Shattered Imperium

Sirens blare, warning lights flash. A man, the pilot of some massive craft; unshaven with eyes full of knowledge and a uniform that appears military, fights with controls, without any apparent effect.

“Ah blast it you old piece of junk!” he yells while banging on the dashboard. The door behind him slides open, a woman appearing to be in her early thirties with blonde hair stumbles into the room. She wears the same type of uniform as the man but there are 2 stars on her shoulders.

“What’s going on?” She yelled over the blaring alarms.

“She’s not responding Cap’tin!” he answered just as loud.

“Well what happened?” she asked as he kicked a console.

“One moment the fleet is reaching the edge of the system and out of nowhere there is a massive gravitational pull. I thought I saw a couple of ships drop off the radar before everything went haywire.” He tried to explain, not that he had any clue what was going on.

“Do you think we were attacked? Singularity bomb?”

“That was my thought, but who would attack the entirety of Terra?” he answered, still getting no response from the controls. Suddenly a massive shudder went through the ship.

“What was that?” she asked, fear evident in her voice.

“One of the engines just blew out!”

“How is that even possible?” she asked, alarm evident in her voice. She was no engineer but it was common knowledge the engines were designed to last a millennium.

“I don’t-“he is cut off mid sentence as the ship jerked violently. Some of the screens blink to life, others start flashing and the alarms continued, relentlessly pounding on ears.

The captain looked around, completely confused by the screens. “Controls back online?”

“No, it looks like we’re heading for...a planet, I suggest you sit down.” He responds, worry gone from his voice as he realizes whatever is happening is beyond his control. He tries vainly to right the ship, even to get a decent angle of landing. The captain sits down in a spare chair and straps herself in as the pilot gets on the speaker “Attention all crew, prepare for crash landing! Everyone to emergency stations! I repeat prepare for crash landing!”

Then time seemed to slow down for him; he thought back to the academy, where he graduated at the top of his class. He thought back to when Marik “the Brilliant” Peters became Marik Peters the Husband and then later the Father. He thought of the great honor given to him when offered this job. He is the best pilot around, and for that was given the chance to pilot the biggest troop carrier in the fleet, a full package for his family. He thinks about how that wonderful deal has just killed all the people he cares about. In that moment he must have been inspired by the Emperor himself; because he suddenly knew how he could save his family and almost every other person put under his care.

He acted fast, his skilled hands a blur as they rushed over the console. With deft movements, only possible from years of experience, he flipped a switch and the captain’s chair suddenly flew out of the compartment so fast she didn’t have a chance to utter a sound; Marik never even glanced her way. He activated the emergency protocols 7, 19, and 47. The ship shrieked in protest as he quickly overrode the safety codes; the ship jerked up and became nearly parallel with the ground only miles above the speeding planet.

Then the ship impacted the ground.

Survivors were staggering out of the crash site, they had landed in what appeared to be the center of nothing. The ground was hard and cracked, the sun beat down on them without mercy. There appeared to be trees in the distance; however, nothing but scruff was nearby. This was a military vessel that had crashed, and the men aboard were veterans of a thousand campaigns. Even disoriented, lost, and confused they quickly set about helping others from the crash site and a command tent was set up. Around the table were 3 people, all hoping the others would arrive soon. There was Captain Maria Cruz, still shaken after being ejected from the pilot’s room. The next figure was a large man, 6’ 4 with broad shoulders; he wore a gold embroidered combat suit, covered with medals and had a red cape flowing in the gentle breeze; this was Commander Sullivan, in command of the entire force on the ship, he was an imposing man to behold and often struck fear in his enemies and allies. The last figure was smaller than the Commander, 5’ 8 at most; yet any who beheld him would gladly fight the commander instead. This man wore a midnight black trench coat, had many scars on his face, and wore a captain’s cap just low enough it hid his eyes when he looked down. This man was a Commissar; the most feared of imperial leaders. He commanded from the front line, always fighting with his men and never questioning an order. This was the kind of man never to be crossed, this was Commissar Thule.

“We need to get those people out of there” the captain was saying.

“Teams are already on that, perimeter defense is a priority” Responded the commander. “Thule get the 203rd, 102nd, and 101st companies on it.”

“Yes sir. However the engineers say they can’t open the cargo bay doors, the 101st will not have its tanks.”

“Then have the 95th entrench every 25 yards, and get me those doors open. I don’t care what it takes!”

“Yes sir.” He responded heading off. Just then a guardsman ran up.

“Update on the pilot ma’am” He said as he stood at attention.

“Let’s hear it.”

“The pilot was found dead from an influx of radiation flooding the compartment when the ship activated emergency landing, ma’am.”

“He gave his life so the rest of us would have a chance.” She said with bitter sadness in her voice. “I want his name in the book of heroes and his family taken care of.”

“Yes ma’am” The guardsman responded, and then departed to see the tasks done.

“That man is a hero for what he did.” The captain said.

“He did his duty, he was a fine man.” The commander said with no hint of loss in his voice. Just then they heard a loud explosion from farther down the ship. “What in the emperor’s name?” Both of them took off running, yelling for nearby guardsmen to follow them. Every man and woman followed without hesitation. They get to the source and see Thule already there with a team of men and women, all standing in front of a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

“Status report!” Yelled the commander.

“Sir, I have opened the cargo bay as you requested.” Thule replied.

“I commend your understanding of needing a quick solution, but our supplies are low; we need to conserve our limited explosives.”

“Yes sir. Shall we commence with the unloading?”

“Of course, we need our –“he was suddenly interrupted by a cry from the west side of the ship.

“Incoming! We have incoming! Possible hostiles!”

The three of them all took off towards the cry. There they found a sniper team looking down a scope and rangefinder. “Sirs, ma’am; we have sightings of some 200 hostiles, 300 meters and closing.”

“Get our men into position, Commissar!” The commander bellowed.

“Already on it sir.” Within 5 minutes he had 700 guardsmen into position, including 3 tanks and 16 entrenched heavy gunners.

“100 meters; ETA 1.5 minutes.” The sniper team informed them. “They appear to be riding some kind of large animals; however they look human sir.”

“That means nothing soldier, heretics are human too. When given the order to fire do not hesitate or I’ll shoot you myself. Am I clear?” Responded Thule, his voice laced with steel.

“Yes sir, of course sir. As the emperor wills.” The commander didn’t give the issue another thought, he trusted in his men to act with proper decorum when the time came. He turned his mind to the coming conflict: he had 700 armed and prepared men standing to hold the line here. The ship had over 10,000,000 troops with 7 armored companies, 12 Baneblades and a titan, although he doubted the titan survived such an impact inside the confines of the ship. He started to do the math, figuring at least a third of his men probably died or were injured in the crash; fuel, arms, ammo and food supplies were going to be low. There was an onboard garden for fresh food, if that survived then maybe they could transfer the plants to this world.

He was pulled from his reprieve by the sniper team. “50 meters, they’ve stopped. A lone rider is coming this way.”

“Be on full alert; trust nothing we meet out here.” Despite his words the commander was interested; perhaps these people could explain what happened to his ship. They waited till the apparent messenger was about 5 yards away when he brought his beast to a stop. It appeared to be a smaller type of the ancient, long extinct Elephants of old earth lore. Even the trained, battle hardened men started to whisper among each other at the thought of fighting those monstrosities, A single look from Thule silenced that. The man, for it was a man, dismounted his beast and walked slowly towards them. He wore an imperial chest plate and carried a crude spear but strapped to his side was a standard issue Nano-blade. If that wasn’t a big enough shock to the men what he said next was even more startling.