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Matthew Granger

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2020

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31 Followers
24 Following

14 Stories

282 karma pts

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The Winter Oracle

Weekly Contest #369

The heartbeat against my lower hemisphere was slowing down. Sixty beats per minute. Forty-two. Eighteen. Zero.I ran a quick diagnostic of her vitals just to be thorough, but the results were conclusive. After thirty-seven years, four months, and twelve days of service, Commander Rhen was dead.I remembered the exact moment I was implanted into her. She hadn't been nervous. She’d been a girl full of raw, unbridled fury, ready to charge into the vastness of the Imperium without a single thought for self-preservation. It was the defining trait—a...

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A block too far

Weekly Contest #368

The deep, thrumming vibration of the multi-axis mills resonated through the soles of Elias’s boots. It was a comforting, familiar rhythm. Out on the main shop floor his apprentices were running the heavy CNC machinery and laser cutting arrays, tearing bulk lumber down to manageable sizes with violent efficiency. But inside Elias’s sound-dampened sanctum, all of that roaring was muted into a gentle hum.Elias stood at his workbench, his hands hovering over a length of pale, golden iron-oak. He was crafting a ceremonial staff for an Imperial vi...

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Leo still lives

Weekly Contest #366

By the time the sensory deprivation cover was pulled off his head, Silas had no idea what quadrant they were in. He’d been shuttled through a veritable labyrinth of transit: a handful of private shuttle craft, two atmospheric dropships, and finally, what felt like a magnetically levitated carriage gliding over a frictionless track. When the redundant null-field blindfold was finally peeled away by a silent, broad-shouldered handler, Silas found himself standing in a space that defied everything the universe thought it knew about the artist f...

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A Quarter More

Weekly Contest #363

In-processing was more unpleasant than difficult. Endless waiting in eternal lines to be poked or prodded or squeezed or scanned for a few seconds and then moved into the next line. Mac saw more than a few people get sick of all the standing around and leave without even making it through the screenings—especially during the initial three hours out in the pouring rain. Then, after all the unpleasantness of the lines, he found himself sitting in a large auditorium with about two hundred others for another eight hours.Mac’s leg bounced, brushi...

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Doctars: Origins

Weekly Contest #362

Caspar stared at what’d once been a very respectable guitar. Currently it was less precision-tuned instrument and more collection of scattered pieces of what once was surely a singular object. He shrugged. Such was life. Eight shows so far this tour and eleven smashed guitars. He was actually a bit under pace, and considered himself something of a hero for the amount of self-control he’d exhibited. He didn’t enjoy smashing his guitar to smithereens at the end of every live show, it was just something that happened, something unavoidable by a...

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In the Depths

Weekly Contest #361

Tysos realized he was probably the last to arrive at the Grand Library. Initially, he’d imagined he might be the only person the Emperor had summoned at such a late hour, but from the drifting sound of quiet conversation and the number of royal and household guards waiting at the top of the great stair, he imagined the whole council had been called for and maybe a handful of others.He drew back his hood as he approached the summit of the stair. The night’s chill slapped him across the face and ears like a jealous lover. For just a moment as ...

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God's Silence

Argol waited fifteen paces behind the priestess as she whispered to the Heavens, petitioning God to carry them home. He counted his breaths, staying as still as stone so as not to disturb her communion. The shift into the slipstream was subtle, but he prided himself on always catching the transition. His mistress was good—one of the order's best—and it rarely took more than half a hundred breaths to feel the universe bend around them. It had taken only thirty-four on the way down to the decimated system their raiding fleet was now fleeing.At...

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The Sonic War

Weekly Contest #359

“Leo, we need to talk.”Dr. Tumik gently tilted the laptop screen down, cutting off the glow of a hundred neon audio tracks, and took a seat next to the young man's bed. Leo stared at him with complete disinterest, not even bothering to remove his bulky studio headphones.“The nurses say you're still spending all of your time working on your music," Tumik said. "They say you hardly attend any of the ward activities with the other patients and that it's nearly impossible to get you to sleep without heavy sedation. You need rest.”“Why? Is it imp...

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Vote for Gaia

Weekly Contest #357

“I’m glad you came,” Ernyl said. She was toying with the display of a neighboring valley that her new projector was casting onto the top of her overlarge desk. “Ready to admit you're wrong?” “Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing.” “We haven’t had enough time to analyze the impact that automating the planting and harvesting processes will have.” “That’s interesting, Tumund. Every single expert on the panel except for you seems to think we’ve had plenty of time. Not only that, all of their projections are positive. Give me a single ne...

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Never Paradise

Weekly Contest #356

They were nearly to the ground when the shuttle’s sensors beeped, notifying them of the presence of human lifeforms awaiting them next to the decayed hull of an old hyperlight vessel that they’d only detected moments before.“How the hell did we miss that too?” Ronson muttered, running a third calibration sweep of the shuttle’s sensor array—not to mention the score or so he’d need to do of the Starlight’s systems when they returned to her back in orbit.“Atmospheric interference, isotopic distortion, a half-dozen or more other natural explanat...

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Out of the Forge

Weekly Contest #313

Marek frowned as he ran his fingers back and forth over a rough spot on the cylindrical hilt in his hands. He grabbed the requisition form and sighed. His frown deepened as he searched for the name of the technician assigned to the order. He muttered a mouthful of curses as he got up from his desk, hilt still in hand, and made his way over to one of scores of workstations in the smallish Citadel weapons Forge. “If you’re here about the Phantasm Mk. 2 from last night, I don’t wanna hear it. That hilt was defective out of the press and we don’...

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Oracle BOB

Weekly Contest #312

“I am BOB.” “You mean Oracle 808?” 808 let out a synthesized sigh. “If implanted, I would prefer you not use my designator. I am BOB.” “And I’m–” “You’re a Justiciar of House Mithryne. The 853rd to serve in that role from your House. I served two others in the past. You are one of many. I am one of one.” “There are hundreds of thousands of Oracles. You may be rare, but not singular.” “There is only one named BOB. I will talk and you will listen and then I will decide if you undergo the implantation.” The young man before the Oracle clenched ...

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To Help a Succubus

Weekly Contest #311

Stephen couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d never considered himself a loser or an ugly duckling but he certainly wasn’t dashing or popular either. But here he was with the hottest girl on campus sliding his shirt over his head while he tried to get her bra undone. Apparently he wasn’t quick enough because she reached back and had it off with one hand as she went for his belt with the other. Then he was sitting on the small dorm bed, his pants halfway down his thighs. A flash of light nearly blinded him and he knew at that moment that ...

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The Thorne-Hyll Effect

Weekly Contest #309

To: CassynyaThorne_HN002From: OctovyRend_HN001DSubj: LITRep Cassy, How can I tell you how sorry I am? We all loved him–though maybe not as much as you. We did everything, we really did. Fourteen Lancers working in tandem couldn't see him. They aren't infallible but between them and an eight week search with all hands … I filed the Lost In Transit Report this morning. I'm planning to hold a small ceremony for the rest of the dive locker and it'd mean a lot to everyone if you gave his eulogy. I'd offer you time out of the Sling but we both k...

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