Chapter 37: Leaving Practica
I got dressed and returned to the wards quickly. Sergeant Alexei was all by himself, still sitting in the chairs in front of the waiting desk, reading a data-slate. He barely looked up when he saw me approach.
"Private Sent, your examinations are complete?" He asked, setting the slate aside. I nodded.
"I hope so, sir," I said. Sergeant Alexei nodded. I didn't want to tell him how it went.
"Yes, one would hope so," he said, adjusting his uniform. I took the same seat I had earlier. Sergeant Alexei went back to reading his data-slate.
"Your psychological evaluation went well?" He asked, without looking up. I nodded.
"I think so," I said plainly. I was still anxious about what went down. What if it was all just a ruse? What if they sent the results to someone who thought it was more than a little suspicious? What if they came for me later on?
"You'll know if they didn't," Alexei said bluntly. "They'll tell you as much."
"I hope so," I muttered. Alexei looked over at me, frowning.
"That booklet there. What is it?" He asked. I showed him the little Ecclesiarchy guide, which caused him to shake his head.
"You haven't been misbehaving, have you, Private Sent?"
"No, sergeant, on the contrary," I replied. "I was given this as reassurance."
Alexei grimaced.
"Then see to it you adhere to its guidelines. A man does not remain good by virtue of his good deeds, he remains virtuous by adhering to his faith," Alexei said. That sounded rather stupid, but it was very Imperial. You're not good just because you do good things, you're good if you follow what we say to do.
"Yes sir," I said obediently. I really hated saying that. Fortunately, Alexei went back to whatever he was reading on his data-slate, leaving me to sit there in silence. It must've been at least half an hour before Prassus emerged and took his spot in between the sergeant and I. He still seemed to be rather upset.
"They showed me…terrible things," he murmured. "Horrible things."
"You'll see worse on the battlefield, Private Prassus," Alexei told him, "remember that."
"Sir, do those…things…really exist?"
"Depends on what you are referring to, private."
"Those…aliens. The Xenos," Prassus said. Sergeant Alexei looked away from his data-slate and nodded.
"Yes, they do," he said, to no one in particular. Alexei then went back to his slate with a look that brokered no conversation. Prassus was still upset, and barely looked in my direction, so I had to endure more tedious and somewhat uncomfortable silence until Clauda came along. She didn't look happy either.
The squad trickled in over the course of the next hour or two. Sometimes two would come out in quick succession. Others took longer. The only one who seemed to come out unshaken was Egeers. I guess he'd have the easiest time out of all of us. He was the most devout one among us.
Once we were done, Alexei thanked the staff, and told us it was time to leave. We were all grateful to go. I didn't want to be anywhere near that horrible, dimly lit room. I wanted to get as far away from that psyker as possible. I never wanted to see those interrogators again. I was thankful to climb up dozens of flights of stairs to get out of that place and was almost relieved to see the familiar hallways leading to the mess hall. All of us relaxed when we entered the dining hall across from where we usually entered and took a table right near the corner of the hall. There were piles of barrels and pallets stacked in the corner of the hall, and dozens of tables pushed against the wall upon which sat huge machines that looked like coffee makers.
A squad dressed in an odd uniform, by which I mean an unrecognisable variation of Cadian flak armour, sat at the table in the corner of the room. I noticed how they all had a gas-mask hanging from their hips, and each one bore a red slash across their pauldrons, as well as a rather bulky backpacks on the ground behind them. Alexei caught us staring and glanced over at them.
"Hashpator combat engineers. They're from a Cadian colony world in the Eastern fringe and have been sending soldiers to Cadia for thousands of years. They're fine soldiers," Alexei explained. As if noticing the attention, one of them raised his mug in salute. Alexei nodded in reply.
Our food came eventually, delivered by a hideous servitor whose head shook like it was properly attached to its body. We were given a plateful of rice, sloppy meat and some stringy green stuff that might have been a vegetable at one point. Regardless, we ate it all the same. None of the squad seemed to be in a talkative mood. I was wandering if we'd be taken for some training after this, but Alexei hadn't given us any hint of what was coming next. When lunch was done, he surprised as all by saying he had a reward for us.
A reward? Really?
I didn't believe him for a second, and it was obvious quite a few of the squad felt the same way, but we all put up with it for now. Alexei dragged us down the rows of barracks, heading towards what must be the edge of the ship, leading us upwards until we would've been above the ship's hangar bay. With a growing sense of anticipation, I realised where he was taking us.
To an observation module.
Sure enough, the continual climb came to an end at a long concrete hallway, which branched off along huge, open tunnels that must've ran along the top of the ship's hangars. Alexei led us with the same purposeful stride he always had, and waved us into a vast, open room.
It was the most amazing thing I'd seen, perhaps in my entire life.
The room was huge, easily able to fit over a thousand people in it. Half of it was comprised of thick, heavy glass mounted between huge iron struts that jutted out from the ship. The room was designed like a theatre, with soft, plush seats lined up in ascending rows. Everyone could take a seat and admire the view.
And what a view it was.
In full view, there was the most spectacular sight I'd ever seen. A planet, a real, genuine planet. It couldn't be anything other than Practica.
Looming over us like a giant ball of ice, Practica was definitely an icy world. The light of the sun seemed so distant and pale, and the world looked uninviting, but…serene. It looked so beautiful, a world of whites and pale blues, of cyan and aqua and violet. Huge clouds and hurricanes drifted in the planets vibrant atmosphere. Lights sparkled on the planets nightside. Huge scars, canyons or rivers or continental rifts, criss-crossed the surface. Vast swathes of the world were dominated by oceans of ice, which glinted like smooth blue mirrors in the light of the distant sun.
However, the most noticeable feature was a huge strip of bright, lush green that bisected the planet from pole to pole, divided down the middle by a thin band of black. In the middle of this huge band there was a giant grey blob, visible from orbit, that had to a hive city. When they said Armward or Cityward, this must be what they mean. A single terraformed strip of land across the entire planet, running from pole to pole.
"Its…beautiful," Oleev breathed, falling to her knees. I was inclined to agree. You didn't have to be from the planet to find it beautiful. It was an awe-inspiring sight to behold, one that seemed to have caught the squad in holy reverence. While they were staring at the planet, I noticed other details in the void of space. There were other ships surrounding us, some distant, some close. There were a few universe mass-conveyers, huge, blocky ships which looked like giant cargo-containers in space. Cobra-class destroyers hung in the inky blackness of space, dwarfed in the shadow of our own ship. Looking around, I could get a hint of the ship we were aboard. It stretched for kilometres on either side of us, and it was quite clear there was quite a lot above and below us. The hangars for the ship jutted out quite a distance from the actual hull, and the observation module was attached on top of the hangars, with many others dotting its surface at regular intervals.
The size of the ship was immense, as the rest of the ship loomed over the module even when it was several hundred metres away. Huge weapons array were visible lining the ship, each one the size of a skyscraper by itself, and even atop the hangar and around the observation module there were numerous weapons batteries, primarily point defence guns like lascannons and flak batteries, but there were more exotic guns in there as well, huge, mortar like weapons plasma turrets, dish-based ray-guns and even some Imperial railguns. I had no idea why these guns were only found on the point defence batteries of Imperial ships, but seeing the huge arsenal of turrets that coated the surface of the Imperial ship, I couldn't help but feel reassured that no one was going to be getting anywhere close to the ship without one hell of a fight. I knew point defence guns combined everything from lasers to bullets to railguns and plasma, but it was weird seeing such an array of deadly weapons, jutting out from armoured bunkers and on swivelling bases, or concealed in the skin of the ships hangars itself, all trained on the empty expanse of space.
"It's so…big," Temond said, transfixed by the sight of his homeworld. The others were all walking down to the bottom level, to get as close to the glass as possible. Still admiring the size (and number) of ships around us, I followed suite.
"It's beautiful," Egeers said, a prayer on his lips. The others nodded in agreement. Behind the planet, one could make out the outline of the planets moon, which was dotted with more lights then the planet itself. Perhaps the moon was more hospitable then Practica?
Other faints shapes appeared near the platform, too distant to make out, but clearly not ships. Big, blocky platforms orbited the planet, studded with giant domes and sharp protrusions. Tiny specks of lights flittered in between the moon and the planet, and small, rounded structures drifted above the planet's clouds. Defence platforms and space-stations, perhaps? They were clearly too big to be satellites.
"That's Practica, eh? Looks about as inviting up here as it is down there," Burtrus said, earning some small laughter from the squad.
"The arm…it's so…frail," Desmond said, staring at the thin ribbon of green that cut across the planet. It did look very small compared to the ice and snow that coated the planet. It couldn't have been more then two or three hundred kilometres across at most.
"You never forget the first time you see your home from orbit," Alexei said. "I still remember when I first saw Cadia from above. It was…glorious."
"It's unforgettable," I said, not wanting to appear like I was any less amazed then my squadmates. Alexei nodded.
"Some say it will be the last thing you think about when you die. It is the image of everything you are fighting to protect. Your home, your family, your people, and all they stand for. You are fighting for humanity, not for yourself, remember that. The Imperium needs you to shield all of humanity. To protect everyone. Can you do that?" Alexei asked. The squad nodded in agreement.
"Can you do that?" Alexei shouted. We all snapped to attention.
"Sir, yes, sir," we replied in unison.
"Good," Alexei nodded, clutching the handrails in front of the glass. "Good."
"I do not know where we will be going or what we will be fighting," he said, "and it won't matter even if I did. What matters is that we have four months, just four months, to turn you lot into soldiers who can stand their ground on the battlefield."
Oh great, here we go, another patented Alexei speech about being cogs in the machine and doing better and being one perfect team. We'd all heard it a dozen times already, and it looked like we were going to hear it again.
"On Cadia, we are trained to be soldiers from birth. We learn how to strip, clean and shoot a lasgun before we are taught how to write. We are trained in drills more then we are taught in school. We go through more training at sixteen then some armies do in their lives. By then we are already soldiers that understand the reality of war better then any homegrown PDF on any backwater world could ever hope to do," he said, taking a drastically different tone than the one we were used to.
"Practica sends us its best, but it also sends you, farmers, merchants, craftsmen…folk who've never used a gun nor seen a tank or even heard of a Xenos before. And they want us to turn you into soldiers in four months?" Alexei murmured, grasping the rails tightly.
"Four months, just four months," he whispered, "how can I do that?"
Alexei straightened, as if remembering where he was, adjusted his uniform, and cleared his throat.
"I have not been entirely clear with you, I'm afraid. Before, when you were just auxiliary soldiers, four months would've been deemed adequate to turn you into support soldiers. You were backfield reserves, who would've held positions far behind the frontlines and served no role other then holding ground taken by the real soldiers. But thanks to the Adminstratum changing its mind, you lot will be folded in with us. You will see combat, in some form, and now, its not enough for you to know how to use a gun and follow orders. I have so much to teach you, and so little time to do it," Alexei told us. He sighed.
"Since you will be fighting alongside us, alongside Cadian's, you will be training alongside us, alongside Cadian's. You will learn much, and I cannot expect to teach you as much as I would like to, so it is critical that you take in as much as what I say as possible. Your lives may very well depend on it," he said, looking each one of us in the eye with his purple gaze.
"My life, and the lives of my friend, may very well depend on it," he said. "In four months, I will push you hard, and I will expect you to push just as hard as I do. I expect you to take this seriously, to commit to it seriously, to commit yourself to this as fully as you can. Beyond anything you've ever done before," Alexei said, pacing back and forth.
"There will be so much you'll have to learn, and it is my job to make sure you don't screw it up. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir," we all replied. Alexei nodded.
"I hope so. I really hope so. You must do this well, or else you and I won't make it very far once the fighting starts."