Planetfall: Epilogue

“Slowly from the beginning again private, what happened when you made planetfall at the mining colony?”
He sat in a cold steel chair, the room absolutely dark aside from the light above him, at the edge of the circle he could just make out two figures, one in the uniform of an Officer, the other from glimpses of his coat must be a Commissar.
“Sergeant Kellamin lead us down, we deployed by AA-42, no intel, just to expect heavy resistance from unknown foes.
We made touchdown practically on top of the outpost just as the Holy Sisters arrived. The drop seemed to go according to plan, I caught sight of a large Ork, the war leader I assume and his hulking armoured warriors but the Sisters cut them down without even breaking stride, seemed like it was gonna be a milk run Sir”
“And then?”
“All hell broke loose, the Orks Sir, they had Bugs with em, Tyranids! Just sitting around the compound like obedient guard dogs, never seen anything like it Sir!
The instant our boots hit ground they were on top of us, slashing claws ripping through the men, half the squad were dead in seconds. It was a trap Sir, the Orks had vehicles half buried under netting or something, they crashed into the Holy Sisters before they even knew what was happening.
Then I heard it Sir, this horrible screech and there were bugs clawing out of the ground, a huge snake creature tore through the Sisters scattering them like dolls but there was more, a pack of them, 10 feet tall, they would have dwarfed even a hero of the Astartes, one of them seemed to be the leader. Before the Canoness could even raise her blade that thing tore her to pieces, didn’t even have time to scream. Then more Sisters arrived from the sky, Avenging Angels, I thought we were saved, the Sister leading them nearly took the leaders beasts head off with one blow and I saw it’s arm hacked clean off… but… but It ignored the blow, let it land! Drove it’s blades clean through her!
All the while the Orks whooped and hollered they enjoyed it Sir, if the Emperor isn’t watching over his Holy Sisters, is he really with any of us?”
“How did you survive Private?”
“I ran Sir, had to report back, the colony is lost Sir, Bugs and Orks together Sir, what hope do we have!”
The officer nodded and the second man stepped into the light, a tall Commissar, his bolt pistol suddenly rose to the Privates face
“On charges of Heresy and Cowardice”
There was a click, a flash and the world went black…

Prologue: Planetfall

   The AA-42 Landing Craft shook violently as it plummeted through the planet's atmosphere. Buckled into his seat with his lasgun strapped above him, Private Kevar, 3rd Class of the Dantesian XIIIth Mobile Infantry held his breath to help with the pain of the atmospheric change. Giving up, he let out his breath in one long sigh, and turned to his Sergeant.
   "What're we doing on this rock, anyway Sarge?" he asked.
   "Yeah," added Private Ostamin, to his right. "You decided to take us on a lovely desert holiday?"
   "Right. Because you're so beautiful, I wanted to see you in a swimsuit," the Sergeant replied. The round of laughter this got did little to calm Sergeant Kellamin's nerves. He had been briefed on the situation earlier and it sounded like a bad one to be thrown into. Little was known about what had happened to the mining colony on this planet, only garbled messages about alien assaults came through before the station was overrun. Kellamin didn't like being thrown into a fight when he didn't know who he was fighting. He even more didn't like the fact that there had been no time for preliminary stealth drops, landing artillery and special forces to assist them, just a handful of Sisters from a nearby convent. But that was the Dantus way. Prima In, Prima Invictus. First in, and first to victory. He met eyes with his fellow Sergeant in the drop ship and nodded slightly before addressing the men.
   "Alright, you beggars, listen up. We're about twenty seconds away from making contact with Emperor only knows what on this Warp damned ball of dust and rock. Now you're all veterans of hundreds of drops, in training and in war, so I won't waste time going through greener rubbish. You boys have fought by my side before, and I know what you can do. And what you're going to do is go down there and give whatever we find down there the biggest, and last, shock of their lives. We've got no artillery, no showy Spec Ops with their sneaking about down there. But we do have some of the most battle hardened Sisters of the Order of the Ebon Chalice dropping with us, so the Emperor fights with us today! Prima In! Prima Invictus! Dantesians Clear the Path!"
    The men's roar of agreement merged with the ship's thrusters as they kick in to bring them in for the grav chute drop. The co-pilot's voice came over the intercom.
    "Equip chutes. Five seconds to jump."
    The doors of the AA-42 slammed open and the roar of the engines filled the cabin.
    "Four... three... two.... one... GO! GO! GO!"