The Beginning (cont.)

Sitting in the rear of the transport, Captain McHira replayed the events that led up to his transfer and appointment to command. It was all very strange how this came about, not that he was complaining about receiving a combat command; it was just very odd how it happened. Stephan McHira was raised in a military family Second son to attend the Officers College and graduated first in his class. His family had a long and proud history in the Imperial Guard and he was proud of his rank and his accomplishments. Lord General Coil was from a military family too, but were richer and had far more influence. Coil of course was always at least one step ahead of McHira throughout their careers. Then came Armageddon. Their system was a staging point for a massive build up of forces that was being deployed to Armageddon to stem the tide of an ork invasion. Of course, Coil’s family pulled strings and suddenly their son was in command of one of the battle groups that was being mustered in their system. When the general call went out for staff officers, Stephan McHira volunteered to join the General’s staff.

“The Lord General is a fool”, the Captain muttered to himself. The Lord General was a poor tactician, failing in most of the war games and trials he entered, but he was very good at one thing…Politics. Even though he had failure after failure in the games and simulators, he climbed the ranks until he was finally posted to a respectable command position. Since his posting here, he had never honestly been challenged. He was in absolute command and feared no one. His staff was made of officers that either feared him or owed him something, in other words, they were his yes men. Captain McHira learned quickly that if you questioned the General or crossed him, you found yourself in a rough situation. Just like where he was now.

There was one person that Coil did fear however; Lord Commissar Errant. The Lord Commissar was a veteran of at least five warzones and was like frozen steel. His stare was enough to make most guardsmen tremble and the bark of his voice left not even a millisecond to delay when he spoke. The last staff meeting the General called Lord Commissar Errant spoke of the long trip to the battle zone and how “idle hands do the heretics work”. He suggested that keeping the soldiers in training the entire trip was a good course of action. Lord General Coil disputed this and made it clear that the men will follow his orders and that was enough to win the day. He further suggested that keeping them training day in and day out would only make them weary and would be detrimental to their morale. The Lord Commissar grew silent, only staring at the General until Coil finally said “But I suppose further training in their doctrines could be useful”. Major Al’Mortine leaned close to the General and whispered something and Coil stated “that is a marvelous idea Major!” “Lord Commissar, with all of your experience who better than you to lead that training exercise” The Lord Commissar started to object but Coil cut him off “no, no Lord Commissar I see the value of your suggestion now, I feel it is so important that I hereby order that a random selection of troops be put at Lord Commissar Errant’s disposal for further training in the doctrine of combined arms.” With the order from the Lord General himself given, even the Lord Commissar could not argue even more so since it was his idea to begin with.

The Lord General chose a ship that had been retrofitted as a transport and light firing platform, the frigate He is Indomitable as the “official” training vessel. The Lord Commissar and the entire Commissariat was to transfer to that ship and over see the training. It removed them from the command ship and kept them away from the Lord General, exactly as he wanted.