Isle Dominicus IV, year 40 000
It was the First day after the storm, nobody had slept that night. The aggressive rumble of the fragmentation grenades had kept us awoke. Being at war was horrible enough without the storm.
The Squads morale was down and everyone seemed uninterested about the sergeant bellowing orders to the whacked soldiers. The whole squad got totally depressed yesterday, when we got the message that the platoon had dispersed and there were only small squads scattered all over the little island. The radio communications hardly worked so that we could barely contact one of the other squads on the island. Nobody knew we were there.
I could still remember last Saturday when we sat safely in the transport ship disparaging the importance of this operation. There would be barely a handful of the foul servants of chaos, they would not stand a change. Nobody would even take the trouble to pray for battle luck from the immortal Emperor. Now we found out that the island was inhabited by the crude Orks, those insensible beasts, just slaughtering people for the fun of it. We know that we wont stand a chance and the only way to get out of here is to call help. We know the Chaos has the same problem, and we are going to see what is their decision.
Our sergeant looked purposeful and walked back and forth in front of the squad trying to encourage us to what was coming. He kept a long speech about how we would die in the favour of the Emperor. At the end of the speech he cried: “ Remember troops: whatever happens today just remember one command, burn the heretic, kill the mutant, purge the unclean.” Sergeants hoarse voice stopped suddenly and he fell to his knees and for a second his eyes stared at the emptiness until he was gone. From the sergeants bleeding head you could see he was shot. That shocked the squad and I could see tears of fury on the worn faces of the troops. The troops got mad as hell and stood up. Everyone stared running at the distant firing in the nearby wood. On the way to revenge the troops called out horrible cries and shouts to the Emperor. I could see fellow soldiers falling to the ground beside me, that gave the rest of the squad even more will to fight. From the corner of the eye I could see one of the soldiers on his knees, he was bleeding and held a cross tightly to his chest ,behind the coughing of blood I could hear a prayer: “Praise The immortal emperor, worship his Excellency for he...” The troop fell down dead. My brains were filled with hate towards the Orks. All the fellows soldiers ran towards the Ork army until they all lied on the ground , with tons of bolts on their body. I was the Last to stand out. My leg was hit but I continued to run. I was hit again and waves of pain smashed trough me. I fell down but kept dragging myself towards the Orks. I was bleeding and half dead. Then my brains couldn’t take any more pain and they went out. I felt a shot on my head but I couldn’t feel the pain no more. The sound of bolts flying by and the rumble of the grenades slowly faded away. Now it was totally silent. The war was over, at least my part of it. The war wouldn’t stop there if I was gone, no, in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.