Chapter:3

The drive through the dark hive was long and exhausting for the passengers of the truck. Sam wanted to sleep so badly but the bucking truck wouldn't let him. So the only thing left for him to do was just to sit there and wait for the eventual arrival at their destination. The drive was slow, even with the streets cleared thanks to the curfew. The maze of roads was difficult to maneuver even without all of the traffic. After what felt like an eternity to Sam the ruck came to a sudden stop without any warning. The passengers where thrown to the front of the truck by the sudden stop but apart from a few swear words being uttered no one seemed to want to complain.

The back hatch was pulled open and the light of the street Illuminators shone into the compartment. The head of one of the soldiers appeared in the light, followed by a few others. They where all armed with stun batons and some even had guns. The leader of the group hit the floor of the compartment with his baton violently "Out! Hopp Hopp!" He shouted at them.

Not wanting to instigate further aggression the passengers quickly followed his orders and jumped out of the truck one after the other where they where lined up behind the truck by the other soldiers. Once they had all jumped out, the hatch was slammed shut and the truck moved away again, disappearing behind a hab block. Sam and the others looked around to see where they where but couldn't recognize the area. From the look of the surroundings they where deep in the interior of the hive now. And at least a few levels higher then where they had started.

The surroundings where still made up of the same clusters of hab blocks surrounding the higher spires that stretched up into the upper hive but the streets seemed much cleaner. There where also no manufactorums belching smoke and gases to bee seen like in the lower levels. In fact, Sam could even make out a few cathedrals in the distance. Mighty gothic spires stood tall and proud. Emblazoned with holy symbols and stained glass windows. At the sight of those majestic symbols of worship Sam quickly muttered a prayer and made the sign of the Aquilla over his chest.

But before he could marvel at their sight any more the soldiers pushed them in the other direction with their batons and rifle buts. "Move along, keep close and do as we say!" One of them shouted. In the direction where they where being marched at stood what could only be presumed to be one of the PDFs fortress bastions that stood vigil over the upper parts of the hive. The thick ferrocrete walls stretched high up into the sky and where dotted with spotlights and heavy weapons mounted on turrets.

As they can closer one could make out even more wall mounted weapons systems. Heavy bolsters and heavy stubbers dotted the walls and where constantly searching for targets. The closest ones quickly turned towards them and took aim but before they could shoot one of the soldiers signaled something and the guns turned away again. Before they could freeze up at the sight of the guns pointing at them the soldiers continued to push them along right up to a big metal gate. Sam presumed it to be the main gate, judging by its size. The gate was emblazoned with a faded white Aquilla and the letters B165.

One of the soldiers walked up to the gate, there he pushed a button on a wall mounted vox caster and told the operator on the other side to open the gate. Shortly there after the gate started to pull open with the groaning of heavy machinery. Once the gate was fully open they where quickly marched through before it could close again and where lined up behind it.

Once they had been formed up another soldier walked up to them. In the light from the lights mounted on the walls they could see his face and uniform clearly. He had a much older look than the rest of the soldiers and his right eye as well as a substantial part of his cranium had been replaced by bionics. His wrinkled face along with the glaring red lens where his eye should be gave him a menacing appearance. His uniform was also of much better quality. The well tailored uniform along with a god few medals and other decorative elements made him immediately stand out from the loos fitting, worn and used uniforms of the other PDF troops.

"Good evening gentlemen! My name is colonel Robert Sataul Warren and from now on you will be serving under my command." He shouted with a raspy voice. "What do you mean 'serve under you'?" The one next to Sam asked in a careful manner. Obviously not wanting to offend the colonel or give the soldiers a reason to brutalize him.

"It means Sweetheart, that from now on you are conscript soldiers in the Charctus PDF and I'm your commanding officer! You will follow my orders, do what I tell you, and only when I tell you to do it. You will ask me permission first if you want to do something. Need to go to the toilet? You ask me for permission first! Want to sit down? Only when I say you can! You want to leave? Too bad!..." Sam groaned internally as the colonel continued on how things where going to be from now on. Apparently there was going to be a war soon, and they had been conscripted to fight that war.

After the colonel finished shouting the group immediately replied with loud complaints. "You can't just abduct us from the street and tell us to fight in your war!" The one next to Sam shouted again. "I have a Family at Home, i have to return to them before something happens!" Another one bellowed out.

"Silence!" One of the solders called out. "I won't have any of your complaints! You will receive basic training as soldiers and then be sent out to bolster the defenses of the hive. Those that do not comply with orders will be severely punished and summarily executed if necessary." Those words immediately quieted them down. And as to prove his point one of the soldiers went up to one of them and struck him right in the head with his baton, making him topple over unconscious.

After that the colonel explained the details of what their days as trainees where going to look like. They would receive training for one month before they would be deployed to the front lines as real soldiers. Alone that made them nervous. Only one month before their war would begin, that wasn't much time at all. After that explanation they where lead to their new quarters.

One room for all of them together. Cramped together and on Tom of each other in small bunks and with each a small locker for their belongings. That nights no one slept well, the beds where uncomfortable and the rooms quickly got very hot thanks to the people cramped inside, plus the fact that no one was quite able to grasp that they only had a month of peace left before they would need to fight. Eventually the warm embrace of sleep came to all of them, but still it was a hard first night.

The following days the mood lightened somewhat throughout the group. They learned to push your worries to the back of your mind and just to do what you where told to do. You had to or else you got beaten by the guards. The training also wasn't that hard, for the most part it was just extremely stressful. You had to learn how to use and operate your weapons in a short span of time. How to properly maintain your weapons and equipment without offending the machine spirits of either. You had to learn the ranking structure of the pdf and be able to recognize each rank without hesitation or doubt, alone that made San want to pull his hair out and scream.

Each and every one of them had to be able to understand certain commands and hand signs. For example what sign meant that you should outflank the enemy, the sign for throwing your grenade, the sign to take cover and manny other. It was truly exhausting to not only learn them but to also be able to remember each and every one in a stressful situation like being shot at. And so the training continued, rushing one part of being a soldier after the other.

Now a few weeks later, they had become what could be considered a platoon of somewhat capable soldiers, not the rag tag group that they had been when they had arrived. They where still far far away from capable soldiers but they could shoot and theoretically hold a trenchline, wich was all they where really expected to do. Manny still had a lot of complaints about the training and the living conditions but none of those complains got voiced in the open or when guards where around.

By now they had learned how to march in formation, how to properly handle and maintain their autoguns, how to act as a squad in combat, who was to do what and who was in charge. They had also starten forming bonds with each other. Helping each other during training, telling jokes during off time and covering each other's guard duties when one of them couldn't go. They where Sams new family. He still held on to the thought of returning home with his dad to mom but that seemed somewhat distant to him. Rather, he thought that by fighting and defending his home he would help her much more.

Private Thomson was probably the one he was closest with. He was a big and burly man, easily a head taller than him. He had come to the fort only a few days later than Sam but he came from the same district of the hive as he so they quickly bonded over that. He had told Sam that he was 19 but he looked older than that. Greasy black hair covered his head and stubbles of black hair dotted his face .They shared a bunk together, sat with each other in the mess hall and where both in the same squad. Of course he wasn't the only friend that Sam had made. There was also private Lucie, she was the only girl in the whole group and the center of much of the others attention because of it. She was innocent and cute looking with her blonde hair and red cheeks. That was of course until you saw what she could do with her bayonet. Once she had apparently cut the finger of one of the guys when ha had tried to force himself onto her. She was also the girl Sam had a crush for, but he never had the courage to go up and tell her about his feelings.

Sam was also close with one private Robett. His family was from the other hive so his complexion was a bit different then the rest of them and his accent was a bit different. His hair was a dark brown with a slender face and green eyes. He was always a source of entertainment for the rest of them with his stories about the other hive and the people there. Apparently the people of the second hive loved to drink really strong liquor and get really drunk everyday around 7pm and that they only prayed twice a day instead of the 3 times that was usual in this hive. 'What strange people' where Sams thoughts.

But as the weeks passed by and the ending of their training came closer the tensions started to pick up again. One recruit from the other group was caught trying to defect from the pdf and was later on Court martialed and executed in front of all of them to show the consequences of running away. Seeing someone getting hung was pretty shocking for all of them and the mood quickly soured after that. Luckily no more people tried to escape.

And so it was that the dreaded day of their departure came. They where all gathered up on the training ground one last time and participated in one last prayer to the Emperor together in their full kit and with all of their equipment. The chaplain of the fort made his way through the ranks of recruits swinging a smoking flail filled with incense and read loudly out of the Lecticio Diginitatus. Blessing their souls in the name of the God Emperor and wishing them strength and courage to defend this world in the name of the Emperor and the Imperium.

After that they where marched out of the gates they had once entered a months ago as forced conscripts. But this time they where not the fresh recruits they had once been, now they where soldiers of the PDF and as ready for the coming hardships as they could be after so short a training. They where divided up again into two groups and assigned a transport vehicle for each group. A locally produced variant of APC based on the chimera chassis called the Orion. It featuring a larger open topped crew compartment, capable of holding 20 men instead of the usual 12, at the price of not having a turret and instead only featuring a pintle mounted heavy stubber and a hull mounted Heavy Bolter for armaments.

They where sat down in the cramped compartment at the back tightly squeezed together and then it was of to some fort or bastion that they had newer even heard of. The engines kicked in and the flor of the crew compartment started to vibrate to the powerful engines that propelled the vehicles onward with a surprising speed. Talking was almost impossible for anybody who didn't want to shout their lungs out over the deafening roars of the engines. And so they sat there tightly squeezed and silent staring at the greasy white interior of the Orion's crew compartment as they where sent of into god only knows what would await them.

One of the ships that had arrived together with the fleet had quickly separated itself from the rest of the fleet and rushed onwards towards the planet. A behemoth of steel as black as the void which surrounded it. It's dark hull only broken up by the Golden Aquilla on its prow and the images of a great angel, with wings of silver and clad in a black robe holding a sword, dotting it's superstructure. It was the battle barge 'Ihra Dominato Ferro' of the Steel Angels chapter. The journey from the outskirts of the system to her destination had taken the better part of a month. Time that her detachment of Battle brothers took to prepare themselves.

Brother captain Ihro'nadai had taken his time to go over the battle plan countless times. Calculating every possibilities of a failure and taking every precaution he could come up with. He leaned over the holo table projecting an image of the surface of the planet as the augery scans of the Ihra Dominato Ferro had shown it. His face and golden armour basked in the green light from the projection, drawing strong contrasts of light and shadow where the green light couldn't reach on his face and armour. Around him stood his councils and lieutenants. Foremost amongst them brother chaplain Tazaro. In his bright silver armour of the chapters recusiam he stood in strong contrast to the others with their black armour.

His scull faced helmet stared at Ihro'nadai, the bright red eyes seemingly judging his every breath. In truth he was only looking at him, but thanks to the shape of the helmet the look seemed more malicious than intended. "We are to strike at 3 different installations simultaneously via drop pods and thunderhawks and strike before the enemy has time to react and mount any sufficient kind of Defence. After we have struck and destroyed the defence installations the thunderhawks are to pass by again and pick up the company and bring them back aboard before we depart. " the chaplain turned his head back towards the projection where markers where appearing corresponding with what the captain had said. "The largest of the installations to the south will be taken care of by myself and my terminator honor guard along with assault Marines whilst the 2nd and 3rd installation will fall to the companies dreadnoughts and armored elements to deal with"

He paused for a moment but after not hearing any objections about the plan he continued. "This is supposed to only be a lightning strike to disable the orbital defenses so each element of the company will only have a short time to finish its objective before we are departing again. Don't waste time engaging unnecessary opponents and move with swiftness. That is all"

After the briefing was over and most of the Astartes officers had left Ihro'nadai turned towards the chaplain. His golden gauntlets griping the chaplains shoulder pauldrons. "I sense that this mission will be a Great challenge to the 2nd company and I have discussed the matter with the other commanders. We came to the conclusion that it is time to wake Brother Nerusius from his slumber" The chaplain almost stumbled backwards at that statement. His shock visible even with the helmet on. "But he hasn't been woken in over a thousand years, are you shure that the such an engagement is really worthy of his presence?" The captain let out a sigh and let go of the chaplain. "That is why I have now come to you brother. No one in the entire chapter except the High chaplain of the 1st company is more qualified to assess this matter than you" "I know of my status, you need not remind me brother. But why is it that you wish for his awakening now?"

Ihro'nadai turned away from the chaplain, looking out of the large mosaic window in front of him. The light from the local star reflecting in a myriad of colors through the glass. "We have received word about our mission after this matter is dealt with from the Chapter Master himself. He has summoned the entire chapter to stand agains a large ork waagh in the neighboring sector. It appears to be one of the largest this Segmentum has seen in the past millennia. I thought it a good idea to get our brothers blood up once in a minor skirmish before we head out to meet the xenos horde." The chaplain stepped up next to him. Sharing the view out of the window out towards the star. Letting out a sigh he turned towards the captain "If it is your wish to se him awoken then I will of course assist the Tech Marines in rising him from his hibernation. I will head out towards the armory immediately" with that the chaplain left the hall as well. Leaving the Captain alone to resume his task of leading the preparations for the operation.

The armory of the Ihra Dominato Ferro was bristling with activity. Tech priests and Tach marines where working alongside servitors and chapter serfs on preparing the myriad of war mashines of the company for war. Tazaro made his way through the hall, passing by land raiders, rhinos and other vehicles before coming before a great gate. In front of it stood the companies senior Tech marines waiting for him. "Greetings brothers" "Greetings Chaplain" came the response from the Tech marine closest to him. His voice dark and raspy mixed with the static from the vox speaker that replaced his mouth. "The Captain wishes for us to awaken brother Nerusius and we have no time to spare so let the awakening process begin" the Tech marines nodded and the gate started to swing open.

Behind the gate the room was mostly dark except for a few illumination orbs hanging from the ceiling an a number of candles dotting the walls. The room was filled with a strong smell of machine oils and holy incenses. Slowly the humming of a reactor came about and the light from the orbs increased until most of the hall was basked in light. The light revealing the holy sarcophaguses of the company dreadnoughts, 6 of them in total. Fallen heroes of the chapter destined to live on and fight even beyond their deaths. They where some of the greatest treasures of the entire chapter. Their golden sarcophaguses covered in scriptures and battle honors.

But all the way at the far side of the hall was the chapters greatest treasure. Treasured even higher than all of the chapters dreadnoughts combined. It stood almost twice the height of any other dreadnought, it's hull thicker than that of any of the chapters vehicles and its age as great as the Imperium of man itself. It was a relic from the great crusade itself and passed down through the chapter from millennia. It was one of the few of its kin still remaining to this day in the Imperium. It was the chapters one and only Leviathan pattern dreadnought. It was truly a relic of relics. It's massive frame covered in battle honors, inscriptions and other decorative details. Inside the sarcophagus the Prior Chapter Master Peliel Kistus was would be the time for his first awakening in a thousand years.

The awakening was a long and extremely taxing endeavor. Countless rights of appeasement had to be performed to make sure that the ancient machine spirits would not be agitated or possibly even worse. The Tech marines and the Tazaro worked for many hours with no pause. Praying, offering up tokens of appeasement and applying holy oil to every single part of the ancient venerable war machines. But finally after a lengthy ritual all of their venerable brothers had been awoken, the hall was filled by the humming of ancient engines carrying these venerable warriors to battle.

From there on it went quickly, the rest of the company had already finished its preparations and stood ready to be deployed. And so the dreadnought where informed of their duties in the coming battle. The Tech marines equipped them accordingly with what they would be doing. Heavy bolsters and plasma cannon where replaced with flame cannons and inferno cannons and storm bolters with heavy flamer. The Leviathan dreadnought brother Nerusius was armed with twin heavy flamers and a pair of siege drills for his arms.

After hours of preparations and hard work the ship fell silent. No Astartes where walking along the corridors anymore and the armory was quiet and empty save for a few serfs and servitors. All of the battle brothers where silently awaiting the time for their drop. Either strapped inside of drop pods or sitting inside of thunderhawks. Special Thunderhawk transports where awaiting the signal to carry the tanks of the company down towards the surface. Captain Ihro'nadai and his terminator elite bodyguard where waiting inside of the ships teleportarium. He was wearing his golden suite of Cataphractii Termin armour whilst his bodyguards where equipped with indomitus patter armour.

All of them where awaiting the signal to launch down to the surface. Seconds ticked by and the tension became so thick in the air that one could grip it and hold it with ones hands. After about 10 seconds of eerie silence the red light switched to green and only a fraction of a second later the pods had left their launch tubes. A sudden violent shook followed by silence as the pods left the ship and fell through the vacuum of space. As the pods entered the atmosphere the silence was replaced by a bone shaking rattling as the pods left long red streaks of fire behind them in the air. As the pods sailed through the air the Thunderhawks also left their launch pads and speed towards the surface.

It all happened so quick that the crews of the scanners who where surveilling the airspace had almost no time to react. One second there was nothing on the monitors, then suddenly the monitors became filled with unidentified readings quickly descending to the surface right on top of them. The observers where shocked. No human being could possibly hope to survive a descent that quick. Vox Receivers started ringing in the Governors office immediately and triple-A Fire was quickly aimed up into the sky. But even with the airspace above the orbital defense silos being filled with high caliber fire it was like trying to hit a fly with a machine gun. Almost none of the shoots hit and those that did only managed to knock some of the objects somewhat off corse. Before anybody could do anything the falling abject hit the ground with loud booms throwing huge plumes of dirt and sand into the air.

Now things are speeding up a bit. Hope you like the chapter and don't hate me too much for the tease at the end. Next chapter you will maybe even get to se how a company of space marines handle some pdf troops in bunkers. (Read instead: "It will be a fucking blood bath!")

If you have any thoughts or suggestions to me then please leave a comment. I hope to get better att writing and storytelling so please don't hold back. I doo have a vague outline for how the war will go so if your suggestions conflict with my plans then it might not happen but I will try to listen to what you want.

See you next time!