Private Jenkins 1st Person

I sat in the back of the massive Tau transport ship, the cuffs around my wrists were very comfortable, but despite their looseness I couldn't figure out how to free myself from them. Two armed guards stood at the doors, their helmets were off, exposing their blue-skinned faces, the gash down their foreheads wasn't incredibly pleasant either. Both tau had their stubby pulse carbines held loosely, loose enough to not seem threatening, but not enough to seem unwatchful.

At the same time the guards regarded the humans with curiosity, wondering where thier nasal cavities where and why they had feet with toes instead of hooves

I took a deep breath and took stock of the situation again. We had been ambushed by the xenos, we had lost our officer, we had lost our weapons, we had been taken prisoner, we had been stowed in a transport and were being taken Emperor-knows-where. The 8 other guardsmen in the squad were talking among themselves, some were crying about loved ones, others were too shocked to do anything but sit. War had strange effects on men. Not the time to get philosophical.

I twisted the cuffs again, trying to squeeze out of it. The guards brought their pulse carbines up to thier chests and I stopped trying to escape. One nodded at me. I wasn't xenophobic, but these xeno were beyond the Emperor's light, all they deserved was to be cleansed. Then I realized I still had my survival knife hidden under my arm (a habit from back in my ganger days), I crawled over to another guardsmen and used his handcuffs to push it out. No explanation was given. With the knife in my hands I sprung to my feet and whipped it at the left xeno.

Their carbines were pointed toward me instantly, one finger from their four-fingered hands on the triggers. The knife buried it self in the left guards chest-plate, less than an inch deep. It stuck out at an odd angle. With obvious restraint the tau warrior didn't shoot me instead he walked up to me and hit me with the butt of his carbine. My world went black.

----

I awoke in a room, strapped to a chair. As my vision focused I noticed amazing works of art engraved into the walls of the room. "They are called fio'sorral" a tau voice said in the perfect Gothic. My head snapped back, I looked across the desk, at the xeno there. It was like the guards except that it had a lighter build and was wearing more gaudy clothes. "I am Por'el Aurl'ni Ores, That is I am from the colony world of Aurl'ni, my caste is por, that's..." Ores said, giving some thought to the translation, "It's water in gue'la, er that's what we call your kind. 'El is my rank, it is 2nd from the top rank, 'O. My name is Ores".

"I am Farracrus Jenkins of the 53rd Vieran Armoured Fist Platoon of the Imperial Guard. Farracrus being my given name, Jenkins is my surname. Armoured Fist is the type of squad, 53rd is which platoon of this type we are. Vieran is our world of origin, Viera and the Imperial Guard is, they are the defenders of humanity, defending them from xenos, heretics and worse." I said proudly.

"So you serve this God-Emperor I've heard so much about?" the Por'el asked. "To death" I responded curtly. "And would you say he is like the guiding force of your race, that with out him you would be lost?" Ores continued. "Yes, he is the benevolent ruler of mankind." I said, not realizing what I was saying to the xeno. "Then we are not so different, see I serve the Tau'va, the guiding light of the Tau race, we strive for it, always approaching but never becoming it. Your kind serve this Emperor, spending your lives fighting for his ideals, and..." the Por'el faltered, he couldn't think of another comparison between the ignorant gue'la Emperor and the glorious tau'va.

"And for serving the Emperor when we die we go to him, our souls are spared the fate of become the playthings of the daemons, who writhe in the miasma-infested void of the warp. That is your fate xenogen." I couldn't stop, a lifetime of Imperial dogma spewed out of me, "WARP TAKE YOU! YOU EMPEROR-CURSED XENOGEN!" I strained against the restraints. The Por'el didn't even look disturbed, "Please calm down or the Por'uis will have to sedate you," it said calmly.

"AVE IMPERATOR!" I screamed, no longer in control of myself. An arm restraint popped out, I lunged for the tau's neck, no longer coherent. I felt a needle enter my arm and I crashed down onto the table. I was quite aware of what was happening, well my mind was still clouded by the Imperial propaganda, but my muscles wouldn't respond.

The Por'el shook it's head sadly and silently left the room.