[centre][h2]Four weeks later on Arosep Tertias, the township of Shayrith[/h2]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/G2LsJNVr/Uzanian-Rifles-Insignia.png[/img]

[@DeadDrop][@Katthaj][@Oak7ree][@FrostedCaramel][@CaptainBritton][@Jamesyco][@Hank][@caliban22][/centre]



[i]Uzanian billets, located on Temple Passage...[/i]


The Uzanian 2nd Company was dropped initially by Valkyries into the Arsevain Grove - a quite spacious clearing in woodland many miles behind the front line, of more than ample space to allow drop and assemblage of the thousand-or-so offworlders and their equipment, including some five-dozen domesticated grox for the carrying of heavy equipment and supplies - from there they made their way further inland, splitting apart into their respective platoons, the platoon of Second-Lieutenant Hasenkamp moving by foot to their new temporary home in Shayrith.

Shayrith was a medium-sized self-sustaining township of some couple-of-hundred civilians, as well as a handful of PDF troopers - more like glorified police than actual military, useful to garrison towns but for little else.

Initially given a warm reception by the citizens of the town, these recently liberated folk soon dipped into a pattern of lukewarm contact between the Imperial soldiers and themselves. That was apart from those that dealt in favours of the body, and the trading of alcohol, occupations that always supported those with money whatever their leaning or occupation.

For nearly a month now - remaining clad in their Caidan pattern rainments for far longer than had been promised! - the Uzanians had had little else to do but patrol the streets, sleep away their days, and engage in close-order drill and marksmanship from time-to-time; for those that wished to melinger, to gamble, to see nothing of war it must have been close to a paradise, but to those who wished to see some fighting and to cover themselves in glory in was like the Warp on earth.

Boredom was surely setting in when smatterings of units began to made their way back toward the Grove for departure, the Imperial fleets controlling the space and skies for the moment, while their enemies were contained but continued to prove formidable adversaries on the ground.

Soon enough the Uzanians were greeted by columns of Arcadians, their distinctive spider cult markings visible even beneath wounds and the grime of war, mechanised trails of Brimlock Dragoons rattling through the town in plumes of dust and smoke, and Corscan artillery moved back along with their Basilisks and other heavy field pieces; even more regiments, companies and squadrons moved through on their way to the front, but the Uzanians neither saw nor heard anything of the conflict but what they were told in official documents or by word-of-mouth - neither of which were exceedingly trustworthy sources either way.

As the fourth week of peacekeeping duty was coming to an end, the weather a balmy haze of heat and cloying moisture, the rot of boredom all but complete among the platoon (and likely all across the 2nd Company itself) and light began to flash on the platoons vox.

Once the message was recieved and decoded, it was discovered to be a plea for support from a patrol of Faeburn Vanquishers that had apparently come under heavy fire from unknown enemies while moving through the woodlands only a couple of miles from Shayrith.



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Hasenkamp pounded down the corridor of the Uzanians billet house, an old farmstead just outside the town connected to what was known as 'Temple Passage' because of the large number of... well... temples - the largest and most cntral building served as the barracks, another as the medical station, another as the cookhouse and another as the HQ building.

The young [i]Leutnant[/i] fairly flew from the HQ and into the barrack building, glancing about the sleeping or milling troopers until he found Sergeant Baumeister and his archaic self.

"Sergeant [@Jamesyco]," he said, gesturing for him to come out into the hallway, "I want the men dressed, kitted out and ready to move in ten minutes, they are to assemble in the courtyard," stated the younger man simply and plainly, "all will be explained then, needless to say I do believe we're about to get a bit of action."

With that, and a smile plastering his face, the eager officer checked his equipment as he made his way into the courtyard that was the focal point of the farmstead and waited.