Can't Fight You

Guardsman Voltz Draken was cleaning out the Lord General's personal Valkyrie. He had received this unpleasant duty for a small spot on his helmet that was a dent from when a Necron had swiped its Guass Blaster at his head. Because of this he had also been passed up for a promotion to Sergeant, one he deserved after three campaigns of close calls and near misses.

Grabbing the can of wax he began to polish the outside of the Valkyrie to a fine shine, knowing that the Lord General would make him redo it all if there was a single spot that did not shine to his specifications.

It was a short and dangerous life as a Guardsman, for life expectancy was one year after recruitment if said soldier was lucky, Voltz had survived two years, making him luckier than most. He had clawed his way across battlefields to keep him alive until his twentieth birthday. They were given the finest cardboard armor and flashlights for guns. Voltz looked over at his gun, to him Lasguns always looked cool. Looked cool, not looked useful. He knew that a Lasgun beam could shoot clean through a human, but when it hit anything with the slightest bit of resilience than it was nearly useless. Especially when fighting enemies that shot bullets larger than a man's fist. You just all shot at the enemy and prayed to the Emperor that it would take the bastard down.

Thankfully they were orbiting a deserted planet that didn't have a hail of gunfire shooting at him. His regiment was getting a rest until then, which was nice except for the occasional chores.

He was polishing the nose of the Valkyrie when the doors to the hangar opened. In walked Lord General Grim Silence, his name didn't much match his personality at all. He was a charming, charismatic man that was more or less hated by all of his men. Silence had the habit of charging as many men at the enemy as he could, something he shared with most other Lord Generals, but he was particularly infamous for shooting men who dared not charge headfirst into artillery fire, minefields, and massive waves of an Ork WAAAAAAGH! He himself would take credit for daring attacks his staff came up with and was of the opinion that five million casualties was too low for a flawless victory and thirty million was a much more appropriate number. He also had a terrible habit of making words up to sound smart.

Voltz watched as the Lord General walked up to him and cleared his throat. "Am I under the presumance that you are Guardsmen Draken?" he asked Voltz, a bad sign as when he learned your name typically you went on a hunting trip with him and rarely returned in one piece.

"Yes sir." Voltz responded as he stood straight, posture picture perfect.

"Well, there is rumor of a magnifitical beast on the surface of the planet. Since we have a popping bit of time we are going to fly down and hunt the beast. Since you are here and I am need of one additional party member you will have to do."

"Sir, thank you, sir!" Voltz stammered out as he swore inside his head. Emperor preserve me, he thought as the Lord General boarded his Valkyrie.

Voltz looked at his gun, trying to find a single reason that he could get out of this: a loose spring, a malfunctioning trigger, sudden universal peace. There was none, and Voltz boarded behind the Lord General, his pilot, Commissioner LaStrang and the two Strom Trooper Elite Commandoes that accompanied the Lord General everywhere.

Voltz gulped as the Valkyrie engines whined and began to fire up. He had never thought he would have the misfortune of having to go on one of Silence's hunting trips. Perhaps if he saw the beast the Lord General would let him shoot it and not just use him as bait, hopefully.

Voltz felt the ship lift up and began to fly. He peeked up front to watch as the planet grew larger and larger. The deep blue and green were different from his home planet of Cadia, where he had grown up learning how to fight and deal with legions of Chaos Cultists as they charged the walls of his home. He had been well honed in the ways of fighting since he was six years old when his uncle came home and sat him on his lap to tell him, "Voltz, you're six years old, there's a constant stream of hulking beasts trying to kill us, so you're learning how to kill." Voltz had been forged in fire and here he had emerged like so many others.

"Pain is temporary, honor is forever." Silence muttered as he brushed some imaginary dust off of his uniform.

"Sir?" Voltz questioned.

"Something some Commissioner called Gaunt said. The one smart thing he ever said, most of the time he is quite delusional."

Voltz hummed before leaning back in his seat and looking at the Lord General before a sharp jolt rocked the side of the ship. Voltz felt the ship spin out of control. Commissioner LaStrang jerked out of his seat and his head flew forward and cracked sickeningly against the metal side.

"MAYDAY! THE DIVINE FREEDOM HAS BEEN HIT!" the radio cracked before going silent.

"Brace for impact!" the pilot yelled as the ship continued to spin out of control.

Voltz grabbed the two safety harness belts and clipped them over him. He was going to survive damnit! The ship tumbled and turned as it fell to the ground. Voltz watched as the Lord General was sitting calmly, as if he expected to get up and walk away from plummeting towards the ground at hundreds of miles per hour.

"We die in the Emperor's name, from there we move from pain to glory. Glory is all we can ask for Guardsman." Silence told him before reaching for his Laspistol.

Voltz tightened his grip on his Lasgun; just enough to make sure that he could bring the weapon up to bear if he needed to.

"Therefore, we must end pain to get glory." Silence told him before putting the Laspistol into his mouth and pulling the trigger. Sending a red laser beam through his head.

"Emperor be praised!" Voltz yelled as the gunship careened towards the ground, another engine giving out underneath the pressure and intense heat of entering the atmosphere.

"Hold onto something!" the pilot yelled back to him as they neared the ground.

Voltz held on to the seat around him as the two Storm Troopers locked themselves in. They had been shocked by the death of the Lord General and had yet to react accordingly.

Voltz took one last look around them before he felt the ship hit the earth; his head was snapped forwards and then back as the impact caused him to black out.

*****

Alivalia stood in front of the crackling energies of the Webway gate. She was the Farseer that was going to accompany a handful of Guardians, Howling Banshees, and Warp Spiders to venture onto a forgotten planet that held rumors of a technology that would make the Infinity Circuit obsolete that had been lost during the Fall.

Alivalia was nervous, an emotion Eldar had tried to beat out of them when they put on their helmets of war, they could be nervous when they took the guise of normal civilians.

Even then Alivalia was nervous. She was to lead members of her dying race into a portal where Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, or a number of worse things lying just beyond the crackling energies of the portal.

"Farseer Alivalia, why do you hesitate?" a Warp Spider Exarch asked her, his fingers twitching for a fight.

"I'm gathering my thoughts, a cluttered and undisciplined mind will lead us to our doom on this death planet." Alivalia responded as she tightened her grip on her singing spear.

"You are wise beyond your years," the Exarch told her as he stood back to check his equipment for the ninth time.

Alivalia swallowed back her nerves and began to walk through the Webway gate. She was going to go first and confirm that that planet was habitable by Eldar forces. Stepping forward into the crackling energy she felt a rush as she was hurled through the cosmos and plopped onto the planet. She scanned around everything seemed to be normal.

The planet looked like every normal hospitable planet, grass, good air. Alivalia picked the small bottle that she was to throw back through the Webway to signal that the rest of the Eldar troop could muster through the gate.

Sheathing her sword Alivalia began to bring the bottle back for the start of an underhand throw. Right before she threw the bottle she heard a loud explosion in the sky. Looking up she saw a ship come hurdling down from lower atmosphere right to her position.

Alivalia jumped out of the way, the impact throwing her forward and smacking her head against a tree. Denting her helmet a little as her vision darkened and cut out.