Session 1: return
A world was passing by.
The dark shapes of pine trees flew past in the dark night as corporal John Quoner stared out of the train’s window. The trees loomed up in the night ready to claim the unwary. A sudden break in the trees revealed a brief view of fields with livestock visible in the dark night. John closed his eyes.
Just like home.
When he opened them again he saw the trees were once again reaching out for the train. He tore his gaze away from the out side view and looked across the train cabin. Next to him dozed trooper Miller, John smiled; his friend was sleeping as if they were on their way to the rear, not the front. Across the small aisle sat another two troopers from their squad, Tim Bowman and Harry Kinner, in front of them were two replacements, he didn’t bother to think about remembering their names. They were nobodies until they had survived their first battle. That was the rule; you were a no one until you had made it through your first fight.
He was a veteran of three battles although the first was barely a skirmish. Two Tau squads had being cornered in a hab block; the platoon went in and came out with twenty-two combat kills for eight dead and twelve wounded two serious enough to be sent back to Brimstone. In the second battle he had been wounded in the arm but stayed with his squad though the 36 hour battle to gain control of a small town, even when the transport got hit by three rail guns “old faithful” had carried on the worst damage been the complete removal of the turret. His third battle had been in the rear guard as the imperial forces withdrew from the town. He had taken another injury in that one, a pulse round in the lower leg that got him a med-evac back to the city of Darkmoor.
Now he was going back to the war, back to his life. He couldn’t remember what civie life was like. Once you had had those first angry shots going past your ears or pinging off the cover that you were cowering behind then you became a soldier.
A slight decrease in speed brought Quoner out of his revere. He turned round and saw lieutenant Mean, another replacement, stood in the cabin door behind Miller. The lieutenant began to move forward tapping troopers on the shoulder as he passed. Miller stood up and retrieved his kitbag from the overhead compartment; John was a few seconds behind Miller, Bowman and Kinner behind him. The train pulled up against the station and the doors opened without a sound, the troopers stepped off onto the platform, just ahead of each door were stacks of auto rifles, ammo pouch belts and loose ammo bags. Each trooper received one MA16 rifle, one ammo belt with: ten clips with thirty bullet capacity one canteen, one bayonet and one loose ammo bag, each bag had five hundred loose rounds. After receiving the supplies the troops made their way off the platform to their waiting chimera fighting vehicles.
Soon the platoon was heading towards the north end of the town, then john remembered what the town was called
‘Deathwood’
