Qualia's life story
by Pilz
inspired by DRUGS

	Qualia was born on the Agri-world Charis.  Daughter to a noble landowner, she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, taught how to be a prim and proper lady in anticipation of marriage to another rich landowner, to cement relations between the two families.  She was treated like a princess, but in the grim darkness of the year 40,000, there are no such things.  As Qualia would soon discover, there is only war.

	One day, it happened.  a Rok landed on the other side of the planet.  The impact shook the entire planet, and sent a cloud of dust into the sky that halted production completely.  The nearby star, which had previously been the drawing point for settlers, was blocked out, but that was not the only misfortune such things bring.  From the depths of the Rok came hoards of orks, on a quest to krump everything in sight.  they slaughtered the workers.  PDF soldiers fought for years to contain the spread of orks, but their spores could travel even when the orks could not, and soon the planet was infested.  The Imperial Guard was called in to assist the PDF, and the call went out for recruits.

	Her father, rest his soul, did what he could to protect her from the draft, but to no avail.  Every throne he owned, every favour he held, all the influence he and his family had built up over generations could not hold back the tide.  Qualia was recruited into the Imperial Guard at the age of 18.  Her father WAS able to get her a fairly cushy position:  despite her complete lack of experience or even competence, she was sent to aid the triage hospitals that had been set up in the middle hab levels.  The posting saw her survive the worst of the fighting, but could not keep her completely untainted. Morphine was in short supply, and too good to waste on mere soldiers. The screams of the dead and dying tortured her day and night.

	It was a full year after she was drafted that it happened.  through the shifting of battle lines before a mighty ork advance, her station fell on the wrong side of the battlegrounds.  It was only momentarily, but it was long enough for a handful of orks to enter the hab block.  Hearing the screams and moans of what the beasts could only think was men in combat, they made for the middle levels, bloodlust in their eyes.

	what happened next is known to only a few who still live, but one thing is for sure: Qualia, and three guardsmen who were with her, survived.  When reinforcements had driven the orks back, a detatchment was sent to salvage what was left of the hospital.  They found Qualia, and the aformentioned guardsmen, in a small room in the west side of the hab block.  Qualia was covered in ork blood, and clutching a shotgun with a white-knuckle grip.

	Something snapped inside of Qualia that day.  A few days later, she asked her CO to assign her to the front lines, a request he was only too willing to grant given her complete lack of skill caring for wounded.  She excelled at combat, not snapping under pressure.  Her commissar praised her for her courage and devotion to the emperor.  Her fellow soldiers avoided her, saying she was ill.  The officers never knew what they were talking about, the girl always acted so dainty in front of them.  But they were officers who led from behind, and it is in the thick of combat that a human's true nature can be shown...