Nicholas Alexander’s Imperial Navy short story The Emperor’s Grace depicts the intense stress a rookie Marauder bomber crew are placed under during an all-out attack on an ork air base. Part of a huge squadron tasked with striking a decisive blow in the war for Balle Prime, Captain Mikal and the crew of the Emperor’s Grace wrestle with a complex cocktail of emotions as they embark on their first mission. Tensions are high within the Marauder, but once they reach the target all their focus is on surviving long enough to complete the mission and return home in one piece.
There’s no attempt to portray the glory of fighting in the Emperor’s name here, but rather a tense tale of grit, determination and desire for survival, with a grim sense of inevitability hanging over everything. Alexander does a good job of building a believable dynamic within the crew then breaking it apart once the bullets start flying, and while there’s no real backstory to Mikal and co, there’s enough intensity for that not to matter. It’s a close-focus snapshot rather than a big picture overview, and while a little more time spent on character development would have been the icing on the cake, as it is there’s lots to enjoy for anyone interested in airborne combat stories.
Click this link to buy The Emperor’s Grace as an e-short.
Click this link to buy the On Wings of Blood anthology which features this short story.