The Emperor's finest Chapter twelve

Kheive M40

Roughly a week had passed since his admittance into the hospital and already he was being pressed back into service, which was ill omen if he had ever seen one. At least he had mostly recovered by now, at least physically that it is. Had he been plagued by nightmares during his whole stay, which did little to allivate his mood. He blamed himself for what happened, arguing that if he was just a bit faster then maybe his crew wouldn't have died. The sight of their dead bodies hadn't left his mind, especially since the hospital didn't provide much to take his mind off of it. The worst part of it being the thought that none of sacrifices would matter, that no one would remember them or really anyone who died here.

He sighed as he straightened up, preparing for what came next. He chanelled his hatred into hatered of the enemy, that allowed him to stay somewhat focused and sane. A phantom pain over his abdomen caused him to pause momentarily. They had been able to remove any sharpnel from his stomach and then stitch him back up. It hurt like hell at the time but it was certainly better than the alternative.

Getting ready took longer than usual due to his new uniform. Upon receiving the rank of second lieutenant, he had been given a dark blue long jacket to put over his solid white uniform. This jacket supposedly provided better protection than a standard piece of flax armor. It had anti ballistic and anti termal plates of armor weived into it and had a nice, black silk inerior. What made him take so long was making sure that he looked as professional and in control as possible, even if he felt like anything but in control at the moment.

The fact that he considered by command to be an "experienced veteran" told him enough about how well things must be going. The fact that he would be training new recruits, when he barely knew the ropes himself was trouble enough, but adding in the fact that he had even less time than Hoel did training them was even more worrying. The abbreviated training schedule was likely from a combination of heavy casualties and pressure to end the war here as soon as possible.

At last he felt presentable, or at least as presentable as he was ever going to get. He then checked out of the hospital and caught a ride on one of the salamander recovery vehicles, it seemed like being an officer had at least some privileges. He eventually made his way to the newly repaired indomitable. Initially he thought he had made a mistake but after checking his data slate he was sure that he had found the right tank even though it certainly didn't feel that way.

The indomitable had been sufficiently repaired, the flank had been remolded and reinforced with new plates. The turret however was completely new, instead of the old battle canon was a large plasma weapon he only vaguely heard about before. He recalled it being called an "executioner" canon or something like that. He didn't much experience with plasma weaponry, only having seen it in the hands of a few PDF troops back home. The fact that one of those troopers died due to it over heating and vaporizing his torso didn't exactly fill him with confidence. It was difficult enough to have to teach something that he already knew, now he would have to adapt to this totally different turret.

His mind was racing as he considered how he would present himself and how he would fumble through this situation, just as he had been fumbling through everything else when it came to the guard. He thought about what Sargent Sandrel or Captian Hoel would do in this situation, though he doubted he could pull of the grizzled, tough veteran vibe they had. Whatever he chose to do, this hapless recruits were now his responsibility and he intended to do his best.

Minutes passed in what felt like an eternity as he wait for his new crew to arrive. He turned to see three recruits jogging slowly in his direction. He pulled out his data slate as he refreshed himself on the dossiers of these new faces. The first and head of the pack was Edmund Kios, from the nearby fortess world of Quvial. Even a cursory glace would reveal how well disciplined soldiers from Quvail were, with his uniform kept in bright, clean and free of creases. He jogged with the confidence of someone who had likely performed drills and exercises for years at this point.

The recruit behind him was almost the exact opposite, in both discipline and demeanor. Wearing a fierce scowl that compliment his savage visiage, complete with visible scars and tribal tattoos. His name was Uhuru Zubri and he hailed from a feral world in the north of the sector called Merithis. The final recruit was the shortest and the least confident of the trio, also looking lost and nearly out of breath. His name was Jove Jadoc and he was from the civilized world of Virtus, a world Jeffrey had actually heard of before. It was a popular vacation destruction for Aerobolian nobles, apparently it was a nice world to live on. Unfortunately, such easy living did little to prepare them for the war to come, or at least Jeffrey thought to himself.

The three recruits stopped in front of Jeffrey, forming a lose line as they waited at attention. Jeffrey sighed, not used to being a leader and struggling to think of what to say first.

"Reporting for duty sir!" Kios snapped a salute. Hearing an honorfic like that would take some getting used to Jeffrey thought. "At ease" he order as he turned around and walk towards the indomitable, finding some buckets of paint and walked back to the recruits and tossed the buckets in front of them. A sense of deja vu washed over him as he thought about his first "team building assignment".

"Survival is all about teamwork. Out in the field you will each rely on each other to do your job and do it quickly. So your first job is to give the indomitable a fresh coat of paint, I want it done in twenty minutes flat" he ordered.

He stood back and watched them work, noting how Kios was quick to direct the others. Uhuru was vocal about his dissatisfaction but acquiesced to get the job done and Jove was quiet but followed directions well enough. "I could work with this" Jeffrey thought to himself, but doubts still stirred at the back of his mind. They had finished the task with several minutes to spare and as a reward for all their hard work, he immediately set them out to work basic maintenance drills.

For hours and hours they drilled, Jeffrey instilling everything he could. They moved on to driving and calibrations, where he had to enlist the aid of a tech adept. They were making fast progress but only time would tell if it would be enough, for je could tell a major battle was on the horizon

and knowing his luck they would placed right on the forefront. By the Emperor he would do his best to prepare them for the hell to come.