"Last Drink, New War"
It was a rather late night and a sad one too. I sat at the bar, drinking to an ironic celebration. They where happy and eager to go off and fight their first battles, just look at them I though most of them are only seventeen. Their just out there mingling with the lady folk just trying to get lucky before they leave, naw that ain't for me, I just sat here trying to enjoy a home brew, cause I know what lies ahead.
You see I'm a Sergeant, got my rank last campaign before I came too this rock of a planet. I was once one of those boys going off to his first war and all. I can still remember my first drop, and I still remember what happened when those doors fell. I have too say when they called it the gates of hell, for when those doors fell we ran straight into the fray before us. Screaming at the top of our lungs we charged to meet an unknown enemy.
That assault quickly turned to disaster as due all assaults by the Imperial Guard. Our enemy was an entrenched Tau position. They opened fire with no remorse dropping most of those young warriors I fought with. Our fire did the same but it came down to close combat.
After taking heavy losses we ran into the trench crashing into the Tau lines like a wave hitting the rocks back on my home world. Swinging my rifle like a club with the steel bayonet on the barrel I killed my first xeno. I can still smell the thick blue blood that covered the bolt gun color of my blade as I removed it from my victims' throat.
My regiment fought, and fought hard. Five years passed and only a squad remained of us. That's how I became Sergeant, when our Lieutenant got promoted to Captain. I laugh at this for now, because all these young men now join us in some new fight. That fight only having one objective, that being the safety of humanity. All I know is that after that war and after this one, there will always be a war for us guardsmen to fight. Weather were Sergeants or just gun babies, we are still the same guardsman that is. The only difference is there is a different face to each of us.
Well by the look of the clock I see it has gotten late and with a quick last swig I kill the bottle I've been drinking. Heading for the door I look back to see those young men. It only reminds me of one thing, its my job to help them live to see another war.