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Ave Imperator

by Imperaxum

Chapter 1: I

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"No, wait, I got this. That's an emperor eagle, right? Imperium of Man?" said a curious man, looking over my costume in a convention hall flooded with people aping every kind of character imaginable.

Close. And kind of right.

"You got the second one. Where'd you hear about it?" I said, pleasantly surprised at this random man. He looked a little unsettled by the gaudy and exaggerated garb around him. Perhaps he was latching on to my costume's relative plainness.

And cheapness.

"Warhammer 40k? Internet, man, an imgur comment section, actually. You guys are like bronies, except 40k's metal as fuck."

I winced a little at his mention of my other greatly loved fictional universe. "Right. This," I gestured to the symbol painted on to the side of the grey helmet I held in my hands, "is the Imperial Aquila. Of the God-Emperor of Mankind, praise be unto his name."

He stared at me for that, but cracked a grin when I smiled. "Sorry. I get a little into it," I said sheepishly.

"Naw, I love that kind of commitment to the character," the man laughed, "I mean, looking at all these more, uh, flamboyant costumes - and then the actors just kinda standing there and chatting. Breaks it for me. You looked perfectly dour for your costume."

"Thanks!" I said, grinning somewhat falsely. In truth, I was ashamed of my pitiful costume in comparison to the elaborate labors of love all around me. The dour look matched my overcoat, smeared in dirt and left outside for a few weeks.

A woman walked up, embraced the curious man, lit up at the sight of me.

"Now, don't tell me . . ." she said, frowning good-naturedly, "you're Imperial Guard? Hammer of the Emperor?"

"Yeah! Well, that's close enough. How'd you know?"

"She plays the game. The toy game," the man started to say.

"Miniature game!" the woman and I instantly corrected, then broke out laughing again.

"Sorry. She plays the elf guys. Eldar?"

I suppressed a grimace. Overpowered bastards.

"Eldar," she affirmed, nodding her head, "I like your get-up. Not as insane as those Space Marines, and really gritty. I don't recognize that uniform though."

The Space Marines were insane, and I didn't want to be sighted with them. A 7-foot tall full makeup of power armor was an incredibly impressive cosplay - a guy in an overcoat with an overburdened belt and a German replica steel helmet, clutching at a fake rifle, was not.

"I'm not going as a Guardsman," I said, causing a flash of confusion on her face, "nah, I'm PDF. 113rd Infantry Regiment of Haufen."

"Planetary Defense Force," I added a second later, "the redshirts for the Imperial Guard redshirts."

"So they're like conscripts or something?"

I was feeling dramatic. "Sometimes. The PDF isn't one force - it's literally a million different traditions and styles and worlds. The PDF can be gang-pressed hordes, proud elite units, tribal warriors with spears on horseback. The only thing they share is ultimate allegiance - allegedly - to the Imperium of Man. They're usually more loyal to their planetary government or hive city. They make good traitors in the books."

The woman joined in. "The Imperial Guard are the soldiers sent around from planet to planet. The Space Marines are the face of Warhammer 40k, and their basically warrior super-soldier monks. The PDF hardly get featured at all."

"Exactly," I agreed, pointed at a man in bulky green armor standing at another booth, "over there's a Cadian, he's an Imperial Guardsman."

The man paused, thoughtful. "Well, tell me the story!"

"Huh?"

"The story. '113rd Haufen?' I love hearing the stories. You're doing something obscure in a niche hobby, I'm intrigued."

"Well, all right," I said. This convention was going better than I thought it ever would. "I'm a PDF trooper from the planet of Haufen, obviously. Infantry. It's a planet with a tilt on its axis that means you don't get very far from the equator without running into frigid or scorching weather. Not necessarily fatal, but exposure would kill you without preparation very quickly. There's a ring of hive cities around the equator, and all sorts of nasty things in the northern and southern wastes, some outposts."

I held out the model gun in my hands, bulky and boxy. "This is the lasgun, standard infantry weapon, based off the Lucius pattern." Oh boy, I was getting into it now. "It's cheap, rugged, and crude. The PDF maintain a lot of outposts in the hostile lands, just to make sure nothing too horrible gaining in strength out there."

He nodded. "I love it."

"The Haufen PDF is somewhat experienced in some parts, especially compared to some of the PDFs on other worlds, but they're still ineffective. If some pirates showed up, sure, they could deal with it. Bloodily. But if a Chaos invasion or Tyranid swarm or Ork horde appear . . ."

I was getting a little negative. I had to salvage a little pride. "I mean, not to say they're all bad. The PDF is like your nation's military. They can be any spectrum of skilled or large, it's just when something really bad happens, they're not enough. Not even close."

"Fascinating! I gotta go, man, but that's great," the man said, and he and the woman moved on.

That was great. There was a lot more I could have said. Culture, regiment structure, how I was from one of the pseudo-Frontier regiments - and of course the worship of the Emperor, Haufen being close enough to Holy Terra that the faith in the God-Emperor was quite strong. If the rest of the convention was to be like this . . .

All that imagination paying off. All those cosplayers going as Ultramarines could suck it and put their two-hundred hours worth of effort away. Heh.

It was hunger that had me walking foor the entrance hall of the convention, where vendors were selling overpriced food. My eye lingered on a well dressed man, speaking with an flamboyant cosplayer hefting a gigantic fake sword from some anime or another. A very nice cosplay, but not one I understood. It was luck that I was still blankly staring at them when they exchanged something small and the well dressed man walked off, snapping a previously unseen suitcase shut and dropping a trinket. He walked off.

I ran over to return it, and laughed a little when I got a good look at the small necklace on the ground. It was unmistakably an Imperial aquila, golden and well-crafted. What a coincidence.

"Hey, man-" I started as I leaned down, grasping at the aquila.

A wave of nausea overtook me with absolutely no warning. It was sudden and was like a physical force in its unexpectedness, and I doubled over in shock.

"Oh God!" I moaned, turning, wondering where the bathroom was, mind and body reeling from such a suddenly overpowering affliction. i didn't get close.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the well dressed man watch me with an almost annoyed expression.

Retching and tugging at my overcoat in a frenzy, I collapsed, and the world when black.

Author's Notes:

+THE EMPEROR PROTECTS+

Next Chapter: II Estimated time remaining: 31 Minutes
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