FIVE
Anybody who's browsed even briefly through a history file knows that anything involving Orks is going to involve a lot of problems, a lot of time, and usually a lot of carnage. They were the universal frak factor and everything they touched turned into a bloody mess, figuratively and literally speaking. Sure, the Valhallans were more than just eager to give it to the greenies for reasons I didn't understand at the time but I approached the situation with a fair bit more apprehension. If I were just an ordinary soldier then, sure, this campaign would look like a blast and a half – your world only consisted for going where you were told and blasting everything that didn't look human. I was stuck with the luxury, or burden depending on the situation, of having to keep the wider perspective in mind.
We had seven regiments at our disposal at best but more likely we'd have four full-strength regiments and maybe enough leftovers from the other three to form a mongrel regiment for the rest of the campaign. What heavy armour we possessed would form the spearhead of our advance, accompanied by one of the infantry regiments, towards the Tau lines while the remainder of our forces was to be deployed in order to deal with the Ork threat. It was a daunting task any way you spun it and either opponent could actually be far greater than our original intelligence reports had estimated. Since the Tau had a tight control on most of the surrounding systems and we lacked the naval forces for a complete blockade, the Tau could easily slip in reinforcements as needed. As for the Orks, you could never be sure just how many there are. There always seemed to be another horde of them just around the corner as they literally sprung up from the ground as you killed them. The vast jungle canopy of the planet only made estimating their numbers more difficult. Still, it could have been worse even taking into account what we didn't when we first arrived at the planet.
We were hopeful, though, that the abundance of enemies would turn to our advantage. As Cain explained to me, the Tau followed some philosophy they referred to as 'the Greater Good,' which was more or less a utilitarian outlook on life. Their empire, which seemed to be based on integrating varying species into one collective, was based heavily on mutualism among the individual parts. In a way, their empire held the harmony the Imperium once had during the Golden Age and I only wish I could be around to see the look on their smug little blue faces when it all falls apart on them. Bringing that many different ideologies and species into one collective was going to create friction one way or another and their methodology of bringing in those races, whether through peaceful, military, or coercive means, was just asking for a wide-scale rebellion by some of their smaller 'members.' This naivety could be easily be used to our advantage as the Tau would have no issues turning their guns away from us and onto the Orks with us if it meant serving their 'Greater Good.' Hey, if one of my enemies wants to help me shoot at the bigger threat, I say let them. In all the confusion that comes with war it'd be easy to pull back a little bit and let them bear the brunt of the offensive and then you can simply mop them all up afterwards.
Frankly, I'm surprised the Tau has made it as far as they have. Were the Imperium not so preoccupied with more pressing concerns they wouldn't pose half the threat they do today.
Still, even if the Tau fought for us against the Orks, it was still going to be a difficult battle. There wasn't a lot of solid intel on the Orks present on Viridis and that's compared to the usual 'lack of information on Orks' we usually got. Though the Imperium could generally keep track of most warbosses with a space-faring force, the arrival of this one caught the Imperium, and likely the people of Viridis, completely by surprise. What confused all of us the most was that it seemed like the Orks had gone a considerable distance and ignored far more defended planets to target Viridis (and thus bypassing a bigger fight, which seemed to be all Orks cared about). By their apparent stroke of fortune, though, they were about to be center stage for a massive battle. A fact I'm sure they died quite happy knowing.
On the bright side, intelligence reports suggested it wasn't a full-fledged 'Waagh' but simply a tribe of them. Unfortunately for us, though, it still meant having to deal with a large mass of angry Orks; which would easily translate into dealing with upwards of a hundred thousand Orks. The truth wasn't nearly that bad but we had no way of knowing that at the time. For our paltry force of maybe around twenty thousand, depending on how many survivors were left on Viridis, it looked daunting and using the Tau as a shield seemed to be one of our best options for success. Of course, there was also the possibility that the Tau didn't need any assistance at all, in which case we could be walking straight into a killing zone and we would be slaughtered without mercy. The campaign would eventually teach me an important lesson about the Tau: their technosorcery may truly be as scary as the stories make them out, if not scarier, but all that strength can still be beaten by humanity's faith and resolve.
A krak missile every so often helps too.
The lord general's explanation of the Ork presence failed to dampen our mood during the briefing, or if it did the others were experienced enough to know how to hide it. Personally I felt the nervousness rising. I had been hoping for maybe a small civil war or uprising, instead we had a large three-way war to win and we were the ones bringing the smallest armies to the battlefield. I recall a techpriest punched some calculations out and remarked that we had a 92.714% chance of encountering a 'horrific death experience.' Hearing those numbers drove me to the nearest bottle of amasec for a few hours.
After the lord general had finished the briefing and we were left to bicker over the finer details, mostly over who got to ride shotgun with the heavy armour company. Oddly enough, Cain didn't seem too interested in having the Valhallans carry that privilege. He made what seemed to me as a half-hearted attempt to help support Kasteen's arguments, though my observation was speculative at best. I suspected he just did not want to be the last one down, as the Kriegan units would take the longest to load onto their transports and thus would be the last ones out. Maybe he wanted to stick it to the greenies as much as the rest of the Valhallans. Personally, I was just glad we were going to deal with the Orks as I could, in my mind at least, handle those thundering brutes a bit easier. I was a solid enough marksman to put a lasbolt between the eyes of a charging Ork and a hotshot laspistol would have no trouble punching through their dense skulls.
The hours dragged by as preliminary strategies and tactics were worked out using a map of Vertens. Nothing solid could be laid out yet as we still had only limited details on the current situation, which even then was technically twenty to forty hours old already. The various officers made numerous suggestions depending on how much of Vertens was in Imperial control when we landed with the worst-case scenario of only the starport under our control; in that event, we'd basically just have to fight like madmen to push the enemy forces away and we'd have to improvise from wherever we could get an opening. The more the planning went on the less certain I felt about the mission, which mostly came from the lack of an overall strategy as the general consensus was to 'deal with it if we get there,' which really meant 'I have no fraking clue what to do next.' I did not like having no plan; it went against every convention I held. My faith in the Emperor may have been unwavering but he wasn't going to step off his throne and strike down a horde of Kroot warriors if I took the wrong turn because I had no Emperor-forsaken clue of where to go or what the rally point was. I didn't trust myself to think on the fly and that was one of those things that my tutors at the schola really nailed me for…that and saying 'sorry' too often to people.
At the end of the meeting I was just about ready to find Penlan, hand over my laspistol, and ask her to aim more carefully this time around. It didn't help that Kasteen had managed to talk the other regimental officers into allowing the 597th the honour of making the first landings, which meant whatever shitstorm was down there we'd be the first to run blind-folded into it. Cain must have noticed my uncertainty as he gave me a reassuring pat on the back on the way out, reminding me that things were rarely as bad as they seemed at first.
He was right, of course…they were always far, far worse.
I was able to slip free from the others at the meeting's end, concerned that my apprehensions would be plain to see, as Cain had already managed to take note of them. I didn't want the others, and by others I mean Broklaw and Kasteen, to see me in such a state. I was still very much an outsider to them, though they had begun to trust me gradually, and my only hopes of becoming a part of the regiment as to prove myself during the upcoming campaign, a task that would prove less daunting were the thought not terrifying enough to make me quake in my boots. Cain had to practically save the whole regiment in order to gain their undying trust, what hope would I have to come up with something even remotely close to that?
Since according to the ship's clock, not to mention my internal, it was close to the evening hours, I decided to retire to my quarters with the hopes of acquainting myself with the contents of a liquor bottle and drinking myself under just enough to avoid any horrific nightmares about being hacked to pieces by Orks or blown to bits by Tau weaponry. In hindsight, though, perhaps nursing a liquor bottle while delving through every dataslate I could find on Tau and Ork tactics was not one of the best moves if I wanted to avoid thinking about them when I finally fell asleep. I recall reading one general's remarks about how a Tau heavy weapon blew a hole through a tank's side and that the sheer velocity of the projectile created such a vacuum in its wake that everything not bolted down inside the tank was sucked out through the exit wound, including the entire crew. The thought of being reduced to an unrecognizable smear across the ground was not a pleasant one. If I were to die, I would at least like to have enough of me left to bury properly or at the very least, identify.
After a few hours of this and while reading a particularly cringe-inducing chapter about how Kroot auxiliary units enjoy ambushing units in jungle environments, I grew wary of both drowning my mind in booze and trying to fill it with somewhat pertinent knowledge at the same time. Both tasks were failing miserably as my mind was still relatively alert but I wasn't retaining much of what I had read. Somewhere between swearing I was going to have only one more glass and cursing myself for having too many, I convinced myself I needed to clear my head and managed to make it halfway across the troop carrier to one of the observation halls that commonly doubled as a prayer hall for the ship's crew, or at least that's what I guessed it was for judging by all the depictions of the Emperor that decorated the room. For me, though, it just offered a decent viewport to gaze outside…not that the view was very pleasant. Unlike the calming effect of staring into the infinite void of space, the ravaging torrents of the Warp were a little less calming. A thousand swirls of red, purple, pink, and black painted the scenery before me. It was hard to fathom that within that raging maelstrom bore all the hate, wrath, greed, and malevolence that plagued the whole universe – it had a strange beauty to it, if you could ignore the 'strip off your flesh and eat your soul' aspect that came along with it. If one could paint an image of pure, unfettered chaos, that would probably be the closest thing you could get.
I must have been temporarily mesmerized because I was quite startled when I felt a tap on my shoulder and, for reasons I couldn't quite grasp at the time, thought I going to have another run-in with a warp-spawned. Commissar Waffans took quite a bit of amusement from my reaction; actually it was a lot of amusement as it took a few threats of bodily harm just to get him to stop chuckling about it.
"If you're looking for guidance I think you're staring in the wrong direction," Waffans said before managing to finally quell his laughter. "Seriously, though, what are you doing out here at this hour? With the way you bolted out of the conference room I figured you were turning in."
"I thought I was," I explained, trying my best to hide my inebriation, "but I instead started doling over tactical doctrines instead. A person can only read over infantry formations stratagem for so long before their brain feels like its going to burst out of your skull."
I asked him the same question, since it did strike me as odd to see Waffans so far out from his regiment's lodgings. "Commissar Cain is hosting a little meet n' greet with some of the other commissars actually," he explained. "Cards, drinks, caba nuts; all that good stuff. I guess he didn't get a chance to tell you about it considering how quickly you left."
Since soldiers technically aren't allowed to gamble while on deployment one couldn't really gamble with them or more specifically, they weren't going to take a chance in gambling with you as commissars can be as big a sore loser as anyone else. Fellow commissars, however, were fair game not to mention such opportunities gave us all a better idea of how to operate around the others. As commissars typically have no authority over others (though a rule of thumb is usually to respect the opinion of the more senior commissar when in the same regiment, hence my obedience to Cain) more diplomacy is needed when interacting and, despite what anybody says, you cannot bludgeon your way through reasoning with a fellow commissar.
Cain was delighted as always to see me, though I half-suspect it was because he knew full-well that I sucked royally at gambling but since I had no particular attachment to my money I figured I could part with some of it in the spirit of unity with my fellow commissars. Joining us were Wren, with the unsurprising absence of Stimpsen whose gullibility should have been considered a liability, and a commissar from the Kastaforian regiment whose name escapes me despite my best efforts to recall. All I remember of him was that he was a good card player and made a good gathering for that night most of which at my expense. To nobody's surprise, Wren was quite delighted to see me and made every effort to keep his attention focused on me throughout the night. On the plus, though, Cain was able to shamelessly exploit this lack of focus. As was I a few times during the night. Most of the chatter through the night was what you would expect given the situation, we shared our past experiences with the Orks and Tau, which left me speaking very little.
Once or twice Waffans asked about why I was so quiet and I reluctantly admitted I had never engaged the Orks or Tau before. What little experience I had from my cadet days was with rebels and small cabals of heretics, though I left out the part about it being from that long ago. My admittance triggered Waffans to commence a very long and intricate oration about the inner workings of the Tau war machine, which he had experienced personally on numerous occasions. It kept my attention and fascination for a good portion of the night, much to Wren's chagrin, and I admit I probably paid even closer attention than I would've just to aggravate the man.
As the night wore on and the nuts and liquor were consumed, the chatter from the five of us from around that table became less informative and more boisterous. Cain once went on about how he had come face-to-face with a Kroot shaper once on Gravalax, which Wren countered with an old story about how he once eviscerated a shaper. Despite my misgivings about Commissar Wren there was no denying he was an experienced campaigner and a capable fighter. His low opinion of others meant that when things started going bad he always had a backup plan in waiting and he wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty if it meant getting out of a rut (though expect to hear grief from him for days afterwards).
"In an urban environment, the things you really want to look out for are Tau stealthsuits," Waffans explained as a new hand was dealt out close to the end of the night. "Unlike most Tau, who like to keep you nice and far away, the stealthsuits prefer to get in real close and wait in ambush. They have guns not too unlike a meltagun that can melt right through the side of a chimera. Even with a good auspex you can have trouble seeing them and by the time you've figured out where they are, the bastards have rocketed away."
"How do you stop them then?" I asked innocently, organizing my cards and resisting the temptation to smile when I realized how strong my hand was.
"Either somebody gets lucky and sees them ahead of time," Wren answered instead, "or you pray somebody saw where the shot came from after they blow up the lead tank."
"A few smoke grenades can help too. The bastards might be invisible but they're pretty big too," Waffans added.
"The key is to never let them get you pinned down. Once they've done that they can pick you apart at their leisure," Cain said helpfully as he started the bidding by throwing a few chips in. I noted he started off low but I also knew from the course of the night that Cain was quite formidable when playing cards, a skill no doubt aided by his ability to read others. This skill was only matched by his poker face, which I couldn't have read even if he had the cards taped to his forehead.
"Well I won't need to worry about that, I get to ride on the Traitor's Lament," Waffans said with a child-like eagerness in his tone.
"And that is?" I asked, apparently too intoxicated to care that I sounded a bit like an idiot for not having figured it out.
"The stormblade, my dear. True, the name isn't quite as fitting at the moment but I don't think anybody is going to care too much when we start popping Tau tanks out of the air." Now at any other time I would've smacked somebody for referring to me as 'my dear' but at the time I was a little drunk, Waffans was a bit enamoring, and he did have access to a very big tank which could have worked quite well into my fantasies had I been so inclined. "Once we have her unloaded from the transports you might as well call the war over cause there's nothing the Tau can throw at her that we can blast into pieces."
"Try not to get too headstrong out there lad," Cain cautioned, "the Tau are opportunistic frakkers and if you give them an opening they will ram everything they have down it."
"I've ridden in her plenty of times Cain, I know how to look after myself in a firefight," Waffans reassured him, taking a second, long look at his cards before folding. The ever-tactical Kastaforian commissar followed suit, making an off-hand remark about how his men had stood firm against Orks and Heretics and that the Tau would make a worthy addition to their regiment's history. "If you ask me, the Traitor's Lament should be one the first transport shuttle down so we can get her into the fight as quickly as possible. If the intelligence reports are right then we'll need the heavy firepower straight away to beat back their hammerheads and battlesuits."
"And if they have their sky rays ready?" Wren asked, though purely for the sake of upstaging Waffans since everybody knew the answer, everybody except me. All I could remember was that a sky ray was some sort of Tau missile tank. From that, though, it was easy to guess what Wren was trying to impress upon the younger commissar. "All they would need is one or two of them and your precious tank would be spread across several city blocks for everyone to enjoy. It is better to send the infantry regiments in first in order to secure the landing site and the surrounding zone."
"I guess that makes us expendable, huh?" I remarked. Given that the Valhallans had the 'honour' of being the first ones down I wasn't looking forward to the notion that would be potentially rooting out any anti-air missile batteries in the city.
"We are all expendable," Wren countered, though he was trying his best to mask his specific concern for me. "Death in the Emperor's service is the highest honour. Still, if we are going to win this planet back for the Imperium we are going to need the Kriegan heavy armour. If a transport or two is lost in order to ensure overall victory than those sacrifices will not have been in vain. Besides, if I recall correctly, Commissar Cain has the privilege of being lead transport."
Obviously that was the case. Cain had a reputation for being on the first transport down when it came to a warzone and he, like many other soldiers, probably didn't like the idea of being cooped up on a troop carrier while your comrades are getting all the glory for themselves. Personally, I was glad that it wasn't going to be me. Trying to hold the regiment together on my own for even a short period of time looked like a daunting challenge for me at that early of a time in my career. Cain merely nodded when he heard his name being mentioned, still pondering over his hand for an instant before raising the ante.
"If you hear me cussing like a sailor over the voxcaster you'll know not to get onto the next transport," he joked quite grimly, which made Waffans and I chuckle to no end. The other two didn't quite share in Cain's particular sense of humour. As the betting continued to rise, and my confidence in my hand going the opposite direction, Wren decided that impressing me wasn't worth the cost to his wallet and folded. That left only Cain and I in a showdown of who could make the other blink first – a prospect that was increasingly looking bad for me. He grinned at me confidently before disappearing behind his tanna bowl, though it went back to the table with a somewhat disappointed look appearing across his face. "Jurgen! Could you bring another pot of tanna out? Would anybody else care for some?"
"I could use some please," I said, though at the time I didn't have much interest in the drink. However, the act alone was enough to calm my nerves and at the moment I needed every advantage I could if I was to win the hand and hopefully keep myself in the game. My pile of chips was looking particularly pitiful compared to the others. A few moments later we were greeted with Jurgen's characteristic odour, which almost completely masked the scent of the tea itself.
Now despite my early complaints about my biotic eye, I learned over the campaign to greatly appreciate some of the advantages that it conveyed. Aside from the excellent visual acuity and enhanced peripheral vision (though the range of my peripheral vision on the left is limited), my biotic eye could see better than 20/10 and pick out details from the small sources, such as the reflection from the side of a metal tanna teapot. For a brief instant, I could see Cain's entire hand when the tea was poured and it took every ounce of discipline to pretend I didn't just see a worthless hand. Was it underhanded? Of course it was but it was also my only shot at winning and it wasn't like Cain was a saint. I've seen him shuffle the cards before and he is quite capable of staking a deck without the average person noticing (and I only noticed many years into our working relationship thanks to my enhanced vision).
"I…think I'll raise," I said and kept the subtle nervous tone that I tried to hide in earlier rounds. Cain, no doubt, picked up on my usual nervous habit of drinking whatever was nearby and I used the tea Jurgen provided to reinforce that image. I like to think that, for once, I was able to take Cain for a ride. The commissar took the bait almost too eagerly and pushed enough of a wager in to force me to either flee in terror or push everything I had in. Hubris got the better of me because I wanted to take Cain to the cleaners so I pushed everything I had in and tossed in a few personal trinkets into the pot that added a fair sum of value. Undaunted and certain I was trying to bluff my way out of a bad hand, Cain continued pushing in the chips until I was left wondering if I should continue to rob him or take what he had given.
Stupid me, I decided to keep pushing him. I drew out my prized hotshot laspistol and dropped it right into the middle of the chip pile, letting the plastic discs scatter across the table for some nice, added dramatic effect. I'd like to think even Cain was a little surprised and was beginning to reconsider his original assessment but if that was the case he didn't let it show. Without saying a word, Cain carefully contemplated his next move, whether to graciously fold or find one last ace up his sleeve to scare me away (not that it was likely considering how much I cherished that pistol).
"Quite a valuable pistol," Cain finally spoke, his voice still calm and sounding perfectly in control. "One of a kind you could say."
"It is."
"I doubt this little pile will be sufficient," he continued as he pushed the remainder in, his tone hiding an unseen motive that unnerved me greatly. "If you win this hand, I will give you my seat on the first transport down."
If it took a lot of discipline to hide my excitement of the knowledge I held a winning hand over Ciaphas Cain, you could imagine the discipline it took to not fall into a blind panic when I realized I was about to win a near death-sentence packaged as my birthday gift. Either Cain thought I could handle it…or maybe he knew it was a huge risk too and just needed an excuse to get out of it. Now it didn't sound at all like the Hero of the Imperium but in my young and inexperienced state my mind jumped to impossible conclusions that only served to further inspire panic into my mind. Left with the choice of parting with my pistol and potential parting with my life, there was really only one viable option left to me; I called; I won; and I got stuck with the 'great honour' of sitting on the first iron boat to fall within the potential targeting arrays of any Tau air or ground forces.
Go me.
The situation on Magnus Viridis, thankfully, didn't get astronomically worse by the time our forces arrived in the system. Our ships were greeted with suppressed delight by the few vessels that were still in orbit, one of which I was told was an Astartes Gladius class frigate, which happened to also be the only vessel that didn't respond to our arrival. It was odd to see a lone frigate of the Astartes without any cruisers or barges to escort but, as I would discover later, this was apparently not too uncommon for the particular chapter involved. Though I had little interest in naval operations, from what I had gathered on the final briefing, the Tau naval forces were holding orbit on the far side of the planet in a stand-off with our own, Neither side having dominance over the contested airspace and neither willing to commit their limited forces to a front assault. The only ships not in the fleet were a handful of scouts from both sides who maintained orbit halfway between the two in order to keep a watchful eye.
Again, I didn't understand naval tactics as I would have ordered a few fighters to engage the Tau scouts but it was explained to me that such tactics would be futile, as the Tau scout ships would simply fall back far enough for their fleet to lend support and everyone would eventually fall back into their original places. For the time being, the fleets were to stay put, as a loss of any major vessels would compromise any contingency plans to evacuate if things started to spiral downward. I barely understood the total rationale behind it but what it meant to us was that the transports wouldn't get harassed on the way to the surface, which was fine by me, Although it meant the same benefit existed for the Tau.
While the troops began loading into the transports, I got a final briefing with the Lord General and the rest of the regimental staff, along with a communication from Major Currae, a Cadian who was apparently the ranking officer of the remaining Imperial forces on the planet. According to his information, the Cadian regiment took a heavy pounding but were still at just above half strength while the two Catachan regiments were merged into one. Both regiments suffered heavy casualties however one of them lost their entire command staff to a well-executed assault from the Kroot. This lost prompted the merger rather than the lack of troopers. Tau forces, along with a number of traitor PDF units, were assaulting the city of Vertens and reports of enemy soldiers penetrating as far as the starport were mixed and unconfirmed at the time of my departure. Things were bad and if we didn't hit the ground shooting then we were likely to start a few moments afterwards. Control of the city was about 60-40 in our favour but if we didn't get our forces onto the ground soon that advantage would change quickly. Units were getting encircled and isolated and, if Cain's advice held true to the larger scale, they wouldn't have much time left.
The nervousness was rising up again as finally preparations were being made for departure. I could only describe the atmosphere in the transport holds as being one of controlled enthusiasm, as every Guardman on the ship seemed eager to get off, except me. I was still a little terrified that I was going to get my head blown off the second the ramp hit the rockrete. Colonel Kasteen was going over a last few briefing points with the captain of the company I was landing with, Captain Sulla, while I was given a few last pointers from Cain.
"Nervous?" he asked though I figured he could probably already tell the answer just by looking at me.
"What gives you that idea?"
"The flak vest under your coat," he said, rapping his knuckle against the chest plate. "Won't do much good against Tau plasma weapons."
"I think a commissar would understand that any option that helps morale should be explored." That was also the reason I still had my Krieg gasmask hanging from my neck even though I had no expectation of encountering any gas attacks as such tactics seemed somewhat archaic considering the Tau's technology.
"Fair enough," he said, looking past me to the colonel and captain talking near the transport's main ramp. "Last few pieces of advice kid; keep your head down; keep moving; and keep an eye on Sulla. She'll try and take the whole damn Tau army by herself if you give her the opportunity. Keep her in check – we're going to need you two to secure the landing zone so the rest of our forces can safely land and disembark. You understand me Commissar Abel? This landing's success hinges on keeping the flow of reinforcements coming."
"I know what's at stake Commissar Cain," I answered firmly, feeling some confidence coming back to me despite the mounting pressure. I guess I was one of those people who worked well when pressured much like how a cornered unit can fight like Astartes when it becomes life or death. For a Kriegan, life or death didn't matter but rather the success or failure of the mission and not even Horus himself would stop me from completing my objective. "We won't let you down."
"If I had any doubts about you I wouldn't have let you have the first transport."
A beckoning shout from Kasteen prompted me to hurry on my way before the first transport left without me. Reaching the top of the ramp, I looked back to see Cain and Kasteen standing at the bottom with Cain spouting one of his usual little soliloquies about honour, glory, and the Emperor that I would hear from him throughout our career together. I swear, even after hearing it for the hundredth time I still feel invigorated. Perhaps that was just testament to his charisma – it didn't matter what he was saying, just that he said it proved to be enough for your spirit.
As the ramp closed and the image of Cain and Kasteen disappeared behind the heavy metal plate, I snapped them one final salute and proclaimed the Emperor protects, mostly for the dramatic effect to the scores of troopers sitting behind me. As I weeded my way through to the back past those troopers, I was glad to see how all were prepped and ready to fight the moment they disembarked; their lasguns sitting ready on their lap; and loaded down with extra power cells, water canteens, and med-supplies. Every one of them knew that if we didn't secure the landing zone there wouldn't be much point taking the rest of our kit bags off with us. I squeezed into a seat between Captain Sulla and a heavily armed stormtrooper who had a similar habit to mine of constantly wearing full headgear, including facemask, regardless of the need. Judging by his lack of movement and his seeming indifference to my arrival, I assumed that he was catching what little sleep he could before the drop. Emperor knows that if things went badly on the ground we could be stuck fighting for a long time without relief.
"All set Captain Sulla?" I asked purely for conversation.
"Ready as we'll ever be Commissar," she answered, though I detected a slight hint of disappointment in her tone (or perhaps it was just an effect of the humming engines in the background). I assumed, though, that she was merely disappointed that she was stuck with Abel rather than the more desirable Cain.
As the engines roared to life and the ship lurched forward, even I knew from my limited experience that we were in the void of space now and on our way to the planet below. Death or glory awaited us in the streets of Vertens as well as a whole load of xenos and traitors. Militarily speaking, this was where the fun began.