Before the light of the sun even touched the window Hansel was already up; after a Kriegsman has had a good amount of sleep they tend to wake up earlier than most people, their routine would usually start with exercise and weapons maintenance, but this time Hansel only needed to do one thing.
Clean his frakking uniform.
It was still stained with that wretched Tau blood, longer than he would have wanted it to be, he may've had a gas mask on but whenever he had his mask off he could plainly smell the dammed blood and it annoyed him. Plus it was a poor example on all Kriegsmen to have improper maintenance of his equipment.
It had nothing to do with him looking nice for Ruby at all, whatsoever… okay maybe a little bit…
No matter the reason it still needed a good scrubbing; luckily the laundry area wasn't too far away from the dormitory, so after carefully emptying his pockets he tossed his coat and fatigues into the wash leaving him in his extra pair of Imperial underwear and black Imperial tank top. Both of which had a golden Aquila design in the middle.
He spent thirty minutes staring into nothingness patiently awaiting the machine, and- (okay so he's washing his clothes I'm not going into detail about that)- with a clean pressed and toasty warm uniform Hansel walked out of the laundry area with a little hop in his march.
Not only did his uniform get cleaned but the little flag he was using as a sort of cape; it was actually a Kriegan skull helmeted with metal wings on its sides, it had gotten dirty with all of the blood and muck but now it was currently scarring the hell out of everybody that passed him by in the hallways, but then again with his new reputation on campus it didn't take much for other students to flee from his sight.
It was a rare occurrence to hear about someone with an aura being beaten by somebody that hadn't unlocked theirs; it was however done at a long distance and a one a hundred chance. Beating a Mistreal champion and four other students however was a frightening realization that aura could only do so much before superior skill and technology beats it into submission.
A war here would be utterly devastating.
Hansel picked up some information that the last war on Remnant was fought decades ago, that seemed like an impossibility for him to comprehend. War was just as common as nature. How there not be a war after all of this time? Obviously the reason being is that they haven't encountered the Ruinous Powers or any other xeno race.
He had little belief in this planet fending off Tyranids, hell, everybody else had a hard enough time doing that and there was no shame in admitting to that. It would be interesting to see the Necrons and Tyranids fight each other, then swoop in and kill off whoever is left.
That would be fun.
But now was not the time for fun, he had thirty minutes left to get back into the room before the alarm clock goes off. He wouldn't want to worry Ruby… and the team, yep he did not want to worry the team.
Hansel opened the door with practiced stealth so that he wouldn't prematurely awaken his roommates. He looked at the numbers on the clock and almost grinned, 'Thirteen minutes to spare.' Not record time but better than he originally anticipated.
With just a small amount of time to himself he brought out his novel and started off from where he left off. Several pages later and the alarm went off like a siren making all four girls jump out of their beds into the air for a second only to collectively groan in irritation that their sleep was interrupted.
"Damn clock." Yang whined with her pillow covering her face.
Weiss stood from her bed rubbing her eyes and sighing. She nearly shrieked seeing Hansel standing in the middle of the room staring at them with a book in hand, "Baah! Don't do that!"
Blake sat up and saw what the young heiress was yelling about, "Good morning Hansel." She groggily said squinting when she saw the book in his hand, "What's that?"
"A book a friend of mein sent me."
Blake slid out from her covers scratching the back of her neck, "Who's that?"
"Julius Romano, Sgt first class of the Armageddon Steel Legion's 101st Legion, he is tank ace and a most trusted friend. I did two tours on Armageddon before I was rotated out to another field that required my Regiment."
"The book he sent is a love story between a guardsman and an Adeptus Sororitas."
Blake stifled a laugh, "Why did he send you that?"
"In the message he wrote, and I quote, 'Learn to live a bit before you bite the dust Mister Reaper.' He somehow thought I would enjoy this… I can't stop reading it."
Blake nodded but smiled inwardly, 'Then there might be hope for Ruby yet.'
Yang raised a brow, "That sounds sweet, a bit out of character for you, but sweet. I kind of expected a war novel from you."
'Maybe I was being too harsh on the guy, it's still his first week and well he's had a hard enough time already.' She thought giving him a friendly smile, a gesture that of course goes unnoticed.
Ruby was the last one up, yawning loudly as she stretched her arms a little bit, "Good morning Hansel ho- oh, you cleaned your uniform! It looks nice."
The Death Korpsman's heart started beating slightly faster, "Thank you very much." He said giving Ruby a salute, she smiled and returned it in the same fashion.
After waiting for the girls to get finished clothing themselves in their school uniforms he followed them silently to the first class he was assigned to, history with Professor Oobleck. That sounds hopeful; perhaps some Imperial history might be hidden within the class curriculum and nobody really noticed it to be such.
Within the class…
"And this is Professor Ooblek's room!" Ruby said throwing her arms outwards spinning around showing off the classroom although it wasn't much to look at… it was just an amphitheater designed to be a classroom.
Up in the seats every other student was currently shivering in their seats, except for team JNPR who sat there with deadpanned expressions, "Oh crap, it just had to be this class." Jaune said finding his book he usually never read in class very interesting.
Pyrrha was not in class as she was still recovering from the beating she took from the Imperial Guardsman; Nora however was more than happy to Livestream the class to her scroll. Instead of shivering in fear or showing signs of discomfort she smiled instead, "I hope Hansel can adjust to the class."
The Kriegsman gave the room a quick look around, satisfied with the impression he's made to the other students and finding himself slightly disgusted that an abhuman was in the room. The ability to gain Imperial citizenship or not it did not disconcert the fact that the rabbit eared girl wasn't fully human. But such things can be ignored for the time being, since he was currently listening to Ruby.
"The Professor likes to speak really quickly and drink a lot of coffee to move around the room as fast as he does, talking faster than anybody can write down. He likes to give out a lot of boring homework."
A flash of green appeared behind Ruby, making the poor girl utter out a small 'meep' noise, "Ah Miss Rose speaking so fondly of me already?" The green haired man asked with a steaming cup in hand.
"Nope, just telling Hansel a little bit about the class… hehehe." She replied poking her index fingers together and shyly stepping to the side.
Oobleck adjusts his glasses getting a better look at Hansel, going as far as walking around the Kriegsman getting the full look of what his clean gear looked like, "I see you fancy skulls very much Mister Hansel."
"They are representations of Kriegan and Imperial culture."
"And why is that?"
"Whenever a Krieg guardsman is selected to be a Grenadier we decorate our masks to that of a skull, it is a sign that we have accepted the fact that we are already dead." Hansel said staring the green haired mess of a teacher in his eyes.
Oobleck furrowed his brows, "I see. Well class is about to begin, please take a seat somewhere that is open." He watched the Kriegsman march silently to an empty seat, next to Ruby.
The Professor clears his throat and points to the chalkboard with a ruler, "Today we shall be reviewing the events of the Faunus Rights Revolution before your test Friday, I suggest you take good notes."
Hansel brought out a small leather book bearing an Imperial Aquilia insignia, the book itself looked worn but sturdy, it was around two and a half inches thick with only forty percent of it filled out with footnotes about enemy positions and tactical drawings made to map out the battle field from bird's eye view.
And now it was being used to take notes in a schola.
After twenty minutes Hansel sighed underneath his breathe, it wasn't because the Professor spoke fast, Hansel's heard faster, no it was because he was disappointed with this battle that took place. Originally the Humans had the upper hand but because of the General's ignorance as a field commander he lost the battle to the Faunus, on top of that they captured him and his forces surrendered.
'I'd sooner be impaled by a Tyranid than surrender to some abhuman filth!' He thought nearly snapping his pencil out of irritation.
Ruby noticed how tense Hansel started getting when the lecture came to the part when the general underestimated the Faunus and lost the battle turning the war in favor of the Faunus, she was aware of how racist he sounded on the Bullhead but reasoned with he didn't know just how human the Faunus actually were and she hoped that he would be able to understand that.
She wouldn't bet any money on it though.
"Now, Mister Arc," Oobleck said warping in front of the blonde boys desk, "it's been a two weeks since I last asked you this. What was the advantage the Faunus had over the human soldiers under General Lagunes command?"
"Night vision, Faunus can naturally see in the dark. Defiantly not binoculars." He said earning a small chuckle from the Professor.
"Indeed Mister Arc."
"That is a rather poor reason from the Faunus to win, and an even poorer excuse for the General's defeat." Hansel said staring directly at Oobleck, "Such incompetence is inexcusable, his men should've attacked with more vigor the moment General Lagune was captured."
Oobleck frowned, "That would more than likely resulted in General Lagunes death and even more casualties for both sides with most of the deaths on the human's side."
"Acceptable."
"Acceptable?!"
"It would most certainly be better than surrendering to any opponent, especially non-humans."
Oobleck frowned and zipped right in front of Hansel's seat, to his credit the Deathkommando did not flinch, "What about the men? They had families to go home to."
"Irrelevant. The price of victory is always to be considered high, they should have waged a war of attrition the right way instead of using a sizeable force during a night raid. Only squads of five men are suited for such a task."
"General Lagune was an inexperienced commander."
Hansel reserved the desire to snort, "That sort of excuse gets a man shot for incompetence."
"Are you saying your military would shoot its own men for incompetence?"
"The Imperial Guard does not tolerate the following; incompetence, cowardice, questioning authority, and above all else heresy." Hansel said with crisp monotone factuality.
"What by your terms is 'heresy'?" Oobleck asked stiffening at the sour tone Hansel developed when he pronounced the word.
"Heresy includes to consorting with xeno filth, attempted secession from the Imperium of Man, and more specifically worshipping the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and other beings of the Warp. The punishment is death by fire."
A chill ran up Oobleck's spine, everything Hansel spoke of was spoken
"What's the Warp?" Ruby asked innocently.
"Imagine it as a sea; a sea of psychic energy and souls, now, imagine four monstrous beings inhabiting that sea twisting it with madness and deception. With their only goal is to destroy us inside and out; their weapons being traitor guardsmen and Space Marines followed by daemons."
"That's the Warp in a nutshell."
"Well, that sounds terrible. Who are these 'beings' you speak of?" Oobleck asked switching his scroll on to record.
Hansel stared at the man for several long and serious seconds, "I will utter their horrid names once, and once only."
"Agreed."
"They are the Gods of Chaos, the sworn enemies of the Imperium of Man. There are four gods each of them incredibly powerful and dangerous; Khorne, the Blood God as his followers call him. He is the God of murder and war, his cultists are most often fought in battle."
"Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, a supposedly wise god of infinite knowledge. Not even coming close to his grace, the Emperor of Man though. This god in particular likes to play mind games, changing the courses of worlds and battles for his own amusement."
"Nurgle, or the Lord of Decay, is the Plague God. He creates disease after disease to plague everything, offering his followers immortality through disease."
"And the one I hate the most. Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Desire, where everything including pain is considered pleasure to that freak." Hansel scrunched his face underneath his mask feeling a bad taste cross his mouth, "All of these heathen monstrosities feed on the souls of their victims and cultists to gain power, they kill off entire worlds just because they can."
"But a fifth god is often times left out for he is an outcast to them; the God of Anarchy, Malice, a god of Chaos that targets the other four and everything else. If anything he is one of the more dangerous ones. Malice's lesser daemons can cut through a dreadnought without any effort, and his higher "Guardians of Contradictions" even terrify Bloodthirster daemons of Khorne."
Oobleck stood unmoving with look of discomfort on his face, "They are the greatest threat to the Imperium, but they are but one of many."
"I… I can see why you're trained to be so… ruthless." Oobleck said recovering from his initial shock.
"The Archenemy shows no mercy, no quarter. Neither will we. That is why the very idea of surrendering is unacceptable, and why the General would be shot for incompetence, a Lieutenant Commissar could fair far better with feudals at his command."
The school bell rang, shaking Hansel and Oobleck from their conversation, "C-class dismissed, read pages thirty to sixty to review for the test Friday…" He appeared by his desk moving some papers around as the students left, at least pretend to as he watched Hansel leave with Ruby out of the corner of his eye, worrying for the safety of the team that just acquired a new fatalistic member.
Deep down he had hoped that everything Hansel said was just delusion of a closed minded society. But even he doubted that.
A lesson in Chaos and why failure is not an option in the Imperial Guard; its obvious now that Hansel has acknowledged Ruby's affections and now its his time to start returning them, please don't be so upset with the jab I made towards Velvet remember: Guardsman logic.
Also Thaqif... I said that I will do your idea for a story... for some reason you don't have an account so I can. Not. Talk. Back. To you! I'm trying not to be rude here but that's the case I'm making.
Walking Death Korps shall get an update, I'm currently making the longest chapter I can with it because it switches through four different povs. Patience I say!
