User Guide

6
7
sharp, popping crackle
of laser bolts.
Someone to your left
screams and explodes
in white fire.
Remember your train-
ing, your father’s voice
whispers from
memory, and you
realize you must follow
your lessons to the let-
ter if you are to survive
this day. This is no
training game, and
you’re not facing the
prospect of bruises or
embarrassment. These
are Blood Eagle, your
people’s ancient foes,
and they will kill you if
they can.
You fall through a deceptively peaceful blue sky
toward rocky hills covered with the barbed, brittle
stuff that passes for grass in this place. Dry alien air
stings your nostrils despite the filter plugs. The sun
is a distant white glow, and you hold the hard, reas-
suring weight of a Telamonian-made minigun, mul-
tiple barrels poised to begin their deadly spin. The
familiar tingle of a phased-shield aura across your
skin indicates your Hoplite armor is active, but right
now the nano-threaded polybronze breastplate and
greaves feel
like small
protection
amid the
chaos erupt-
ing around
you.
Keep moving,
Minerva told
you as the
warband’s
dropship
creaked and
rocked its
way down
from the
blackness of
orbit only a
few hours
ago. It’s the
main thing that’ll keep you alive -- that and not
panicking! Trust your instincts, newblood! Phoenix
knows enough scroffin’ time’s been spent developing
them, ayia?
Triggering your flight pack again, you arrest your fall
with a jolt and swing the minigun at the foe. The
Telamonian’s
barrels blur;
explosive
flechettes
shred alien
soil into
chaff around
the Blood
Eagle. The
hoplites acti-
vate their
flight packs,
and they’re
agile enough
to evade the
brunt of
your deadly
spray. Only a
few of your
rounds hit,
sparking
harmlessly off the shield-reinforced crimson armors.
A warrior in heavy Myrmidon-class armor simply
stands there, grinning behind his transteel faceplate.
You curse your poor aim, and land with bone-jarring
impact in a soft crunch of dry pseudo-grass, your
powerful legs absorbing the shock easily.
Tr i be s Fi ct i o n Tr i b e s F i c t io n