Relief Force

++ Fragment : Personal journal, 1st Lt. Jarakell, 51st Armageddon Militia ++

++ VOX FRAGMENT BEGINS ++

I can't remember what it's like to not hear the constant bombardment of the Ork guns. Can it really only be forty days since the attack on Infernus began? Forty days since the Greenskin hordes smashed through the defences on the Stygies Bridge, and launched their assault on the Hive? Twenty-five companies reduced to little more than a dozen squads of leftovers and gun-babies by an endless war of attrition against the countless 'skins encamped beyond the Stygies River.

By night the constant barrage of incoming shells keeps all but the most fearless - or the most foolhardy - from sleep, yet I would rather endure an eternity of night artillery fire than face a new day, and the sight each dawn brings. From the Diablo mountain range, north-east of the Hive, to the Palidus Mountains in the south-west, a endless sea of greenskins stretches as far as the eye can see, darkening the sky with smog from thousands of buggies, wartrukks and bikes.

The daytime brings wave after wave of lightning raids, each whittling away at the number of able-bodied men under my command. Counterseptics ran out days ago; every minor wound becomes life threatening, and to make matters worse Cobarde, the company's last medic, was yesterday found wanting by Commissar Leine and received the Emperor's Benediction in front of the whole platoon.

I would never admit it to Leine - the man terrifies me - but my own faith in the Emperor has been faltering of late, as casualties mount and request after request for reinforcement is denied. This morning, we finally received word that reinforcements would be arriving, but none of us could have dreamed the form those reinforcements would take...

The day began the same; the dawn's light revealing a column of ork vehicles careering across the plains for the first of many attacks. Yet today was to be different. Even as we braced ourselves for the onslaught, a deafening scream came from overhead as a Thunderhawk Gunship raced over our lines and out toward the speeding greenskins.

Explosions ripped through the Ork vehicles as the Thunderhawk raked the column with heavy bolter and battlecannon. Raising my magnoculars, I saw shapes falling from the gunship as it swooped low over the twisted wreckage. Emperor be praised! Space Marines - actual Space Marines - were drifting groundward on bursts of flame. The gunship traced a wide arc behind our lines, settling long enough to disgorge eleven warriors in green armour adorned with righteous flames before racing away towards Infernus.

Awe and fear twisted the faces of the men around me as a marine in armour bearing horned skulls spoke, his quiet voice clear in the sudden silence.

"Fear not, guardians of Infernus; for when the Emperor is with us, what force can stand against us?"

I felt hope surge through me, and saw my belief reflected on the faces of those around me. With these mighty warriors beside us, no greenskin will take Infernus...

++ VOX FRAGMENT ENDS ++