Ajax could feel his palms start to sweat. He knew that this conversation would be the make or break moment that would either see him being trusted by Imperial forces or distrusted.
Finding his voice to speak, Ajax began to tell Remus Venatus about his 'dreams', "I have been plagued by dreams of a horrid breed of xenos that are called the Rangda. They give an impression of being related to the xenos breed known as the Slaugth. I see these shadowy creatures puppeteering men and other xenos alike to wage their wars. When the shadowy figures deign to enter combat themselves, many of their elite warriors are matches for Legionnaires, and they are clothed in arcane technology, like personal shields. I see these warriors sup upon the brains and bones of those they kill, Their spine festooned ships prowl the void and launch blasts of shadowy radiation that hollow out entire ships. My dreams give little detail, but I get the sense that the enemies we will face will only be vanguard of a greater threat." Ajax willed his logokine abilities to make him seem as genuine and unassuming as possible. If he was perceived as a threat now, that would not end well for him. Remus sat in a stunned silence, processing what he had just heard.
In a slightly awkward tone, Remus replied "Well, you certainly have an active subconscious. You had asked me to provide reassurance. I hope you're not asking me to affirm this dark dream of yours as that would go against the Imperial Truth."
Ajax hurriedly reassured him saying, "No, Not at all. I merely wanted to tell someone who could be a witness. I felt that if I allowed the thoughts to remain unspoken, my 'active' subconscious might twist reality to fit the prophecy. I believe in the Imperial Truth, but I also believe the subconscious is responsible for the old beliefs in the supernatural.
This way you can help me hold myself to account, when my prophecy inevitably falls through." That seemed to reassure Remus, at least as far as Ajax could tell. The smile returned to Remus' face and he replied, "Good. then it's a promise. Now we both just have to live through the battle. That will be the easy part, right?" Remus chuckled at his small jest and Ajax allowed a smile to return to his visage.
"On that point, I was hoping you might be able to provide some assistance," said Ajax. Remus' eyebrows raised in a questioning look, "Oh, how so?". "Well, my men and I will be going into battle against an unknown alien foe. That leaves my men afraid of the unknown and more likely to fight poorer or flee. So I figured that I could inure them to the fear of an unknown alien enemy by having them fight something much scarier," replied Ajax.
Looking slightly askance, Remus Venatus looked at Ajax and asked, "And, what exactly would that be?" A wry smile touched the corners of Ajax's mouth as he said something that bordered on heresy even in these more secular times, "Space Marines!"
The next day 10th company had formed up in the training hall. All 100 men were formed up into their individual squads. There seemed to be a nervous energy in the air. There were only a few days left before translation into the Xana system. Hetman Kjarrick was nowhere in sight, neither was Bashaw Vareeb.
Some of the men started to look around, confused. Then they heard the sound of running footsteps coming from the side of 'The Hellhouse'. Rounding the corner of the building, Hetman Kjarrick was jogging up to the formation kitted out in simulation armor and carrying a sim rifle in his hands.
Hetman Kjarrick came to a halt in front of the formation. Craning his neck to check that all troopers were accounted for, Hetman Kjarrick started, "Alright men, today will be a more realistic situation. We will be having multiple squads entering in at roughly the same time. Command channel will be Alpha. Squad channels will be Beta, Gamma, Delta… and so on. Stay off the channels if your squad is not in 'The Hellhouse', Today will be focused on preparing to fight a superior force. Any questions?" A trooper shouted from the back of the formation, "Superior how sir? Numbers? Armament? Fire support?"
Hetman Kjarrick smiled a grin that seemed a little evil to his troopers before saying "Do you lot suppose the actual enemy will tell you? Figure it out and use your throne-damned heads! Squad leaders make sure you have designated a second in case you become simulation casualties. Seconds designate your seconds, or I guess thirds in this case. Maintain the chain of command at all times and coordinate together. Squads one through 4, you're up first"
Squads one through four individually entered the 'The Hellhouse' at hand signals from Hetman Kjarrick. The squads had tuned their vox beads to the correct channels and the squad leaders were monitoring both the command and squad channels. "Squad 1 moving down central ventricle. Squads 2, 3,and 4, do you copy?"
"Squad 2 copies."
"Squad 3 copies."
"Squad 4 copies."
"Squad 4, it looks like you are to our right flank. Do you have visual or anything on sensors?"
"Negative, Squad 1."
"Squads 2 and 3, you're to our left flank and our rear. Same question." "Nothing to report from the left flank, Squad 1."
Silence filled the channel.
"Squad 3. Status report. "
A staticy burst filled the channel.
"Say again, Meron."
The static filled the command channel louder this time, but some words came through broken up by static
"***ve *** *ontac* ***** 1. Big ******* ****** fast. Thr****-da**** fast. T**** **sualties. N**** **pport."
"Squads 2 and 4, Crescent formation with Squad 1. Move in support of Meron."
" Squad 4 moving."
A long silence filled the channel again.
"Squad 2 are you moving?"
Nothing came across the command channel.
"Throne-dammit, What's your status, Juno?"
A sudden loud burst crossed the command,
"1 **** is 4, we **ve con***-".
The link suddenly cut out.
"Oltan?" a voice frustratedly asked across the command channel.
There was no response.
"Throne-dammit," muttered Decan Keth, squad leader of Squad 1. Keth looked around the corridor that Squad 1 had been moving down. The corridor was an awful place to mount a defense, but, based on how fast the squads had lost contact, it was going to have to work.
"All right boys take up defensive positions. Half the squad take up watch on the forward doors. The rest take up watch of the rear doors. We're going to have to shoot it out." Each man in the squad took up positions behind the few crates and support beams in the corridor. The forward door exploded open suddenly. The door panel flew several meters into the corridor and a large moving blur exploded into the corridor moving faster than anything that big ought to. The thunderous noise brought the entire squad's attention to the rear.
In a panic, Keth shouted "Open fire!". The entire squad opened up with their sim las guns, raining a hail of sim las fire on the moving….beast. Across the beast's blurred flesh showed a line of simulation wounds, the other squads had managed to do some damage, but not enough. The beast appeared in front of two troopers, swinging it's clawed hands at their heads. Its limbs stop suddenly right in front of the face plates of their troopers, only a milimeter away from crashing into their helmets. The simulation armor of the troopers locked up and they fell to the ground 'sim-dead.' The other troopers had yet to adjust their fire and were stunned as the beast ran through them. Knocking one trooper after another out of the simulation fight, until it ran right up to Decan Keth, who was shivering trying to keep his damn rifle steady. The beast's claw rested lightly a top Keth's helmet, and his armor promptly locked up causing him to fall to the ground.
Two more sets of squads entered 'The Hellhouse' and were promptly demolished by the Space Marines in costume. Though Space Marines was being used in the narrowest sense, Remus and only one of his brothers had needed to move to eliminate each set of squads that had entered the building. The closest group to actually defeating him, according to the simulation rules, had been the first. Squads 1-4 consisted of the best squads in the Company.
The squads after were crushed even faster. Ajax watched the horror show through his data slate uplink, shaking his head. He could understand the feeling's of his men. He and Bahsaw Vareeb had run the scenario as a two man squad multiple times. They actually hadn't been able to land a hit on Remus until their tenth attempt, and their longest survival time had been approximately forty five seconds.
Ajax felt that good officers didn't ask their men to do things that the officers were unwilling to do themselves. That meant he and Vareeb had to be the first guinea pigs. As he saw the last man defeated from the third and final group of squads, Ajax walked around the building to the backside where most of his men were sitting on the ground stunned, laying on the ground staring at the ceiling, or just walking around aimlessly in shock.
Bashaaw Vareeb was standing around with a wry grin just watching the men. It seemed to be the smile of a man who knew exactly what his men were going through. Seeing his Hetman round the corner of the CQC, Bashaw Vareeb straightened up and shouted, "Form up you cloned pieces of grox manure!" The troopers were sat there dumbstruck for a heartbeat before their military discipline reasserted itself and they ran to find their place in the formation.
Intentionally ignoring the less than perfect display from his men, Ajax stood in front of his men. Though the men had their eyes facing front, Ajax could tell they wanted to hang their heads in shame at their performance. Ajax focused his attention on the squad leader of Squad 1 before askin, "Squad Leader Keth, What happened?". Looking uncertain Decan Keth returned the question with a question, "Sir?"
Expecting the confusion, Ajax took it in stride and asked, "The usual objective when entering 'The Hellhouse' is to clear it. That clearly didn't happen this time, so what happened?"
Keth stood there agape, but Ajax let him gather his thoughts. After a long pause Keth answered the question, "Our squads were engaged by an extremely deadly xenos and defeated in quick succession."
Ajax nodded his approval before asking his next question, "Squad Leader Meron, How do you suppose you were all defeated separately? Besides the fact that the enemy was extremely deadly." Urix Tal Meron, a taller than average gene trooper with bald head and with a scar hanging just to the side of his left eye that wrapped around the whole side of his head, stood at attention mulling the question before finally answering, "Our formations were too spread to fight a threat that fast, and it was on us before we had a chance to plan a strategy. We also had no real knowledge of its capabilities."
Ajax half-nodded before saying, "Mostly correct. You were given 30 seconds before enemy contact, so you could have started planning sooner. You simply did not. But mostly correct." Ajax turned his focus to a shorter, stockier trooper with a fine coiffed blonde haircut and asked, "Squad Leader Oltan, Why was vox contact so spotty once contact with the enemy began?"
This time, the squad leader, Havrak Ser Oltan, was prepared and answered immediately, "The enemy had some interference generator, but we would have been able to bust through it if we had been closer and kept better sightlines between squads. The walls added to the vox interference."
Turning to the fourth and final squad leader, a leaner, blade like gene trooper with a sharp jawline and sharper cheekbones, Ajax asked the question all the troopers had been wondering "Squad Leader Juno, Why did I set up this scenario?"