>>44821536The Medicae had examined the trooper for a long time. He had come down with a strange affliction. His hair was grey, his skin was wrinkling, becoming slack, he was slow, soft, unfit for duty. After some deliberation the Medicae made a recommendation and the trooper was sent for special examination.
The medicae had agonized over this, upon initial examination he thought that the trooper should be shot and incinerated to stop the spread of this new disease. However; there was a risk that whatever had caused this had already spread. If so, the trooper's destruction would be destroying a specimen that might be valuable. The Medicae thought of more Kriegers afflicted with the troopers condition. That was a horror too terrible to contemplate. And so the trooper was disinfected, isolated, secured, wrapped, and sent for additional testing. They tested him against every possible disease. They called in psykers to look for some foul chaos corruption. They sequenced his genes. They biopsied skin, muscle, liver, bone marrow, heart and brain. They analyzed, they argued, they came to no useful conclusions.
They checked his service record. They executed the record keepers for incompetence. They checked his records again. After having the second set of record keepers executed for incompetence, and finding no change in the answers the experts advanced a tentative theory. The trooper was 52 solar years old, and his affliction was old age.
Having satisfied themselves that the trooper's affliction was unlikely to afflict other Kriegers, they applied the prescribed treatment from ancient regulations. He was given 40 acres of Krieg's surface, a monthly stipend, a sterile ungulate beast of burden, and no more thought was given to him. The trooper, for his part, ate the ungulate, sold the land, and signed on with the first person he could find who would let him continue fighting in the emperor's name.
