DISCLAIMER: Again, I do not own the intellectual rights to either Warhammer 40,000 or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Please don't turn this into a lawsuit? :P
It is better to die for the Emperor than live for yourself
"Go forth, young boy, and you'll become a legend..."
The grey smog of manufactorum-pollution filled the middle-hive air as Shinji was escorted to the Imperial Guard training area. As he was pulled along, he could hear fragments of whispered discussions about him, left in his wake.
"-ne of the Governor's sons?"
"He's the youngest, I thin-"
"- the audacity of that man, he-"
"-sending his son to the guard? Man's insane, he'll never come ba-"
Shinji's gaze turned downward. He'd never enjoyed being the centre of attention, but here he was, watched by the eyes of half the hive. Neither had he liked violence, another trait he'd never shared with his father or siblings. He could only assume that it came from his mother, but all he had been able to get from his father was a name.
Yui. Yui Ikari.
The enforcers dragged him to the Militarium block, and as the noise behind him faded, Shinji knew, there was no going back.
The Imperial Guard had claimed him, and nothing short of death could release him from that service until it was done.
"Alright, bug-food, shut up!" The drill sergeant's temples throbbed, at the effort of projecting his voice unaided to over three hundred men.
"There are 3 basic rules in the guard, each one superseded by the previous! Number one: Kill the Emperor's Enemies! Number two: Follow orders! Number three: Stay alive!"
His scarred face crinkled in a sneer. "The rest of the instructions, rules and regulations can be found in The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, but I doubt that most of you will live long enough to require their use."
"Now onto your weapons and armour. This is a lasgun! To use it, remember one simple mantra! Centre on the target and pull the trigger. Repeat after me!"
"Centre on the target..."
The voices of about two hundred recruits echoed back at him
"Centre on the target..."
"And pull the trigger!"
"And pull the trigger."
"Onto your armour now! This is flak armour..."
Shinji groaned ever so slightly and closed his eyes; this was going to be a long month of training.
The tramping of boots filled the courtyard as the men trained. Orders were barked out almost as fast as they could react, and they were expected to obey every single one.
"Halt!"
The boots hit the ground once before stopping.
"Ready weapons! Two ranks!"
Every second man took one step backward and to their left. Those that did not move dropped to one knee. Both ranks raised their weapons.
"Aim!"
Three long rows of stone targets had been set up for this very exercise. Every man aimed at one, sighting along the barrel of their lasgun.
"First rank, fire!"
"Second rank, fire!"
A thunderclap of noise drowned out all else at the calls, the sound of massed lasguns discharging.
Shinji stood in the middle of this cacophony, firing his own lasgun. When the order "Fire at will!" was given, he quietly chanted the firing mantra that had been drummed into him:
"Centre on the target... and pull... trigger." A loud crack. A flash of light.
"Centre on the target... and pull... trigger." Crack. A flash of light.
"Centre on the target... and pull... trigger." Crack. A flash of light.
"Centre on the target... and pull... trigger."
Shinji blinked rapidly. There were no targets left.
"Firing drill completed. Return to your hab-cells"
Shinji stood up and slung the lasgun over his shoulder. Ignoring the chatter that sprung up around him, he pushed the play button on his audiosten, and began the trek back.
Despite his worries, Shinji, now Lieutenant Ikari, found that Imperial Guard training was not at all boring. It was exhausting and difficult, especially for a spoiled governor's son with no muscle mass, endurance, or manual dexterity, but no part of it was at all monotonous. Indeed, most of the exercises took place in different simulated environments, giving each a unique twist.
He participated in firing drills, marching manoeuvres, grenade throwing and hand to hand combat with other recruits. As an officer, albeit a low-ranking one, he was excused from some of the more strenuous drills, but took other, more leadership-based exercises instead. Many of these were about how to properly and officially give commands, and how to associate properly with the men.
Unsurprisingly, Shinji could not muster up the charisma to lead men. He simply did not have the force of personality. He could, however, make good tactical decisions, and had a good memory for troop movements and enemy tactics. It was mostly for this reason that Shinji was not demoted to the rank of a line trooper and allowed to remain in command.
But as the month of training began to come to an end, settled squads began to form, made from mates that had forged bonds during training. Shinji did not make these bonds, and instead was placed in a squad with other misfits.
Kensuke Aida, an ex-manufactorium worker with dreams of grandeur.
Toji Suzuhara, PDF enlist transferred to the guard.
Mari Illustrious-Makinami, hive-ganger all but kidnapped and forced into recruitment.
There was a fourth man in Shinji's command squad, but he was taken one night by the commissars for some unmentionable crime, and never heard of again. The only hint was the sharp retort of a bolt pistol, fired around an hour before dawn.
Finally, after what seemed like an age, their training was done. They expected to take part of the normal celebrations that occurred after an Imperial Guard recruitment, as was standard for a world of the size of Dantra, but instead they found their company taking a very different course.
The buzzing monotone of the vox-speaker heralded this change. "140th Dantran Rifles, Company Alpha, report to troop carrier station 5681A"
There was much consternation and grumbling about this, as this had pulled their whole company, from the lowest trooper to the company commander, from entering the celebrations and to duty. But this was the Astra Militarium, and orders were orders. If men went against orders, who knew where it might lead them?
After much doubling back, taking wrong turns and generally getting lost, they eventually reached the carrier station. The squat, bulky shuttle loomed over them, guns bristling. In front of the ship stood a single, purple haired woman, clad in ornate, angled armour. A regal bird, an eagle, stood on her shoulder, with a collar that read simply 'PenPen'. From a necklace, she pulled a small black column, bisected by five lines, three in the middle and one at each end. A small skull rested in the middle.
Pressing the skull in the middle, the woman pulled up a large hologram. It was the same symbol as the column, and looking closely, Shinji saw that it was more like a capitol I. Quickly scrolling lines of text surrounded it, in high gothic, low gothic and binharic script.
"I am Inquisitor Katsuragi," she said, voice commanding, "This is a magenta level command code, and it allows me to make any request of anybody in the entire Imperium, save the High Lords and the Adeptus Custodes. In other words," the inquisitor slid the black glasses off of her eyes "You're coming with me. Company! Load up."
Stunned silence was all that came from the soldiers. The faint buzzing of servitors and cogitators was heard from inside the ship.
"I haven't got all day, you know. Onto the carrier."
A hasty, unregimented "Yes ma'am" was the response, followed by a rush of bodies cramming into the troop carrier. Shinji was almost crushed to death, squeezed between men much taller and larger than him. The shuttle slowly filled up with guardsmen, until the whole vehicle, a full fifty metres long and ten metres wide, was full. Then slowly, steadily, powerful engines straining against gravity, the shuttle rose into the air and began its flight.
It passed through the opalescent high clouds, sitting like white sheets in the bloody red sky of Dantra V. It shot through the glittering corona of the ionosphere and into the dark void of space, a void occupied by innumerable starships. There were rows of grotesque, swollen Imperial Guard personnel ships, ready to take troops to the next meatgrinder that the Imperium called a war, huge destroyers, with accentuated forward rams and proud, glittering aquillae, gargantuan battleships, cold, rectangular giants that dwarfed all around them, and bristled with the finest void weaponry known to man. There were squadrons of fighters, mostly Thunderbolts and Lightnings, patrolling the area. Non-military ships orbited as well, from bulk freighters and commercial transporters to whip-fast sprint traders and various small merchants.
Yet all of this was ignored and bypassed by Shinji's comparatively small troop carrier, which headed deeper into space, away from orbit around the planet. As the ship travelled on, leaving a bright trail of plasma, its destination was visible through a porthole. It was a disappointment, even, what looked like a diminutive frigate compared to vast ships of the line behind them. Yet as they approached, Shinji began to appreciate how distances in space could be deceiving.
This ship was a flying hive city, a gargantuan wedge of ceramite, steel and adamantium that dwarfed the troop carrier as an ant would be dwarfed by an elephant. Its hull, pitted by innumerable impacts from micrometeors, must have been ten kilometres long. The Imperial Aquilla on its side, itself scarred by impacts, was larger than some of the destroyers they had left behind. Emblazoned in large gothic script underneath were the words 'Victoria Mortis'. It filled Shinji's heart with awe to see that this was the power that mere mortal humans could create. Under his breath, he whispered a prayer to the God-Emperor, and he was not alone in doing so.
Suddenly, his shuttle began to rotate as it approached for landing. Out of his porthole, Shinji saw his home planet, an orb of brown and black, surrounded by a thin layer of red. As the shuttle landed in the hanger bay of the Victoria Mortis, Shinji took one last look at his home.
It was likely the last he would see it for a long, long time.
The hangar bay was imbued with the cold of space as the door of the shuttle hissed downward, spraying coolant as it lowered to the deck. Shinji's breath condensed into mist in front of his face while he and his company marched in various states of lockstep. Eventually, they formed into five, mostly even, mostly straight lines, as they were taught. Shinji and his fellow junior officers, none of which he knew by name, stood out to one side, awaiting instructions.
Eventually, after many minutes of uncomfortable standing at attention, sweating despite the cold, the indicator light on the mag-lift flicked from red to green. The men inside were middle ranking officers and bureaucrats, and shuffled out, clearly uncomfortable in the cold.
They began to warble on about ship-side rules and quartering arrangements, all of which Shinji filed away for future reference.
Their quarters were at the back of the ship, near the engine and away from the escape pods. They entered the mess halls first, then recruits. Training privileges went to whoever showed up, unless superseded by seniority.
The message was simple. New recruits were expendable. Veterans were not. Veterans get better living quarters. Recruits do not. Live long enough, and you'll be afforded the same privileges.
Eventually, the instructional session drew to a close, and the guardsmen were released to their own devices. Grateful to be allowed out of the bitterly cold hangar, most rushed to the various mag-lifts, attempting not to show the fear that clutched their hearts.
Head bent, audiosten playing, Shinji followed them, reluctantly doing as he was told. He had found that it generally made life easier.
Sapphire eyes watched him as he walked.
A/N - Alright, that's one chapter done. I don't really like the first part of this chapter, but I couldn't find very much about Imperial Guard training, so I just made some shit up. Sue me.
The next chapter's gonna be a big one. Get ready for warp travel, drop ships and preparing for war!
Thanks to MAD_MARTY for the beta read, and everyone else for helping me with ideas and generally putting up with my shit. You guys know who you are.
