"On this day, by my hand, the enemy shall know death"
-General Jaeyre Kahlder
Commissar Kasteriin Aldezaar woke after a 12-hour sleep cycle feeling more refreshed than he had in all his days on Norix IV. He had only 6 hours before he was reassigned back down to the planet. He remembered the area of the briefing containing his armaments assignment. It had said; unrestricted access.
Kasteriin took the weapons he had selected previously and slid them into various holsters. He put on a fresh commissariat uniform, with its red and black greatcoat and large black hat and took a lift to the armory. The corporal on desk duty was looking extremely bored when he arrived. Kasteriin strode purposefully to the desk, "I'm here to acquire a power fist."
"Authorization, Commissar?" replied the corporal. He looked slightly interested, this was probably the most taxing thing he was going to do all day. He took the proffered data pad and looked at the authorization data. The corporal's eyes widened slowly. "Interesting," he said, "your authorization looks sound, Commissar. Come with me, and we'll fit you out."
"Thank you," replied Kasteriin. They headed into the armory, a room covered in weapon racks and assembly tables.
"Come this way, please," said the corporal. They walked through an aisle displaying weapons and technology scavenged from xeno. Kasteriin stopped and looked at the weapons arranged on a shelf. There were several Eldar fusion guns and Shuriken Catapults, Gauss rifles from several encounters with Necrons and Kroot rifles from the Tau. Aldezaar looked them over for a moment and then went with the corporal. They came to the end of the row, and went towards a table with several power gloves on them. "I don't think a fist would be appropriate, but we can outfit you with a power glove. Which hand would you like it on?"
"My left hand," said the Commissar.
"Alright. It can crush an object with a mass of up to forty-five kilograms, so if you're going to be holding a weapon, be careful with it. Also, the switch triggering the energy field is on the back of the hand," stated the corporal.
"Fine," said Kasteriin grimly, "I expect I won't need nearly that much pressure to crush an ork skull."
"No sir, I expect you won't," said the corporal, giving him a grim smile in return.
"Thank you, son," Kasteriin said, taking the glove. He put it on his left hand and flexed. He noticed with satisfaction that it was almost a perfect fit. Satisfying himself that the hydraulics operating the glove worked perfectly, he pressed the switch for the disruptive energy field with his right hand. A second later, a barely visible field of shimmering particles surrounded the glove. Kasteriin moved his gloved hand near the table and it melted slightly, a think trail of smoke drifting up from where the energy field had grazed the table. "I'm going to enjoy having this," Kasteriin grinned, "I wanted to ask you something, corporal."
"Yes, sir?"
"Am I allowed to take a xeno weapon?" Kasteriin could hardly keep the excitement out of his voice.
"A xeno weapon, sir? What type exactly?" The corporal was beginning to look uneasy.
"Oh, nothing to get you in trouble, corporal, I was thinking… perhaps an Eldar fusion rifle."
"A fusio-" Kasteriin cut the corporal off in mid-exclamation.
"Unrestricted access, son, that's what it says on my authorization, now shall I take the rifle, or shall we involve your lieutenant?" A smile was playing along Kasteriin's lips, now that he knew he would have what he liked.
"Uh, no sir, no trouble, sir. You can have what you like, sir," stammered the corporal.
"Good lad. I thought so," said the Commissar, "now hold onto this for me, I can't carry it all." He handed the corporal his hellgun, patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and strode off towards the aisle of xeno weapons before the man could argue. He carefully picked out what looked to be one of the more powerful Eldar fusion rifles and spent the next three minutes trying to find a place to carry it. He eventually settled for cutting open a sniper rifle bandolier pilfered from the next rack and slipping it across one shoulder so he could carry the rifle on his back. Satisfied, he left the armoury.
He noted that he still had three and a half hours before he was meant to meet his squad, so he went to the Commissar's mess. There were only two other officers in the mess hall, and he knew neither of them, so he chose a food replicator and sat down to a plate of borumm and ledda, a dish consisting of meat from a large, ponderous, harmless animal with a crushed starchy root vegetable in a thick, salty, orange sauce. He finished, put his plate and tray into a cleaner on the side of the replicator, and returned to his room.
He again took off his holsters and stripped his clothes, and this time took a long shower, reveling in the warmth of the water in comparison to the carefully controlled temperature of the station. When he finished, he dressed, rebuckled his holsters and headed for the Hall of Records. He spent the next few hours carefully reviewing recent engagements with the orks in preparation for his strike. It seemed that the orks, these orks at least, were more oriented and disciplined. They were focusing on primary objectives. That was unusual, especially because the average ork mob would charge into the fray regardless of the stacked odds.
In the vids they were making right for their goals, which meant that the goals would have to be well defended. He watched as time and time again, the commanders were forced to pull forces from the frontline to defend their vital areas. This ultimately made the frontline ineffective, and it occurred to him that there was no use to having a rearguard if the frontline no longer existed. He watched as every time, the Guard frontline was overrun by a horde of greenskins.
He looked the time, and saw that he was almost due in the hangar bay to drop to ground. He replaced the vids he was watching and headed to the hangar bay. When he arrived, his squad had not yet assembled, so he sat down on a loading crate to wait. After about five minutes, he was approached by two lesser techpriests, wearing dark, hooded robes.
"Commissar Aldezaar?" one asked in a tone that implied that he already knew the answer.
"Yes," said Kasteriin.
"We are assigned to aid you in deploying a suitable base camp for your endeavor," said the spokesman for the two, "we hope you fins this suitable. I am Joran, and he is Hawsey." The second techpriest nodded.
By this time, the squad had assembled, looking fully equipped. Kasteriin spotted a man with a melta and two with sniper rifles. He got up. "Attention! So you're the squad of heroes who's going to take back the military secrets, eh?" he barked, "sergeant! Step forward!"
The kasrkin sergeant took a quick step forward. "Kasrkin squad, ready for war, Commissar, sir!" shouted the sergeant.
"Well met, sergeant. At your ease, men. You all know the briefing, I take it?" said Kasteriin, addressing the squad.
There was a collective voicing of, "Yes, sir!".
"You look prepared enough, good lad there with the melta. You all ready?"
Another group shout, "Yes, sir!"
"Alright lads, let's get us some orks!" They piled into the dropship, and Aldezaar addressed the sergeant. "Sergeant," he said, "is this all your men?"
"Yes, sir, except for that one," he pointed to a man wearing a full-face helmet and carrying a sniper rifle.
Aldezaar approached the man the sergeant had indicated. "You sure you're in the right place, soldier?" he said.
The man turned to look at him. Aldezaar could not see his face behind the tinted helmet. "I've been assigned to your mission, Commissar," he stated, and handed Kasteriin a data pad.
Kasteriin inspected the data pad. "Vindicare…," he muttered, then it dawned on him. "They gave me an Assassin?"
"That's right, Commissar, I have been assigned to aid your cause. But you had better use me well, because as far as I know, I outrank you. Sir."
Kasteriin didn't feel threatened, just insulted. "Don't worry," he said, "there'll be enough for us all to do out there."
He took a seat, and gave the pilot the ok to take off. They lifted off, and dropped towards Barrien Valley.