Sergeant Canae looked out from his perch on top of the chimera. A sea of red and purple waving as the wind blew over it and occasional revealing the greens of the stems that held them up. In the middle of the field was the farmer's home, a collection of simple mud huts with metal corrugated roofs, reminding the battle worn solider of some of the feudal worlds he'd had to fight on. As he looked up he half expected, half hoped, to see a primitive castle designed by the native ruler to look over his land and protect it from invades. He saw something completely different.
Another sea this one was numerous shades of green with islands of metal and hints of red in it. Far more turbulent than the sea of crops it was constantly moving with an ebb and flow that held great destructive power. As he scanned the ork camp he lost count of the number of crude hunks of metal that the aliens mockingly called vehicles. No they are vehicles and they are fast and carry a deadly cargo the warrior thought to himself. He had listened far to long in the briefing to the commanders continually underestimating their foe and he almost believed them. Almost. He lowered the scanner and passed it to his comm-officer, Jake, and hoped down from the top of the apc to join his men.
His second in command Aren saw him striding down the embankment and quickly jumped to his feet, knocking over the card table and all the maps and reports on it, and shouted orders for the rest of the men to fall in for inspection. Canae allowed himself a small grin to be formed on his scared face; he'd have to talk to Aren later about this. Although he admired Aren's commitment and strong sense of duty it was mostly unclad for, but he was new after a few battles with the squad he would learn. As Canae walked over to his men Aren saluted smartly
'Men ready for inspection, Sir.'
Canae stopped and looked the new officer up and down slowly. His uniform was clean and well pressed and Canae could not find one thing wrong with it if he was still in training. Then the sergeant looked past the clothes and at the man. He was young maybe 19 20 standard years old but certainly the youngest member of the squad, that was the first problem the squad obviously had trouble taking orders from this yelp with no battle experience and he had trouble trusting him as well. Aren had clearly been brought up in one of the many military officer schools spanning the galaxy and had been trained as officer material from his early days. Wonder how well he did to get put in with us Canae mused to himself was this a punishment for not paying enough attention in class or a reward a chance to really prove himself to his teachers that he could handle real combat with real soldiers. Either way he was here now and eager to please his superior and make an impression, Canae would be impressed if the kid could actually fight and didn't freeze at the first sign of the enemy. If he did Canae realised he would have to let him die at the hands of the orks or kill him himself, he'd rather not face either possibility.
He then turned to his men the differences were astounding. Not one of them looked like they had cleaned their uniforms since they had been issued them and they all bore scars of past encounters with the enemies of the Imperium, even if you couldn't see them. None of them looked comfortable standing to attention something they had not been made to do for years and he could see that some of them were still having trouble remembering how to do it. Looking past all that though, and the other imperfections other officers would have seen, he knew that in battle he could trust them all to stand firm and carry on the fight no matter what. Of cause he didn't trust them all with his live, each company had its troublemaker and his was no exception and this troublemaker was known as Krite. An average build for a solider with and as far as he let any one see an average intellect but an above average slyness and paranoia which he tried to sow though out the company. He was obviously angry about being passed over for promotion in favour of this academic kid but that would be something he would have to live with, unless the enemy killed him, or he suffered an accident. Canae would have to keep an eye on him in case he did something stupid.
Well time to face the troops Canae decided,
'Thank you Aren at ease please.'
At that order Aren smoothly switch from one position to the next. Canae turned to his men and decided that this was a good time to have some fun with them.
'Well so nice to see you all looking so smart this early in the morning.' this produced several chuckles which were quickly dealt with by Aren, "I must getting a little bad in the head because I can't remember the last time you lot actually stood to attention in front of me. I think I'll have to make u do this more often."
There was a visible change in faces of many of the men as thought of the possibility of being this organised and uncomfortable on a regular basis. This brought a grin to his face and this just made the men more nervous.
'OK boys you can stand at ease now.' There was a pause as they tried to remember the correct position and Canae could tell that Aren was looking disappointed in them. Once they had decided on a semi-official at ease position Canae spoke again,
'At ease I said, but I am impressed by your attempt. Now gather round we've got our orders from the powers that be.'
The men realised that they were no longer expected to be Aren's men but were once again Canae's men and as such they all relaxed and several light cigarettes, but all gathered the now upright card table.
Canae pulled a small device from his trench coat pocket and placed it on the table. Pushing one of the buttons on the side the holoviewer activated it's self and produced a shimmering green image of a star system. A large green star with 4 green planets in orbit, and a lot of logistical data about each of the planets. None of it made that much sense to the soldiers but none complained, they were all used to not knowing about the big picture.
'Right this is the Gaia system somewhere in an empty part of space in sectum Obscurus, we are on the third planet from the centre of the system, and aren't we all glad to be here. This planet is a high yield agri-world something about it being close to the sun so always being warm I think, I've been told that not only provides for this system but for at least two other systems along with the Gaia 2 which is also an agri-world. Be thankful that the fleet was able to stop the orks when they did or our forces would be spread over two planets and that would make the war a lot harder. Anyway we are here.' With the simple gesture of pointing at Gaia 3 the image zoomed in on the planet then onto the largest continent. Pressing a button on the viewer numerous tactical icons flashed up squares for the orks triangles for the Imperial forces. 'We've managed to box the orks into the northwestern area of the continent, unfortunately that's where all the processing machinery is and the orks where very quick to dismantle it and put it all to other uses.
'We are fighting is this field here, a form of grain if your at all interested, and we believe the ork boss to be in this force here. As standard Imperial dogma teaches as soon as you kill the leader of a waagh the other orks begin to lose interest so guess what our target is. So then here is the plan we need to secure these buildings in the centre of the field, these will give us a good field of fire, stop laughing that wasn't intentional. We are to sneak forward as far as possible and eliminate any and all resistance on the way, once we reach the buildings we are report that we have done so and then hold it at all costs. Though to be honest I don't think the green skins will really care. Now for the bad news this crop is quite important and as such we are forbidden from using flamers of any sort and we are to use grenades sparingly or not at all if possible. We will also have no armoured support bar sentinels and no ordnance, visibility is low so we can't shoot them till they're on top of us so fix bayonets now. Saying that we will have the advantage of discipline, we'll be real quiet they will be making one hell of a racket so we'll hear them before they know we're here. Right that's it check your equipment and Balan go to the equipment tent and swap your flamer for something less useful.'
With that Canae switched the viewer off and each man went about their personal pre-battle ritual. Most of them involved prays to the Emperor, equipment checks and the kissing of various trophies from other campaigns, something Canae hadn't really got used to especially considering what some of the trophies were. Aren was not to be seen he had been the first to go off, probably to the equipment tent. For all his smartness and discipline he hadn't been armed during the inspection. That was worrying since from experience new recruits from the colleges usually had a pistol or combat knife which they had got attached to but Aren had nothing. Either he only saw his weapons as tools not to get attached to or he had not concentrated on that aspect of his training much. Canae need to talk to him so decided to search the camp for him starting at the equipment tent.
It didn't take long for Canae to make his way to the tent, it was a cargo ship full with supplies and he knew that but for some reason no matter what the storage was he always called it a tent. He related it back to his early days as a foot soldier under Colonel Raka when everything was a tent since they were on primitive worlds and they didn't want to scare the natives. Aren wasn't to be seen outside the ship so Canae made his way up the entrance ramp and into the ship. On the way he passed Balan discussing with one of the officers on what to use instead of his flamer, by the looks of it he had narrowed it down to a meltagun or a plasma rifle.
After several minutes of looking and asking a couple of staff Canae found Aren in the side arms section looking though the laspistols and other handguns. He too seemed to be torn between two items. In one hand was a regular looking plasma pistol, quite large and cumbersome when related to the soldier's size, in the other hand was a hellpistol looking much more comfortable in his hands.
'How much experience do you have with plasma weapons?' Canae asked from behind Aren in an inquisitive voice.
'Sir! I..I didn't see you there. You surprised me.' He stuttered while trying to salute with a pistol in each hand. It was not a very dignified sight.
'Relax boy you don't have to be that formal with me.' Canae chuckled, 'I'm a very informal officer, I've learnt from experience that there is not enough time for that sort of thing on the battlefield. Plus if the enemy knows I'm your commander that makes me a target, and I don't like being a target. But you still haven't answered my question so how much experience have you got?'
Aren relaxed a little but was still not completely at ease talking to Canae so casually, it went against everything that he had been taught by his tutors.
'I've only really used the dummies they provide in the academy, never used a real one before but I hear they are quite powerful Sir.'
'That they are,' Canae answered taking the plasma pistol from the young officer 'but they are also very temperamental and in warm environment like this they are more likely to over heat than normal. I guess they told you that in school though but I still advise you don't use one till you have proved you can use a normal gun on the battlefield. That hellguns a good start, reliable, packs quite a punch but with little recoil. Still better than a laspistol so a good sign of authority to.'
With that Canae handed the plasma pistol back, 'choose quickly though I need to talk to you about the battle and other things. I'll be waiting for you outside the ship for you.'
Canae turned and left him still in indecision but with a better idea of what to pick. As Canae was leaving he noticed that Balan had left, he had obviously made his decision as to what to take but Canae would have to wait to find out what that decision was.
Canae had been waiting for 15mins when Aren appeared at the top of the ramp seeming quite pleased with him self. Evidentially he had settled on the hellpistol and also had chainsword dangling from his belt. A good armament for a wannabe commander but Canae was still sceptical.
'Good choice you show promise. Come on then lets walk and talk.'
Aren followed close behind the sergeant trying desperately to stay in step with a march he had been taught, but Canae wasn't marching he was strolling and that made it difficult.
'Tell me something did you score high in your classes?'
'Well I wasn't anything special Sir, I was about average really. Why do you ask?'
'Just sorting something out in my head. What I really want to talk to you about is your place in the unit. I know you where assigned to us as my second in command, and I wont lie I don't like it, but there's some rules I want to give you to follow. One these are veterans and know what they are doing, if one of them yells duck in battle or tells you shut up when fighting you duck and you shut up. Remember you're here for combat experience and its pointless getting killed in the search of that experience.'
Canae looked down at his second to see what effect his lecture was having. He need to make sure this was sinking in. Mainly because it was important for the survival of the unit and partly because he never did like giving lectures, reminded him of his Dad.
'Second, ditch the formalities you're in the guard now boy and a salute and parade formation will impress no enemy and will win no battles.'
'But what about the troops morale?' Aren butted in, 'We were always taught that a well disciplined unit would work better and be physiological better.'
'Tell me son how old were your teachers? Where they sporting and scars or trophies of battles? Where they all professors or did they have military ranks?'
'Well I..they were all over 80 I think. One of them had a bionic hand, he was our combat instructor, but most didn't seem to have spent much time in the field. But they all thought this would be a valuable learning experience.'
'Just as I thought the classic case of morons at the upper levers. Completely untouched by the war, not having a clue what the real thing is like. Better they all talked about "exceptable losses" and "mathematic possibilities". Warp Spawn all of it! Only one who taught you anything worth it was that combat instructor even then they probably wouldn't let him tell you everything.'
Canae stopped and turned around. He had left Aren about 5 strides behind and he looked shocked. Canae took several deep breaths and walked slowly back to his stunned companion.
'What's the matter you look shocked.'
'You've just tried to undermine my entire life's study. Why would the Imperium let me be taught rubbish for 15 years? Surely there are guards against such things.'
'Your naive to think such things. If the Imperium was that good if it was anywhere near that perfect do you really think the guard would be needed. You listen and you listen good. I have lost far to many comrades and mentors on missions some ponce up on high decided is important enough to send all my friends to their deaths! The only reason you are here in my eyes is to teach you this lesson or kill you trying. This warning I give you now and remember it whenever u are about to do something based on their teachings; put any of my men in undue danger and I will kill you myself and no one will think it was done by anyone but the enemy.'
Canae turned and left the boy with that thought. He hated to be so blunt but the kid had to learn one way or another. Anyway he had no plan for every caring out his threat, that would make him no better than the powers that be and he knew it.
By the time he got back to his men they had finished their pre-battle checks and were hoarding a large pill of loot they had coned out of some poor sap from another platoon. Among the mound was several bottles of liquor, cigars, and numerous watches and jewellery, he could also swear that he had seen some antique weaponry too. He wandered to the card table and Jake, with a cigar in his grinning mouth, and Loky who was counting out a large wad of money.
'Evenin' Sir, nice day isn't it.' Jake greeted him as he walked up.
'I don't even want to know how you did this,' Canae exclaimed as he met up with his communication officer 'just tidy this up quickly we are moving out in 10.'
'OK Sir.Er do you want your watch back?' Loky asked nervously holding out a small platinum pocket watch.
'I keep this locked up in my tent.' The sergeant exclaimed, taking back his heirloom, 'I don't want to know how you got it but use it again and I will deal with you personally.'
'Please see we weren't gonna lose it were we Loky. We had to make it all look realistic, haha.' Jake smiled weakly, 'How about you pick something out of the pot as sort of a sorry?'
Canae looked at the two of them sternly. Then without removing his gaze from them he bent down and pulled out a small jewel encrusted knife.
'Don't let me catch you again. And tell the men we are moving out soon.' He added as an after thought
He turned and walked to his tent looking in the dagger in his hand. No way a normal foot slugger could get his hands on something like this, they must have done the same trick as his men. Well he would just have to find it's owner, or he could keep it, depended on who the owner was really. He slipped the blade into his pocket and slipped into his tent.
When he stepped out again it was time to move out each member of the squad had slipped back into last minute prays. The worst part of the battle, the waiting or so non-combat writers said. The worst bad was afterwards when you count the dead and realise your loss. But he still hated the tension and the waiting for the commanders to decide to move or the enemy made the decision for them. As if on cue his platoon commander handed down the order to move out, and that order in turn he handed down to his men who ran into the field…
The true action begins in the second chapter, please read it if you want a real fight.