Gate: Thus the Sons of Sanguinius fought there

Chapter 4 - Italica

A few hours passed and eventually, the meeting was over. The Imperium representatives and the JSDF officers had discussed about the reasons behind their coming trough the Gate, and infos about their respectives world. Both sides merely exchanged a few words over the true scale, power, economy and such of their universes, not wishing to leak too much informations. But Aradiel did enjoy the face of general Hazama upon hearing the words "an empire of over a million worlds". It was then and there that the japanese man realized that there was no way that either this world or the world behind the japanese Gate could survive a true war against the Imperium of Man.

Meanwhile, a young girl was giving a tour of the refugees camp to the boy of the Imperial Guard. The ambiance was all too familiar to Silas, despite this being his first ever deployment, he had lived most of his life in a place with very similar conditions. After showing him the bathes, which were empty and not guarded since they only opened near the end of the day, Lelei decided that she would profit that the two of them to learn more about the young man and his world.

"-Lelei: Tell me Silas, can I ask you a question or two? If you don't mind answering them that it."

"-Silas: Hm? Oh sure, go ahead. What do you wanna know?"

"-Lelei: I couldn't help but notice that you have a white strip on your helmet, while the rest of your group don't. Why is that?"

"-Silas: Well you see, that's because I'm a Whiteshield."

"-Lelei: A Whiteshield?"

"-Silas: Well that means that I'm not a true Guardsman yet, I'm still considered as just a recruit."

"-Lelei: Is it because of your age? Or because you just entered the army?"

"-Silas: Well, I guess you could say that it is because of my age, I'm only 16 after all."

"-Lelei: So we are around the same age. Is 16 years old too young for the Imperial Guard?"

The young man put his hand on his chin and looked in the air, thinking for a moment.

"-Silas: It probably depends on the situation, Whiteshields are often people that didn't fully finish their training but are still sent to the frontlines, or soldiers that have yet to see a battle. This is my first time being deployed, but I've lived with the Guard all of my life."

"-Lelei: Really? How was life before?"

"-Silas: It's a bit of a blur, I can't remember much about my homeworld. I was way too young when I left it. Then I was taken it by the Guard and I figured that I might as well join it, only life I ever knew."

He shrugged his shoulders, he wondered where he would be if he didn't join the army. Lelei for her part, seemed confused about something her friend just told her.

"-Lelei: Homeworld? Did you mean hometown perhaps?"

"-Silas: Not at wall, see, the Imperium is a very vast empire which spans over the stars, with dozens of billions of citizens across many planets, some like this one, but where there is only humans."

The apprentice mage was taken aback by this, an empire so vast could not possibly exist, could it? But then again, the things she had seen from the Imperium had for the most left her speechless.

"-Lelei: Wow, a kingdom that exist in the stars."

The blue haired girl looked to the sky. Despite not seeing any stars, she wondered what it must look like from above, seeing stars from closer.

"-Lelei: Does that mean that there is only humans in your world, like in the JSDF one?"

"-Silas: No, there are many threats to the empire. And a vast majority of them are not humans. Xenos, mutants, heretics, there's a lot of enemies for us to fight for the Emperor."