Gate: Thus the Sons of Sanguinius fought there

Chapter 2 - Evacuation

The convoy advanced on a dirt road under the sun of Falmart. Due to the lack of windows inside the chimeras, which were normally used for quick deployments of troops and not for recon missions, it was rather hot inside. Thankfully there was a small ventilation system that allowed the guardsmen inside to not suffocate and be rather at ease inside despite the temperature.

There was nothing too noticeable in the verdant plain, but for most guards inside the convoy, it was truly a new sight.

The squad inside the first chimera was rather silent, there was sadly no windows inside the armored transport due to the weak constitution of glass, which prohibited the soldiers from seeing the green view of a healthy and untouched planet.

"Anyone here have been to an Agriworld before?" Asked Mattius, one of the male soldier.

The answers were clear, none came from the abundant sources of food that were the planets dedicated to the agriculture.

"-Mattius: Come on, none of you come from an agriworld?"

"-Caleb: It's no use sergeant, most of those guards come from Ildras II."

"-Mattius: Ildras II? I have never heard of this world."

"-Elias: It's an Hiveworld, me, Wiloma and Kaider come from it."

"-Caleb: The three of you were dragged together if I remember your files correctly."

"-Elias: Me and Wiloma were drafted in the annual tithe of guards to replace the loses of this regiment, Kaider volunteered to stay with us."

"-Teloah: I can't tell if it's courage or stupidity."

"-Kaider: Hey!" The interested answered in a bit of annoyance.

"-Caleb: Cut it out you two." His imposing voice instantly stopped the small conflict between the two guards. "According to the vox with the conductor we are approaching a small village. The prisoners said it's a village going by the name of Coda."

"-Mattius: What are your orders sir?"

"-Caleb: Our mission is to explore this world for now, this will include investigating about the inhabitants. We are gonna try to do this nicely but if anything happens and this ends up going worse than expected, you have my authorization to shoot at will."

The captain then contacted the rest of the convoy about their arrival to the small village, ordering them to start reciting prayers to their lasguns so that the machine spirit would be awaken.

Around ten minutes later, the three vehicle have stopped in front of the wooden entrance of the village.

The roads of the villages were full, they had not fled when the convoy approached, which is something that Caleb found rather odd.

The guardsmen squad moved in position as the Leman Russ stayed alert to prevent any dangerous incident.

An elderly men, short of stature and with balding grey hair walked to meet the two squads of soldiers, followed by three men armed with pichforks, but without any menacing look.

Caleb had been drilled in learning the language of this world during the month he had been at the military base of Angel's Fall, the hive city where the Gate had appeared. That is one of the many reasons of why he was selected as a leader of an on-site mission. He signaled the squads to stop as he too advanced in direction of the elder.

He greeted the small elder, showing both of his hands to signal that he came with no ill intentions.

"-Village elder: Welcome to our village travellers, I am the chief of this village. Pardon my curiosity but are you members of the JSDF? If so your companions passed trough us yesterday and we would be happy to indicate to you where they went."