CHAPTER TWO
Diligence earns salvation.
-Administratum slogan
Announcing their suicidal mission to the 500 or so men that were left was not easy for Varin. What was even harder was getting their approval. Luckily for him, he didn't need their approval. HE was the Commissar; HE was the commanding officer at the present time.
Varin entered his "room" and yawned. He entered the washroom and stared into the mirror. Varin was six feet four inches tall, and had black hair. There was a long scar stretching across his face, going over his right eye and the left side of his mouth. His eyes looked border line lifeless, but that was growing more and more omnipresent in the 492nd. The Commissar alone had survived two major battles with the Xenos, more commonly called the "greenskins" or "orks", and also had survived three major battles with the Tyranids, more than he'd have liked to. Countless battles had been fought with the Imperial Guardsmen and Space Marines, many bringing victory to the Rebels, but the Tyranids were by far the most intelligent and fearsome creatures he'd ever set eyes on.
Varin stripped off his armor and sat down on his bed. The rectangular piece of titanium with a three-finger-wide mattress on top of it was not what the Commissar preferred, but then again, he preferred not to sleep at all. He would have stayed awake were it not for the fatigue brought from days of battle and running from the Tyranids.
The Commissar finally gave in to his tired state and fell asleep.
Varin was awoken in what seemed like a second after falling asleep by loud explosions and crashing noises. The hull of the Leviathan was creaking and the entire ship was shaking violently. The Commissar jumped from his bed and quickly put his armor back on. He picked up his las pistol from his bedside and flipped the safety off.
Explosions sounded through the ship as the Commissar ran down its empty corridors towards the docking bay. The explosions were beginning to grow in intensity as he got ever closer to his destination. He began to hear voices of his men yelling at each other as the chatter of gun fire permeated the air. Varin turned a corner to find twenty men barricaded behind makeshift cover, firing into a dust cloud that, strangely enough, was firing back.
The Commissar slid into cover and began firing into the cloud. "What's going on?" He shouted through the chattering retort of gunfire.
"The Imperium!" One of the men shouted. "They've been called here by this station's people. Those bloody cowards attacked us while we were sleeping!" A well aimed or otherwise lucky las bolt caught the man in the foot, burning off all of his toes and half of the rest of his foot. He yelled and began firing back.
Five minutes passed, an eternity in battle, and the exchange had still not drawn to a close. More rebels had showed up, and the dust cloud had finally cleared to show at least five hundred Imperium soldiers in the Leviathan's port.
A great rumbling sounded behind the Commissar, and he turned to see two Hellhound fast assault tanks driving through the corridor towards the enemy soldiers. The rebels cheered as the Hellhounds passed, and began burning the enemy alive with white hot promethium. After losing almost half of their men from the combined fire power of the Rebel troops and their Hellhounds, the Imperium commanding officer shouted, "Retreat! Fall back into the station!"
The Commissar issued the orders to the Hellhounds not to follow, as it could have been a trap.
Varin turned to a Kasrkin commander. "Tell the men to return to their quarters, we're leaving a little earlier than planned." The commander nodded and the Commissar rushed up to the bridge.
As the door to the bridge opened, Varin was met with frantic crew members running back and forth from stations, as warnings blared in their ears. The Commissar found Jones, who was sitting calmly in his Captain's chair, staring at the monitor that showed what was outside.
"Captain." Varin said. "Prepare your crew, we're leaving."
Jones nodded. "Yes, sir!" He calmed his bridge crew, and the Leviathan began to take off from the station.
"When we get far enough from the station, I want you to nuke it with the smallest nuke we have." The Commissar knew he wouldn't get very much approval from the rest of them, but he had to do it.
"Sir?" The Captain stared at Varin in an odd way. "You're going to destroy the station? What about the citizens?"
"What about them? This is a war, Captain. We're in it to win. If that means sacrificing a few to save a lot from such a corrupt Empire, then so be it. That entire army of Imperials is onboard that station right now, and we have a chance to destroy them before they do the same to us."
The bridge had gone silent, but the Commissar felt the bridge crew's disapproval permeating the air. He did not like the idea of sacrificing civilians any more than they did, but it had to be done.
"Yes… " The Captain seemed to finally agree with him. "Okay, Sir."
Commissar Varin patted Jones on the shoulder and turned to exit the bridge. "Oh, and one more thing."
"Sir?" The Captain turned to face him.
"Don't get us killed, Captain."