Capricorn (Too Old For Dying Young) - OPR Writing Jam #10 Submission

Capricorn (Too Old For Dying Young) - A Grimdark Future Story

The Prime Brothers are the finest soldiers the Protectorate has ever produced. Stories of their valor are legendary across a hundred worlds. Even the well-known fate that awaits every Prime, the rapidly-accelerated aging that dooms them all as their bodies break down under the weight of their deeds, isn't enough to deter young Protectorate citizens from joining up. There is no shortage of volunteers.

Volunteers like Sunan, fresh from the genetic clinic with titanium bones and eyes keener than a hunting hawk's. On the eve of his very first battle as a Prime, that fate seems so far away...

Written for OPR Writing Jam #10. If you liked this story, check out my profile to see my submissions to previous OPR Writing Jams, as well as a few other stories set (mostly) in the Grimdark Future and the Age of Fantasy! 

This story (and especially the title) were heavily inspired by the Vampire Weekend song "Capricorn". The cover image is an edit of a public domain painting, Achille De Gas in the Uniform of a Cadet by Edgar Degas, that can be found here.