I was too conflicted to make a single choice regarding my new stat points. As much as I wanted to throw everything into agility to compensate for my clumsiness during the battle, the close look I got at the orks and Ogryns had made it painfully clear that I was so far outclassed in terms of strength that it was laughable. I settled on putting 3 points into strength, 3 points into agility, and the last remaining point into will. I had no idea what the will stat was used for, but it could not hurt to boost it, even if it was just a little. When I was finished I looked over my character sheet.
HUMAN. LEVEL 2.
STAT POINTS REMAINING: 0
ALIGNMENT: PURE IN THE EYES OF THE EMPEROR.
LITANIES: 17
AUGMENTATIONS: NONE
LEVEL: 121/1200
STRENGTH: 8
AGILITY: 8
PERCEPTION: 10
WILL: 6
LUCK: 16
SKILLS
FEATS
ABILITIES
"Not bad, if I say so myself. And I do" I thought to myself. I remembered something about my skills leveling up as well and I opened the screen to take a look.
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 4.
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
STUBBER WEAPONS, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
STUBBER WEAPONS, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
MELEE WEAPONS, CHAIN: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
MELEE WEAPONS, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
MELEE WEAPONS, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 3.
MELEE WEAPONS, SHOVEL: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
UNARMED COMBAT: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0
Apparently, I had gained 3 levels in Lasgun proficiency and a single level in regular melee weapons. "Must have been from that gretchin that charged at me" I thought, remembering impaling the small creature and blasting its gut full of laser fire.
Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit me and I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the ground in front of me. "How can it look just as appetizing coming up as it did going down?" I thought to myself as I laid eyes on the Soylens Viridians I just puked up. Then my thoughts turned to the horror show I had just endured. I looked over the battlefield again and the nausea hit me in full force.
The dismembered, disemboweled, and decapitated corpses of the PDF troopers that didn't make it, the dying orks that had not been killed entirely off during the attack, and the everpresent smell of death. It was a horrible mix of smells, shit and piss from the dying soldiers that soiled themselves, noxious fumes from the exposed innards of the corpses, gunpowder from the Kinetic weapons, and a heavy smell of ozone from the Lasguns.
There were still troopers dying on the field, their injuries deemed too severe to spend the resources needed to save them. I watched the several commissars walk from wounded soldier to wounded soldier, saying a prayer for them before putting a bolt in their heads. Well, putting a bolt in it was an understatement, as the massive bolts turned the heads into mush in a fountain of blood. At least it was a quick death. I felt my stomach turning again and I had to turn away to not vomit again.
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Despite the disgust I had started feeling at my actions, I began my looting again. As horrible as it was, my earlier thoughts were true. A dead man did not need his equipment. At the end of my grizzly work, I ended up with 8 more power packs and even a Laspistol that had been overlooked when the other troopers had looted the body.
I tucked it inside my jacket along with a power pack for my rifle, as the pistol accepted the same power pack. This meant I had gotten my hands on an Accatran Pattern Mark II Laspistol, a standard issue for all Astra Militarum officers. While it ate up the charge of the power packs quite a lot faster than a regular Laspistol, it also packed a bigger punch. And with the power packs being recharged either by sunlight or by thrusting them into a fire for a few minutes, I would never be out of ammunition for long. Especially not with a total of 9 power packs.
I also found a few personal items, some cheap jewelry I had no use for but figured I could sell to someone, for a few Thrones* along with several packs of Lho-sticks.** that I stuffed into my backpack. My looting done, I turned to head back to the city and realized how late in the day it had become. It had been very early morning when the attack came and now I was staring at the midday sun. I felt drained and tired. I needed something to eat and a good nap if I had a choice.
But I knew I was expected to report back to the PDF training area and so I started trudging back and spent the rest of the day continuing marching in cadence and looking good while marching. Utterly useless and a waste of my time.
A few weeks passed like this. Show up, march in cadence for countless hours, go back and sleep, repeat. Every so often there would be another ork raid but nothing like the first one we were attacked by. My level progress was slow but I slowly increased my skills by practicing on my own and I steadily approached level 3.
One day, all the PDF troopers I had trained with were gathered up on the parade grounds and a PDF officer stepped forward and started a speech.
"Troopers! Today is a glorious day for you! Today is the day your training ends and you will be assigned a station of deployment. You will be sent to safeguard Imperial worlds from the foul Xeno scum! Take heart, troopers! For your sacrifices shall guard the lives of countless Imperial citizens. Your deaths will serve as an example to the Imperium! Rejoice in this opportunity troopers! For in our pain we find glory! Remember well troopers, Victory is achieved through mettle. Glory is achieved through metal!!"
With that, he stepped back down and a small swarm of servo-skulls*** flew over the parade grounds, handing out small cards to each trooper. When I got mine, I saw it contained the information about my deployment.
Segmentum: Obscurus
Sector: Calixis
Subsector: Drusus Marches
Planet: Purgatory
The information on the card was... Lacking, at best. But it was more than nothing. Over the next few days, we prepared ourselves to be shipped out, I said my goodbyes to Nela and he told me I would always be welcome to visit if I came back.
It took several weeks to arrive on planet Purgatory. The time spent in the warp**** was time spent drilling and training. My skills increased even more and when the message finally came that we would leave the warp, I opened up my skills screen for the first time since that first attack by the orcs.
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 8.
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
STUBBER WEAPONS, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
STUBBER WEAPONS, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
MELEE WEAPONS, CHAIN: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
MELEE WEAPONS, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
MELEE WEAPONS, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 5.
MELEE WEAPONS, SHOVEL: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
UNARMED COMBAT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 3.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0
I had received some symbolic training in unarmed combat and armor use, but the real training had consisted of bayonet and Lasgun use. My increase in agility and strength also made it a lot easier to handle the weapon efficiently. I also took a look at my regular character screen to see how much XP I had accumulated before we shipped out.
HUMAN. LEVEL 2.
STAT POINTS REMAINING: 0
ALIGNMENT: PURE IN THE EYES OF THE EMPEROR.
LITANIES: 19
AUGMENTATIONS: NONE
LEVEL: 831/1200
STRENGTH: 8
AGILITY: 8
PERCEPTION: 10
WILL: 6
LUCK: 16
SKILLS
FEATS
ABILITIES
I was pretty happy with my progress, the XP growing steadily. From what I had heard of Purgatory, I would need all the advantages I could get before we landed. We had only been told that there was a heretic presence on the planet, but I knew from my previous life that where there were heretics, there were Chaos space marines. As if I was not weak enough already. Now I was going to a planet under siege from literal superhumans.
I hope I am going to make it through, though, knowing the Imperium, I could very well spend the rest of my life, fighting for control over a planet that is more or less insignificant in the grand scheme of things. If I do not get killed first, that is.
We disembarked and filed into marching position and walked towards the officers that would determine where we would be deployed on the planet. I noticed a trend as we were marching toward them. Every 3rd group of soldiers that came up to them was sent to a different section of the planet to assist the Combat Engineer Squads.
I couldn't decided where I wanted to go. The CES or the regular trenches.