Kestrel

Chapter 3 - The Wasteland

I

In the barren landscape of the Zebeil badlands, the weather was hot and the air was harsh. The badlands were down south of Imperial Territory, the outskirts near the border of the Empire of Aurellia. The badlands saw heavy fighting during the War of Supremacy in the Third Era, when the Primarch rose against the Ancients and laid the foundations of the New Order. Thousands, if not millions of the Augustus' brave soldiers had marched here more than a decade ago, fighting, shedding blood and giving their lives under the standard of His newly-forged Empire. Some of the battered and broken wreckages of the armored vehicles that saw service in the war still littered the dunes. Shattered derelicts of steel that seemed to be a natural part of the land, the wreckages were now only husks of their former selves. The wasteland was a semi-arid region with sparse vegetation where rainfall came seldom. Apart from the main Imperial base, garrisons dotted the place to guard and monitor the southern frontier of the Empire.

It had been an hour since the Wyvern-pattern gunship from Excelia had brought them to Scythia Sigma: one of the many Imperial outposts on Caledonia, Zebeil. The soldiers, now three months into their training at the Fortress of Excelia, have been assigned to conduct a routine patrol of the badlands. It was one of the many field experience requirements they had to meet before being considered full-pledged Ciphers.

It was late in the afternoon, and the heat was blistering. Centurion Alicia Vostroya and the rest of the 14th contubernium were in the conduct of their patrol of the barren plains of the badlands. They were advancing in the standard squad-unit column formation: the two fireteams arranged into inverted V-formations. Being the patrol leader, Alicia led her detachment by the book as their boots walked on the loose soil and the occasional dry grass.

After almost 45 minutes on patrol with almost nothing worth to report, the group was closing in on the end of their circuit – right by a small rocky hill. Alicia had immediately issued orders for her troopers to converge on the hill as soon as they entered the twenty meter perimeter of the craggy mound of earth that had been designated as the end of their patrol route.

With the downward cut of her hand, the legionaries broke formation and stormed the hill with drilled precision. The soldiers began scaling the rugged embankments of the marker hill. As soon as they reached the top, they jumped down into a low ditch worked into the peak of the hill. Immediately, they ran through every corner of the place, not leaving anything to chance. Assured that there weren't going to be any surprises, the eight-man contubernium took defensive positions on the edges of the hilltop to watch the vicinity. The altitude gave them a good view of the badlands for hundreds of meters around.

'Adept,' Alicia called, finally breaking the silence.

'Right here sir,' Ario heeded the call as he doubled to Alicia, hauling his field voxcaster on his back.

'Report to Outpost Scythia Sigma.' She started, fixing her hair and wiping sweat off her brow. 'Point Rho-Delta-Phi reached. Situation normal, nothing out of the ordinary.'

'Understood sir.' Ario replied as he keyed in the details on his voxlink transceiver.

'Everyone else,' Alicia turned to address the rest of the men. 'Fifteen minute break.' She said, setting her assault rifle down and resting its barrel against one of the rocky walls of the ditch. 'But keep on watch, stay sharp.' She reminded them.

Alicia put her kit down and slumped back on a rock. She took her stainless steel canteen from her pack and removed its cloth jacket. It was moist with water droplets along its side as the hot air from the environment contrasted with the cold water held within the vessel. She rubbed her ungloved hand on the side just to cool her skin. Alicia wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her palm and took a breath. She gently unscrewed the cap and took a sip from the canteen, careful as she was not to empty its entire content in one swig. The cold water touched her lips and smoothly went down her system. A refreshing respite from the afternoon's sweltering heat.