It was a little surreal. After nearly a year where the only other human face he might see was his own, to see so many all gathered in one place. The 1st Terran Marine Regiment stood in its entirety on the parade grounds of Shil Capital Base Three. Rows upon rows of black clad infantrymen – and women.

There are rather a lot of women, he noted curiously from his position atop a makeshift stage.

To his surprise, the ranks seemed to be made up of about a seventy-thirty split of men and women - in favor of men. Because, while he wasn’t entirely sure of the numbers, he was pretty certain that pre-Imperial invasion, men outnumbered women in the armed forces by a much wider margin. So, to see such an even split-suggested someone had done some number fudging somewhere.

Though, if he was totally honest, part of him was surprised that the Imperium hadn’t gone with an entirely male regiment. Demeaning as it was, he was familiar enough with the culture to realize that an entirely male regiment would have been a hell of a statement for the male-definition Imperial culture.

Especially as a parade regiment, he thought. Because I’ve no doubt some Shil’vati military enthusiast might just cream herself at the sight of a regiment composed entirely of men.

In this case though, he had to wonder if good old-fashioned prejudice had won out over titillation, resulting in some Shil’vati analyst skewing the recruiting process in favor of ‘real’ soldiers.

Or perhaps it was our new colonel, he thought, looking over to where the woman was surveying the troops from her spot at the podium. She did say she wanted a combat regiment rather than a parade one. Would she skew the results in favor of what she thought was the more combat capable sex?

He didn’t know, and it didn’t benefit him to dwell on it.

To the left of him were the regiment’s senior officers; a scar covered Rakiri major, two Shil’vati captains, and one remarkably timid looking plant woman whose rank markings read as first lieutenant. All women, naturally.

Finally, the colonel stepped up to address the troops, striding over to where the microphone stood, causing four thousand men and women to snap to attention as one.

"At ease.”

Another synchronized snapping of boots rang out.

"Ladies and gentleman, in the course of forming this regiment, I have had cause to hear some disturbing hearsay. From my colleagues. From crotchety old nobles. From the average woman on the street.” She scoffed. “Hearsay that humanity is not yet ready for this step. That Earth is still a divided world. Not truly a part of the Imperium. And that forming an entire regiment of soldiers from that world is to invite discord and conflict into our own military.”

She paused significantly.

“All of which I believe to be true.”

Though her previous words had failed to elicit little more than the slightest hardening of expressions in the men and women below, those words caused just a hint of muttering among the ranks. Even as he watched, sergeants began to wade in to correct those few ‘troublemakers’, but they stopped in their tracks as Cleff raised a single solitary hand.

“Humanity is discord! It is rage and fury and chaos!” She roared. “Just look at Earth. For seven years the full might of the Imperium has tried to grind down those last few bitter embers of resistance that still fight. And for seven years they have failed. Despite a hundred ships in orbit. Despite millions of boots on the ground. Despite armor that resists anything humanity can muster. Despite it all, that savage hateful surge of human resistance remains.”

Jason glanced at his colonel, more than a little bewildered by her rhetoric. A sentiment he knew he wasn’t alone in.

“And I think that’s beautiful,” she said finally. “As a commander, what more could I wish for? A people that will never accept defeat. A people who know no respite. A people who will fight in the face of impossible odds, because giving up is unthinkable to them. What luck! What fortune I have, to be able to command that indomitable will!”

She grinned in a manner that did little beyond expose her razor sharp teeth.

“Follow me, my soldiers. Follow me and I shall unleash you upon a cosmos that has yet no words for the chaos you shall inflict upon it. Show them. Show them all what humanity is. Show them what real war is, and I promise you this, no one shall ever again question humanity’s place in the Imperium.”

Men and women alike roared in approval and glee, their competitive spirit, or perhaps even simple tribalism, stoked to new heights by the fiery colonel’s words. Cleff watched it all, that same shark-like grin upon her face, before finally raising a hand to motion for quiet. A quiet that quickly fell.

“Our champion, the Hero of Gurathu and an example of the human spirit in action, will now unveil our standard."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Jason reached over to pull on a piece of rope attached to a nearby pole. In a single motion, the black flag unfurled to reveal an image of Earth surrounded by teeth and claws.

“It took me a long time to decide on the words of our regiment. I read many of humanity’s greatest works. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The memoirs of the great Patton - and then Rommel. All great men. All with great ideas." She paused a moment to let the notion sink in, before taking a deep breath and continuing. “In the end though, it was a simple phrase that resonated most with me. That encompassed all I felt that made humanity great.”

Glancing at him, she nodded, and Jason tugged the rope again, unfurling the second part of the flag. Revealed beneath the emblem of their new regiment stood the proud words, ‘Tooth and Claw’.

At the sight of the words, the troops formed a thunderous noise, one generated by thousands of electrified soldiers cheering and stomping as one. Even the non-humans among the crowd seemed swept up by the fervor. This time, Cleff was content to let the noise taper off by itself. Something that took nearly a full minute.

"In a month the regiment shall embark on a journey to the very edge of the Periphery, to an Imperial world that has recently been infested by a band of pirates whose arrogance has far outgrown their good sense. May the goddesses have mercy on their poor deluded souls, for they have no idea the storm that is about to befall them. Mark my words, humans, this is the beginning of your legend. A legend that will span the length and breadth of the cosmos, a lesson on why you do not cross the Imperium. For they may see fit to unleash humanity upon you.”

Another roar of approval leapt from the crowd, before they were summarily dismissed. Something that took some time, as moving four thousand troops was not a small number of people, and disciplined as they might have been, moving a large number of people out of a relatively small place took time. A fact that demonstrated just why a large cadre of no-nonsense experienced non-coms were a requirement for any military to function.

However, the task was eventually accomplished, and only when the last soldier had departed the area did the colonel finally turn around from her spot on the pulpit, strange black eyes roaming over her fellow senior officers – and Jason. Then the triumphant smile she’d been sporting morphed into a scowl.

“Now that that’s over with, we have a problem.” She said, turning and marching off the stage without preamble. “Follow me.”

Her fellow officers quickly moved after her, though he couldn’t help but notice that the first lieutenant flinched at the colonel’s tone, her leaves shivering, before following. Not that he really cared about her problems. He had one of his own. Specifically, if that last ‘order’ included him. In the end though, he decided it better err on the side of caution. He figured it was better to be accused of being too eager to follow orders than to accidentally ignore one.

As they strode across the base, enlisted troops stopping to salute the woman as she passed, Jason found his thoughts wandering to just how strange a role he found himself playing. The role of Champion held no true command authority. At least, none above that of a Sergeant. Yet within that context, he was still expected to accompany the command unit at all times - and have his own color guard when on deployment.

Yet, in all ways that mattered, it was a symbolic role.

Which was anathema to what he understood of a modern Earth military, but reinforced that the Shil’vati did things differently. Where everything had its place on Earth, things tended to be more fluid for the Shil’vati.

Probably to avoid stifling some petty noble scion who wants to do things ‘her’ way, he thought as they stepped into the massive warehouse that was the regiment’s motor pool.

The row of exos he was walking past were proof of that. Most were uniform, but a few stood apart. Whether older or newer, he wasn’t sure, but certainly of a different make and model. Some held heavy slabs of riveted armor across their forms, while others looked almost as sleek as a ballerina.

Still, logistical nonsensicality aside, it was an impressive scene.

The interior of the building was a bustle of activity, the sound of power tools, and the low thrum of powered fusion engines echoing throughout. To some, he imagined it might have been overwhelming, but to Jason the constant noise was soothing. The exo racks were arrayed in long rows, leaving just enough room between them for engineers – specifically human engineers - to rush back and forth as they ran checks on the large humanoid machines.

Above each machine trailed long cables from the ceiling above, slotting into the machine’s various ports or hanging loose like some manner of great fat snake dangling from above. One didn’t need to be an engineer to know that some cables were for diagnostics, some were charging systems normally kept separate from the onboard generators, and some were refueling maneuvering thrusters. Even as he watched, a Shil’vati pilot spoke with her human engineer from the open cockpit hatch of her machine, before bringing up an arm and giving the rotary laser cannon on it a spin.

Personal exos, he thought as he looked at the mech’s strange dimensions when compared to its counterparts.

He didn’t even want to imagine the logistics complications that those things created. Though it did make him wonder just how long it had been since the Shil’vati had fought a real war against a true peer. One where the, admittedly massive, sinews of the Shil’vati industrial machine were really stretched to meet a war time demand.

Here’s hoping I never live to see it, he thought, as his eyes roamed over a gaggle of exo pilots as they arrogantly strutted over to where the repair crews were working. They were nearly all Shil’vati, barring the single Helkam amongst their number. It seemed the exo corps was to be the exception to the mostly human make-up of the unit.

I wonder if that’s a permanent arrangement, or if it will be changed as the first human exo pilots graduate? He’d need to ask Raisha if there were even any humans in training at the Aviary? Though surely she would have mentioned it if there were?

Distracted by the exos as he was, he nearly bumped into the Shil’vati captain in front of him when she came to a stop, before arresting his momentum at the last minute. It seemed they had reached their destination.

Turning around, he came face to bumper with a true behemoth of a machine.

At a guess, it had to be at least twelve feet tall – and nearly half again that in width. It had a sloping angular hull - clearly designed to help deflect enemy fire - the large composite plates sporting a mottled grey camo paint job. There was no visible canopy or windshield – as he had come to expect with Shil’vati craft – instead he had no doubt that the exterior was dotted with an innumerable number of cameras and sensors. Rather than tracks, it instead had a system of six wheels, but rather than using a rubber outer coating like most vehicles on Earth – and indeed in the Imperium itself – it instead had a strange honeycomb structure that looked to be formed from some kind of plastic.

Though it’s obviously not plastic, he thought, resisting the urge to run his hands over the material.

Truth be told though, that wasn’t what was really catching his attention.

“Are those… tanks?” the rakiri officer asked, a scowl forming on her features as she unknowingly echoed his own thoughts.

Indeed, for just a split second, he had thought he was looking at an oversized APC or IFV. Mechanized infantry fit well with the notion of ‘speed was life’ that Shil’vati combat doctrine subscribed to, and he’d seen news reports of them being deployed on Earth - to devastating effect. Hell, he could see some off to the back of the building, stowed bumper to bumper.

The vehicle in front of him, and it’s compatriots to either side clearly weren’t APCs though. As evidenced by the gigantic turret on top, sporting an equally lengthy barrel.

No, these were definitely tanks.

Actual Shil’vati tanks, he mused. I didn’t think they had any.

“Which mothball did they pull these out of?” one of the Shil’vati captains asked – the shorter one, whom he was only just noticing had metal studs running through her tusks – whose name tag he quickly read as, ‘Friska’.

“I don’t know,” Cleff said. “They arrived this morning, along with the rest of Fourth Company. All human crews had to train in their use.”

"Rather than the Exos we were expecting,” the other Shil’vati sighed.

Tall even for a Shil’vati – if a bit slimmer than average – she had a hint of an upperclass accent that pegged her as being from the capital. Of course, he’d already pegged her as noble stock well before she’d spoken. Ignoring anything else about her, the fact that she was wearing an exo-piloting suit had pretty much made that a foregone conclusion.

A quick glance at her nametag told him her name was ‘Gremp’. A name that was, to his mind, totally at odds with her faintly aristocratic demeanor – and more than a little comical as a result.

“Politics,” the Rakiri hissed. “They’re trying to sink us before we even start.”

“What else is new?” Friska shrugged irritably. “Though, credit for pulling a long con. No idea how they managed to justify training an entire company of humans to use outdated hardware.”

That was… actually a bit of a relief. Jason had actually been quietly panicking, thinking that this was an attack by Hela’s family on his new regiment – and that somehow he’d be blamed for this, given that Cleff was well aware of the troubles that might accompany his presence in her regiment. Fortunately for him, it was exactly as the ornery captain had said. This scheme would have had to have been put into action months ago, long before his ‘heroics’ at Gurathu.

Of course, then Cleff had to go and burst his bubble.

“Not as hard or as long as you might think,” Cleff said tiredly. “Most of those crews are ex-tankers. They needed more familiarization with the vehicles than training from scratch.”

To his surprise, Friska’s mood seemed to improve a bit at that. “Well, that’s not ideal, but it’s something. At least I’ll be the only one present whose command isn’t entirely composed of baby faces.”

Jason had no idea what she meant by that, but judging the irritated expressions the rest of the captains made at Friska’s grin, it was clear the others did.

“Can you use them?” Cleff asked finally.

“Both Gremp and I know the theory,” Friska said, unconsciously running a finger along the studs in one of her tusks. “But most of what we learned at the Aviary was about destroying tanks, not commanding them…”

Jason was a little surprised. He really should have figured it out sooner, but it seemed that Friska was also an exo-pilot – and had been expecting to command the second exo-company. She just wasn’t wearing a suit.

And doesn’t act much like a noble, he thought, wondering if the woman was one of those rare few ‘plebians’ like Raisha that had managed to slip into the exo program.

The woman in question ran a hand through her short spiky purple hair. “Fuck it. I’ll do some reading. Brush up on armor tactics. I figure, hell, given where we’re going, they might actually be useful.”

Given the expression on Gremp’s face, it looked like the other exo-pilot doubted it, but kept her opinion in check.

Cleff nodded. “Alright, do what you can. Consult with the humans if need be. We’ll get through this, and once we finish this deployment, I’ll try and trade them out for exos as soon as I can.”

She paused. “No idea what I’ll do with the crews, but I’ll snap that branch when I get to it.”