The Reaver

Let me start off by saying I'm a terrible writer. But having a little flying experience I tried to imagine what it would be like to actually bladevane something. So here is my short paragraph. The title is very unimaginative I know. I hope you enjoy it!

The Reaver

As he soared through the air, Vex quickly chose his target. With effortless grace he pointed the bike into a dive. There was a shriek as the rush of air through the crafts fairings announced his intentions. The bike's exhaust stretched into a vibrant blue plum as it accelerated, leaving a fiery trail in its wake. He started to lose peripheral visions as he closed on his mark with astounding speed. As his sight constricted it singled out one of the Mon-Keigh who was firing at him in defiance. Vex ducked as one of their primitive projectiles hurtled past him. Then, his vision was gone, he took comfort in the split seconds of darkness before an echo of power resounded through the emptiness. The keel blade of the craft had hit, the suffering of his pray now invigorating Vex's body. Still blind he pulled up feeling the crush of gravity as the bike brutally changed from a dive to a vertical accent in an instant. Using all his strength he rolled the bike and felt a surge of energy as the bikes razor sharp canard dismembered his victim. There was a faint trickle as the exhaust flames licked the targets face. The gravitational pull felt limp and pathetic now. He regained his vision as the bike continued to ascend. He glanced back to see the Mon-Keigh still standing despite loosing an arm, though the keel attack had rendered him helmet less, his burnt face now exposed to the elements. Vex drew his pistol letting gravity steady his aim and fired. Their gazes met for a moment before the splinter shard shattered the Mon-Keigh retina.

All good things have to start of small, Mushkilla, and this is a good thing.

I really like the description of how the flight effects the pilot; it reminds me of the book Double Eagle by Dan Abnett.

Great work.

I could almost see the narrowing of vision and feel the rush of the air! Don't worry about it being short - it's a single, very focussed moment and as such it drew me in. I look forward to more

Succinct flavour-full piece of flash fiction. I wouldn't say you're a bad writer at all judging by this, I like it a lot and you've definitely captured the g-force related 'blindness' very well - purely on an Eldar biology side-note I do worry if they are this susceptible mind you ((I'm ignoring the fact that it's the building blindness that really stands out as well written in the piece, and therefore this isn't meant to seem to be a criticism of your subject matter 'good art should transcend the gravity of science, even as good science should be as art')) decidedly lengthy bracketing there... - I can attest to your accuracy of its effects - on the human body mind.

I'm gibbering. It's very good, if short pieces like this are you strength then you've got a damn good one.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

@Partridge King: Yay! Discussing make believe pretend science, I love doing this.

The only thing I really had to go off was doing aerobatics in a single prop-engine aircraft. I know Eldar are supposedly resistant to a lot of these effects. Considering however the rider does not have a G suit (combat damage would make it an unreliable thing to get used to). And taking into account a steep dive and speeds close to the sound barrier and almost instantaneous change of direction, I thought it would be fitting for there to be some effect, going from a large negative G force to a large positive G force. I'm actually more concerned about the affect of the Gs on the rider when he pulls up, especially in terms of strength seeing as how he isn't even strapped onto the bike. Even during regular flight the airspeed would be enough to pull him into his own bladevane. I also considered that the bike might generate its own anti- gravitational field to protect the driver as well as other forms of shielding (making most of this a non issue). Indeed it would have to in order to perform such fast directional changes, whether it extends this to the pilot or not is another thing entirely. (They definitely use anti-grave tech in the fluff, no idea how that would affect the rider though)

This is all a layman's view though.

Same!

Most of my first-hand experience is similarly, but I've got a good bit of second-hand from a range of sources and as I say you've hit it well - likewise with the science .

As you say the biggest impact on the rider will be the bottom of his manoeuvre , that whole section is going to play havoc with him and the bike g-force-wise! Staying on the bike is definitely an issue, not succumbing to extensive air-friction burn another ((though Dark Eldar preferences probably makes this more of a non-issue)). Another thing to 'worry' about is the extreme stress forces that bike's going to receive when it actually hits someone. No matter how sharp the blades are ((ish)) impact is going to apply force on the blade and then the blade housing. Even if the bikes exceptionally strongly built a few solid hits could tear it apart, or at least cause some catastrophic changes in direction.

On the lack of g-suit front, having 'furred up' arteries etc actually helps lessen the effect of g-forces somewhat as the blood flow is going to be constricted by the narrowed vessels and be less able to flee organs at gravity's whim. One might assume that years and years of stimm and combat drug ab/use would play havoc on Eldar bodies to the extent that they'd enjoy similar 'advantages', also a strengthened heart muscle would help keep the blood in the right places too - another thing all those stimulants might do.

I'm going to definitely put my hand up hear and say I'm also at best an 'educated' layman, and at worst an over-educated fool with a stick.. etc.

Vague tangent: I recently found that xkcd added a 'lets answer amusing science questions' section to his site, so might peak your interest on the 'vaguely make-believe-pretend science' side of things - even if it's all actual science...

On a science note i was more intrigued by the idea of waiting till impact prior to pulling out of the dive - seems like, even with Eldar reflexes, they would want to catch the victim at a point in the upswing in any case.

@Partridgeking: I didn't even think about bird kill (that could really mess things up), let alone foreign object damage! Those bikes are really something. The xkcd thing is great(haven't read them in ages)!

@Thor: A good point. In my head the dive was at about 45 degrees flattening out to 30 before impact (the shear speed of the bike making the negative G strong despite the angle of the dive). I wanted to explore the concept of DE using other senses then just vision and still being quite capable predators despite being blinded. As for reflexes they are initiative 6 assuming it's not linear that's fast, several magnitudes faster then a human, combine this with the cocktail of drugs they use making seconds seem like minutes (I really wanted to go for that time has almost stopped but not quite effect). The other thing to take into account is the bikes response time being near instantaneous (Anti grav and all that Jazz).

Are you going to write any more small descriptive pieces like this, because I rather quite enjoyed it?

This was a nice piece, well done!!! Short and sweet!!! sometimes hte best things in life come sin small packages.

Thanks everyone. I will definitely be writing more (when I find the time), I will be sticking with small descriptive pieces, focusing on single "moments" in Dark Eldar life.

Awesome, looknig forward to it!!!

Well, I was going to say what Zehra said, but she Ninja'ed me!
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to it. Good luck!