flashed it's erratic blink, bathing the room in stark greens and purples in quick uneven succession. Captain Celeritas stared at the lumen for a measure of time between a second and a millennium. It meant only that at long last, The Star Commanders chapter had come to the end of a journey long since started. A mission that could finally be completed and logged in the Fleet's records.