Daily Duties of a Space Marine

+++ Ordinance LXVII–VII–55.8922
+++ Temporal reference: 833.717.M30
+++ Concerning the Regulated Daily Observances of the VIIth Legion Astartes During Periods of Fortress Garrison

 

{Applicable to Battle-Brothers Not Assigned to Active Combat, Patrol, or Guard Detail}

By decree of Maximus Thane, Grandmaster of the Imperial Fist legion and the High Legion Command under the sigil of Terra, the following schedule is ratified for all duly sworn Battle-Brothers of the VIIth Legion during garrison duty. Deviation without superior dispensation is subject to censure. 

0400 — Reveille
At the fourth hour, reveille shall be declared by authorised vox-hailing the ceremonial tolling of the Gilded Bell of the Eternity Gate upon Terra, sounding seven times in solemn remembrance of the VIIth Legio Astartes.

0400–0415 — Rite of Purification
Battle-Brothers shall cleanse the body in full discipline, with particular attention to face and hands. Shaving and grooming shall be conducted without excess. Thereafter, pre-scribed light attire shall be donned: linen tunic, linen braccae, and regulation leather boots.

0415–0430 — Morning Stratification Brief
Immediate superiors shall deliver formal notice regarding Legion and Centuria status, logistical updates, and forthcoming duty allocations.
 
0430–0445 — Deca-IKM Agility Trial
A short-distance {10 Imperial Kilometre} obstacle course shall be undertaken in light at-tire for the cultivation of endurance, coordination, and fraternal bonding.
 
0445–0515 — First Nutritional Allotment (Refectory)
Consumption of approved sustenance: optimised nutrient pastes, protein rations, and vi-ta-mineralised hydration fluids.
 
0515–0600 — Foundational Physical Conditioning
Engagement in weight resistance exercise or heavy construction labour, as determined by availability and strategic necessity.
 
0600–0800 — Close Assault Discipline I
Instruction and regulated duelling in unarmed combat and short-pattern close-assault weaponry, including (but not exclusive to) dagger, knife, club, and gladius. Cage engagement protocols apply  

0800–1000 — Structural Doctrine Instruction
Formal academic study of architectural theory, materials science, and principles of integrated fortress defence in accordance with VIIth Legion siege and defence tenets.
 
1000–1145 — Ranged Weapons Discipline I
Live-fire exercises with approved sidearms: bolt-, pyre-, plasma-, inferno pistols and Volkite Serpentas. 
Mobile and airborne targets shall be engaged at graduated distances.
 
1145–1200 — Weapon maintenance
Cleaning, inspection, and recalibration of all issued weaponry.
 
1200–1230 — Second Nutritional Allotment (Refectory)
Increased intake of protein broth, vat-grown muscle substrate, and vita-mineralised hydration fluids.
 
1230–1300 — Midday Performance Review
Structured analysis of individual conduct and efficacy during the first operational section of the cycle. Discussion shall remain disciplined and devoid of superfluous sentiment.
 
1300–1445 — Decuria Tactical Ballistics Drill I
Armoured live-fire exercise within simulated combat environments. Primary objectives: maintenance of fire lines, coordinated manoeuvre under hostile engagement, and adaptation to variable terrain.
 
1445–1500 — Weapon maintenance
Cleaning, inspection, and recalibration of all issued weaponry.
 
1500–1530 — Deca-IKM Armoured Endurance Trial
Standardised run [10 Imperial Kilometres] conducted in fully activated Astartes power armour. All armour systems shall be assessed for operational integrity.
 
1530–1630 — Close Assault Discipline II
Advanced instruction in medium-pattern close-combat weaponry, including (but not exclusive to): power sword, chain sword, mace, and axe. Counter-polearm engagement training. All drills to be executed in full armour.
 
1630–1700 — Panoply Maintenance Routine
Primary armour recalibration and minor restorative procedures. Remaining interval devoted to black carapace interface care and auxiliary wargear maintenance.
 
1700–1800 — Decuria Tactical Doctrine
Academic instruction concerning evolving tactical doctrines and formal review of recorded battlefield engagements.
 
1800–1830 — Third Nutritional Allotment (Refectory)
Sustenance as previously authorised.
 
1830–1900 — Evening Performance Review
Analytical discourse concerning conduct during the second operational section of the cycle.
 
1900–2000 — Decuria Tactical Ballistics Drill II
Armoured live-fire engagement emphasising mid-range weapon systems and coordinated heavy support integration at Decuria scale.
 
2000–2030 — Philosophical Contemplation 
Contemplative instruction in doctrines of war, brotherhood, strategy, and tactical virtue. Tuition in matters of the Imperial Truth and the new Lex Imperialis.
 
2030–2115 — Ranged Weapons Discipline II
Live-fire instruction in mid- to long-range weapon systems against mobile and airborne targets at graduated distances.
 
2115–2215 — Legion Strategic Theory
Hololith-assisted instruction advancing comprehension of warfare at Legion magnitude. Examinations shall be administered for the identification of candidates suitable for future command elevation.
 
2215–2245 — Fourth Nutritional Allotment (Refectory)
Final regulated intake of nutrient paste, protein ration, and hydration allotment.
 
2245–2300 — Last Performance Review
Analytical discourse concerning conduct during the second operational section of the cycle.

2300–0000 — Discretionary Interval
Permitted activities include wargear refinement, personal craftsmanship, approved study, or regulated fraternal contest.
 
0000 — Curfew
At the zero hour, curfew shall be declared by vox-hailing twenty tolls of the Gilded Bell of the Eternity Gate upon Terra. All Battle-Brothers shall enter rest-cycle via activation of their Catalepsean Node immedately thereafter.

Imperial Citizen - Helmuthros Baran, Veteran-scriptorus of the Logisticae

Helmuthros Baran frantically rubbed his hands. The cold he felt never ceased. He was old. Very, very old. Juvenile treatments had brought him to his 177th year of life, but nobody had told him about the side effects. He felt hollow somehow. It was as if every breath he took created a deep, crunching echo in his chest.

A beam of pale artificial light illuminated his desktop. He no longer wrote with the others in Hall Alpha 44 of the Logisticae scriptorium. The heating there was dreadful. So he had obtained special permission to work in his private study, a remuneration for almost 150 years of service. And in all those years he had never told them. Not even the boy. He should have. Karpat was a good child—ambitious, of course, but also true of heart and brave beyond the usual unexciting profession they both shared.

And now it was too late. Too late to share his deepest secrets with the boy he felt for like a son. He had taken Karpat Jaleph under his already brittle wings as soon as he had learned of his exceptionally high administrative intelligence and his quite unusual interest in Terran history.

And a good part of that late history was still alive behind Helmuthros’ eyes. The early years of his service: accompanying dangerous military expeditions of a Warmaster who called himself only the Emperor, serving as an army purser at merely seventeen years of age. He had begun chronicling his experiences soon after joining, as he started seeing things nobody in his family could ever have dreamed of. Faraway lands where indescribable creatures crawled and flew; strange skies with suicidal clouds and rainbowed winds of fear and despair. Yet in the end, all of this paled in comparison to the secrets he had been told and shown in his childhood in South Pacificus.
The old man shivered from head to toe. Once again, he heard the forgotten songs of ancient sand and felt the inverted shadows of cursed rocks upon his skin. And he saw it. A chill ran down his spine, ignoring the thermo-pack they had provided him with after his last treatment.

He stood up, rubbing his shoulders, and stretched his back. A protesting crack followed. Then he slowly strode over to the cogitator they had rolled in a few weeks earlier. It hummed, still unable to harmonise its unwelcome noise with the buzzing of the old dataslate on his desk. Everything was irritating, even here—in his private room.

He walked slowly past the flickering data screen projecting delivery quotas and acquisition datasets to the back of his cell and sat on an elegant stool beside his bed. It was sunny today beneath his section of the climate conservation field, and rays of honey-coloured light fell through the window. Of course, they provided no warmth any more, having been filtered and modified countless times while passing through the force shield of the Imperial Palace.

He knew he should have told everything to his boy. Not just the adventurous parts of his childhood stories, the fables and fairy tales of the Pacific dusts. It was too late now. Karpat Jaleph was gone, drawn towards the forbidden plains no longer covered and suppressed by Terra’s oceans.

Helmuthros stooped down and turned the bed heating up to eleven. Then he took off his fur-lined boots and slid beneath the thick blanket, curling into a foetal position. He stared at the scuffed back of his bookshelf and closed his eyes. He would soon fall asleep, and he knew what he would dream of again: a place so barren and hot that it freezes your soul.

The thing with the Voss'es

Admission paper XFG-Signus-677-8999234555.834221 / Discipulus Solomon Voss

Dear honourable Ladies and noble Gentlemen of the Board of Examiners,

[+++Excessive salutation. One capitalised “Honourable” would suffice.+++]

The name my parents bestowed upon me eight Terran standard years ago is Solomon Voss. This composition, solemnly authored by myself, is – as Your Honours can see above – titled “Voss: An Imperial Dynasty.” It constitutes the first part of my admission examination for the Advanced Imperial History Lecture No. VIII/b.

[+++ Acceptable introduction. “Solemnly authored by myself” is redundant. +++]
[+++ Candidate displays early awareness of bureaucratic phrasing. +++]

The name “Voss” is inseparably linked to the rise of the Almighty Imperium of Man and – as I shall prove in this humble paper – to the millennia-long history of mankind itself.

[+++ “Humble” is a questionable descriptor here. +++]
[+++ Thesis statement is clear, if ambitious. +++]

As Linguistech Doctoris Cassandra Boll records in Volume CCLII, Chapter 4489 of her revolutionary almanac “Old Europaen Etymology: From the Beginning of Individual Expressions to the Present Art of Language” (authored in 411.M23), the surname “Voss” is of almost mythical origin.

[+++ Citation accurate. Italicisation correctly applied. +++]
[+++ “Revolutionary” is a value judgement. Use with caution in academic writing. +++]

According to her astonishing work, “Voss” once meant “Fox”, a term describing a long-extinct humanoid canine creature with a voluminous tail.

[+++ “Astonishing” again reflects personal enthusiasm rather than scholastic restraint. +++]

This creature appears to have fulfilled strange religious, and possibly even magical, functions in connection to unknown xenos species (please see electro-facsimile below) far back in M2. 

 [+++ “Magical” should be contextualised or replaced with “pre-scientific ritualistic”. +++]

The name “Voss” most probably originates, according to the above-mentioned source, in the rough Jermanic tongue of mankind’s “fractured and unenlightened eras preceding Imperial Unity.

[+++ Linguistic inference is sound. Terminology acceptable. +++]

Since those dark and damnable days of our species, the epithet “Voss” has increasingly been associated with the enlightenment and progress humanity achieved in the many thousands of years that followed.

[+++ Good ideological framing +++.]
[+++ Consider specifying which epochs of enlightenment.+++]

In the old epitomes stored beneath stasis fields in the library vaults deep below my family’s estate within the Imperial Palace, fragments of an ancient ledger [dated to M3] are preserved.

[+++ Potential breach of archival access regulations. +++]
[+++ Brackets correctly used for dating. +++]

This once belonged to Kustavus Adolphus Voss, Professor Physicae, who was associated with one of the first synchrotrons ever constructed.

[+++ Title italicised correctly. +++]
[+++ Association is vague. Clarify role if possible. +++]

Further examples include General-Exploratorix Gremalis Voss, the first human to set foot upon the planet Avellorn in M6;

[+++ Strong example. Dates consistent with approved chronologies. +++]

Technocratus Maggorious Voss, who established the second-largest plasmafuse manufactorum ever built upon Mars—thus founding the Mars–Voss lineage in M9;

[+++ Overuse of superlatives. Still acceptable. +++]

and the renowned Strybald-Grom Voss B6, immortalised upon the barium sheets of Carganis Ultra as the first High Techlord of the now long-lost world of Voss Prime.

[+++ Excellent integration of material culture as source. +++]
[+++ “Renowned” again reflects subjective enthusiasm +++.]

Needless to say, I have regrettably been forced to omit dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of other illustrious bearers of my most noble name in order to remain within the meagre four-hundred-word limit prescribed for this work.

[+++ “Needless to say” is unnecessary. +++]
[+++ Word limit observed. Self-restraint noted. +++]

It is my earnest belief that the legacy of the name Voss has not yet reached its culmination.

With my deepest and most respectful regards,

Yours truly,

Solomon Voss
(Stud. No.: 266.8843-Ultima, Fifth Form, New Schola Historicae Palatinae)

___________________________________________________________________________

+++ FINAL ASSESSMENT +++

### Candidate demonstrates exceptional confidence, strong ideological alignment, and an advanced command of formal High Gothic-influenced Imperial prose for his age.

### Tendency towards excessive self-importance noted. This may either mature into leadership or require correction.

### Sources are largely sound, though enthusiasm occasionally overrides academic discipline.

### Admission recommended. Continued supervision advised.

+++ GRADE: Pass – Distinction (Probationary) +++

Imperial Citizen - Crina Nurklin, Punch operator

My name is Crina Nurklin, sir. I serve the Emperor, His Majesty, the Lord of Mankind, by operating a plasma punch machine in Manufactorum Hypercubus-Beta-44-9x. I have been assigned to it for three years now. With my help, it produces steel-sheet aquilas, the kind that get riveted onto the helmets of soldiers fighting out in the last Terran wastelands.

My date of birth is 012.700.M30, so I am seventeen years old at the moment.

Of course, I am a registered Imperial citizen! [proudly pointing at the handwritten certificate on her belt]. And I have never missed a shift or failed an inspection.

I am a licensed Grade VII plasma operator [touching the handwritten licence tucked into her belt]. I earned it early. Because of that, I am permitted to use Viena’s public transportation system up to Class Gamma-Blue.

Since the last Unification Day, I have had my own flat [lifting the spherical mag-key hanging from her belt], about a quarter chronosegment from my workplace. It is part of my work contract. The manufactorum justiciarix told me it could be upgraded to a family-sized unit one day, if I ever apply for a birthing licence and the Administratum sees fit to grant me one. But I am not there yet, Securitor. I am currently... single. [a brief, embarrassed smile]

Is it small? Yes. But it is mine. And it is much better than the mattress-alcove I used to have in the machine pedestal.

I now have my own sink and a small oven. And a proper sleeping alcove, wide enough that I can turn over at night without hitting metal.

The loo and the lye-shower are shared, of course. But they are on the same level, and I only share them with about eighty people, which is for sure considered more than decent.

I have saved enough to buy a few things already. A new data-slate. Some pre-disinfected food. And a few rag-paper books. Mostly authorised war reports. Some instructional manuals. And my parents gifted me a carpet. The floors are quite cold. And I acquired… some other reading. Stories, mostly. About soldiers in difficult situations, finding a little... solitude together before things get worse. [she clears her throat, faintly blushing]

Back to the matter at hand, sir? Yes. Of course.
Yes, I shot the man who tried to break in. Yes, sir. Seven times.
[pointing at the handwritten weapons license the security officer is holding]

 

Augean RT-56

The Vienaen Manufactorum Conglomerate proudly presents a joint venture (*under legal code IEC-§33.Alpha.588.0003.7944.Indigo*) of the most prolific old-data interpreters, ironmongers, and war-smiths — a new hope for the desperate peoples of the deserted wastelands — the elegant and powerful Augean RT-56 Caterpillar! (Logisticae Data Number 900.26.712-Phi-6v6)

With an impressive length of approximately 7 im [Imperial Metres] and an exceptionally high top speed of 56 ikm/eh [Imperial Kilometres per Engineering Hour], the Augean is a force to be reckoned with by the remaining tech-savages and plunder-hobos of the Uncivilisation.

The military variant (Logisticae Data Number 900.26.721-Phi-6v6) is equipped with a .50-calibre light-duty autocannon manufactured by the famed gunsmith family Rott — the notorious Rott Reminder 44-X. (*Please note that the default system is a weapon built to be used by non-Arbites law enforcement agencies. A military grade weapon system may be purchased separately*)

The Augean RT-56 is a truly miraculous vehicle, with more purposes than even the most creative minds could imagine.

The frontal drive section is standardised to allow six ISS.0 [Imperial Standard Size] persons an idyllic journey, while protecting them from thrown stones and hurled empty bottles by a robust bodywork consisting of two formidable layers of 4 imm [Imperial Millimetres] of mild steel. (*Please note that this was tested under laboratory conditions only*). The Reminder 44-X autocannon is also comfortably accessible from this part of the caterpillar.

All seats are heavily padded for increased comfort, and the front-seat passenger even has direct access to a robust Vista-79 cogitator to be used for navigation and advanced engine control. We also prided a small promethium fired kiln for the cabin. It can be used either for heating - in cold desert nights or even Antarctic climates - or as an almost luxurious cooking stove. (*Please note that all four side windows must be opened to operate the kiln longer than 20 em [Engineering Minutes] continuously*)

 
But the true wonder of the Augean RT-56 Caterpillar lies in the rear section. It is delivered entirely empty, offering more space to fill according to your own needs than you could ever hope for.

Do you require a recycling-water transport? No problem! Simply purchase a compatible plastek tank and install it. Or do you intend to travel far and wide and need a perfectly safe place to rest your weary head? Just acquire a folding bed (*Please note that we strongly recommend securing it to the floor plate*) and a pest-resistant mattress. (*Please note, however, that regularly resting for more than four hours on a biocidally pre-treated mattress may cause serious health complications within weeks of use*).

Any other ideas? Sure! Simply try them out and recommend your innovations to friends, neighbours, and comrades. (or to me, your humble author. Maybe I can map them)

Augean RT-56 - the newest way to crawl with style

[No warranty of any kind is provided with this product. Always use at your own risk.]

Imperial Citizen - Varra, Siever slave

I’m Varra. Prmin’pare of octagon. Six… no, wait… seven slaves call me master. Grut, Hinja, Chua, Fang, Billera, Zinmis and Jabbis are their names. Yes, seven. Chua sleeps with me.

Once I was mining worker in Ursh. Hard work. Bad food. Then war came. Big warriors. Metal men. Black. They came in the night. Killed many Urshian tribe-warriors. Put chains on the rest. Also chained us. Other barbarians, named Xerix, marched us to their land. Brought us to the great pit and gave us tools. The metal men have big fortress there. Strong fortress. Clad in black Dydahnium. 

We live in Octagon Lamba.33-D81-664 in the Great Pit. All of us sieve. I sieve best.
Made 33 Grams Yrhidium one day. Got extra food after it was reported. 

We use short tunnels for sleeping (2) and a big chamber for living (1). Our dust barrels are also stored there (3). One for Yrhidium and one for Dydahnium. There are pipes running through (4). Bringing air. Taking smoke. We have a wash place (5). Good water. And have an extra place as loo (6). 

These Octagons are strange. I know mining. Nobody surveys like that. Looks like a madman has been looking for some… thingy. Diggin' in all directions. Also, markings on the tunnel walls. Symbols. We don’t look at them. They make us sad.