The water was at perfect temperature for a good swim. Lyll took a deep dive in the pool enjoying this weightless feeling. Finally, she stepped out of the pool, walked on stones warmed by the sun and took her towel. She sat in a comfy deck chair and took the sweet cocktail, a commissar only wearing his signature hat and a bow tie, was handing her. She took a sip of the drink and frowned. It tasted like iron… no not exactly like iron… like blood.
Around her the landscape was slowly fading being replaced by pitch black darkness. Lyll started to panic and realised she couldn’t move. Her deck chair was feeling less and less comfortable and much more like pieces of metal trying to puncture her flesh. Still lost in darkness, she felt something wet and sticky dripping on her head, flowing on her face into her mouth. She recognised the taste quickly, it was lubricant oil from her Chimara’s turret.
She was not near a pool, she was in her Chimera, in the middle of a battle. Suddenly she remembered, they got hit by a missile shot by these filthy heretics and yet she was still alive but stuck in her turret and blind. Her ears were buzzing loudly and she could smell smoke, melting metal and burning flesh.
Lyll sighed, she was blind, almost deaf and immobilised promised to a slow death cooked like a roasted grox. Unwilling to accept this fate, Lyll gathered her strength and despite the pain tried to squeeze her body out of this metal coffin. Thanks to the oil soaking her, she managed to free her arms. She reached the hatch above her, unlocked it and opened it. Luckily, the hatch had not been jammed by the hit.
Light from the outside poured into the turret and Lyll had the pleasure to discover that she was not blind, at least not from both eyes. She touched her left eye socket and felt a painful wound and a strange mass. During a few seconds, her mind wandered on her preference between a bionic eye or a pirate eyepatch, before focusing again on a more urgent problem, saving her ass.
She grabbed the edges of the hatch and pulled herself out. Her uniform and some of her skin got ripped in the process but she didn’t mind, she was outside. Without a glance around her, she looked down the hatch to check for Oliv and Zeth.
For Oliv, it was to late. The missile went through him and got stuck in his chair without exploding. If it had exploded, they would be all dead. The impact only stunned them and bent enough metal to transform the noble Chimera into an old pile of junk.
However, it also provoked the explosion of some ammunition from the Heavy Bolter which ignited a small fire and wounded Zeth. Lyll could see Zeth from above, he was unconscious and losing blood still seated on his piloting chair. Smoke was quickly filling the space.
“Zeth !!! Zeth !! Wake up son of a Grox !!” shouted Lyll with no result.
As she was about to jump back into the burning Chimera, she heard a voice behind her, a synthetic voice she knew.
“If you don’t mind Lieutenant Lyll, I think me and my friends could help you.”
Without waiting for an answer, Maam’s and a dozen of Skitarii started to open the Chimera from its side. Using their powerful tools and dendrites, Maam’s torn apart the armoring while the Skitarii were securising the Chimera by choking the fire through the initial impact hole.
Lyll couldn’t stay to do nothing, she jumped on the ground and reached Maam’s. Maam’s was really big and heavy even for someone of their kind, so as soon as they made a hole big enough for Lyll but not for Maam’s. She slipped into the Chimera and dragged Zeth out of his seat toward fresh air.
Lyll watched as Maam’s checked on Zeth. It seemed that their knowledge extended to human biology. She could see Zeth breathing as Maam’s was tending his wounds. They were mostly superficial and after stabilising him, Maam’s focused again on Lyll.
“You are in shock Lieutenant. You have been through a lot and the Emperor is proud. You should rest a bit now, you are safe, i assure. There is no place safer on this world right now. Come and sit here”
Maam’s guided Lyll, indeed in shock, and lifted her on a big pile of metal where she could seat safely.
“Lieutenant, would you like to hear another story of my homeworld ?”
Lyll took some time to answer, she was focused on the group of Skitarii who were still trying to stop the fire in the Chimera. They were tall with mechanic limbs, blue uniform and gold armor. But she was especially puzzled by their grey long coat. These were heavily decorated by handmade paintings, each unique but with common symbols. And they all add the same extension at the bottom of their coat, a wide dark blue band with red trim and a red circle in the middle. Inside the circle, there was a black stylised AM with the two letters intermixed.
“Maam’s ? Could you tell me more about them ? About their coat ?”
“Of course, they are Skitarii, the proud warriors of the Omnissiah. But these are not like the other because they have been trained on Cluniacus.”
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Skitarii are the infantry of the Adeptus Mechanicus. On Cluniacus, they are trained to be more than that. Following our traditions, their training is not only oriented toward military but also toward engineering.
Each generation is vat-grown from a selection of genes belonging to the first generation. When they are born, they are sent into foster family in Cluniacus where they grew as a normal child, as normal as can be youth on a Forge World. When they reached teenage years, they leave their family and join a special training center.
After seven years, those who are good enough, finally join the Skitarii training school. And after three more years, a new generation, a promotion in our language, of Skitarii is ready to defend Cluniacus or to be affected to any Imperial army who may need us.
Each Forges on Cluniacus produces its own promotion, they rarely mix and they all have their specialties. Each year, the combined effort of all Forges produce one thousand Skitarii. It is not a lot compared to other Forge World, and our skitarii are not the best fighters, nor the best engineers. But they are both and they have an incredible team spirit and morals.
As you may have noticed, there is a Force Cluniacus on the Forge World Cluniacus. That’s only because currently Forge Cluniacus is the main Forge of the world. In some years, it could become Forge World Cyber’s. From now on, all mention to Cluniacus will only refer to the Forge, not the Forge World as a whole.
The day they start their last three years of formation, all the .pprentices are given a plain grey coat by the second year students, the Ancients , who are responsible for the team spirit aspect of their formation under the supervision of the third year students, the X’s.
After some time, a lot of challenges, trials and finaly a huge celebration, the .pprentices earn the right to be called Apprentices and to decorate their coat, they have been machined. They are now officially a promotion (still in training) and Skitarii. It’s at this point that they all received their identification code and their bionic limbs.
After that, during their formation, they decorate their coat following their will. Most of them begin with their ID code, one letter and a number on a mustard rectangle for those trained on Cluniacus. After that, a lot show their pride of being from Cluniacus, using the symbol of the Forge, a blue circle trimmed in yellow with CL written inside in yellow.
Among the other popular symbol, there are the “Golden Key”, symbol of Legio Titanicus 133 and a stylised white AM (for Adeptus Mechanicus) on a black square.
Everything else is a personal choice. Quite often, one Apprentice will paint something on another Apprentice’s coat to show their bound and friendship.
The last and one of the most important elements of the coat is the band of fabric at the bottom of it which extend the coat to their ankles. The same extension is worn by many Skitarii because we use it as squad identification. But whereas in most army you don’t choose your squad, they choose during their training and from this point train together.
At the end of their first year, Apprentices become Ancients and will be responsible for the training of the new Apprentices. At the end of their second year, they’ll become X’s and will superwise with a wiser gaze Apprentices and Ancients. By doing this, each promotion is naturally linked to those below and above.
This intergenerational link is even strengthened by the number of their ID code. This number becomes their family name and links each Skitarii to those with the same number in other promotion. This is a very serious relationship, a bit like a godparent in other Imperial world.
I can’t explain here how Ancients and Apprentices are match but it involves a lot of discussions, parties and alcohol.
During their training, Apprentice and Ancients, learn everything they need to know to fight, use all the weapon the Adeptus Mechanicus can provide, pilot engines, and maintain them. It is only during the third year that the X’s may choose to specialise. They can become Sicarian, Electropriest, Dragoon rider or anything else….
And finally, once their training is over and after a huge celebration often involving lot of alcohol, each promotion is sent to fulfill its duty.
Promotion from Cluniacus are specialised in assisting Astra Militarum Regiment while escorting members of Titanicus Legio 133. While for instance, most of P3 promotion are specialised in defending our homeworld.
That’s how the 204th promotion from Cluniacus has been assigned to...
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“Wait, you mean you are escorting Titans ?”
Maam’s nodded.
“ Yes and some Knights too, all member of Legion 133”
Lyll shouted in exasperation.
“But where were they when we need them ??!!”
Maam’s stood in silence and just tilted their head upward. Lyll did they same and realised she was sitting on the toe of a Reaver Titan. The incarnation of the Machine-god was standing above her clad in blue and gold. Dozens of meters high, like a moving building, the Reaver Titan was waiting for its next mission. Its giant weapon were slowly moving, scanning the surroundings, ready to deploy enough firepower to level a small town.
“By the Emperor nuttsack !!!” gasped Lyll “I understand better why you said there was no safer place than here”
