The actual drop to the planet below was a pretty standard affair; the Chimera personnel carriers were driven into the whale-like mouths of the drop-ships, the monumental black constructs descending through the atmosphere at speed before engaging thrust and landing with somewhat of a [b]thud[/b], before the huge ramps dropped once more to the earth to reveal the outside world.

What was the outside world?

Sheol Arcadius was a Frontier World only 'recently' colonised by the Imperium after the last ripples of the Second Tyrannic War had subsided from nearby Ultramar, a world formerly occupied by the Tau Empire and taken only after the repeated sacrifices of many Penal Legions down to the last man, it was a rugged world of sparse vegetation and ruins that had once been sleek Tau architecture - now little more than blackened wreckage - the population made up of the disenfranchised, the lawless and nearly the entire populations of multiple Hive cities from further inside the Imperium. All-in-all it was quite the disappointment, little vegetation and only a couple of forests, the level of technology no higher than that of a Civilised plant and where there was not seas of water there were seas of grass.

Landing Area Echo/150 was a patch of ground some miles away from the nearest settlement, surrounded on all sides by mountains that had been flattened by the Mechanicus for this very arrival of Imperial forces. All around the landing site were prefab buildings of every description, from barrack houses to wash houses and latrines, officers quarters, Command Headquarters and rec-buildings all - they were in a dull grey colour, of course, for nothing more could be expected from pre-built structures.

One-by-one the various regiments embarked, the Chimera under Sergeant Ninke rolling out with the rest, pausing briefly to allow the squad within to exit the vehicle before it was taken to the nearby motor pool. Once each soldier had stepped once more into the light, possibly shaken but possibly not, they were ushered by a Ministorum clerk over to the left-hand side of the landing ground (a huge square of flattened and packed earth); it was here that the foot sections of each regiment now lounged about, waiting to be called up for a briefing or assigned to their barracks, the mixed personnel of formations ranging from the Mordian 11th in their pristine blue uniforms, to the 18th Savlar Chem-Dogs looking for all intents and purposes like a Penal Legion with better equipment.

The 87th Combined was bunched together bit-by-bit, three-thousand soldiers and their equipment, each section being briefed by their commanding officers. As such, it was only a matter of half-an-hour before Junior-Commissar Sigrun came to find Ninke and her fellows, ordering them to follow her to an isolated part of the LZ where Captain Rochus waited for them in his Steel Legion garments. 

The last squad had just disappeared around the corner of a barrack-block when they were placed before the Captain.

"Welcome to Sheol Arcadius," he began with a sweeping hand, "you may not realise it from where we are, but there is a vast and rugged planet out there. It seems that, not intent on losing it to our forces decades ago, the fish-heads have decided to come back and 'reclaim' it for their 'Greater Good' and such. We are here to stop them, of course." One hand rubbed itself over his square jawline and the legionnaire pointed to a number of chairs placed on the open ground before where he stood and paced, "please...take a seat."

Pressing a button concealed in his palm, a sickly green image rose from the holo-emitter between he and the squad, blank for the moment but then filled with a layout of the local vicinity.

"Firstly I will need a call-sign for your rabble, Sergeant," he directed at Ninke, "now listen up."

"To the north-east of here is a settlement that needs to be held, to the north-west is open land that needs to be re-conned, to the immediate east is a wide expanse that leads to another settlement of unknown strength or loyalties, and to the west a port-town that is of strategic importance." Something like a laugh came from between his teeth, "we of the 87th have been given a rare opportunity...to be allowed to choose our own way of doing things. I am giving you the opportunity to choose now, from these vague opportunities, before telling you more."

Everything was vague, made deliberately so by order of the higher-ups, but whatever they chose would have intelligence attached to it that might possibly shed some light on things. Arcadius was a frontier world after all, technologically low and populated by inhabitants who had no love for the Imperium or their God-Emperor really, information was scarce at best and survey teams had been absent from the planet for quite some time. Giving each squad a sudden, sharp and imprecise choice was at least getting things moving without slowing things down even further.

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