Edoardo Albert’s Imperial Guard short story Green and Grey is an emotional gut-punch of a war story, a tale of a young tanker on his first mission which has gone horribly wrong. Waking to darkness and pain, Lucius Stilo finds himself trapped alone inside the Leman Russ Sancta Fide, the rest of the crew dead and a greenskin horde pressing ever closer in. As he waits for help to arrive, the distant voice of his commanding officer calls for him to remember his training and keep the orks at bay, and to do his duty despite the risks.
Taking place almost entirely within the confines of the tank, it’s a close and claustrophobic story that takes Stilo from fear and desperation to gritty determination and back, as the youngster gradually comes to terms with his grim situation. This isn’t a hardened soldier being asked to sacrifice his safety for the sake of a mission, but a naive young man whose inexperienced viewpoint adds drama to his highs and weight to his lows. There’s a bleak inevitability to proceedings, but that only serves to emphasise the emotions that both Stilo and the reader are feeling, in what proves to be a powerful, human story of duty, service and sacrifice.
Green and Grey is available either as a standalone eshort or in the Inferno! Volume 4 anthology.
