It's amazing how something so small can mean so much
It's just chewing gum
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blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
The sound of the ship leaving orbit was always that I didn't like, it just meant that we were leaving one hellish war and being sent to another.
As I reached for the backpack that had been given to me, I began to look for the plastic bags that I had filled with the goo of a flower from a world that didn't even have a name.
I know what number it is and what system it's in, because if by some miracle I can get someone to get more for me, then I will have to tell them where to find it.
I can feel the eyes of my team as I take out the bag and as I close my backpack I begin to hear the sounds of the men and women around us standing up.
I quickly put away my backpack and stood information, but no one comes in, in fact, there was no one near the entrance to the room.
I let out a breath of relief before I step out of the line that for whatever reason no one else has left yet and I walk up to one of the few members of the company that isn't from the penal colony that I'm from.
The boy can't be older than ten or twelve years old and yet he survived the war, next to him is a tall man who I'm surprised isn't augmented in any way because he towers over me and the men around us.
Next to this man, the boy looks more like an infant than a child that's about to reach his teenage years.
I can feel a chill run down my spine and I try to ignore the goosebumps as the sister of battle that for whatever reason was a sign to guard us glares at me.
'You and you stretch out your hands." I say to the pair and I watch as they do as I tell them.
The surviving members of the penal legion begin to loudly chew their gum as if signaling that something important was about to happen.
I do not know why the Generals and Captains aren't stopping us from doing this, in all honestly I don't know if the people around us call it a ritual or tradition.
No, it's a tradition, if it wasn't before it is now.
The only thing that they do is watch us and chew their gum quietly.
I begin to pour the goo into the palm of the recruit's hands until it s about to spill and I order them to put it in their mouths but not swallow it, but chew it.
The pair look at me confused but they still do as I told them.
Finally, I walk towards the sister who quietly stands up and the only thing that I can hear is the loud yet quiet thump of her armored boot as it hits the metal floor.
She stretches her hand and accepts the goo and just like the pair before her she put it in her mouth before she begins to chew.
"Congratulations you are one of us now."
"Just as the Imperium, chews us, regular men and women, we chew on this goo but look around you, how many other guardsmen have gum?"
"Look around you, how many of us are even from the same world, hell even the same star system."
"We, you could have been a farmer, a librarian, a criminal, a religious member of an order, or a soldier and none of us would have ever met and yet here we are."
"And now we have something else that unites us besides where we are and who we worship, it's small, and most commissars will hate it, but it's a part of who we are." I say to them as the rest of the group looks at me before stretching their hands out and waiting for me to pour them some of the goo.
Unfortunately, I can't, that was one of the rules that the general put, I can't just give everyone some goo.
The only ones that can receive it are the ones that survive two or more missions, everyone else either dies or is sent somewhere else, so there would be no point in giving them any.
I begin to walk back to my spot before I hear the sister call to me and force me to stop walking.
'Her." she orders me as she walks towards a girl that has just had her hand replaced with a mechanical one.
"I can't," I say to the sister glow looks at me menacingly.
"And why not, she has proven herself a part of your little order just as much as those two and I even dare say myself." the sister says to me.
"She needs to survive the night." I answer the sister, whose blue eyes seem to glow brightly as the lights turn off before coming back on.
"Then she will have no choice but to survive after receiving it, or else she will die in shame for taking something that shouldn't have been hers in the first place." she says to me.
I turn to look at the general and the captain who doesn't do or say anything, they just briefly close their eyes as if saying do it.
The girl stretches her remaining human hand and I pour the goo into it, then I watch her put it in her mouth before she begins to chew, I smile as the bland flavor hits her and she struggles not to react.
The goo tastes like water, but the longer one has it the better the flavor it gains.
I don't know if it's because chewing it is the only thing we can do on the battlefield to relieve our stress or because of how bad the food tastes, but chewing gum is the only relief we get even now on the ship.
Maybe it does gain flavor with time, maybe it doesn't, and we're all using it as some sort of way to deal with our trauma.
In the end, nothing changes, we all get to chew on something that doesn't taste bad and it's something that only we have and no one else does.
I can feel the eyes of everyone else on me as I walk back to my backpack and as I put the plastic bag away, I can feel the mood in the room drop significantly.
As I sit down, the team that I am with breaks formation and walks towards the four that I gave the goo too.
They loudly welcome the giant man, the boy, and the injured woman, while respectfully asking the sister if they can give her the hug and pat on the back that normally goes with our little ritual.
As I'm about to join them a man that was recently transferred pulls me aside and I can feel his lass pistol on my temple, yet before the man can say anything is pulled aside by both the general and captain.
The three of them begin to argue but my head is still spinning from the impact and I can only hear the captain yell that the man has to complete one more mission before he can receive it.
The rest of the team helps me to my feet I don't even know when I hit the floor, but they all stand around me and I can feel someone force something in my mouth.
'There you go, you dropped it, now don't lose it again." I hear him say to me as I start to regain my senses.
As I reached for the backpack that had been given to me, I began to look for the plastic bags that I had filled with the goo of a flower from a world that didn't even have a name.
I know what number it is and what system it's in, because if by some miracle I can get someone to get more for me, then I will have to tell them where to find it.
I can feel the eyes of my team as I take out the bag and as I close my backpack I begin to hear the sounds of the men and women around us standing up.
I quickly put away my backpack and stood information, but no one comes in, in fact, there was no one near the entrance to the room.
I let out a breath of relief before I step out of the line that for whatever reason no one else has left yet and I walk up to one of the few members of the company that isn't from the penal colony that I'm from.
The boy can't be older than ten or twelve years old and yet he survived the war, next to him is a tall man who I'm surprised isn't augmented in any way because he towers over me and the men around us.
Next to this man, the boy looks more like an infant than a child that's about to reach his teenage years.
I can feel a chill run down my spine and I try to ignore the goosebumps as the sister of battle that for whatever reason was a sign to guard us glares at me.
'You and you stretch out your hands." I say to the pair and I watch as they do as I tell them.
The surviving members of the penal legion begin to loudly chew their gum as if signaling that something important was about to happen.
I do not know why the Generals and Captains aren't stopping us from doing this, in all honestly I don't know if the people around us call it a ritual or tradition.
No, it's a tradition, if it wasn't before it is now.
The only thing that they do is watch us and chew their gum quietly.
I begin to pour the goo into the palm of the recruit's hands until it s about to spill and I order them to put it in their mouths but not swallow it, but chew it.
The pair look at me confused but they still do as I told them.
Finally, I walk towards the sister who quietly stands up and the only thing that I can hear is the loud yet quiet thump of her armored boot as it hits the metal floor.
She stretches her hand and accepts the goo and just like the pair before her she put it in her mouth before she begins to chew.
"Congratulations you are one of us now."
"Just as the Imperium, chews us, regular men and women, we chew on this goo but look around you, how many other guardsmen have gum?"
"Look around you, how many of us are even from the same world, hell even the same star system."
"We, you could have been a farmer, a librarian, a criminal, a religious member of an order, or a soldier and none of us would have ever met and yet here we are."
"And now we have something else that unites us besides where we are and who we worship, it's small, and most commissars will hate it, but it's a part of who we are." I say to them as the rest of the group looks at me before stretching their hands out and waiting for me to pour them some of the goo.
Unfortunately, I can't, that was one of the rules that the general put, I can't just give everyone some goo.
The only ones that can receive it are the ones that survive two or more missions, everyone else either dies or is sent somewhere else, so there would be no point in giving them any.
I begin to walk back to my spot before I hear the sister call to me and force me to stop walking.
'Her." she orders me as she walks towards a girl that has just had her hand replaced with a mechanical one.
"I can't," I say to the sister glow looks at me menacingly.
"And why not, she has proven herself a part of your little order just as much as those two and I even dare say myself." the sister says to me.
"She needs to survive the night." I answer the sister, whose blue eyes seem to glow brightly as the lights turn off before coming back on.
"Then she will have no choice but to survive after receiving it, or else she will die in shame for taking something that shouldn't have been hers in the first place." she says to me.
I turn to look at the general and the captain who doesn't do or say anything, they just briefly close their eyes as if saying do it.
The girl stretches her remaining human hand and I pour the goo into it, then I watch her put it in her mouth before she begins to chew, I smile as the bland flavor hits her and she struggles not to react.
The goo tastes like water, but the longer one has it the better the flavor it gains.
I don't know if it's because chewing it is the only thing we can do on the battlefield to relieve our stress or because of how bad the food tastes, but chewing gum is the only relief we get even now on the ship.
Maybe it does gain flavor with time, maybe it doesn't, and we're all using it as some sort of way to deal with our trauma.
In the end, nothing changes, we all get to chew on something that doesn't taste bad and it's something that only we have and no one else does.
I can feel the eyes of everyone else on me as I walk back to my backpack and as I put the plastic bag away, I can feel the mood in the room drop significantly.
As I sit down, the team that I am with breaks formation and walks towards the four that I gave the goo too.
They loudly welcome the giant man, the boy, and the injured woman, while respectfully asking the sister if they can give her the hug and pat on the back that normally goes with our little ritual.
As I'm about to join them a man that was recently transferred pulls me aside and I can feel his lass pistol on my temple, yet before the man can say anything is pulled aside by both the general and captain.
The three of them begin to argue but my head is still spinning from the impact and I can only hear the captain yell that the man has to complete one more mission before he can receive it.
The rest of the team helps me to my feet I don't even know when I hit the floor, but they all stand around me and I can feel someone force something in my mouth.
'There you go, you dropped it, now don't lose it again." I hear him say to me as I start to regain my senses.
blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
As the ship docs, we are ordered to leave and go and do whatever we want, normally members of a penal legion wouldn't have ever been given such freedom, but that isn't the case now.
The various space stations have been changed into something else, I don't know what to call them now, in fact, no one does, so everyone just calls them whatever name they had.
The reason for this is that every space station in the sector has become a beacon for all of the ships that remain here as well as the various ships that are lost in the warp.
No one knows how the space stations are being seen in the warp, much less why the demons and traitors haven't attacked them, but what everyone does know is that they are now even more guarded than they were before.
Repair stations were pulled into the sector by ships that were headed somewhere else and only ended up here because the light of the astronomican had vanished.
One can imagine what happened next, how people were forced to enlist in the guard, and how the planetary governors became even more tyrannical, but after months of constant war and mass desertions, the rulers of the sector had no choice but to change their tactics.
They began to empty the penal worlds and offered everyone something that was normally unheard of.
Whoever could survive two wars, no matter how long they were would be granted pardon and would be enlisted into the guard as Redeemed Criminals.
At first, everyone laughed, because everyone that had tormented us and looked down at us was now begging us for help.
So yeah we took the deal, and I wish I hadn't.
The first war I was shipped off to was on a barren wasteland that didn't even have breathable air and we were forced to share gas masks just so that we could breathe.
A lot of us died in the first week and we were forced to learn to work together or die, no one was allowed to be dead weight, so if you couldn't make yourself useful then you didn't need to breathe.
The next war I fought in was in a feral world that had recently been settled and it was there that the locals showed us the flower and the good that it made.
I can still remember how I was forced into the penal colony.
I was thirteen when I heard a woman scream and point at me, I didn't even know what was going on and the next thing I knew I was being pulled away by the members of the planetary guard.
I can still remember seeing her laughing as I was dragged away.
I'm eighteen now, but at least I was granted the chance to see her pay for her crimes.
About a year ago, when we were in another station, the general pulled me aside and told me to look across the hallway and there she was naked and enslaved to a group of women from another penal colony.
"She sent their brothers and husbands to one of the penal worlds by falsely accusing them." The general said to me as we watched the woman's eyes fill with horror as the group of women dragged her away.
"The Adeptus Soreritas, don't like the servants of the emperor being sent to the penal colonies, so they searched for any of the men's relatives and handed her to them." he said to me as he reached into his shirt pocket and took out a piece of paper.
"She won't be dying anytime soon, if they wanted her dead they would have already killed her, so they're going to make sure she suffers." he said to me as he put the contents of the paper in his mouth and began to chew.
I felt something hit the back of my head and as I look to see who it was that hit me I find my team and the three new members of our small family walking past me.
The space stations are now filled with all sorts of bars, whorehouses, and any other kind of desire that a person can use to help them deal with the stress.
We walk past a priest preaching the emperor's word and thankfully the space station that we're in is one that we have already been in once before.
So we all head towards the bar that served alcohol that we can afford to buy.
The bar isn't anything special, in fact, it's downright awful, if the smell of sweat, chemicals, and body fluids doesn't ruin your sense of smell and makes you not want to drink whatever is being served there then you can drink it because its the only thing you can afford.
As we reach the bar we walk past several guardsmen and women either heading to a hotel, an alley, or just plain enjoying themselves in the open.
One of the new rules added was that if a woman had served her two wars and was pregnant then she was automatically relieved from duty and could return to being a civilian.
Needless to say, pregnancies began to sour through the roof and that served the governers just fine as they needed to replace the all of dead guardsmen and women.
As we entered the bar, we find that a table is free so we all head to it quickly, we all turn when we notice that someone who shouldn't have been with us was with us.
"Sister, since when?' the boy asks the sister who only smirked at his question.
"I was with you since the beginning," she answers the boy but her words are directed toward us.
The various space stations have been changed into something else, I don't know what to call them now, in fact, no one does, so everyone just calls them whatever name they had.
The reason for this is that every space station in the sector has become a beacon for all of the ships that remain here as well as the various ships that are lost in the warp.
No one knows how the space stations are being seen in the warp, much less why the demons and traitors haven't attacked them, but what everyone does know is that they are now even more guarded than they were before.
Repair stations were pulled into the sector by ships that were headed somewhere else and only ended up here because the light of the astronomican had vanished.
One can imagine what happened next, how people were forced to enlist in the guard, and how the planetary governors became even more tyrannical, but after months of constant war and mass desertions, the rulers of the sector had no choice but to change their tactics.
They began to empty the penal worlds and offered everyone something that was normally unheard of.
Whoever could survive two wars, no matter how long they were would be granted pardon and would be enlisted into the guard as Redeemed Criminals.
At first, everyone laughed, because everyone that had tormented us and looked down at us was now begging us for help.
So yeah we took the deal, and I wish I hadn't.
The first war I was shipped off to was on a barren wasteland that didn't even have breathable air and we were forced to share gas masks just so that we could breathe.
A lot of us died in the first week and we were forced to learn to work together or die, no one was allowed to be dead weight, so if you couldn't make yourself useful then you didn't need to breathe.
The next war I fought in was in a feral world that had recently been settled and it was there that the locals showed us the flower and the good that it made.
I can still remember how I was forced into the penal colony.
I was thirteen when I heard a woman scream and point at me, I didn't even know what was going on and the next thing I knew I was being pulled away by the members of the planetary guard.
I can still remember seeing her laughing as I was dragged away.
I'm eighteen now, but at least I was granted the chance to see her pay for her crimes.
About a year ago, when we were in another station, the general pulled me aside and told me to look across the hallway and there she was naked and enslaved to a group of women from another penal colony.
"She sent their brothers and husbands to one of the penal worlds by falsely accusing them." The general said to me as we watched the woman's eyes fill with horror as the group of women dragged her away.
"The Adeptus Soreritas, don't like the servants of the emperor being sent to the penal colonies, so they searched for any of the men's relatives and handed her to them." he said to me as he reached into his shirt pocket and took out a piece of paper.
"She won't be dying anytime soon, if they wanted her dead they would have already killed her, so they're going to make sure she suffers." he said to me as he put the contents of the paper in his mouth and began to chew.
I felt something hit the back of my head and as I look to see who it was that hit me I find my team and the three new members of our small family walking past me.
The space stations are now filled with all sorts of bars, whorehouses, and any other kind of desire that a person can use to help them deal with the stress.
We walk past a priest preaching the emperor's word and thankfully the space station that we're in is one that we have already been in once before.
So we all head towards the bar that served alcohol that we can afford to buy.
The bar isn't anything special, in fact, it's downright awful, if the smell of sweat, chemicals, and body fluids doesn't ruin your sense of smell and makes you not want to drink whatever is being served there then you can drink it because its the only thing you can afford.
As we reach the bar we walk past several guardsmen and women either heading to a hotel, an alley, or just plain enjoying themselves in the open.
One of the new rules added was that if a woman had served her two wars and was pregnant then she was automatically relieved from duty and could return to being a civilian.
Needless to say, pregnancies began to sour through the roof and that served the governers just fine as they needed to replace the all of dead guardsmen and women.
As we entered the bar, we find that a table is free so we all head to it quickly, we all turn when we notice that someone who shouldn't have been with us was with us.
"Sister, since when?' the boy asks the sister who only smirked at his question.
"I was with you since the beginning," she answers the boy but her words are directed toward us.
blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
Before any of us could say anything else, the bar became silent and we all instantly turned towards the entrance, we found ourselves looking at a large group of lowly's walking and standing at the door.
The lowly's are the new AbHuman races that have been found recently, and while they all share the pure and perfect form of Humanity, they are equally different, some have tentacles, while others have different skin colors which shouldn't be possible.
Still, they were proven to be useful to the Imperium, and as such, they were allowed to exist, but unlike the Ogryn and other members of the guard, they haven't proven themselves to everyone else.
At best all of the female members of their various species, or whatever they may call themselves serve in most worlds, ships, and space stations as pleasure women for everyone to relieve their stress.
The sounds of the arguments and the men and women laughing or simply reminiscing about some dead or a friend transferred to another unit soon began to fill the bar again.
The lowly normally didn't come to these places, not because they weren't welcomed, but because they usually never made it.
The various Ab Humans that had recently been discovered all had one thing in common, they either wore form-fitting clothing that made their figures even more attractive or they wore little to no clothing.
This along with their exotic skin colors and alluring nature made it almost impossible for lowly guardsmen and even most imperial citizens to ever see them.
And yet here was a group of them being stared at by every guardsman in the room, like fresh meat that was placed in front of a hungry beast.
"So I have an announcement." I said to everyone as we all ignored the obvious outcome of the lowly's presence.
"They just approved my petition to buy a piece of land, and I was hoping that you guys would come with me." I said to everyone at the table as a woman with large breasts placed a mug of something in front of us.
There wasn't anything else for us to choose so none of us bothered to ask for anything, nor did we question the woman's presence.
Everyone's attention was on me now so it was better that I explained myself before I ended up angering them.
"It's going to be our fourth war and that means we can buy land in one of the worlds that no one cares about, so I placed my name in one of the raffles and I won." I say to them and wait for their answer.
No one says anything, and maybe I made a mistake because I did this without asking them if they wanted to come with me.
"By Imperial rule, all members of a brotherhood have to be told before any decisions like this, before they have been made." the sister says to me before she picks up her mug and empties it of its contents.
"But considering that neither I nor the three new members of this brotherhood existed before you made this decision, will you care to explain why you didn't inform your general or your captain of this."
"Better yet, why didn't you tell your friends about it before." she interrupted me.
"I wanted to surprise everyone." I answered her before I felt a hand on my back.
"Fine we're coming with you." one of my squad mates says to me before he pulled my hair back and begins to pour the alcohol into my mouth.
The land I bought or better said won, is on a planet where there aren't any Humans, its a world that's at the edge of the Imperium's territory, the light of the Astronomican never reached it and the light of the space station's seem to ignore it.
"Okay with that settled as a member of this group, I must see that the Emperor's word is kept and preached until someone from the Aclesearky arrives." the sister says as I begin to feel a sense of dread growing even as the alcohol begins to mess with my head.
The lowly's are the new AbHuman races that have been found recently, and while they all share the pure and perfect form of Humanity, they are equally different, some have tentacles, while others have different skin colors which shouldn't be possible.
Still, they were proven to be useful to the Imperium, and as such, they were allowed to exist, but unlike the Ogryn and other members of the guard, they haven't proven themselves to everyone else.
At best all of the female members of their various species, or whatever they may call themselves serve in most worlds, ships, and space stations as pleasure women for everyone to relieve their stress.
The sounds of the arguments and the men and women laughing or simply reminiscing about some dead or a friend transferred to another unit soon began to fill the bar again.
The lowly normally didn't come to these places, not because they weren't welcomed, but because they usually never made it.
The various Ab Humans that had recently been discovered all had one thing in common, they either wore form-fitting clothing that made their figures even more attractive or they wore little to no clothing.
This along with their exotic skin colors and alluring nature made it almost impossible for lowly guardsmen and even most imperial citizens to ever see them.
And yet here was a group of them being stared at by every guardsman in the room, like fresh meat that was placed in front of a hungry beast.
"So I have an announcement." I said to everyone as we all ignored the obvious outcome of the lowly's presence.
"They just approved my petition to buy a piece of land, and I was hoping that you guys would come with me." I said to everyone at the table as a woman with large breasts placed a mug of something in front of us.
There wasn't anything else for us to choose so none of us bothered to ask for anything, nor did we question the woman's presence.
Everyone's attention was on me now so it was better that I explained myself before I ended up angering them.
"It's going to be our fourth war and that means we can buy land in one of the worlds that no one cares about, so I placed my name in one of the raffles and I won." I say to them and wait for their answer.
No one says anything, and maybe I made a mistake because I did this without asking them if they wanted to come with me.
"By Imperial rule, all members of a brotherhood have to be told before any decisions like this, before they have been made." the sister says to me before she picks up her mug and empties it of its contents.
"But considering that neither I nor the three new members of this brotherhood existed before you made this decision, will you care to explain why you didn't inform your general or your captain of this."
"Better yet, why didn't you tell your friends about it before." she interrupted me.
"I wanted to surprise everyone." I answered her before I felt a hand on my back.
"Fine we're coming with you." one of my squad mates says to me before he pulled my hair back and begins to pour the alcohol into my mouth.
The land I bought or better said won, is on a planet where there aren't any Humans, its a world that's at the edge of the Imperium's territory, the light of the Astronomican never reached it and the light of the space station's seem to ignore it.
"Okay with that settled as a member of this group, I must see that the Emperor's word is kept and preached until someone from the Aclesearky arrives." the sister says as I begin to feel a sense of dread growing even as the alcohol begins to mess with my head.
blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
I found myself being forced to wake up by a punch to the face, I was never a heavy drinker so I don't even know how much I was able to drink before I passed out.
"Good you're awake." the captain said to me, as he held a folded letter in his hand, and next to it was a scroll that had its seal torn open.
I could see the captain chewing the gum I gave him all those years ago, seeing him do this was some kind of comfort because my face still hurt.
"First of all, congratulations everyone, by order of Highcommand everyone that's in this ship has officially completed their service to the Imperium." the Captain said to us.
No one in the room could believe what we just heard, all of us had heard the stories.
They usually said the same thing, the Imperium had found a lot of worlds or had lost so many people that it was forced to let some of the guards men and women go so that they could make more people, but no one believed those stories.
And yet here we were ready to die in another war, except we were just told that we didn't have to fight anymore.
"Here." the captain said to me as he handed me the scroll.
Because I didn't want to be punched again I quickly took it and unrolled it, unfortunately, I couldn't understand anything that was written on it.
'You can't read it can you?" the captain said to me as he took the scroll away from me.
"Congratulations on winning the raffle, as written by the agreement you signed, this world is handed to you, be warned that it is up to you to feed- train, and grow the people that will serve the God Emperor and the Imperium."
"Be sure to explore and expand your territory as more colonists will be sent to it and if they completely take over and overthrow you, it will be because of your incompetence."
"You will be given a ship so that you may travel from one world to another, and so that you can fill it with soldiers or whatever you see fit." the captain said as he handed the scroll back to me and I noticed that somewhere along the way he had separated another page from it.
It was a list of things that I needed to sign, and trade agreements that I could never do because I didn't know what resources the planet had much less how to get to them.
'Permission to sit down captain." I said to the captain as I held the scroll in my hands, the captain just smirked and allowed me to do so.
"A planet governor!" I could hear my friends say to me as they cheered.
I knew that when I entered the raffle I was going to get a piece of land, I dint expect an entire planet, sure I wasn't going to rule it because more settlers were going to be sent to it, but how long would it be until more people arrived?
"If you need some help, decide what to do." I heard the general say to me as my friends quickly became silent and went back to standing quietly.
"Take everyone that doesn't have a place to go back with you."
"Half the people here won't be able to afford to be sent back home, the other half don't have a home to go back to, and the rest of us don't know a life outside of the guard." the general said to me, but his words sounded more like a plea than a suggestion.
"Sure." I said to the general as servo skull flew into the room and flew toward me.
I watched as the thing floated in front of me before its glowing cybernetic eyes scanned me and fired a small arrow into my arm before violently pulling it out.
The servo skull began to mark a parchment, with my blood, and I was forced to let it dip the arrow into my arm until it was done doing whatever it was doing.
"Your request has been approved, the redeemed penal legion ship and its crew are now your responsibility." the servo skull said to me before it flew out of the room.
"What now?" I asked everyone hoping that someone could help me wrap my head around everything that just happened.
"Now, we start over." I heard one of my friends say to me.
With nothing left to do, the ship began to head toward its new destination, I'll be the first one to say that I have no idea where the planet is or what it looks like, so I don't know what we will need to live on it.
Fortunately, the Captain and all of the other captains have been telling me about all of the supplies that we have.
The reason that we had even stopped at the station was to resupply and get some rest before we were all sent to die, so we won't have to worry about weapons- medicine, and food for a while.
Unfortunately, the ship was meant for war, not colonization, so things like seeds and anything that a colony needs aren't available to us, because we need to pay for it all and the raffle didn't pay for any of it.
The only reason that I even was allowed to keep the ship was that it was barely working at all and no one was bothering to fix it, so they chose to give it to me because it would be my problem after that.
I don't know how long it took us to arrive but for me, it felt like a month, still, we finally arrived at our destination.
I was allowed to stand at the bridge and see the planet I had won and the moon that orbits it.
The captain of the ship was already looking at the surrounding worlds and while we officially aren't allowed to go near them, no one knows how long it's going to be until more ships come, if they ever do.
"Good you're awake." the captain said to me, as he held a folded letter in his hand, and next to it was a scroll that had its seal torn open.
I could see the captain chewing the gum I gave him all those years ago, seeing him do this was some kind of comfort because my face still hurt.
"First of all, congratulations everyone, by order of Highcommand everyone that's in this ship has officially completed their service to the Imperium." the Captain said to us.
No one in the room could believe what we just heard, all of us had heard the stories.
They usually said the same thing, the Imperium had found a lot of worlds or had lost so many people that it was forced to let some of the guards men and women go so that they could make more people, but no one believed those stories.
And yet here we were ready to die in another war, except we were just told that we didn't have to fight anymore.
"Here." the captain said to me as he handed me the scroll.
Because I didn't want to be punched again I quickly took it and unrolled it, unfortunately, I couldn't understand anything that was written on it.
'You can't read it can you?" the captain said to me as he took the scroll away from me.
"Congratulations on winning the raffle, as written by the agreement you signed, this world is handed to you, be warned that it is up to you to feed- train, and grow the people that will serve the God Emperor and the Imperium."
"Be sure to explore and expand your territory as more colonists will be sent to it and if they completely take over and overthrow you, it will be because of your incompetence."
"You will be given a ship so that you may travel from one world to another, and so that you can fill it with soldiers or whatever you see fit." the captain said as he handed the scroll back to me and I noticed that somewhere along the way he had separated another page from it.
It was a list of things that I needed to sign, and trade agreements that I could never do because I didn't know what resources the planet had much less how to get to them.
'Permission to sit down captain." I said to the captain as I held the scroll in my hands, the captain just smirked and allowed me to do so.
"A planet governor!" I could hear my friends say to me as they cheered.
I knew that when I entered the raffle I was going to get a piece of land, I dint expect an entire planet, sure I wasn't going to rule it because more settlers were going to be sent to it, but how long would it be until more people arrived?
"If you need some help, decide what to do." I heard the general say to me as my friends quickly became silent and went back to standing quietly.
"Take everyone that doesn't have a place to go back with you."
"Half the people here won't be able to afford to be sent back home, the other half don't have a home to go back to, and the rest of us don't know a life outside of the guard." the general said to me, but his words sounded more like a plea than a suggestion.
"Sure." I said to the general as servo skull flew into the room and flew toward me.
I watched as the thing floated in front of me before its glowing cybernetic eyes scanned me and fired a small arrow into my arm before violently pulling it out.
The servo skull began to mark a parchment, with my blood, and I was forced to let it dip the arrow into my arm until it was done doing whatever it was doing.
"Your request has been approved, the redeemed penal legion ship and its crew are now your responsibility." the servo skull said to me before it flew out of the room.
"What now?" I asked everyone hoping that someone could help me wrap my head around everything that just happened.
"Now, we start over." I heard one of my friends say to me.
With nothing left to do, the ship began to head toward its new destination, I'll be the first one to say that I have no idea where the planet is or what it looks like, so I don't know what we will need to live on it.
Fortunately, the Captain and all of the other captains have been telling me about all of the supplies that we have.
The reason that we had even stopped at the station was to resupply and get some rest before we were all sent to die, so we won't have to worry about weapons- medicine, and food for a while.
Unfortunately, the ship was meant for war, not colonization, so things like seeds and anything that a colony needs aren't available to us, because we need to pay for it all and the raffle didn't pay for any of it.
The only reason that I even was allowed to keep the ship was that it was barely working at all and no one was bothering to fix it, so they chose to give it to me because it would be my problem after that.
I don't know how long it took us to arrive but for me, it felt like a month, still, we finally arrived at our destination.
I was allowed to stand at the bridge and see the planet I had won and the moon that orbits it.
The captain of the ship was already looking at the surrounding worlds and while we officially aren't allowed to go near them, no one knows how long it's going to be until more ships come, if they ever do.
History
blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
A brief history
When Imperial Settlers first arrived in the system, they did so in one of the experimental Colonies.
Because of this oddity, the section of space was believed to be a perfect place for the redeemed, the men and women of the Imperial Penal Colonies that had somehow managed to redeem themselves from whatever crime they had committed.
The man that was chosen to lead the settlers was nothing more but the only one of the various Penal Legions to sign up for a Raffle that promised the winner a chance to purchase land in a remote world.
This was both the truth and a complete lie.
The settlers did gain a piece of land, in fact, they gained several worlds and even an entire star system that the Imperium had yet to officially explore.
They were originally given a single world to colonize, but by the time someone important decided to look into what they were doing they found that they had colonized more than one world.
It's unknown what horrors those first settlers ran into, or why they chose to go to the other worlds when they were so few of them.
What we do know is due to the records they left behind, both written and on holopads that it was only because they were the worst of the Imperium that they even survived and began to thrive.
The sector is known to have warp rifts that randomly open and both swallow entire worlds or systems and spit them out.
Perhaps this was the reason no one has ever bothered to deal with them, or maybe it's because of this that no one cares to deal with them.
The colonies trade with each other for everything they need, but the only reason that they do so is that it's just easier to mine or grow things on each world.
This is due to the giant worms that are native to the sector, the worms vary greatly from planet to planet, and while most would be repulsed by the thought of eating them, the people of the colonies are grateful for it.
The worlds are a strange mixture of beliefs- skills and technological variations that border on heretical, just like the colonist.
This is due to the growing number of Ex Criminals, Lowlies, and Mutants that live on these worlds.
The few that visit these worlds have even claimed that Zenos inhabit the various worlds of the sector and some have even formed an alliance with the colonists.
Yet no one has been able to find proof of this.
Still, these are strange times and with us being cut off from the Imperium and the worlds that we once traded with, I do not know what the future has in store for us.
Yet despite the claims of Alien presence and the worlds bordering on heresy, we continue to send our less desirable's to the sector.
Better that they make themselves useful and stay away from the more civilized worlds than for them to taint the rest of the Imperium with their filth.
When Imperial Settlers first arrived in the system, they did so in one of the experimental Colonies.
Because of this oddity, the section of space was believed to be a perfect place for the redeemed, the men and women of the Imperial Penal Colonies that had somehow managed to redeem themselves from whatever crime they had committed.
The man that was chosen to lead the settlers was nothing more but the only one of the various Penal Legions to sign up for a Raffle that promised the winner a chance to purchase land in a remote world.
This was both the truth and a complete lie.
The settlers did gain a piece of land, in fact, they gained several worlds and even an entire star system that the Imperium had yet to officially explore.
They were originally given a single world to colonize, but by the time someone important decided to look into what they were doing they found that they had colonized more than one world.
It's unknown what horrors those first settlers ran into, or why they chose to go to the other worlds when they were so few of them.
What we do know is due to the records they left behind, both written and on holopads that it was only because they were the worst of the Imperium that they even survived and began to thrive.
The sector is known to have warp rifts that randomly open and both swallow entire worlds or systems and spit them out.
Perhaps this was the reason no one has ever bothered to deal with them, or maybe it's because of this that no one cares to deal with them.
The colonies trade with each other for everything they need, but the only reason that they do so is that it's just easier to mine or grow things on each world.
This is due to the giant worms that are native to the sector, the worms vary greatly from planet to planet, and while most would be repulsed by the thought of eating them, the people of the colonies are grateful for it.
The worlds are a strange mixture of beliefs- skills and technological variations that border on heretical, just like the colonist.
This is due to the growing number of Ex Criminals, Lowlies, and Mutants that live on these worlds.
The few that visit these worlds have even claimed that Zenos inhabit the various worlds of the sector and some have even formed an alliance with the colonists.
Yet no one has been able to find proof of this.
Still, these are strange times and with us being cut off from the Imperium and the worlds that we once traded with, I do not know what the future has in store for us.
Yet despite the claims of Alien presence and the worlds bordering on heresy, we continue to send our less desirable's to the sector.
Better that they make themselves useful and stay away from the more civilized worlds than for them to taint the rest of the Imperium with their filth.
info
blueayes
If you want peace, then you must prepare for war.
- Location
- austin
The sudden tears are a phenomenon native to this part of space is unknown how- why or what is causing them to occur, what is known is that when one of the tears manifests itself either a planet will appear or a planet will go missing.
This wouldn't be much of an issue if the tears didn't bring other things with them.
The objects and creatures that have appeared until now are as follows.
An Eldar Craftworld that has signed a peace treaty with the Imperium that allows both sides to exist along as the Eldar don't attack any of the Imperial worlds- ships and space stations.
In turn, the Imperium will not attack the elderly living in the craft world.
It should be noted that it is not uncommon to see these Eldar walking about in one of the colonies or a Human walking inside of the craft world.
It's unknown what the Eldar encountered during their time in the warp or wherever the tear leads to, but they are surprisingly humble when compared to the rest of their kin.
Several space hulks carrying ships of unknown design have appeared and while we have been able to capture and free these ships we have found that most if not all of their databanks have been whipped.
One thing has been uncovered about these ships, they were Human controlled ships that belonged to several different factions.
Because we haven't been able to fully repair the ships and understand how most of their technology works, these ships have been converted to carriers that transport food or whatever materials the colonies, the fleet, or the space stations need.
The various worlds that have appeared usually have resources that the colonies need, such as animals, plants, minerals, and even ruins of lost civilizations that the colonist explore.
Unfortunately not everything has been beneficial to the Imperium, as several things have been discovered in this section of space.
A strange form of undead that feeds on the blood of mortals and enslaves their victims, while at the same time they can use some sort of warp magic to defend themselves and cast curses on people.
The green Skins \ Orks have also made their way to the sector and have begun to engage both the creatures and the colonists of every world.
Various beasts and creatures that one cannot be certain if they were naturally created or were twisted by the warp until they became what they are today.
Still, the colonist continue to build up their new home and explore whatever shows up, as they should for this sector of space belongs to mankind alone and everything else is only here because we tolerate it.
[Above top secret.]
On one of the permanent worlds that were settled by the colonist a massive manufactorum was discovered, it had signs of wear and tear due to it not having been used for countless millennium.
The explorers accidentally activated it and the device began to scan the sector before it began to build what was once believed lost.
The colonist immediately sent word to the Imperium, and they immediately brought the few members of the Adeptus Mechanicus that the Imperium has at the moment.
The ados immediately began to cheer and chant when they confirmed that the colonist had accidentally found what was once believed impossible to find.
A Standers Templet Construct, that was completely intact.
This wouldn't be much of an issue if the tears didn't bring other things with them.
The objects and creatures that have appeared until now are as follows.
An Eldar Craftworld that has signed a peace treaty with the Imperium that allows both sides to exist along as the Eldar don't attack any of the Imperial worlds- ships and space stations.
In turn, the Imperium will not attack the elderly living in the craft world.
It should be noted that it is not uncommon to see these Eldar walking about in one of the colonies or a Human walking inside of the craft world.
It's unknown what the Eldar encountered during their time in the warp or wherever the tear leads to, but they are surprisingly humble when compared to the rest of their kin.
Several space hulks carrying ships of unknown design have appeared and while we have been able to capture and free these ships we have found that most if not all of their databanks have been whipped.
One thing has been uncovered about these ships, they were Human controlled ships that belonged to several different factions.
Because we haven't been able to fully repair the ships and understand how most of their technology works, these ships have been converted to carriers that transport food or whatever materials the colonies, the fleet, or the space stations need.
The various worlds that have appeared usually have resources that the colonies need, such as animals, plants, minerals, and even ruins of lost civilizations that the colonist explore.
Unfortunately not everything has been beneficial to the Imperium, as several things have been discovered in this section of space.
A strange form of undead that feeds on the blood of mortals and enslaves their victims, while at the same time they can use some sort of warp magic to defend themselves and cast curses on people.
The green Skins \ Orks have also made their way to the sector and have begun to engage both the creatures and the colonists of every world.
Various beasts and creatures that one cannot be certain if they were naturally created or were twisted by the warp until they became what they are today.
Still, the colonist continue to build up their new home and explore whatever shows up, as they should for this sector of space belongs to mankind alone and everything else is only here because we tolerate it.
[Above top secret.]
On one of the permanent worlds that were settled by the colonist a massive manufactorum was discovered, it had signs of wear and tear due to it not having been used for countless millennium.
The explorers accidentally activated it and the device began to scan the sector before it began to build what was once believed lost.
The colonist immediately sent word to the Imperium, and they immediately brought the few members of the Adeptus Mechanicus that the Imperium has at the moment.
The ados immediately began to cheer and chant when they confirmed that the colonist had accidentally found what was once believed impossible to find.
A Standers Templet Construct, that was completely intact.
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