Ancient History.

The Realm Of The Gods. 

The god Krom. The war god of the orks. Makes his way up the hill to where his long hall is located. When he gets to the steps that lead up to the front doors. The war god pauses as he hears the ruckus inside. 

He rolls his eyes as hears his 'people' in the middle of a feast. The war god slightly shakes his head as he doesn't particularly want to be in the middle of that. 

Krom, who by all appearances, is a large man in his middle years. Decides to head around to the west side of the long hall. 

Here a part of the hill has been set aside for his use, and his use only. Even the orks here in the afterlife keep out of here. About the only time they actually obey their god in his realm. 

So much so that they've even built a fence along the west side of the long hall. Not particularly good fence, as it's a mix of wood in parts, and a stone wall in others. 

Orks, in both life and death, aren't particular good at building anything. They're great at making certain things, such as weapons and armour. But building things is something else entirely different to the mind of an ork. 

The war god crosses the twenty yards or so to the fence, which comes to about waist high on him in places. 

Krom goes to lean on a section of the wooden fence, and thinks better of it. And instead moves over to part of the wall that's made up of stacked stones and rocks. 

Which looks a bit more sturdy, especially compared to the wooden part of the fence, which would probably fall over if he leans forward on it. 

The god, one of the few remaining war gods of the world of Volunell. Gently leans on the stone section of the fence, and looks down the side of the hill, and at the landscape in the distance to the west. 

Krom sees flickering images every so often. Orks here in the afterlife, going about their business. Usually fighting one another, or eating and drinking which they tend to do more than anything else here in the afterlife. Which to be fair, is pretty much all they do when alive, on the physical plane of existence. 

The god of the orks sees a young ork, a child really. Or what orks call an orkling. Briefly flicker into view, and look around in surprise at where it finds itself. 

Krom with a distant look upon his all to human face, watches as an axe appears in the orkling's right hand. Then it yell and shout in the language of the orks, as it starts chasing after something. 

The orkling flickers in mid stride, and disappears from view. Though the war god within his mind, still sees it, along with every other ork that's here in his realm of the afterlife with him. 

Krom closes his eyes, and a memory pops into his mind. An ancient memory, from before when the world of Volunell even had gods. From before those would become the gods of Volunell even showed up on this world. 

More Than Thirty Thousand Years Ago. Another Galaxy. 

Imperium Legionnaire Commander Osaen Krom is pushed back in his seat as the gravity well of the planet takes effect, and the single seater ship he finds himself in plummets. Not that you actually plummet in space. You just pick up velocity. 

Osaen who is just wondering why he didn't take one of the dropships, flinches as off to one side, about three thousand meters to his right, a ConFed dropship explodes after it's hit by the debris of a Calmaein warship that's been torn apart by particle beam strikes. 

"That's why you're not in a dropship you idiot" Osaen Krom the Legionnaire Commander mutters to himself as his vessel continues to plummet. 

Osaen sighs, for the reason he's plummeting towards the planet of Calmae is because his single seater ship has lost control. 

The Legionnaire Commander who has crashed landed before, in a number of different vessels. Just shakes his head, as he tries to pilot his vessel through a field of debris. As the battle above the planet of Calmae continues. 

Osaen Krom grimaces as something slams into his ship, and he hears a loud crack from somewhere in the vessel. 

His helmet automatically comes up out of the collar of his powersuit, and envelopes his head. The Legionnaire Commander sourly smiles to himself, as his suit already has a pretty good idea of what's about to happen. 

Osaen who has lost most controls on his ship, can only watch as particle beams, and spacial torpedoes from both sides of the conflict go flying by him in all directions. 

By an utter miracle, Commander Krom who is kinda physically piloting his single seater ship. Goes through the wrecked hull of a ConFed transporter. 

Entering through one side, and going out the ragged hole in the other side of the massive vessel that exploded just after it came out of FTL flight. 

Though he does mutter "Fucking hell" as he sits there holding the joystick which he's yanked out of it's mount because he pulled back on it with so much force. 

The commander in the Imperium Legionnaires sighs, then drops the joystick in the footwell. Kinda wishing his hard implants weren't so powerful. 

Osaen tries flying the vessel by the UI, and when that fails, he tries the touch interface. And that fails too. 

Commander Krom rolls his eyes, then not bothering to use the ship's comms, since they're not working. 

He directly communicates to the command ship using his powerful implants. The soft implants which can be used to communicate for hundreds of kilometers, even in space. 

Commander Krom reporting, stet, says Osaen via a secure Legionnaire network.

Ship out of control, and heading planetside, stet, continues the commander of the Fifth Legion. 

Though not one to usually show it, especially in front of his legionnaires. Osaen Krom nervously swallows when he hears no reply from the command ship. 

The Legionnaire Commander is just wondering if the command ship has been destroyed. He can't tell, because he's unable to access any telemetry of the overall battle at the moment. 

When suddenly his vessel rolls to the left, and he's shoved back into his seat as the single seater ship picks up even more speed. 

"Fuck" groans Osaen Krom as he wonders how he's experiencing so many gee's, when he's yet to drop down into the upper atmosphere of the planet Calmae. 

Then the vessel starts weaving from side to side at an incredible velocity, which would render anyone with lesser hard implants than a legionnaire unconscious. 

Commander Krom winces and grimaces, not just at the forces he finds himself under. But also because he's going through the heart of the battle. 

With particle beams, spacial torpedoes, and even upper atmosphere missles and velocity munitions flying all over the place, as hundreds and hundreds of ships, both large and small. From both sides of the conflict, battle it out above the planet of Calmae. 

The legionnaire commander slowly lets out a breath as he realizes what's happening. And he nods to himself. 

For though there's no ISS Captain with the fleet. If there was, the combined Legion and ConFed fleet wouldn't be in this mess. 

There is a pilot from the ISS onboard the command ship. A pilot who has taken over control of Osaen Krom's single seater ship. 

And by the HUD that's suddenly working again in his helmet, and the ship's UI. The ISS pilot has taken over a lot of the vessels in the combined fleet, which were previously out of control. Or under heavy attack from the enemy. 

The Legionnaire Commander glances to his left, and rolls his eyes at what he sees. The commander of the Fifth Legion doesn't bother reprimanding one of his legionnaires. Who is in his power mech, flying down to the upper atmosphere of Calmae. 

"Probably safer than any of us" mutters Osaen Krom as the power mech is shooting off ballistic missiles in space at a Calmae orbital fighter that's got too close. 

Commander Krom snorts then chuckles as the enemy fighter is blown apart, as it's shields were no match for ballistic missiles designed to destroy other power mechs, and main battletanks. 

Then in mid chuckle, the Legionnaire Commander gulps, then grimaces as his vessel basically stands on it's nose. 

He winces as he has a pretty good idea of what's about to happen. 

"Yep" murmurs Osaen Krom, who then let's out a sigh as the thrusters which he gave up trying to ignite some time ago, suddenly engage. 

And his single seater ship, officially designated a SSDS or single seater dropship. Or unofficially called a flying coffin by the legionnaires. 

"Thought that was going to happen" adds the Legionnaire Commander as his SSDS is shot straight down into the upper atmosphere of the planet Calmae. 

The heat shield slams up over the canopy, much to the relief of Osaen who is pretty sure this class of vessel shouldn't be able to enter atmosphere at such an angle. That angle being straight down. 

After just a few seconds, the heat shield retracts, and the Legionnaire Commander who is now tracking both Legionnaires, as well as ConFed soldiers, entering the atmosphere. Not to mention the Calmaein forces defending their planet. 

Looks straight up, as his single seater ship starts to slowly level out. And he sees a ConFed heavy transporter. Basically a massive dropship. 

Streaking fire and debris as it passes overhead just a few hundred meters, as it rapidly drops down out of the atmosphere. 

Watching the doomed ConFed vessel heading towards the ground below. Commander Krom suddenly feels his SSDS lose power. 

"Ah" murmurs Osaen Krom, who then silently adds, well that fucking sucks. 

CS1 to SSDS18 you'll have to glide her in, stet, says a voice over the LegionNet. 

SSDS18 to CS1 understood, stet, replies Osaen Krom who sees a flight path for him that's come up in both his internal net (Within his mind) and on the HUD of his powersuit's helmet. 

Tell the ISS Pilot thanks, stet, adds the Legionnaire Commander, who knows that no way in hell he could of brought his vessel through the battle up in orbit, down into the atmosphere of Calmae without the help of the ISS Pilot. 

You already have Commander, stet is the reply from the voice onboard the command ship. Which Osaen suddenly realizes isn't just on the LegionNet but straight into his internal neural net (Mind). 

Luck, stet, adds the ISS Pilot onboard CS1. And before the Legionnaire Commander can reply. Comms from the command ship is cut off to him. 

And he understands why, and he pushes most of the other data he's taking in, into the background. As the ISS Pilot wants him to concentrate on bringing the SSDS down in one piece. 

Using both the UI and the touch interface, to control the gliding vessel. What little control he has over those two systems. As he's using power from his own suit to barely run them. 

It takes Osaen Krom nearly twelve minutes of flight to bring the SSDS down to land. Barely avoiding both SAMs and AtmoBeams. 

Both of which need their targets to have a hell of a lot more power than Commander Krom's vessel is pumping out, to get a lock on. 

Osaen who just glad there's no enemy mechs around in the immediate vicinity, who would definitely destroy his SSDS. 

Grimaces as his crippled, basically powerless vessel starts wobbling in midair as it gets closer to the ground. 

"Ah fuck" mutters the commander of the Fifth Legion just before his ship crashes into the ground. 

Osaen Krom, who would freely admit he's an average pilot at best. Especially when it comes to orbital, and space flight. 

Though to be fair he's an above average pilot in atmospheric flight. Especially in planes that actually work. 

Is somewhat of an expert in crashing. As he's done it plenty enough during his time in the Imperium Legions. 

Didn't even bother to deploy the impact foam, or even extra nanites to cushion the blow from crashing. 

As his hard implants and powesuit easily absorbed the impact of the crash. As the SSDS is more or less still in one piece. Though bits and pieces, are flung out behind it, as it dug a trench in the ground for nearly a hundred meters along from when it hit before stopping. 

The restraints retract, and Osaen cuts the power from his suit to the downed vessel, then he has to kick up at the canopy a couple of times, sending it flying as it won't open manually. 

"Government made piece of shit" mutters the Legionnaire Commander as he climbs out of the wreck of his ship, and looks around. 

You alright sir, stet, says subcommander Madau aka The Death Dealer over the LegionNet. 

Looks like you crashed, continues the subcommander, who after a pause adds, again, stet. 

Osaen Krom ignores the laughter from various legionnaires over the LegionNet and just shakes his head as he scans the immediate vicinity. 

I didn't crash, that was just a vigorous landing, stet, is the dry sounding reply from the commander of the Fifth Legion. 

Howls of laughter continue over the LegionNet at that, and even more when The Death Dealer says. 

I don't know sir, that looked like a pretty good crash from here, followed by, infact one of your better ones, stet. 

Legionnaire Commander Krom sourly smiles to himself. Then after finishing his scans, he starts issuing orders. 

As he does, Osaen moves off. Thinking to himself he won't do that again. Which it turns out, he will do again in future, as he has lousy luck when it comes to dropping planetside during operations. 

And though he might not be a great pilot of space and orbital ships. He is great at one thing. And that's battle. Which he's about to enter, here on the rebel world of Calmae . . . . . .