**Point of view: Commander Claudius**
They're still screaming.
Corrupted chants, profaned war cries, vile whispers affecting the minds of the weak.
The trenches rumble under Chaos shells, and the skies themselves vomit twisted portals where Immaterium horrors crawl into reality.
And yet... I'm still here.
Standing, facing these abominations that even reality rejects.
My armor is broken.
My skin is cracked in various places.
My mind is exhausted, but persists against the whispers of the Chaos God of blood and skulls.
But... I... I'm holding... No, I have to hold on longer!
The youngest generation of Cadians must have enough time to leave the Cadian sector.
My son must leave this hell!!
"Commander, the traitors have managed to penetrate the fortress!" shouted a man who seemed to be in his late twenties.
He's young, but already old and experienced enough for a Cadian.
Many die at a young age around here.
"We don't have any more time to waste on discussions, brother-in-arms. You must use the suicide squadron to buy more time," I said coldly.
The suicide squadron, a unit created with honorable Cadian soldiers wishing to serve until the end and suffering from various problems or illnesses.
This unit was created through my insistence, because I wanted to have a trump card up my sleeve.
The man nodded, before leaving.
No hesitation.
No hatred faced with a suicidal and unreasonable order.
No complaints.
He's Cadian, and he already knows our current situation.
We're finished.
Behind me, there's nothing left.
No more supplies.
No more reinforcements.
Just a few scattered squads, Cadians mutilated by combat but still standing, bolter in hand, determined gaze.
In front of me? Cultists, minor Demons, Black Legion traitors.
The kind of vermin I would have reduced to ashes with an orbital strike if I still had enough influence in the sector.
But no.
We're alone.
Cadia is dying, and I'm still alive with these small groups.
"Why?" I thought, teeth clenched.
Why am I still here?
For my son? No, it's not just that.
I still remember the gas.
That damn gas.
A leak caused by old piping.
Despite the alarm, I was already half asleep because of my company's abusive work.
Then darkness.
And after... Cadia.
A slightly younger body.
Heavier gravity.
An unknown language.
And a drill sergeant barking at me like I was lazy shit, when I had literally just arrived in this infernal universe.
No powers.
No divine technology or system.
Just my memory, my knowledge from Earth, and this damn will to survive anchored in this body, again and again.
"Yet, I was able to climb the ranks and have a somewhat normal family, haha... I didn't do too bad for someone with no cheat."
I bled with my own.
I disobeyed orders when they were stupid because of the age of stagnation.
Yes, I suffered various punishments!!
I exterminated Eldars, Orks, heretics... no matter the race, no matter their corrupted faith.
I only believe in efficiency and total deterrence.
War forged me.
And now... it consumes me today as I consumed my adversaries under the fire of my brothers-in-arms.
BOOM
An explosion resonated in the front line to my left.
Communications have been dead for an hour.
I no longer hear orders from superiors, nor those from the High Lords of Terra.
And frankly? Good.
Terra knows nothing about Cadia's mud, and I don't understand why my elders and superiors listen to these people corrupted by power created by the absence of clear counsel from the Emperor.
I'm sure the Future Regent is ashamed of these idiots, even in his artificial sleep.
"Commander! We're losing ground," shouts a soldier.
He's twenty years old.
No beard.
One leg missing.
But he continues to hold his weapon in hand and focuses the flame of his determination against the enemy...
His miserable appearance, but focused on his duty, gave me a renewed strength in this hell.
Yet, at eighty years old mentally, and fifty-five in this body.
My will should have weakened with age, but no.
I am and always was an anomaly among ordinary civilians, not from a family with a long military history.
I approach him, pull the pin on a grenade, and throw it into the gap where abominations are pouring out.
"Cadia won't fall without us shitting in a demon's mouth or two, soldier."
He laughs.
A dry, nervous laugh.
Then he returns to combat.
I look at the skies.
A rift slowly closes.
Abaddon's Black Crusade has bled us dry, and the planet itself is cracking.
It won't hold much longer.
Cadia... is fucked.
But we, the men who defend it... we cannot falter.
No Cadian will beg.
None of my brothers-in-arms will prostrate themselves before the abominations of Chaos and the gods.
I, Claudius, a commander of Cadia, former human named Adrien on an ancient Terra in another alternative timeline, proclaim here and now...
"For the Emperor!!!"
I raise my bolter one last time.
....
**P.O.V of the narrator**
"Hue...!!"
A black-haired boy suddenly got up from the ground and began inspecting his environment.
His movements betrayed his great experience, as he observed the unknown place with an analytical and methodical gaze.
It took about ten minutes for him to lower his guard a bit.
"New York? I'm back..." he said, looking at an old newspaper on the ground.
There was a time when he would be extremely happy with this news.
However...
"The traitor and chaos owe me way too much."
He clenched his fist, crumpling the old newspaper he had picked up from the ground.
Flame.
The sudden fire that appeared on his hand's skin surprised him slightly for a moment.
Before he could better understand the situation, he had a sudden influx of information in his mind.
"...B...Ben Tennyson..." he mumbled, getting up painfully.
Commander Claudius had crossed into another universe, which still wasn't his original universe.
[System installation in progress...]
[System installation completed]
[Congratulations host, you have become the user of the Random Portal system]
[Please open the starter pack]
[Please also open the compensation pack due to the delay in system activation and installation]
"Hehe... HAHAHA"
After seeing the hologram floating in front of him, Claudius, having become a child, began to laugh madly.
If a person observed more carefully, they would see tears flowing on his cheeks.
80 years of harsh memories on Cadia, which could have been changed thanks to this.
Now, he's in a dangerous but more "gentle" universe, and this system activates?
Claudius felt mocked.