Chapter 2

“Get up you miserable lot” A muscular man bellowed to the others in the small bunk room, as he entered it.

The four other men in the room stirred, waking out of their slumber. A couple groaned, one rolled over too far in his bunk and slid right off the edge. He slammed to the floor and let out a cry as he jumped to his feet, rubbing his back.

One of the other men laughed at his squadmate’s misfortune, “Nice going Bartnis” He said as his red eyes lit with mirth.

“I said get up!” The man bellowed again. He glanced over the room to see one figure still lying in bed. He walked over to the sleeping soldier and grinned devilishly as he slammed a fist into the man's stomach. “That means you too, Gregis Bachmus!” he yelled.

Bachmus yelped, and practically jumped out of bed. He glared at his assailint and groaned “Come on Dakis, you don’t have to be so harsh.”

“That’s Dakenis Varsorus to you son.” The man replied. Then he strode to the front of the room and faced the four men, “Attention!” He bellowed.

The four men in the room ran to get in line, almost tripping over each other. Once they got into a line they snapped to attention, clinched their right fist and placed it over their hearts.Their leader returned the gesture then bellowed, “At ease.” The men relaxed a bit, and dropped the salute, letting both arms hang down at their sides.

“We have new orders men,” He said as his face lit up into a huge toothy grin, “We’re finally being deployed.”

“Do you know where?” The one who’d laughed at Bartnis asked, while rubbing his short blue hair.

“No Gregis Xanes” Varsorus replied, “I have no idea where, I was just told to make sure my men were ready to move out, and that we have a meeting with the Cintaris Pellis as soon as we board the Pride of Palleon.”

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“We’re going aboard the Pride?” Bachmus exclaimed.

Varsorus smiled again, “That’s right Gregis Bachmus, we’re shipping aboard the pride and joy of the Imperis Palleous, our glorious flagship.” Then his voice dropped to a more serious tone, “Gregis Bartnis I want you to make sure all of our personal items get transferred over,” the yellow eyed man nodded and Varsorus continued, “Gregis Bachmus and Xanes I want you to make sure our weapons are cleaned, polished, packed, and ready to go.”

Then he turned to the last man in the room, “Signis Cortin you’re going to accompany me, we’re going to make sure our Counterbis has all the supplies we need.”

The men snapped another salute and bellowed a “Yes Sir!”, almost in unison, before setting off to do their respective tasks.

Several hours later Bachmus and Xanes set across each other, each with the components of a rifle strewn across the table in front of them. “I can’t believe we’re shipping aboard the Pride.” Xanes said as he wiped down the components, excitement evident in his voice.

“Makes you wonder what we’re going to be doing. If the Pride is mobilizing you can be certain the whole Imperis is.” Bachmus answered.

“Wonder if we’re finally going to deal with the rebels we’ve been hearing about?” Xanes asked, putting the piece he was cleaning down and picking up another.

“I don’t know.” Bachmus replied, “It’s about time they did though, from all the rumors we’ve been hearing you’d think the rebels are ready to tear the Empire apart.”

“Yeah, yeah” Xanes replied softly, then went quiet for a while.

They sat there another hour or so disassembling cleaning and reassembling weapon after weapon. Until Xanes spoke again, “I wonder if we’ll get to meet Praefexis Zekor?”

Bachmus snorted in disbelief, “Please the Praefexis is way to busy, he has to command the Pride and the entire Imepris Palleous.”

“He doesn't just command the Impeirs Palleous,” Xanes said, “He’s the Arxictis, Commander of the Imperial Military.”

“Exactly, which is why he’d be way too busy to meet with people as low in rank as us. We're just Gregi, bottom of the pole.”

“Well, my father said that Zekor was a man who cared about his men, that he was very easy to approach with concerns, no matter your rank.”

Bachmus chuckled, “Maybe he is,” then his voice lowered to a tone of contempt and a distant pain colored his voice, “He’d be one of the only ones”

Before Xanes could reply the door to the armory slid open and Varsorus strode into the room, closely followed by Cortin, “You boys got those guns ready yet?”

Bachmus nodded to him, “Yes Dakenis, we just finished cleaning the last ones.”

“Good, get 'em loaded on to the transport. We’re leaving in an hour.”

“Yes Sir!” both men replied.