916.M41
Officio Prefectus Schola Progenium
[RECORD EXPUNGED]
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
"A closed mind is defense against sedition."
Travel amongst the stars was both as wondrous as it was terrifying. Louise spent hours at a time simply gazing out one of the windows of her quarters, lost in the wonder of the endless void. It amazed her how something that seemed to be so serene could at the same time be so utterly dangerous. The only thing protecting her and the others aboard the vessel being thick layers of complicated metals and materials.
Overall Louise had found life on the ship, (a Lunar class cruiser if she had heard correctly from Ciaphas) fairly boring. There were still plenty of drills of course, it was a military vessel after all - but in the end for the time in half a year Louise had found herself with hours of free time nearly every day. While back in Tristain she likely would've spent that role studying, or moping after another failure, now she simply found herself enjoying the quiet, or training.
Occasionally she found herself thinking back on her family, she hoped Cattleya was doing alright and wondered if Éléonore had ever managed to keep a suitor. She wondered if her mother had searched for her, or simply been relieved that the problem of the infamous black sheep of the Vallière family had solved itself. She finds herself smirking for a second at the imagined look on the Zerbst cow's face should she realize her rival now sailed the stars in the company of small segment of an army far larger than anything Halkeginia had ever known. Reaching into one of the pockets of her uniform, she withdraws a small pentagram medallion. She had hidden it when she first arrived, trying to keep something of home - of her faith. Now, holding it in her hand all she could do was scowl. She had prayed for years, studied relentless and put her metaphorical blood, sweat and tears into the pursuit of the magical arts - of nobility and what had it earned her? Humiliation, relentless mockery, and failure. The Founder never did anything for her, never answered her prayers or gave her an ounce of success, but the Imperium? She wasn't entirely sure of the Emperor, or the Imperial cult, but what she did know was that she has accomplished more in six months under the Imperium of Man than a lifetime in Tristain.
Rubbing her thumb across the smooth surface of the medallion, her face narrows in determination. "I am sorry, Cattleya." she mutters before clenching her fist and shattering it. Opening her hand, she stares at the fragments of the medallion for several seconds, before casting them onto the floor and rising to her feet. Stepping in front of the simple mirror provided in her quarters, she adjusted her peaked commissarial cap. She barely recognized herself, her face now covered in a series of small scars and her once long and pristine pink hair cut to shoulder length.
Abruptly turning away from the mirror she squares her jawline, takes a deep breath and then exits her room and into the dingy hallways of The Emperor's Grace.
At first she had no real destination in mind, simply wandering the halls she knew, the ships ratings having long since learned to avoid her and her explosive temper. If her time in the Schola had taught her anything it was how to throw a mean punch and deal with the Enlisted when they try to get a rise out of her. Though only Junior Commissars, she and the other cadets aboard the ship still carried the authority of the Commissariat, if to a much more muted degree than a fully fledged Commissar who had earned their red sash.
After around roughly half an hour of roaming the halls, she found herself stumbling across the deck's firing range. The ship having several of them, spread across the varying decks, the one she happened upon had been requisitioned by the Astra Militarum for use by the regiment the ship was transporting. That had been another shock, the ship was carrying more than the conscripted cadets from the Schola, it was carrying an entire regiment of battle hardened veterans.
The guardsmen mostly keep to themselves, which she was just fine with. They had their own commissar and officers to keep them in check, not that she suspected they were particularly keen on causing problems anyways. From everything she had learned the regiment was from a planet known as Cadia, and she herself had been mistaken for a native of that planet on several different occasions, to which she neither confirmed nor denied it.
She had yet to be informed on where they were going, or what their missions was, but she figured she'd know when the time was right. For now, a few extra hours in the range couldn't hurt.
Ciaphas was on the verge on a nervous breakdown. He had been nearly ever since he had boarded the drop ship that would carry him to the Lunar class Cruiser 'The Emperor's Grace'. Things had gone extremely south from his expectations, his plan of playing the mediocre Schola cadet and getting himself and Louise assigned to a comfy desk job had been dropped completely on its head. His mind barely registered the fact the somewhere along the line his plan had changed from merely getting 'him' into a desk job. Especially after he found out just what exactly they were being sent to, courtesy of a mild amount of eavesdropping and a healthy dose of luck.
The Emperor's Grace and her sister ship along with their various escorts and transport detail were being deployed to put down a full on revolution. Some dirt ball who's name escaped him had decided it would do better under self-governance than under the Imperium and had been causing all sorts of problems for quite a decent amount of time. Disrupting local supply lines and having already repelled several Imperium attacks, the situation was looking like something that was liable to escalate into a situation that was highly undesirable to be caught up in. And from everything he has heard the 914th Cadian shocktroops along with attached elements were being deployed right into the thick of it. Guard command hoped to use the regiment as a vicious spearhead, cracking open the moral of the rebels by decapitating their command structure and securing the planetary capital. A sound strategy, aside from the fact it had been attempted twice before and both regiments sent to accomplish it has been slaughtered to a man.
At the very least it appeared his fellow cadets had settled in, too busy trying to prepare themselves that they had run out of time to pursue petty rivalries.
Ciaphas was glad at least Louise had seemingly continued her drill schedule without complaint or encouragement. He had been fairly certain she would, but could never be completely sure. Honestly out of all the other cadets she was the the only one he had a vested interest in ensuring that she wouldn't end up as a red smear. He had to admit he has grown rather fond of her, and while he wouldn't exactly call her a close friend, he did see her as quite an amicable companion, at least most of the time.
While Louise had been training and otherwise wandering, though it appeared she took his advice on not going into isolated areas and the lower decks, he had been working to gather as much information as possible and buddy up with the Commissar in charge of his and Louise's cadet squad. The Commissar, to his credit seemed fairly level headed, playing cards with the enlisted men in the ship and giving out tidbits of advice to cadets under his care. The man seemed to be of the mindset that the cadets weren't ready for combat, and Cain was quite ready to agree with him. However it seemed someone with weight had pulled strings and there was no possible chance to slip through the cracks.
However, Ciaphas had an idea. He had started forming it when he had seen Louise trying to hide a small, wooden stick that matches the exact description of the 'wands' she had told him about on that night that seemed so long ago. He still wasn't exactly sure on the nature of her 'magic', and from her own admission she wasn't exactly the most proficient in it, but to Ciaphas any possible advantage was worth digging into. So he had decided to ignore his own advice and had spent the past week delving around in the lower decks and dark maintenance tunnels of the ship. His goal had been an isolated, large area that he could use to get a rough idea of Louise's 'magic' and after days of searching he had found one.
A sealed off storage room connected to the maintenance tunnels that he had managed break into, three decks beneath their assigned one. It was a bit risky to get to, however he felt in this particular instance that the potential reward outweighed the risk.
Now all that remained to accomplish was to track down the key element of his plan, and convince her into getting onboard with the idea.
"You did WHAT?!"
Suffice to say the reaction wasn't one Ciaphas had expected. Having to deal with an enraged pinkette was not on the top of his to do list or desires for the day.
"I don't quite see what the issue is, I - " he started, before being cut off by the other cadet.
"Don't see the the issue is? Don't see what the issue is?! You lectured me for nearly a week on the 'dangers of the lower decks' and to 'avoid the side halls and tunnels' and what have you been doing?! Crawling through every nasty hole in the ship just because you wanted to... wanted to." Louise abruptly turns towards him, hands on her hips with eyes narrowed,
"What were you even even doing?"
Really short one today, and a probably a bit more low quality than usual, but I've been really sick recently and just wanted to get something out. I'll probably be taking a bit of a break for a few days, and working on another story I've been thinking of. But don't worry this will still be my main work for quite a time.
And I know I said last chapter this one would be longer, and our first battle chapter, but in trying to put that into application, especially with how I'm feeling, just didn't work out very well. So I decided I'm going to split it up a bit into a multipart thing. Planet fall will be soon however, likely next chapter or the one after that.
Anyways, that's about it.
Remember to leave a review, and I appreciate all the positive support.
Until next time.
