Flashing red light bled through Silver’s eyelids. Opening them, he sighed in dismay, for the reality of his situation was unchanged. He and nine other uniformed soldiers stood tensed within the belly of an airborne Valkyrie transport. Unknown to the surrounding guardsmen, Silver was not of this world, or even this galaxy. He had slipped through the Immaterium, the Aether, or more commonly known as… the Warp. Silver found it funny now looking back, how he had left his peaceful life and fallen into this grim-dark reality. Well, funny was an inaccurate choice of word, in reality when he looked back he felt this entire experience to be absolute insanity.

A garbled voice, one which he associated with the pilot, broke him out of his thoughts. Clarity rushed back into his mind. They had nearly arrived…

He felt the metal deathtrap which carried them rock and shake, they were most likely taking fire from surface based anti-air weaponry. Gravity seemed to shift as the transport rushed towards the surface. The red light which lit the interior of the craft flickered and dimmed with each exploding air-burst round, some glancing off the hull.

“Five seconds!” The pilot’s voice echoed within the small space Silver and the other nine soldiers occupied.

Gravity turned once more, slamming down onto his body as the Valkyrie landed. The red lights switched to bright green as the main hatch smashed into the ground. Light flooded the transport and the nine soldiers charged out, as for the otherworldly visitor, he almost mechanically followed.

As his boots hit solid ground the transports hatch sealed behind him. Dust and debris obscured his vision, kicked up by the Valkyrie leaving to complete whatever additional task it had been assigned.

“Into the trench! Move, move!” A nearby sergeant barked out.

Moving forward, Silver kept pace with his fellow guardsmen as they rushed into the indicated trench. Around them a battle of epic proportions continued with little care for the new arrivals. The scream of Artillery shells, ballistic rounds, and energy blasts flying overhead echoed across the warzone. Even the ground beneath Silver’s feet shook from the various impacts and detonations. Silver felt extreme fear and anxiety, yet the adrenaline in his veins kept him moving forward. Or perhaps it was the harsh gaze of a nearby commissar that seemed to drill into his soul.

As Silver followed his squad through the trench his ears rang fiercely with each heavy bolter emplacement they passed, the constant reverberating bangs which occurred as each round was fired nearly shattered his eardrums. Staying close to his squad and glancing around him, Silver could see the battered defenders, most were injured while some were most likely dead. It would seem the corpses would only be moved should they present an obstacle to the war effort… otherwise they were simply ignored.

Currently there was one thing Silver could consider remotely positive about his situation. This was that the light of day still shone… sadly this was only partially true, some areas of the battlefield were still cloaked in twilight as the star’s light was blocked by the world’s cloud-cover and thick smog which clung to the lower atmosphere. Silver shuddered at the thought of fighting in total darkness.

As the group neared another heavy bolter emplacement, Silver heard an awful screeching. Seconds later an artillery shell landed within the defensive line. The nearby heavy bolter’s crew were sent flying away from their entrenched position, their fate unknown. As for the squad Silver had landed with, they were perhaps even less fortunate. The closest members of the squad were blown apart, while the furthest had been perforated with lethal shrapnel. Silver had been at the rear of the squad, he could be considered lucky as the guardsman in front of him had blocked most of the fragmentation. Unfortunately a few bits and pieces still managed to clip him, the left side of his body taking the majority of the damage.

Wounded, but still alive. His ears rang heavily, but he could still hear the bark of a nearby sergeant ordering him to man the heavy bolter. Silver grit his teeth, rising to to his feet before struggling over to the emplacement. Crouching and manning the entrenched gun he got his first clear look at the battlefield. A green tide was sweeping over the defensive lines, these Greenskins, these Orks, were unending. Readying the heavy bolter, Silver opened fire downrange into the tide of green. After a few minutes of continuous fire he noticed another guardsman had been ordered over to refill his ammo supply, unsurprising, as these guns were essential in stemming the green tide. Coughing violently, Silver struggled to keep the heavy bolter sighted on the Orks. Blood dripped from his mouth as the shrapnel wounds he had received earlier had begun to take their toll. The vibrations of the heavy bolter had exasperated his wounds and he knew he wouldn’t survive.

As the green tide finally overwhelmed his position and with it the rest of the trench line. Silver’s dying view was of the laughing snarling grin of an Ork, and the makeshift pistol it carried being pressed to his head. A flash and a bang sent him on his way.

[You Died]

“Fuck!” Silver’s voice echoed within a dark void. He could still hear the laughter of the Ork that had finally ended his life.

[Calculating Life Results]

[Time Alive: 47 Minutes | Awarding 0.047 EP]

[Kills: 17 Ork Boyz | Awarding 0.17 EP]

[Life Significance: Null]

[Total Existence Points: 2.574]

[New Life | Store | Stats]

“System, open the [Store].” Silver requested after a moment.

[Confirmed.]

[Store]

[Weapons | Armor | Vehicles | Training | Life Starts]

Silver scanned his choices before eventually settling on the [Training] category. He had browsed the lengthy menu before and found he currently could only access training relevant to the Astra Militarum. Even so, this did not mean he could learn anything and everything he wanted to, everything had a cost and sometimes even a prerequisite. If he wanted to receive the training of an Elysian Drop Trooper he had three options available to him. His first option would be to purchase the “total package”, thereby receiving the complete knowledge and training permanently. Next he could delve deeper into the training menu and make individual purchases of the various aspects that went into the overall training, at a premium cost of course. Finally, he could rent the knowledge and training. Should he do so he would gain all the benefits of the training, however, at the end of his next life he would immediately be stripped of everything he had gained that he did not officially own.

Silver continued to browse the various categories before settling on the best option he could dream up to accumulate more points during his next life, well, his most affordable option. He was lucky to find that the system had marked certain items as being on sale. Knowing he had to capitalize on this chance, Silver thus he spent two of his hard-earned points on a couple rental items.

[Shopping Cart]

[Earthshaker Battery Training (Rental - Duration 1 Life) (90% Off) - 1 Point]

[Life Start - Earthshaker Crew (Single Use) (50% off) - 1 point]

[Confirm?]

“Confirm.” Silver said before darkly laughing as he rejoiced that this time he would be sending the artillery at his foes rather than being on the receiving end.

“Start [New Life], use start [Earthshaker Crew] and rental option [Earthshaker Battery Training].” Silver requested with a hint of a smile on his face and mad visions filling his mind of him blasting orks to smithereens.

[Confirmed!]

Rapidly the void around him began to crack, light shone through as the cracks spread across the void. Silver simply waited, he had been through this before after all.