Welcome to the 177th

As the door to the hold opened, blinding light poured into the hold. All of the men inside squinted and covered their eyes to protect it from the sudden rays of sunlight. As my eyes slowly adjusted, I saw an Imperial officer standing on the ramp boarding ramp.

"Alright scum, time to get off." He barked.

All of us, still in our jumpsuits, got up out of our seats and formed into a line. As we stepped out of the ship, we could immediately smell the pollutants and smoke in the air. The air was a dark oppressive grey and the light, though strong, had a sickly feel to its warmth. It looked like even the Emperor had forsaken this place. As far as I knew, I think the Emperor had forsaken me as well.

"Form up." the officer yelled. All of us got into a line, shoulder-to-shoulder, and stood at a stiff attention. The officer had a very sharp face, and by the way he walked and spoke, I could tell that he had never fought a battle in his life. Next to him stood a rather large guardsman, in his hand he was holding a lasgun. He was a typical Imperial officer; He didn't have the stomach to get his own hands dirty. The officer slowly paced along, occasionally stopping and looking at one of the men, then continued on to the next person. After he had walked the entire line he walked out in front of the line and stood.

"Welcome to Aquintus. I am Major Sulkem. As you know you have been transferred here due to your incompetence as guardsmen. You sick excuses of guardsmen were spared form death due to your superior officer's unnecessary mercy, but I assure you that any inability to perform a task here will result in immediate execution. You will not cause any disruption here and you will follow my orders. Is that clear?" He asked

None of us spoke. He nodded. "Good. Report to your assigned lieutenants within the next hour or there will be consequences. Dismissed." He said. We all saluted and he walked away.

"What a prick." The man next to me muttered. I snorted. There were plenty of those from where I came from. Back in the 45th the place was run by pompous hypocritical assholes that only sent us out to die while they took all the credit. I was expecting this place would be at least a little different. I guess I was wrong.

A junior officer organized us into five lines and at the head of each line a man with a notepad stood, taking and giving a variety of information to us. When I reached the front of the line, the man dully glanced up at me and looked back at his notepad.

"Name?" He asked

"Edger Ingram." I answered

"Regiment of Origin?"

"Cadian 45th"

"Reason for transfer?"

"Assault of a senior officer."

When I said that his eyes suddenly looked up at me and his lips slightly curved with disgust.

"You will be serving under Lieutenant Leopold's company; you can find him in Block 17. Next" He said. I walked out of the line and looked at the signs. The entire camp was based in a large square. It was probably supposed to be a park or something. The square was roughly divided by makeshift walls into different areas, each with a number respective to its company above it. As I walked by Block 1, I saw well sheltered bunkers, a full kitchen and clean outhouses. This company was obviously made up of the favorites and extended family of the senior officers. Glad to see nepotism was alive even among criminals.

The other blocks were completely different. They were dirty, worn-out and undersupplied. It seemed that the blocks got progressively worse after each number. By the time I got to 17 the shelters were a patchwork of wood and other debris that had been pasted to the roof. The kitchen had a smell that should have warded off any living thing, and the outhouses were nothing but holes in the ground. I'm glad that I'm not in Block 30.

I walked in and headed to the office at the end of the block. As I entered I saw a man sitting at his desk smoking a cigar with one handing and reading papers with another. He looked up at me and set his papers down.

"You must be my replacement." He took a drag on his cigar. "I'm Lieutenant Leopold; I'll be your supervising officer in this company." I just kept quiet.

"Quiet type, huh? I can work with that." He said as he picked up his documents again. "You'll be assigned to 2nd Platoon, 8th Squad. You are under the command of Sergeant Byre." He took another drag. "Head over to the armory and get your stuff, when you're ready report to your squad." With that he went back to his documents. I turned around and left.

The block, like the square, was divided into subsections, with three that said "Kitchen" "Latrines" and "Armory", while the other three had numbers on them.

I headed over to the armory and entered. A small skittish man in glasses took my measurements. He jerked his body abruptly and leaped all around me, getting measurement on my torso, my legs, and then my arms. He issued me my armor, weapon, and supplies. I took them and left.

With my things in hand I walk towards Section 2 and look for Barracks 8. As I walk looking for it, I see the other soldiers, most of them in trench coats, eyeing me suspiciously. Some of them were gambling, others were eating, but they all had the same look on their face: superiority.

When I reached Barracks 8 I pushed the door open. As soon as I did the smell of unwashed clothing, unwashed men, and sweat intoxicated me. Inside six men looked up at me. A rather big fellow, sitting on his bed, looked at me and smirked.

"Who's the bareback?" He asked.

Another man walked up to me. "He is Walter's replacement. What's your name son?" This man was different from the other officers I had spoken to today. His voice had something that all the others lacked. It had sincerity. I guess he was worth my time.

"Edger Ingram." I answered. The man in front of me nodded.

"I'm Sergeant Byre. Welcome to 8th Squad. Just put your things on that bunk over there and I'll introduce you to everyone." I did as he said. Another man, a rather small and skinny one at that, looked at my things.

"I'll trade you my boots for yours. Mine will probably fit you a lot better." He said, while giving me a sly smile.

"Hey." The man sitting next to him said. I looked at him."Don't get your head stuck in the bullshit." He said to me.

Sgt Byre pointed at him. "That's Sampson. He is our heavy weapons specialist." He then pointed to the small man. "That's Picochet. He is our resident tech junkie, and con artist. He can come in handy when you need things from the other squads, but don't let him take advantage of you."

"Like I said, keep your head out of the bullshit." Sampson said.

"That's Hogs." Sgt. Byre said motioning to the big man in the back. "He is our demolitions man and regiment chef."

The Sgt. pointed at two men on the other side of the room. "The one on the left is Lier and the one on the right is Klein. He is the only bareback besides you."

"Bareback?" I asked

"You'll see." Hogs said, smugly chuckling to himself.

"You came at a slow time. You just missed some action." Byre said. We had finished beating some gangers down 'ere back into shape. We just came back to resupply. Too bad you didn't come sooner."

"Ye, too bad." Hogs said.

Byre looked at Sampson. "You're in charge 'o him; make sure he knows what to." Sampson nodded. I went back to my bunk and started to organize my things.

" New blood. Change into your uniform. Sulkem's a real hard ass about that." Sampson said. I took my jumpsuit off and put on the clothes. They were itchy, and it felt rough on my skin.

"You'll get used to them." Klein said as he saw me itching myself. "At least we don't have wear those collars." He then looked at Hogs. "What's for lunch today?" He asked.

"Made me special stew." Hogs said with a grin. Something bothered me about that. He looked at his watch. "I got to go to the kitchen, hope you like me cooking bareback." He said, cackling, as he walked out.

As the lunch bell rang, all the men got up of their beds and walked towards the exit. I got up and did the same. We all got in the line in the kitchen section, and waited. When we reached the front we saw Hogs pouring out the soup. He gave everyone but me and Klein extra large portions.

I followed Klein over to a table where our squad was sitting and sat down.

"So." Picochet said as he took a bite out of a piece of bread. "You want to donate any of your food new guy?"

Sampson shut him up with a glance. He then looked at me.

"So what did you get in for?" He asked. I glanced up at him, confused. "You know, what did you do?" I kept quiet. Sampson just smiled. "What? You shy or something. C'mon man, you're among criminals, I bet what you did is nothing compared to some of the stuff we've done." I still kept quiet. Sampson reclined on his seat.

"Well I got in for fighting." He said. He looked over at Picochet. "He got caught gambling."

Picochet looked up from his food. "Hey. I was simply making some business ventures with them when my commanding officer unjustly imprisoned me and sent me here." Sampson just shook his head.

"Hogs came from a pretty rough regiment. One day someone decided to be funny and loosened the bolts on his bed. So Hogs kills the guy, cuts him up, and uses him as the meat for his chili the next day. And Lier…well he's never told us. Point is, we've all done some stuff. So what'd you get in for?"

I took a spoonful of the soup. I almost gagged. It tasted like urine mixed with spoiled meat that had the consistency and smell of spoiled milk. I struggled to swallow it. "I gave my Major a black eye." Sampson started laughing. I didn't know if it was because of how I handled the food or my answer.

"Well just don't try that here, Sulkem will probably have you killed."

"What planet are you from?" Klein asked, after taking a hearty gulp of soup.

" Cadia." I answered.

"How old are you?" Byre asked.

"Twenty-Five" I answered.

"What was it like back at your old regiment? Well, pretty bad I guess since you socked a guy" Sampson said. I nodded.

"What kind of things have you fought?" Klein asked.

"Just a few." I answered.

"That doesn't answer my question." Klein said. I put my spoon down.

"I fought at Armageddon. Killed my share of Orks." Sampson whistled loudly.

I guess this probing could be expected since I'm new. The only person that didn't speak was Lier, he just quietly ate his food.

"So, why is the 177th stationed here?" I asked after washing down some more soup with dirty water. "There doesn't seem to be anything going on here."

"Apparently there is an underworld gang-war going on in the lower areas of Aquintus." Byre said.

"Isn't that Arbite work?" I asked.

"Usually. But this time it's different. Apparently one of the gangs has connections to a pretty powerful Dark Eldar pirate. Imperial brass wanted us 'ere just in case a full blown Dark Eldar invasion." Byre answered.

"And us, being a Penal Legion, are here as the meat shields and guinea pigs if this does happen." Picochet said.

"Figures." Klein said. After dinner we headed back to the barracks to get ready to sleep. The other guys told us that Sulkem insisted on an "early bird catches the worm" policy and it was lights out usually by 1600 hours. We got in our bunks and turned off the lights. I could hear the others sleeping soundly but I just laid there deep in thought. I was living under an oppressive senior, in unsanitary conditions, while waiting for a Dark Eldar invasion to occur. Yep, welcome to the 177th.