"Everyone should die for the Emperor and not live for himself!"
The messenger slave screamed, drowning out the messy footsteps of the soldiers and the orders shouted by the officers as they ran through the narrow corridor of the troop ship towards the launch pad.
"Kill the heretics, kill the aliens, prepare for war!"
A wall-mounted servitor serves as a constant reminder of duty in a pre-recorded loop, while Hayes hobbles along with the others carrying a heavy backpack.
After the battle in the Lamptan system, the Abu Bakari 310th Infantry Regiment took a break for half a month. This period was also their rare leisure time. Some new recruits were also added to the regiment, and Hayes finally became the first.
He was called "Sir" for the first time.
However, he was not the kind of person who would act like a veteran, although this did make him quite happy, diluting a lot of the sadness caused by the deaths of Fitz and Jung.
But for the soldiers of the empire, stability always seems to be temporary. They soon came to a strange place again and had to face the same strange enemy. Until three hours ago, Hashet, who had become their company commander
Use the whistle to get everyone out of their bunks and tell them to get ready for planetary drop.
"Be vigilant, be brutal, be strong!"
The screams of the telex slaves grew louder, harsh echoes bouncing off the speakers mounted on the metal walls and ceiling around them.
"Only faith in the Emperor is your shield and armor!"
The servitors were loud, but Hayes didn't hear a word he said, and he and the rest of his company were herded like sheep through the labyrinth of corridors of the troop ship, now and then passing Navy crew members who paused from their duties
, cheering them on, replacing their initial sarcastic laughter with semi-encouragement words.
Considering that their former passengers might soon encounter combat, the normal antipathy between the Navy and the Guards seemed to suddenly give way to mutual respect.
"You have nothing in return except the Emperor's satisfaction!"
"You know no truth except what the Emperor's servants tell you!"
"There is no room for questions in a loyal mind. Doubt is a vile cancer whose symptoms are cowardice and fear. To be strong against it, there should be only three things in your mind: obedience, duty and devotion."
Coming out of the narrow corridor, Hayes followed Hashet into the seemingly large assault boat.
It was a huge rectangular airship, steam rising from the hydraulics of the platform it supported. Tech-priests scurried around it like sentient ants helping a fallen giant. Hayes saw the priests
They ran fuel lines from concave spouts on the far wall of the launch bay to the assault craft's engines, while others anointed the lander's surface, burned incense, made blessings, or used instruments with various sacred calibrations to
The lander makes final adjustments.
The assault craft had been humming the entire time, its restless engines vibrating against the metal floor of the launch pad, and Hayes and the others stood staring at it uncertainly, like wary travelers unsure whether to take the risk.
Awakening a sleeping beast.
To be honest, he has always been afraid of these half-human, half-machine priests, even more so than the political commissar, because he was "curious" and saw the process of these priests turning a living person into a machine servant when he was helping workers in a factory.
That nightmare tortured him for a full year, and after that he would try to stay away from these red-robed priests as much as possible.
"Move, you idiots!"
Hachet shouted, and the volume of the continuous communication machine slave broadcasts around them had been weakened by the open space of the launch pad enough for them to finally hear the new company commander's order.
"I know you rubes haven't seen an assault boat before, but don't make a fuss."
In fact, most people don't: they mostly travel on fragile transport ships, and only the more "elite" Astra Militarum are qualified to use this kind of sturdy assault craft.
There is no doubt that their regiment's previous surprise attack on the ordnance factory allowed them to get rid of the label of cannon fodder to a certain extent.
This kind of atmospheric assault boat is very similar to the shark assault boat used by the Navy to jump gangs, but it is much larger, with a length of nearly 400 meters.
As Hayes rushed with the others toward the assault craft, he found himself in awe at the approach of such a massive vehicle, which looked like it could hold at least a thousand men, not to mention tanks and artillery.
Soon, the assault craft's front hatch opened, the main assault ramp stretching toward them like the tongue of some incredible metallic beast, and Hayes and the others ran up the ramp into the cavernous, dimly lit chamber of the assault craft itself.
Inside, a grim-looking crew member was found waiting to point them toward a nearby staircase.
The team then quickly made their way up the stairwell to the top floor, where the deck was lined with rows of seats and aisles.
"Find a seat and fasten your seat belt."
Their battalion commander also appeared, and the man still looked disheveled.
"I want you to sit together in squad, platoon and company order. Anyone who is not in his seat and ready to be airborne in two minutes will find himself a puddle on the bulkhead."
Hurrying to his assigned seat, Hayes quickly sat down, carefully fastening the buckles of the seat impact protection device around his waist, shoulders and chest, then tightening them to fit him and securing his laser gun
With the safety set to "Safe," hold the gun upright and first insert it into the shallow recess of the weapon rack in front of the seat, then clamp the barrel lock to secure the gun in place.
Then, he reached out and patted Winter, a new recruit who had just arrived in the company and was added to their machine gun squad.
By the way, Hayes has become the squad leader now, but he still follows Hachet most of the time, so in fact Hachet is still in charge of the squad.
"Hey, check the gun."
Hearing Hayes' reminder, the pale boy nodded quickly, and then carefully checked the laser gun in his hand.
It can be seen from his slightly trembling fingers that he is very nervous because this is his first time on the battlefield.
In fact, Winter served for almost the same time as Hayes, but he was very lucky. The troops assigned to him had been performing security missions near the Grief Galaxy for a long time, and almost no enemies appeared there.
However, his good luck came to an end recently. The regiment he was in was disbanded, and the soldiers were replenished to the front-line units with relatively large casualties. As a result, Winter came to the Abu Bakari 310th Infantry Regiment. Before that, he was from
I have never actually been on the battlefield.
Winter was born in a farmer's family, with two sisters and one brother. If nothing happens, he will be a farmer in the future. He will find a wife, raise his daughter, cultivate the land, and give half of each season's harvest to the government.
The grain depot, just as he had done throughout the lifetimes of generations of ancestors, would eventually die around the age of fifty and be buried near his home, with his body returning to the fertile land and his soul to the throne room.
Well, this is what Winter thought of his future when he was seventeen years old.
But everything changed when he received the news that he had been conscripted into the Imperial Army.