Girls Und Warhammer 40kChaper 1: "Peace"
"... Now of course, everyone of you should know that in the 42nd millennium, the STC for our holy emperor's throne was discovered beneath Mars in a long buried vault. I assume one of you can tell me how?"
Nanta raised her hand almost immediately. She'd been waiting for this part.
"Sir, the machine spirit of a Termite drill was said to have gone berserk, taking control from the crew and directing itself into the vault. The crew said it was as if it knew where to go all on its own." she responded before being asked. She'd been the only one to raise her hand anyway.
"Correct. Though it took many years and the loss of much of the Salvation Crusade that was put together specifically for the task, the materials for its repair were gathered and taken to Holy Terra. Once repaired it was able, over the next half millennium to slowly heal the Emperor back to full health, as you also should all know. Under his guidance, the imperium gained victory, or made peace with much of the Galaxy over the last three thousand years. The Orks were semi-pacified by his sheer psychic might, mostly content now to simply stay on the planets or ships they had made and fight each other. The Tau were forced into the imperium-this, we believe was inevitable and would have happened much sooner had the imperium had the resources to share. Now, the Eldar?"
The girl sitting next to Nanta rose her hand this time.
"Sir. The Emperor was able to breach a path into the web-way while sealing any other entrances and turning the web-way itself against them, removing the Eldar's ability to manoeuvrer. Herded into only a few select areas and a war of attrition they'd normally avoid, they too were forced into surrendering and peace."
"Correct once again. I must admit, our new Cadians recruits are impressing me, their reputation is well earned it seems. The rest of you would do well to listen and learn." the Sargent sighed, looking at the three Savlar Chem-dogs lazing in the corner of the briefing room in a thin haze of green smoke. One of them looked up a little but not at the Sargent. Instead, she glanced over at the black capped Commissar sitting across the room by the shabby cluster of Catachans. However, she didn't seem to move and the chem dog's sense of unease quickly faded as she returned her attention to scratching something into the desk.
"So, can any of you tell me about the Necrons? How did we deal with them?"
A metal tentacle tipped with a wrench-like claw snaked its way into the air from the back of one of the quartet of tech priests in the front row of desks.
"The term deal is rather apt here I think. Szarekh, the Silent King came to the Emperor of his own free will and offered a trade. The Blackstone technology that could close the Eye of Terror, and a permanent ceasefire in exchange for every Necron Tombworld and the Necrons contained within." her voice sounded-though it was a synthesized voice that came through the vox hailer permanently attached to her face. At this, the Commisar stirred suddenly.
"Is something wrong Commisar? Her answer was correct as far as I'm aware."
"Correct it may be, but this action was one of immense heresy. Every other race was brought to heel as should be. This was a terrible admission of defeat." she responded, a grave seriousness to her words. The three Savlar had sat up, looking wary and trying to fade into the corner further than they already did.
"Still, it is not up to us mere mortals to question his methods. And in fact, we know his reasons in this case. With some of the pressure already relived from the imperium this move was an opportunity to finally gain ground on our arch enemy. Chaos. The technology the Necrons traded allowed for the closing of roughly 90% of the Eye of Chaos, a tremendous victory many would call worth even a drastic defeat. Now, which of the other major enemies have we not named?"
"Da bugs right?" the pink haired Chemdog called out, not bothering to raise a hand.
"Bugs?"
"Umm, I think she means Tyranids..." one of the local Vostroyans volunteered in a sheepish voice, not looking quite at the Sargent, though her milky white eyes quickly showed the Sargent why, not that she didn't already know. The three Vostroyan girls were all wounded in some way. The one that had talked had been caught out for several days in a blizzard and permanently snow blinded. One had been deafened after an explosive accident in a flash bang factorum that had left the entire district in a similar state, and the other, a low level mutant had been born without a functional voice box and was entirely mute. They'd been grouped together though schooling and learned to cope as a unit, something that the older imperium's rigid bureaucracy would never have condoned.
"Well well, one of you dogs was listening after all! Yes, assuming she did mean Tyranids, they are considered the biggest potential threat to the Imperium. Their existence has been made widely known by the Emperor himself, alongside knowledge of many other imperial enemies." the Sargent stated, pausing for a moment then following up with "The Tyranids are however, as far as we are aware, hiding, insomuch as their swarms are capable of doing so. On the very day of the Emperor's re-awakening their attacks halted on the spot. Their ships turned around, or halted at nearby planets. For reasons un-known, they have progressed no further, going into their own forms of stasis sleep to preserve themselves. Now, any others?"
One massive hand raised slowly upwards. An enormous Bullgryn about four times larger than the diminutive Ratlings she was sat with spoke in a booming but slow voice.
"Gene-Stealers."
"Ah yes, the Gene-Stealer Cults. A sub-faction of the Tyranids. Mostly set-up as long term heralds of an invasion. Unlike many of our enemies, their presence has if anything intensified though their attacks have all but stopped. They are still considered active enemies of the imperium and shot on sight. Now, I believe there's one left we've yet to cover. Anyone?"
"Those Dark Eldar scumbags!" one of the Catachan called out to quiet cheers of approval from her comrades. It was a mark of how much hatred the Dark Eldar elicited that their commissar did not scold them for that.
"Indeed. Kidnappers, torturers, raiders and worse. The dark Eldar have evaded even the Emperor, since their home city, Cormmorragh has thus-far avoided the Emperor's holy light. Their raids continue, but we repel them with as much hatred as ever and advances in some areas have allowed us to better predict them."
At this, the Sargent paused for a moment, then without warning rapped her cane loudly against the board, making the entire classroom jump aside from the Commissar, who smiled very slightly.
"AND THE FACT YOU DON'T ALL KNOW EVERY BIT OF THIS IS, FRANKLY, AN EMBARRESMENT TO YOUR ENTIRE HOME PLANETS!" she suddenly yelled, causing everyone to jump again and a few of the smaller members of the room to shrink back slightly. "Honestly, your lack of knowledge is frankly pathetic. You may all have known bits and pieces but you should all be aware of every enemy of the imperium. Especially considering what you're going to be doing. You are of course, all here to join the Astra Militarum. What you have not yet been told is that you sorry saps actually rated somewhat higher in the entrance tests than the majority of the rabble. In fact, you lot, are going to become Tankers."
There was a murmur of conversation here. They'd all wondered why they hadn't been directed the same way as the majority of the others that had taken the test earlier that day.
"Alright, that's enough. You could consider this a promotion or maybe the easy route. Don't. As tankers, you bear more responsibility than those on the ground. You will be sent against enemies of far greater strength, and believe me when I say that while your tanks offer protection, they also paint a target on your heads for the more powerful weapons of the enemy. It'll be your responsibility to destroy those weapons and protect those on the ground."
More murmuring ensued, this time darker in tone.
"Oi oi! Why'd we 'ave to get promoted? I dun' like the sound of bein' stuck up in metal box getting blasted at!" the red, spikey haired Salvar suddenly called out loudly, standing up and knocking over their desk. The Commisar turned to them, glaring.
"Ah, well, it ain' as if oi's complaining... Just sayin' maam, oi'm surprised the three of us gots such 'igh scores." she said, her voice suddenly much quieter.
"Hmm. Daisy, is it?" the Sargent asked.
"Oi oi, it ain' Daisy, I'm called-"
"That's what it says on your form so Daisy you are as far as I care. Ex gang I assume. Here, you're called by your real name, not whatever they called you. By hook, crook or possibly cheating considering the reputation of your people, looks like you and your little mob here did indeed get graded well enough to get here, and you, alongside everyone else are now stuck here whether you like it or not. And in fact, I think it's time I tell you what you're all doing here, beyond simply learning how to man the tanks you will be using out on the field. In order to get the best performance out of you all, you're going to be trialling the Imperium's newest training program. Commisar Blue here has the details, so I'll turn you over to her now."
"Thank you Sargent." Blue responded politely as she stood and moved up to the blackboard. "So, the new program. In this state of relative peace, we have a unique opportunity to train you all to a higher standard than we could do before. There's very little pressure to recruit from this sector and command has informed us to use the relative peace-time we have to train you all in a series of mock battles. In order to give you the widest combat experience possible, you will not only be fighting fellow guard teams-though be assured, you will be fighting our neighbouring training centres, but even Xenos and their war machines brought in specifically for the task."
There was silence for a moment. Then, Nanta raised her hand once again.
"When will these battles be starting?"
The Commisar gave an evil grin.
"Oh, the end of this week. You've got six days to learn before your first match, which will be against the Tau. And, one other thing. We're leaving it up to you to find your war machines."
There was a cry of outrage from the room. One of the Catachan called out in a voice of panic.
"What?! What are we supposed to do, just FIND some random tanks lying around?"
"Yes, actually. You might have to go scavenging yourselves for vehicles someday if you own machines are disabled so we're testing your abilities here too. We've ensured there are enough vehicles around in this district for all of you this time but it is entirely down to you all to locate them. You can take whatever machines you find assuming they aren't already in use, and it will be down to you all to organise yourselves. We'll be holding training sessions in two days time, I expect you all to have found something by that point. Oh, and one other thing. If you don't find anything you'll be going in on foot. Well? What are you all waiting for? Dismissed!"