I Die Standing

Entry 2: The Ride

"When the people forget their duty they are no longer human and become something less than beasts. They have no place in the bosom of humanity nor in the heart of the Emperor. Let them die and be forgotten."

-Leto Barbaden, Governor of Salinas, quoting from the Prime Edicts of the Holy Synod of the Adeptus Ministorum

This is the last time I shall see my home again, the last time I shall remember the very few happy memories I have of this place, of my family. I know as an Imperial Guardsman my service only ends in death and that there are few ways for me to get out of the guard alive. 

0530, Terran Standard Time. 

I will never get used to the streets of this hive city. I have lived here for my entire life and I still get lost in this damn place, it's like a damn maze every time I walk somewhere, but eventually, I found my way to where I was going, Station 35. I've seen the station a couple of times before but thought it was a simple PDF fortification but apparently, it was the place where I could be transported to Fort Greythorn and the Underhive, when I got to the front gate a guardsman said to me "Are you a conscript?" I said yes and then pointed to a large group of men in a square formation. When I was making my way to the formation I saw another group of men walking into a large tower of some sort, I didn't know why, but that didn't matter because a sergeant pointed at me with, I assume a betting stick? and said "You conscript! get over here immediately!" then pulled me into the formation. I tried to look at my surroundings but two sergeants were patrolling all around us and one told me to keep my eyes front so I decided not to get beaten. I didn't know how long we stood there but eventually, the sergeants told us to march into the tower, we did, in a very sloppy way, but we got inside nevertheless and the sergeants told us all to sit down and it was quite nice to rest my legs for a bit, but to my left, I saw a window looking into a room full of guardsman, one of them looked and nodded to one of the sergeants and the sergeant nodded back.

Immediately, the room started to move downwards and then I realized that this whole place was a giant elevator. Both sergeants walked in front of the group and one Immediately spoke up and said, "I'm Staff Sergeant O'Rourke and the person to my left is Sergeant Morrison! From this day forward we will drill to become Imperial Guardsmen, you should take this as a great honor, a gift from the God-Emperor himself to be able to show his true might. Now listen, there are three rules you should follow as a guardsman, One: Keep faith in the Emperor, Two: a good soldier obeys without question, and Three: Always respect your officers. Now stand! we will reach Fort Greythorn soon." I should put this away soon, I'm lucky that I haven't been caught with this yet, I don't know what it's going to be like in this Fort Greythorn but I just hope the Emperor protects me and that I have the courage to survive this.