We knew they were coming, we just didn’t expect how quickly they would arrive, or how many there were. We had planned for them to take another couple of months devouring the outlying worlds and were still in the process of departing Abydos when the first bugs made planet fall. Our battles with the daemonic entities of the warp had been draining, we still do not know what exactly we are fighting for, Abydos is a barren rock, its adamantium reserves all but used up. But the arrival of the mystical order of space marines known as the Grey Knights surely prove that Abydos isn’t a distant, long forgotten outpost and mining colony, I guess its purpose is just not for us lowly grunts to know. The war with the daemons was slowly turning against us, the numbers and might of the grey knights were slowly dwindling, and without their support our lines were being pushed back. Fighting a foe with infinite reserves of energy and hatred crushes the morale, and if it weren’t for our allies I’m sure we would have broken long since.

The first hint that the Tyranids had closed in was a shift in our war with the daemons. Suddenly we were winning the battles we shouldn’t; our foe seemed to struggle to hold onto their grip on this world. I often overheard Grey Knight brothers discussing a shadow of some description, but its significance was lost on me. Then one day it was over, our war with the daemons was won. Our Commissars and Priests say it was our unswerving loyalty to the imperium and the Emperor that crushed them, but many of us believe something else played a role in smothering out the daemons.

There was no respite however, within days of the last battle against the daemons we were besieged by waves of tyranids. Only a handful of grey knights remained and they gave us what aid they could, but the main defence of Abydos fell upon the shoulders of the Astra Militarum. Central Command really spread us too thin and we lost several Hive cities early. It seemed we were retreating more often than advancing and morale was starting to get to critical conditions. That was until help arrived from an unexpected quarter. One afternoon as my company was being rested a small force of Eldar warriors arrived. Tensions were high, and several of my comrades had to be physically restrained from attacking them. Hours went by as the Eldar commander conversed with our high command, no one knows what advice was given, but within days our entire force was drawn up around an old relay station. We were only told that we would be leaving the Abydos system, but without a fleet in orbit we had to hold this relay station until help arrived.

We were encamped for several weeks around that small station. Hasty battlements and bastions were thrown up and we dug in as deep as we could while high command and our eldar allies were locked away inside the comms relay building. Reports filtered through from high command that the Tyranid force was devouring everything it came across and that this was buying us a little time. But before we knew it they were upon us. Their first assault was repelled with ease. This gave the greener recruits some false heart, but us veterans knew they were testing our resolve and our defences.

In a desperate bid to buy more time the senior officer of our Grey Knight allies sallied forth with the majority of his forces, he left just 7 of his brothers behind to aid us. That was days before the bugs finally came at us though. That was a dark day for us, the day they finally attacked. Everything possible seemed to go wrong, even the weather turned on us.

The morning of the final day on Abydos started black, thunderheads were roiling above us and on the crest of the far ridge we could see a vast, wall of bugs. We knew this was the end because our eldar allies finally exited the comms building and took up silent vigil amongst us. Before the tyranid swarm began its advance on us a high pitched whine could be heard from above. It seemed to reverberate through the very ground as well. Then came the shout of warning from the eastern side. A wall of walking, glowing metallic bodies was also marching on our position. Nobody knew where the necrons had come from, but they were here in force, and it seemed our position was their goal.

As the necrons advanced, green lightning strikes began to fall amongst the compound. The crack of the thunder was deafening, everyone was taking cover. But cover was not enough, Platoon Commander Kraekerov and his command squad disappeared in a flash of light, when the burning faded from my retinas I rushed over to help them, only to find the charred husks of the 6 men. Over the sound of the thunder the metallic whine began to grow and soon the dark shape of a necron fighter dropped through clouds and rushed towards our position. Before it could close range though, the mordian gunners stationed on the AA gun let rip and tore a hole through its wing. With its systems destroyed, the craft spiralled to the ground. We all turned to watch the decent of the wrecked fighter, it seemed to fall in slow motion, its trajectory driving the hulk right through High Marshall Svetnesky’s position.

The enemy hadn’t yet come within range of our guns and our company’s entire command structure had been reduced to tatters. No one knew what to do, some pockets of soldiers looked to the Grey Knights for leadership, others to the Eldar, but most of us just dug in and defended our own individual positions, knowing that we were already dead.

As the Tyranids advanced on our positions a sudden flash of silver was seen on the far hilltop. The whirring form of the lost Grey Knight commander cut a dashing figure as he rushed towards the heart of the Tyranid army. The rest of his assault force however couldn’t be seen, and it seemed he was the only one left of that failed attempt. We watched with hope as he cut his way through the swarm of bugs, but slowly the press of bodies around him lessened and he burst into open ground. After a full fussilade of spined barbs and other bio-missiles the great champion of men fell, his body picked clean of flesh by the creatures that swarmed over him. I’m not sure why but I was more distraught by this than the charred remains of my platoon commander, or the last sight of our illustrious leader before the necron craft crushed his retinue. I think it was because that Grey Knight was sacrificing his life in what could only have been a futile attempt to murder the Tyranid leader. I didn’t know the Knight, I had seen him several times during that now long distant war against the daemons, but he had always been a distant, almost mythical figure, and to see him brought low was crushing.

Yet we fought on, the remaining Grey Knights brought us some small slivers of hope as nearly everywhere they fought they were pushing back the tide. The Eldar warriors amongst our lines fought in cold eerie silence, yet the toll they took on tyranids was tremendous. The grim resolve of the Mordians was almost a bellow of challenge to us of the 3rd Company of the Mighty Stavkan army. We would not be shown up by them, even if there would be no one to tell of our heroics.

Back on the west flank, the tide of chittering beasts grew closer and closer, over my shoulder I heard the intakes of the hellhound start up, a second later I was bathed in heat as the massive flamers breathed forth fiery death upon any bug that got close, the number of charred bodies that littered no man’s land was immense, yet the loss didn’t even register to the collective will of the tyranids as they continued their headlong rush.

Our tanks took a might toll on the vehicles of the necrons. Tank commander Veshky wielded his Vanquisher cannon to great effect finally bringing down the colossal monolith. I managed to see that final shot too, the Tesseract Vault had spent the better part of an hour under constant heavy fire, barely any shots managing to punch through its outer shell, yet it was the armour-bane shell of Veshky’s Vanquisher that pinged off of the side armour, yet managed to do enough damage to effect its stabilising controls and bring it crashing down.

While that gave us a brief respite from the hail of necron gauss blasts, it was the almost godlike being of a transcendant C’Tan that reaped the biggest toll on our allied force. I had no idea what it was, it was glowing too bright to look at, yet the terror the eldar regarded it with was enough to prove that this was the most frightening thing I would probably ever see. It took an inordinate amount of fire, yet didn’t even flinch or falter in its assault on our position.

Our demo vets, after climbing from the wreckage of their chimera attempted a heroic stand against the C’Tan, as they laid down suppressive fire their officer, Sergeant Aleksander hurled forth his demolition charge. Sergeant Aleksander was an enourmous man, and I’d seen him hurl his demo charges on countless occasions, bringing down tanks, elite marines and the like. Yet this time, as I watched the charge arc towards the glowing being it seemed to rebound off someone unseen force. The charge stopped at Aleksander’s feet and the resulting explosion ripped his unit apart, only gunner Vassily and his meltagun survived.

As my gunner partner Krechnaya kept up an unending fire of autocannon fire on the largest of the incoming tyranids a flash of light around the bastion caught my eye. Where once there was open ground, there now stood a phalanx of enormous necron warriors. Within moments several Grey Knights converged on their location swinging glowing blades. The fight only seemed to last a few moments yet the pile of necron bodies showed who the victor of that small skirmish clearly was. Not even breaking stride, the glorious Knights continued their headlong assault into the writing, floating forms of necron wraiths cutting them to ribbons as well.

The last thing I remember is the tyranids clambering over our defences and a swarm of tiny metallic parasites literally covering the ground to our east before everything went black. I was told afterwards that some stealthy, unseen tyranids had infiltrated our position and attacked the hellhounds, the resulting explosion knocking me to the ground. Gunner Krechnaya saw some of the Mordians barricading themselves on the roof of the bastion and dragged me up there with them. Apparently the mordians and what’s left of the Stavkans held out up there for another few hours before, miraculously, an imperial cargo ship dropped through the clouds and rescued us.

My right leg had to be amputated and replaced with a stiff metal prosthetic, but considering I made it out of Abydos when so many of my comrades didn’t, I count that a minor inconvenience. Gunner Krechnaya was promoted for his actions. There wasn’t much left of the Glorious 3rd Company of the 1st Field Regiment of the Great Stavkan Territorial Forces. Without a commanding officer or any regimental officers, we became first platoon of the 9th Company of the 15th Armoured Regiment of the Stavkan Territorial Forces, under the watchful gaze of Lievtenart Krachnaya, Platoon Commander.

We were allowed a little respite before being shipped off to join our new company on the cold, desolate world of Eyenstone.

After our setback on Abydos we were tasked with several small infiltration missions on the neighbouring planets. I was newly promoted to the veteran squad, and my first mission with them was to disrupt a necron scouting party, and where possible terminate key personnel. The mission was planned during the early hours of the day, attacking from the rising sun would hopefully give us a small advantage. We were outfitted with shotguns and stealth apparel, it seems our only hope will be at close range.

We deployed from our transport within the tree line with the outpost west of us, Vassily and Gregor took the autocannon left and set up behind a low wall, Alexei was tasked with meltagun duties and also deployed on the left flank to give the weapons team some support. Veteran Ogon took his heavy flamer and hid just within the northern bounds of the woods and the rest of us advanced towards the outpost buildings.

It wasn’t long before we were set upon, it seems we learned a few things about the necrons in this fight. For one, they don’t care what time of day it is! Gauss fire started pouring onto us from the outpost while eerily silent, floating wraiths started converging on our position from 3 different directions. Veteran Pyotr Kirilenka only just made it into the large, deep crater between the woods before gauss blasts started raining down on his position. Pyotr managed to keep the foe occupied with blind firing, allowing the rest of us to advance unimpeded.

With the wraiths advancing quickly our attention was on neutralising them, and they are damned hard to neutralise. Most of our shots seemed to pass right through them. One of the wraiths made contact with our transport and after peeling and prying at the armour with its metallic tentacles the chimera eventually stuttered, choked and died. Sergeant Dukhovnin bailed out of the wrecked transport and attempted to draw the wraith south towards the waiting meltagun, which, once in range melted the wraith down to a lump of slag.

Over on the north flank, a second wraith started to drift under the tree canopy, unaware that hidden in that part of the woods was Ogon and his deadly flamer. One gout of searing heat from him distracted it enough to allow the heavy weapons team to land a killing shot from the autocannon. The final wraith fell to shear weight of fire as the rest of us turned out weapons on it.

With the wraiths finally dealt with we turned our attention on the immortals guarding the entrance to the outpost. The hail of fire they managed to put out was horrific, it slowly incapacitated each of the vets. Pyotr put up a brave show drawing attention to his small hole in the ground and this gave me the opportunity I needed to make a break for the first tower. No sooner had I climbed to the top then I had to make a diving roll to my left as both immortals opened fire on me, luckily my camo stopped their robotic eyes from gauging my exact position and I thudded into the wall of the outpost unscathed. Somewhere between leaping and landing I managed to squeeze of some shotgun blasts, but missed with both shots. There was very little cover up there, but somehow my frantic movements and the distorting effects of my camo let me survive a little longer. However this frantic ducking and running meant I had no hope of hitting them either.

The one piece of advice I learned about necrons was to always take the least rational course of action around them, and when I noticed Sarge and Pyotr falling back and Vassily and Gregor lying prone I realised the day was lost and made a split second decision to leap from the outpost into the woods.

The canopy broke most of my fall, but also my left arm – in 3 places. I got up and limped through the trees towards the wreck of our transport where I caught up with Sarge, Pyotr and Ogon. We managed to hotwire the communications panel of the chimera and radioed for pickup. It seems this mission was a disaster. The necrons seem to be able to get through the armour of our tanks too easily and we don’t have enough numbers to crush them in a war of attrition.

Our casualties were high, and we were forced to leave them behind. By the time we returned to our orbiting ship my arm was beyond saving. So I now have a steel nub instead of a left hand, which is only compatible with our oldest, heaviest power fist. If I keep going at this rate I’ll be more machine than man.

We were moved off the front line after our scraps with the necrons. Our strength lies in our armoured columns and this was turned into a weakness against the necrons. We were replaced with the 185th Cadian Regiment and Astartes from the Black Templars. Our respite was short lived however and we were tasked with rooting out traitors on the planet of Nodellios. Travel to the system was short and gave us time to service the tanks and recuperate our weary bodies. As always Andvel spent most of the time meticulously caring for Ratchet and Clank.

It seemed our commanders have been given dodgy intel. We’ve spent several weeks scouring the surface of the planet Eyenstone for any signs of traitors, and found nothing. Not that we were complaining. As exhilarating as it is to smite the foes of the mighty Imperium, you certainly live a lot longer not fighting them. Unless you’re Sergeant Strelskiv, he was unlucky enough to lose his arm to a grenade malfunction, the medics weren’t able to stop the infection that set in after.

One cold morning as we were returning to a forward outpost from a patrol, we caught sight of dust plumes up ahead. We took up defensive positions around the outpost and sent out communications to determine the nature of the potential foe. We received no reply from the intruders, yet they kept coming. Once they entered bino-vis range we discovered their transports were rhinos with the inquisitorial sigil on their hulls. Caught in a moment of indecision we held out positions. Intel said this planet was crawling with traitors, yet firing on the inquisition could have very damning consequences.

Not one to distrust his intel Commander Fyodor ordered us to take up positions and fire when in range. Several of us questioned these orders, yet some persuasion quickly saw us change our minds.

The Leman Russ were the first to fire, raining shells upon the retinue hiding out in the woods. We could see xenos amongst their ranks and told ourselves we were doing the Emperor’s work in purging the alien amongst our brothers. Their rhinos drove them closer and disgorged a large unit of deathwatch right in front of our armour. Clearly they had turned from the true path if the Emperor’s finest xenos hunters were traveling with obvious aliens amongst them. A scorching jet of promethium from the bale wolf practically melted the armour right off the deathwatch, reducing the unit to a pile of smoulding corpses. The stench was horrific.

Within the compound a second rhino dropped off another inquisitorial retinue. Our veterans took the fight to them, firing off a hail of shotgun shells on their way into combat. Never one to miss a fight, Commander Fyodor also charged his command squad in, and ordered myself and the platoon command squad further into the compound. From what I could see between the hab-blocks in the compound the combat was stagnating. The veterans made a good count for themselves, but were beaten down by the twirling blades of the death cult. Fyodor’s powerfist flew towards the inquisitor himself and after being parried several times he finaly managed to find purchase, crushing his windpipe in his steel gauntlet. Our veterans just couldn’t hold off the death cult though and in the end were broken and slaughtered by them.

However by then the rest of the inquisition forces were crushed and the battle had been won.

With the return of the Sor Juana system to navigable space the allegiance of its occupants needed to be determined. A great armada set forth with the sons of Dorn, the fabled 5th company of the Imperial Fists as its rock. Accompanying them were several regiments from the Astra Militarum and a small force of the Adepta Sororitas.

Due to a ruling from the recent Council of Arkaeum, any relics not immediately associated with the Index Astartes are to be returned to the Adepta Sororitas to be purified and held on a shrine world. Several relics are known to have once been held within the Sor Juana system.

Canoness Agylberta of the Order of the Cobalt Flame was tasked with retrieving relics from the Sor Juana system. Two were of extreme importance, however there may have been many more lost in the system before the warp storms. Her orders are simple, the pacification and unification of the system should under no circumstance be put before the retrieval of the Imperium’s relics.

After interviews with Herr Hector Gustav, ruler of the system, several minor relics were acquired; however the whereabouts of the Mantle of Justicar Howorax and the Banner of Audacity Eternal were unknown. After much politicking Canoness Agylberta managed to sequester aid from the Pacification Force. The 9th Company of the 15th Armoured Regiment of the Great Stavkan Territorial Forces, under the command of Armoured Commander Nostivski, were assigned to aid the Adepta Sororitas in their campaign.

The Canoness ceded field command to the Armoured Commander, deeming his knowledge and experience in hostile conditions were a considerable asset. This allowed herself more time to spend eking out what little information she could and plotting the direction of the campaign.

We arrived in the system alongside the second largest pacification force I’ve ever been a part of. There were several Marine contingents alongside a plethora of fellow Imperial Guard battalions, a small regiment of Sisters of Battle and many Imperial dignitaries, ambassadors, agents and even a couple of Inquisitors, although they arrived separately.

The Hive itself is a bustling metropolis seemingly untouched by the warpstorms. Though they have been cut off from the rest of the Imperium for so long, they still adhere reasonably closely to the Imperial Cult. Though we are here as a pacification force, I can already feel a strange tension in the air when I wander the hive.

With so many bodies needing quarters all of the parade grounds, plazas, and gardens have been turned into a sea of hab-units and Mechanicus yards. Us Stavkans have are bunking down in an old plaza out the front of a crumbling Aquila Temple.

Today I met with Field Commander Threstice where I was told of our orders for the campaign. It seems our regiment has been commandeered by an Order of Sisters of Battle to provide the bodies and the muscle to carry out whatever their plans are in the region.

I spent most of the afternoon with the Canoness as she detailed her plans, she is a hard woman and much younger than she ought to be. Yet I can see in her eyes that belief in her cause and the Emperor is an inextinguishable flame. She might be a hard woman to deal with, and I can see us having many heated discussions about our strategy during this campaign. She doesn’t seem to have the respect for my men’s lives that I have.

After long discussions I’ve managed to convince her that I will be giving the field orders to my men. I’m happy for her to guide the campaign, but when my men are put on the field, I’ll be the one responsible. Eventually she was happy with arrangement, she admitted that even though she is a warrior at heart, she doesn’t have a head for battlefield tactics. If requested she is happy to take the field wherever and whenever required and try and bolster the hearts and morale of my men. She also put at my disposal the sisters of her order for any battlefield role I needed.

As far as the campaign is concerned it turns out these sisters are essentially treasure hunters. And our intention is to recover as many relics as possible so that the sisters can determine the effects the warpstorm has had on them. I for one am more than happy with this result. Me and my men have spent far too long on transport and barracks ships over the last year and a half, it will be good to take the field again and test our mettle. I heard the rest of the pacification force won’t be seeing too much action.

If this Hive is to be our base of operations for a while, I thought I’d send out our scouts to see what this planet has to show for itself. We received a vox-com from Veteran squad Kestarr of smoke plumes on the horizon to the south of the Hive. Upon investigation it was found to be an attack upon a small trading colony. After scouting the perimeter, Veteran Sergeant Kestarr sent three men to outflank the position whilst the rest rode in their chimera up to the outskirts of the colony. Through the viewfinder it was determined that the hostile enemy were in fact Chaos marines, there were intense readings on the scanners showing that each of the four buildings contained a large amount of explosives. They weren’t sure on the motives of the Chaotic enemies, but took it upon themselves to destroy them and save as many buildings as possible.

Before they could find enough cover though, their arrival attracted the attention of a mighty walking daemonic machine. A dreadnaught, but more…alive and fleshy was the best description I got. All guns were trained onto this target.

Without warning, several large floating metallic beings converged on the chaos warriors. The description of which leads me to believe they are necron wraiths. Having fought these before I urged my men caution around them, and to not provoke them if possible. They seemed content to attack the chaos marines, allowing my men a little breathing room to deal with the dreadnaught type thing.

It seems the marines had the explosives on timers since as the battle was raging around them three of the buildings erupted into enormous fireballs. One of my veterans got too close to one of them and was killed instantly by flying shrapnel.

Just as the last of the Chaos Marines fell to the blades of the necron wraiths an unexpected ally arrived. A small detachment of heroic Grey Knights arrived on the battlefield. After bursting into the colony they made a beeline for the chaos, diverting the attention of the murderous wraiths. The outflanking trio of veterans emerged around the corner of the last remaining building when they were set upon by a duo of hellish necrons draped in human skins. Two of the trio were ripped apart by the foul machines yet they managed to take one of them down with their shotguns. With the last flayed one rushing towards the lone veteran it was pitched sideways and collapsed into an unmoving heap as Tochnyy put a bullet through its chest from his post in the watchtower on the other side of the compound. With the Grey Knights valiantly dispatching the wraiths my men were able to secure the compound, retrieve our dead and return to the Hive City. Although we were unable to save the colony, we did return with valuable intel.

Firstly there are both Chaos and Necrons interested in this system.

Secondly, the Chaos and Necrons are actively fighting each other.

Thirdly, a contingent of Grey Knights, seemingly outside of the pacification force appears to be opposing the Chaos Marines.

And Finally, the necrons don’t seem to be outwardly aggressive towards my men… yet.

I was awoken late last night by the noct-shift vox operator with an important communication. I don’t think I’d ever been as nervous as I was on the walk from my bunk to the comms centre. The honour of actually speaking to one of the brothers of the Grey Knights… I stepped up to the holo-vox board to greet the robed brother. The communication was brief:

“Armoured Commander, I believe your forces have a primary objective above and beyond that of the Emperor’s Pacification Forces. I recently received intel that an imperial cruiser has crash landed on Hypasia. A Brotherhood Captain of the Grey Knights was on that ship, I believe he still survives. He was returning from a campaign as an advisor with a relic of great importance, one the Canoness must recover and study. One of the escape pods managed to survive the crash, the most likely place to retrieve both him and the relic is in that pod. I will send you the coordinates”

I didn’t sleep much during the rest of the night as I constantly went over the communication in my head.

What I kept coming back to however was why did they contact me and not the Canoness? And how are my men being used?

Since my forces are one step removed from the main pacification force, what were the Grey Knights trying to hide from them? Do they really care that the Canoness recovers a relic from the crashed ship, or was that just a means to an end. However, far be it for me to question the Emperor’s chosen knights, those made in His image, I just couldn’t shake the feeling of being used.

I met with the Canoness in the morning and relayed the communication to her. My questions went unanswered though, for the Canoness was only interested in the relic. She said there were rumours a cruiser had recently returned from within the Eye of Terror after centuries assumed lost, and that it had been seen somewhere near this area of space. If this truly was that cruiser, we must recover and study that relic. The light of excitement disappeared from her eyes shortly after as she realised that she could not accompany us on this mission. Her meeting with the Governor and Inquisitor was unavoidable. Her orders were for my troops to leave immediately, and that the relic was the ONLY objective on this mission.

I loaded the landing craft with everyone that was still in the barracks. Those currently on assignment were told to continue with their orders and return to camp upon completion. We would return within a couple of days.

The trip to Hypasia was relatively short, yet it gave me time to prepare. Still, after all this time and all the battles I’ve fought I still get nervous before the first battle of a campaign. I discovered early that one way to settle my nerves is to prepare a short yet inspiring speech for my men. It has become somewhat of a tradition now.

I think I’ll lead with this:

Stavkans! We taste battle for the first time in this new system. Lost for eons, the rulers of Terra decided that you should be the first men and women to take the field and reclaim it in the name of the Emperor. We begin by recovering a sacred relic thought lost in the Eye, and by rescuing one of His chosen sons.

The Grey Knights themselves have requested your aid in returning a captain of their most holy of orders to them. We must not fail in this quest!

For the Emperor and Stavka!

I think that will go down well.

The impression I got from my late night communique with the Grey Knight was that we were going to secure the crashed cruiser alone. But now that I think on it, it makes perfect sense that the Grey Knights will be there to rescue their Brotherhood Captain. I’m glad they were too, their grim resolve in the face of the enemy was an inspiration to my men.

It seems the rumours may have been true, and this could have been the cruiser that returned from the Eye. That or everyone believes it is. A Chaos warband bearing the colours of Abbadon’s Black Legion had also arrived to investigate the sight, and it seems they had made a somewhat temporary alliance with an Ork force. Perhaps the promise of loot was enough to secure their services. It seems the Grey Knights had also convinced the Necrons to side with us against this new alliance. Still feeling uneasy of the appearance of the necrons in this system I deployed my men with the Grey Knights between ourselves and the ancient mechanical beings.

I got my first glimpse the Chaotic dreadnaughts. I had been informed after the scouting mission that they were known as hellbrutes, and a more apt name I cannot think of. I ordered Ratchet and Clank to take care of the pair of them, and the first one fell early. When I served in a Russ back in the Nodellios campaign I found just how hard it was to accurately fire the hull mounted lascannon when the rest of the crew were firing the battle cannon’s ordnance rounds. Yet during the opening salvo, both Ratchet and Clank managed to destroy one of the hellbrutes with their lascannons. I’m sure we’ll be hearing that story at the mess for the next couple of weeks. The two tanks, with sporadic help from the autocannon team could not pierce the armour of the remaining hellbrute which slowly lumbered towards the tanks. Not one to back away, Ratchet foolishly let the hellbrute batter away at its hull with its enormous power fist, yet the hull held and next minute Ratchet had put a Frelskin-ball sized hole straight through the brute with its lascannon. With the hellbrutes dealt with, the two tanks didn’t have much left to shoot at. A melee had started up around the pod and it wasn’t worth the risk to them.

I had ordered the Bullgryns to make for the pod as quickly as they could, using their slabshields to secure a beachhead around it. The hellhound moved up behind them, making good use of the bullgryns’ bulk to protect it from the hellbrutes cannons.

Two black and gold rhino’s suddenly rushed out either side of the downed pod as a squad of chaos marines poured over the debris. Faced with a wall of power armour the bullgryn’s hunkered down and the hellhound let loose with all it had. One of the Rhinos disgorged a unit of Chosen Marines accompanied by a Chaos lord. These bypassed the Grey Knights on the crashed cruiser and charged into combat with the Bullgryn. It seems they were after the contents of the escape pod as well. The marines couldn’t get through the resilient bullgryn, and wasted enough time for the Grey Knight Dreadknight to charge into the fray. Without a second thought the machine butchered the chaos lord and set about dispatching the rest of the chosen.

My Astropath, Theodelarrn, proved to be a very effective weapon on the battlefield. More useful for his precognitive abilities as an advisor, this was his first real test against a foe. Emitting physchic shrieks at every possibility he more than accounted for himself and has earned very high praise.

As the battle raged around us, most of my focus was in ensuring my troops were working as efficiently as possible, yet I couldn’t help keeping my eyes on our allies. Not for one second did I doubt the Grey Knights’ cause, for they are doing the Emperor’s work, yet I don’t like being used, so after seeing a squad of grey knight terminators enter the bridge of the downed ship, I sent my men in after them to discover or recover anything they could. Hopefully we can make something of the data they collected.

As the second rhino closed in, more marines poured out it, I ordered the platoon to fire upon this new threat while the autocannon attempted to bring down the rhino. Despite bellowing my orders as loud as I could at them, the autocannons could not get a good bead on the vehicle and barely chipped the heretical paintwork, perhaps extra training is in order for them.

As the last of the chosen were falling to the dreadknight, the new unit of chaos marines charged into the Bullgryn, these got as good as they gave and eventually were beaten down, leaving the Bullgryn free to open up the escape pod. The muscle of the Bullgryn proved pivotal as the hatches were bent and twisted by the crash. After plenty of pulling and cussing they managed to lever the door open. With the door open the Brotherhood Captain strolled out, quickly assessing the situation he made a beeline towards the Brotherhood Champion where they had a quick discussion before pulling their forces out of the area. The Grey Knights retreated leaving us to finish off the remaining chaos. Getting a bit antsy after not having fired my weapon all battle I made for the closest Chaos rhino, powering up my ancient power fist, ready to deliver a crushing blow. However as I got closer ready to start charging, the machine exploded. I was told later that one of the grey knights fired a melta blast into it during their retreat. The blast knocked us back, but no one was hurt.

With the chaos forces disposed of, the relic secured, and the necrons and Orks fighting their own battle over the engines of the crashed ship and its precious energy source, I ordered my men to fall back to the landing craft for evac.

Our casualty list was minimal through this; we faced a foe of inferior numbers and had the Grey Knights at our side. A good beginning in this campaign.

Upon returning from Hypasia I immediately met with the Canoness. The first question she asked me as I walked into her office was whether or not I managed to retrieve the relic. I assured her that I had, and it was being transferred from our landing craft to her at that very moment. Visibly excited, she began asking questions about the state of the relic, a description of it, the feeling in the air around it. I let her blurt all her questions out at once before telling her that it had already been secured in an adamantium-bound plas-tor crate and that I hadn’t opened it. Once she had settled down a little, she offered me a cup of a weird, bitter local drink called Kaf and allowed me to debrief her on the mission. The arrival of the Chaos in the region had troubled her greatly, and she had thought on my communication with the Grey Knight. Always the loyal imperial she told me to honour any mission given to me by those of the Emperor’s Genetics, but to be wary of the consequences of any action I was to undertake. She told me if I needed any advice on the path I should take to right the wrongs of His Empire her door was always open.

After another of her ‘quick’, but nonetheless dry apostolic sermons on the Emperor’s Duty, the relic finally arrived. The Canoness checked the box for tampering or damage, upon finding no evidence of either she dismissed me to get a hot meal and return to my men.

I will ask her later on the relic and our next move. But first I must meet with my First Lievtenart and discuss what his sergeants found in the ruined bridge of the cruiser. Hopefully there was something useful in that data that can help me understand what’s happening around me.

I had an interesting debrief with my staff upon return to our barracks building. They said they found some information in the ships navicom systems and managed to get as much as they could back. But once they analysed the data there were some very big and very obvious sections missing. One member of staff raised the question that perhaps the grey knights were trying to cover up something and modified the data before they left the crashed hulk. Personally I don’t believe this for a second, the crash itself or the survivors of the ship must have removed that information.

The main crux of the information we received was a detailed seismic scan of the ice planet. This has revealed the location of complex xenos structures… Perhaps a recon mission is in order.

Just my luck! We’ve been couped up in the barracks for weeks waiting out this damn storm. Finally it breaks and my division is sent out on a training mission. Not 3 hours after we left but a vox communication comes in regarding a damaged Stormlord stuck in ruined hive of ……

Since I was out on the training the Sister took it upon herself to lead the rescue mission. I had a debrief with her upon her arrival to see how she dealt with my men (and how they dealt with her as well). She admitted to a sense of trepidation at leading them for the first time, but quickly got over that as she meditated on the mission’s importance to His greatness, or some such. I heard several rumours that she acquitted herself very well, and earned no small amount of respect from the Stavkans. It seems she led from the front, cut a dark eldar wych champion in half with her eviscerator, and was the first to reach the stricken stormlord.

Reports state that 3 other, separate armies were converging on the ruined Stormlord from each point of the compass. We approached from the south, to the west came Dark Eldar (which came as shock to me. How many different parties are interested in this system?). Orks to the north, though they didn’t cause us many problems, and to the east was more black clad marines. It seems our vox operators sent numerous calls out to the marines and their silence led us to believe that they were of the same nature as the black clad chaos marines we have already come across.

It wasn’t until our outflanking veterans moved within striking distance that we realised the marines were some of the emperor’s chosen, the Black Templars that we broke off all aggression with them. I’m told deliberations between the Sister and their Marshall have somewhat repaired the damage we inflicted on them and that we are brothers (and sisters) once more.

On the western flank, Tank Captain Gregor Sveltyur marshalled our forces against the Dark Eldar, he sent volley after volley into the floating talos, and only after it managed to reach our lines did the shots finally bring it down. Unfortunately it was reported that a small number of Seraphim, who dropped in to relieve the long range pressure being applied by the Dark Eldar, were slaughtered by the elite eldar warriors. While they accounted for themselves, they were cut down to a woman by the enormous blades.

For some unknown reason though, not long after dawn the dark eldar disappeared back through their webway. This left the imperials with control of the battleground and we were able to rescue the damaged tank. Our casualties were small, but had the firefight with the black Templars continued, more than just bodies would have been damaged beyond repair.

I was called in to the Sister’s antechamber early this morning. It seems she was visited by a vision last night of the whereabouts of Banner of Audacity Eternal. My company is shipping out to Aspasia with the full complement of sisters this afternoon. Apparently she doesn’t remember much of the dream other than an image of the banner amongst a sea of jungle and an overriding feeling of danger about. From all reports of this system, that can only be Aspasia.

We’re calling Outpost Theta-4 our home for the foreseeable future. The jungle is a welcome respite from the Hive, no more bustling throngs of people, and it’s finally warm. I haven’t been warm for months!

There’s another company stationed in this outpost permanently. They are Cadians from the Pacification force, and they built this outpost as the outer point of the Bulwark, a line of similar outposts aiming to provide a barrier against the jungle and its inhabitants.

Their Commander, a dour man named Schmidt, says defending this outpost has kept his men on high alert ever since they arrived, the beasts in the jungles are angry and without number. They have been beset almost daily since they arrived, yet over time they have managed to clear the jungle back further and further. He seems a capable commander, not overly adventurous or aggressive in driving back the beasts, so we’ll have to show them how real guardsmen fight. I get the feeling he’s not overly keen with either me or my company being here. But I’m not sure if he thinks we’re going to usurp his little isolated kingdom, spy on him or are just an annoying house guest he has to put up with.

For the last week or so however, the jungles have fallen eerily quiet. There are no growls and shrieks in the night, or any attack, great or small. The Commander has taken this time to repair and re-fortify their position since he’s convinced it can only mean there will be a big attack soon, and I don’t doubt it.

The Sister has taken it upon herself to programme and lead the daily forays into the jungle looking for this ancient temple, this leaves me to maintain relationships with our hosts, and I’m not sure which one I’d rather at the moment.

Jungles are hell, those Catachans can have them all for all I care. Its hot, and sticky, every single insect wants to drink you dry, and it rains for days at a time. Not to mention our hosts are getting crankier. It seems these Cadians take everything a little too seriously, and don’t know how to hold their liquor. I hope we find this banner quick and get out.

For the last couple of days the scanning equipment has been playing up, at first it was just the odd blackout that would last all of a few minutes, then we’d start getting random security breaches from within and without the outpost, but upon inspection showed there was nothing there. Initially we thought nothing of it, then Schmidt started getting jumpy. He was convinced the quiet of the jungle and the temperamental security meant that the attack was coming soon. As a cautious man, I was starting to agree with him, when this morning several large blips appeared on the outskirts of the jungle, and were coming our way. It seemed the impending attack had finally arrived.

We arrayed for defence around the outpost and prepared the autocannons in cover to bring down the beasts when they arrived. Confusion reigned over the vox links when several rhino class tanks burst through the foliage with marines and men around them. The pause we took when trying to determine their allegiance bought our enemies enough time to counter our deployment and get close. But we soon opened fire when the daemonic engines burst from the jungle, and the deformed shapes of broken and twisted power armour became clear. Chaos!

It probably was a good thing the Sister was out in the jungle at the time, for seeing chaos on the horizon would have driven her into apoplexy and ripped our defence plans apart.

We were woefully unprepared to defend against so many transports, yet I ordered the troops to open fire regardless. I then heard word from my vox operator that Schmidt, in the Command and Control room had detected a security breach within the outpost. Not wanting to dismiss this as paranoia we both re-deployed our veterans to scour the bunker and clear it of interlopers. The scanners detected anomalies in the Cryo room, the store-room, the corridors, and the shield turbine room. How had so many infiltrated the outpost!?

As we kept up the pressure on the forces attacking from without I was closely monitoring the situation within. It seems the attack from the jungle was just a diversion to draw us out of the building, but what was their intentions inside?

My initial thoughts were for the Command Centre and its access to the network of outposts, and the shield turbine which provided power to the shield defending the whole bulwark. With access to either of these, the chaos forces could cause a major issue for our hold on Aspasia. With Commander Schmidt in control of the Command building I made my way to the turbine to defend that. There wasn’t much I could do out there, so my command squad was better suited to internal defence. With relative quiet in the turbine room, I tasked Theodelarr with scrying out the Chaos motives.

My demolitions team was the first to scour the building, the first anomaly they came across turned out to be nothing. Perhaps they hoped we would assume they all were? I wasn’t going to take that chance and ordered them to search the Cryo room. I wasn’t privy to what or who exactly was frozen in those tubes but regardless, they needed defending. As they rounded the corner before the door, I heard over the vox that there seemed to be the sounds of bolterfire coming from within. I ordered the veterans to destroy anyone in the cryo room.

Veteran Rikvail was first in with the melta gun, he burst through the door and vaporised one chaos marine before they were aware, but before he could fire again, Sergeant Kestarr behind him threw his demolition charge through the doorway. Unfortunately Rikvail wasn’t quick enough to get out before the charge exploded and he, along with all the marines were destroyed.

This was probably my fault, the Sergeant followed my orders exactly, luckily it didn’t quite cause too much damage to the cryo tubes. But regardless I’ll be having words with him after.

While the battle raged outside the walls, my command squad made our way to the storage room, in here were valuable ammo dumps to keep this bastion at fighting capacity for the foreseeable future. With my veterans patrolling the corridoors, Commander Schmidt locked down in the control room, and my heavy weapons team holed up in the hangar, the ammo dumps were the only other logical point of attack.

From here I could take on the role of Vox Commander rather than battlefield commander, a role I’m not fond of, but one that is too important to ignore.

It seems first platoon had encountered chaos spawn in front of the hangar, and with their lasguns doing nothing, the sergeant ordered the charge. Many men were lost, yet they were able to bring down the beasts. Before they could revel in their achievement though a massive land raider burst through the jungle before them. First platoon were falling back from it when it spewed forth horrific mutated marines who seemed possessed of supernatural brutality. Caught before such a deadly combination Grenadiers fell before them, their flamers barely singeing the oncoming horrors. I ordered my demolitions vets to help secure the hangar, but a mighty chaos lord stepped out from among the possessed and ripped them to shreds. With the hangar now empty save for chaos, Schmidt sent his veterans in. No sooner had they burst through the door then the chaos were upon them. The possessed tore the veterans to bloody chunks whilst the lord toyed with the poor sergeant. Upon finally decapitating the man, the lord offered the lifeless head to the heavens, whereupon his form began to change. Muscles ripped out from his power armour and he almost doubled in height. What now stood in the hanger was more daemon than marine now, a dark malevolence in its gaze.

While the possessed stormed towards my storage room, the now transformed lord strode purposefully towards the cryo room. The possessed burst forth into the room I was holding field command in, the first died as ____ unleashed his flamer at the charging foe. I started up my ancient power fist and felled two more. The final died at the hands of my medic of all people.

With the immediate threat to hangar and storage put down, we headed off towards Schmidt to coordinate a retreat to Outpost Gamma. The sounds of maniacal laughter echoed down the corridor from the cryo room, but suddenly fell silent. The silence hit us like a thunderclap, yet eventually we made our way to the cryo room. The crumpled remains of the door were lying in the middle of the room amongst shards of glass and pools of cryo-ooze. The scene was one of disaster, yet not a single sign of the daemon could be found, nor that of any of the occupants of the tubes. Where they went I will never know, and Schmidt won’t tell me who the occupants were. Whoever they are, they are most certainly in the worst possible of places now. The Emperor shelter their souls.

With the departure of the lord, the chaos forces outside melted away into the jungle. The battlefield lay still and silent. Our forces have taken a beating today and this outpost won’t be at fighting strength for a while yet.

Tensions are now high in the outpost. We’re all on maximum alert awaiting the next attack. They must know we are severely weakened.

Once the defences were secured as best they could be, we were able to turn our attentions to laying or comrades to rest. The ceremony was short, as is the Stavkan way, but the celebration that night was hearty. Its become as much about everyone else surviving as it is about saying goodbye to comrades.

The Canoness’ detail arrived back during the night while celebrations were still in full swing. This put a dampener on things. It seems the expedition was unsuccessful, and the mood of the Canoness was rubbing off on both the troops sent with her, and those back at base.

I debriefed with the Canoness once she had seen her wounded looked after. It seems the quietness that had fallen over our area of the jungle was much more wide spread than initially thought. They encountered little opposition on their journey. The jungle itself seemed to be more dangerous than the beasts we were expecting.

They had arrived at the ruins to find it already scoured and empty of all valuables. The damage to the walls indicated projectile and explosive rounds, which leans us toward chaos as the main culprit. I debreiefed her on the battle with the chaos in the outpost, and we both agreed the timing was more than just coincidence. She has endeavoured to examine the reports she received of the location of the ruins more carefully for fear of a set up, but without knowing who is behind it, makes determining their motives very difficult.

We have been tasked with assisting the Black Templars evacuate an important STC. Their barracks are located far from the Hive city.

At the last minute the Canoness has decided she would take part in this mission. This is fine by me, her heavy blade would be turn out to be a useful addition to our forces.

Our escort of the Black Templars started from their barracks on the outskirts of the Hive. Our evac zone is about 100km north, into a long abandoned and ruined satellite city. The reasons for this evac zone were not outlined to me, nor would the marines answer my questions. I begin to wonder whether the Canoness had any influence on this decision, is there something in this ruined city she is also chasing? Or perhaps a communication from the drop ship…? I shall have to keep her close.

Our column surrounded the black, armoured vehicles, and for the most part moved at a good pace, with my men riding on the back of our tanks. It wasn’t until we were several km short of the city that the Templars voxed through to my command vehicle that there were lifeforms moving around the city.

With precision the marines moved into attack formation, they made it abundantly clear that they needed to get in to the city and rendezvous with their drop ship, and it was our job to keep the way clear, but stay out of their way. With this order firmly reinforced to me I ordered my tanks to set up flank protection for the black bohemoths. Ratchet and Klank, moved to secure the right flank which was open to the city this providing ample firing lines to protect the column’s right. The devil dog moved behind the hedge on the left. The dual vanquishers and Tech Priest Andval took up positions in the centre, where they could keep an eye on both flanks with the bullgryn’s shields provided mobil cover. First Platoon deployed from back of the russes to sweep around to whichever flank provided the hardest hit, while their autocannon team took cover in the nearby copse, readying their weapons to pour fire into the city. Finally, my fire teams, the hellhound and first veterans joined the black Templar vanguard, hoping to use their flame weapons to great effect amongst the ruins.

With the black Templars creating a wall of unforgiving plasteel to the fore we continued pace towards the city.

As we moved closer, we identified the threat as a great Ork mob. Boyz started moving through the city and heavy weapons revealed themselves amongst the ruins. The amount of bodies in the city was overwhelming, however it wasn’t our biggest threat. To both flanks came the rumble and roar of approaching vehicles. It seems we had been completely surrounded. Almost a dozen ramshackle vehicles burst over the nearby hills, smoke belching from exhausts and orks hanging from the rails. A lot of the vehicles looked like they had once been in service to our mighty Emperor, but luckily I saw now Stavkan markings.

The fusillade that opened up from within the ruins was impressive. Both heavy and light fire came flying towards us, ricocheting off Templar vehicles. With the Emperor’s name on their lips, the graceful Daughters of Ptaero landed amongst the ruins, their handflamers and pistols reaping a deadly toll amongst the greenskin heavy weapons teams, as did the arrival of Templar assault marines moments later. Their intervention was crucial as it drew many orks from the frontlines in their direction. I am yet to find out who of their number survived the ruins, but their sacrifice will definitely not go unnoticed, nor unremembered.

The Templars drew nearer to the city under hail of fire, their landraiders disgorged marines right into the orks path. Their Sword Brother engaged the fearsome walkers in combat, deftly evading and countering their swinging claws and saws and finding weak points with each of his attacks. While the Templars advanced towards their goal, my troops prepared to keep an exit route open, and stop ourselves from being completely surrounded. The vanquishers reaped terrible toll, Andvarr empowering the machine spirit within the metal beasts to guide their shots. As the turret-mounted cannons swung one way to blast a truck the their rear, the front facing lascannons blew apart wagons to their front. The efficacy of their attack was imposing.

Bravely the Canoness took to the front lines, commanding first and second squad of first platoon. Standing tall she drove her men towards the incoming tanks on the left flank. With eviscerator revving deftly stepped out of the path of tanks while scoring heavy wounds down their sides. First platoon fired their weapons on the occupants of these wagons and buggies, whilst the Canoness brought them to a grinding halt.

On the right flank, Ratchet and Klank had their free firing lines inhibited by trukks full of rocket toting orks. The Canoness sent her platoon to provide support to the beloved tanks, a job the men took to with gusto. The rockets brought Klank to a grinding halt, yet the overwhelming firepower of Ratchet and first platoon managed to see off the Ork menace.

As the Templars slowly ground their way towards the evac zone within the ruined city, the orks weapons started to take a toll. One by one, black tanks stopped or exploded, until finally there was just one. The Landriader, known as Hellbrecht’s Sword, was one city block away from the landing pad, with the scream of stormraven engines heard overhead when it suddenly shuddered to a halt. Ork started scrambling around and over it, throwing grenades into hatches and picking it clean. With the destruction of the Templars imminent, our mission a failure, and my forces spread out and almost overrun I gave the order to retreat. The Canoness agreed and voxed through to the remaining Templars – their reply was dogmatic, they would stay and fight, buying us time, but did not begrudge us our departure.

Giving the orks the choice of fighting against our retreating numbers or finishing off the remaining Templars and scavenging the field clean we managed to make a trouble free retreat from the area.

Regrouping several km from the city we made a quick debrief, re-ordered our forces and made for home.

I regret leaving my fallen comrades to be picked apart or worse at the hands of the orks. I include our iron comrades in this too; each vehicle loss hurts, not just from a combat-effective point of view, but spiritually as well. These tanks have served the company longer than the most scarred veteran. Luckily Andvarr and his servitors were able to repair a few enough that they could retreat with us. Klank was one such. However we left a hellhound, and vanquisher behind.

Luckily orks are not generally one for torture or consumption of the dead, so I will send over reconnaissance missions regularly to ascertain the chances of sending in a recovery mission to bring home the bodies of our fallen. I will work with the Black Templars here.