916.M41
Officio Prefectus Schola Progenium
[RECORD EXPUNGED]
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
"Vigilance is your shield."
It had been nearly six months now since Louise had first awoken on the cold metal of the Schola's 'bed'. Six months since she learned of how big the galaxy around her truly was. Even now she tried not to think of it. Today had marked the start of a new year, and had been celebrated in its own way by the Imperials. As was typical it was a fairly grim affair, but actual food was served at the cafeteria instead of the usual sludge and the Abbots were more lenient than usual. However all Louise could wonder is when the other shoe would drop - one thing she had learned about the Imperium was nothing was ever convenient and very few people ever were selfless or kind just for the sake of it.
And drop the other shoe certainly did, after class with Abbot Sevor. All cadets were suddenly lined up by the Abbots, overseen by a mixture of men she had never seen before. Some dressed in red and black carapace armor, decorated with the imperial Aquila and various skill iconography with their faces covered, while others dressed in find clothes similar to the aristocracy of home, but looking much more militant in nature.
Eventually all cadets were rounded up and marched off, going through several doors she had never been through before, and eventually exiting the Schola entirely. Brought in front of a large, and blocky looking airship, painted a vivid blue and proudly bearing an Aquila shined to perfection. The cadets were lined up in two rows, ten in each. Louise noted Ciaphas was directly in front of her, though he would fidget on occasion and seemed to be rubbing his thumb against his palm.
She notices Abbot Sevor off to the side engaged in a quiet, yet obviously extremely heated argument with a man in a peaked cap and a greatcoat, before the man withdraws some sort of document and the Abbot's shoulders slump. She had never seen the man look defeated before, but whatever he had seen had seemingly crushed his spirit. For a split second she notices the man in the coat turn towards her, locking eyes before she quickly turns her head back forwards. It was strange, but she felt in more danger being in the eyesight of that man than she had ever before in her entire life. However she did not waiver, six months of brutal training having an effect on her, even if she didn't want to acknowledge it.
'Cattelya... what would you say if you saw me now.' she wonders, the thought making her strangely sad.
The field was silent for several minutes more as the greatcoat clad man continued to converse with the Abbot and another man, clad in fine clothes. Eventually, all three men seemed to reach an agreement of sorts, though Abbot Sevor didn't look happy about it in the slightest. The three then proceeded to walk to the front of the lined up cadets, the other teen noticeably taking positions behind the man in the great coat, who stepped forward and cleared his throat.
"Cadets of the Officio Prefectus, cadets of the Militarum Tempestus, and others." He starts with, drawing Louise's attention to the first time of a triple column of roughly two-hundred other cadets, most of them seeming to be roughly two years older than her and clad in full body armor. They must've been front a different part of the Schola she mused, before her attention was drawn back to the speaker.
"I - and my benefactors are aware that you have not fully completed your education. However, not everything in life goes according to plan, and the Imperium has seen fit to call you to duty. I know not what reason you are called for, as all I see in front of me is a waste of potential. However, the Emperor calls and you shall answer! Your time at this Schola has come to an end, your younger peers will remain, but your age has been deemed acceptable. Those of you that survive; if you survive, will be granted the pr of ledge of ascending to be fully fledged Commissars and Scions. You are being granted the honor of proving your worth in the battleground, you should be grateful!" the man continues, though Louise notes that most of the cadets seem to be positively buzzing with excitement... all except one, who seemed to remain steadfast under the news. Louise admired Ciaphas's bravery, though she'd never admit it and tried to do her best to emulate him.
Meanwhile the 'Scions' appeared to be absolutely steadfast, causing her to wonder just who exactly these other cadets were. Standing silently in perfect formation, clad in shining and clearly recently polished armor with some variant of the lasgun she hadn't seen before connected to a large pack on their backs as they held their rifles to their breasts. She found it unnerving, they barely seemed human if not for the fact their faces were revealed.
"You will have until tomorrow to settle your final affairs at the Schola, and to prepare yourselves. For tomorrow you will be leaving, and it is highly likely you will never see this place again." the man finishes, before loudly clicking his boots together and making the Aquila salute,
"Ave Imperator!" he shouts.
"Ave Imperator!" shout roughly two hundred and fifty young voices in return, with all in the courtyard returning the salute and clicking their heels together.
Louise found herself joining them, if only out of habit after having it almost literally beaten into her by the Abbots. But still, she couldn't help, but find herself fearing for the future, and maybe just a bit hopeful. It was a large galaxy out there, and maybe just maybe she might be able to go home one day. But... would that even be a good thing? Because if she returned... the Imperium would surely follow, and she didn't know if she could bear looking her family, her peers, her princess in their eyes when Tristania is abolished, and Halkeginia becomes just another name on the list of an Administratum scribe, drafting up a list that would see millions taken in tithe by the Imperium, to die thanklessly on a world so far from home and it would all be her fault.
"This isn't supposed to be happening."
Louise turns towards Ciaphas, tilting her head slightly.
"What do you mean?" she asks, unused to seeing him looking so concerned.
He sighs before elaborating, "We were supposed to finish after two, maybe three more years, then go through a brief period as Junior Commissars, fight in a couple minor battles before being assigned to some desk work as some Lord-Commissar's aides."
Louise noticed he used the word 'we', but didn't say anything in response, waiting for him to continue.
"It's just, a lot of the others are going to die." he says, the bluntness of the statement mildly surprising her.
He turns to directly face her, the expression on his face one of absolute seriousness as he looks her dead in the eyes and grabs her hand, "Listen, Louise; when the time comes, in the field. You need to do as I say, without hesitation. No matter how odd it may seem, no offense intended, but you aren't ready yet. None of us are."
Louise opens her mouth to retort, blushing slightly as she realizes he had actually used her name, instead of 'my lady' or one of the usual sarcastic nicknames. Eventually she settles on simply nodding, "I can do that."
He smiles at her and the nods, releasing her hand. "Good, everything should be alright, after all I doubt we'll be in the active field, but you can never be too sure."
Standing up swiftly he grabs her by the arm and pulls her up as well, ignoring her indignant cry oh 'How dare you!' as he drags her over to the practice blades. Paying her zero mind as she huffs and pulls her arm away, glaring at him as he grabs two of the blades, tossing one to her, which to her credit she managed to catch.
"I want to go over the basics one last time, understand? Make sure there's no mistakes." he says.
"What, you think I don't understand how to use a sword?" she says, with an indignant flare entering her tone.
He simply looks at her and adopts a dueling stance, smirking slightly as she does the same.
The resulting match lasted much longer than usual, going on for roughly seven minutes before Ciaphas managed to disarm her. Both were sweating rather profusely, though even though she lost Louise was still quite proud of herself. Ciaphas also seemed of not impressed, content with her skill level.
"Good, good." he mutters, mainly to himself - though Louise still heard.
"Right." he announces, sheathing his blade and heading towards the rack that held the rest.
"Get a good nights sleep, you'll be sure to need it. I don't know how long we'll be in the warp, or in space travel. But something tells me this might be our last chance for a decent rest for quite awhile."
Gently placing his blade back into the rack, he turns to face her, opening his mouth to say something before sighing and turning around, heading towards his usual exit. Louise once more found herself standing alone in the courtyard, wondering what the future may hold. In a way she was almost scared at leaving the dingy metal walls of the Schola, it had become almost normal. It was also certainly much less unpredictable than the greater galaxy, though she supposed after the earlier events of the day she would be in the wrong to think that.
Turning around to leave the courtyard she freezes upon seeing the shrouded form of Abbot Sevor staring at her. Both stand in silence for what seems like an age before Sevor quietly approached her and held out a small object. Louise's eyes widened when she saw her wand in his gnarled hand, and as she carefully took her wand back and looked up at him he whispered, "The Emperor protects, cadet Vallière. Keep it secret, until the very moment you no longer can. There are other forces at play, ones even I can scarcely comprehend." For the first time in her tenure at the Schola the old Abbot smiled, though it was a sad and tired thing. Standing and turning, the Abbot rapidly disappeared into the shadows of the Schola's hallways, barely making a single sound as he took his leave.
That night she slept fitfully, her dreams filled with images of strange creatures and an endless void, as far as the eye could see. When the time to awaken came it wasn't to the familiar shouting of the Abbots, but to a pair of rough hands tossing her out of her bed. An unknown man in the uniform of a Scion standing over her, red lenses of his helmet glaring deep into her soul.
"You will report to the armory within fifteen minutes, cadet." he says, cutting her off when she attempted to speak before doing a swift about face and exiting into the hall. She could barely see other Scions exiting the rooms of her peers, a few startled shouts interrupted by vicious snacks and groans of pain.
Twenty bleary eyed cadets were quickly forced into formation and marched towards the Schola's armory, over watched by grim faced Abbots and apathetic Scions. The fully fledged members of the Imperial Stormtroopers completely concealed in their armor were impossible to read, and more than a bit terrifying.
Upon arrival they were each issues a lasgun, several power packs and a new uniform bearing the insignia of junior Commissars of the Officio Prefectus. Then the twenty were split into the two groups of ten they originally were in when marched to the ship the day before. Then, each ten man squad was joined by a fully fledged Commissar who swiftly took control of the shell shocked cadets and forced them into some semblance of order.
As they were all marched onto the dark bowls of the landing ship, Louise saw the Scion cadets being lifted off by a large lander - presumably taking them to the same ship she and Ciaphas were going to. Then the doors to her own lander slowly shut, closing off her vision of the Schola. For some reason she knew it would be the last time she ever saw it, and oddly she wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that.
She jumps slightly as she feels a hand on her shoulder, before she hears Ciaphas mutter, "Remember, stick with me, no matter what happens. These ships can be more dangerous than the underhive, and it would be terribly undignified if you met your end to some creature dwelling in the darkness."
Louise nearly scoffed, but held back. Ciaphas was usually right about most things, but he had to be joking on this. Why would the Imperials let riff-raf dwell within their naval vessels. It would be perfectly fine.
Wouldn't it?
I bet youwouldn't possibly guess who it is - that's right, it's me again.
Not much to saythis time around, I've just had a lot of free time recently so I've been working on pumping out chapters.
As always leave a review, I really do appreciate them.
Next chapter will be rather longer than the usual and shouldhave Louise's first taste of warfare in the 41st Millennium.And just who is this mysterious benefactor. Louise maynever know...
As always, see you next time, and remember.
The Emperor Protects.
