I looked around me at the mud and the mush of our trenches. At points, you couldn't distinguish man from mud as our uniforms were bathed in the filth. We all stood in glum silence. That is, until the artillery barrage opened up. I quietly tried to quell all fear of our assault that was sure to come next. The emperor protects. That was the only comforting thought I could think up. But it was enough.
A few minutes later we were formed into crisp lines and marched onward towards the wretched greenskins. I heard the sounds of combat all around me-vehicles rumbled behind me, officers bellowed orders with furious voices, and aircraft screamed overhead, but I did not turn my head to see what made these noises. My training had taught me to ignore the chaos around me and focus on my orders, so I continued marching forward.
Our march was interrupted when a swarm of bullets cut down several men around me. Their blood sprayed all around them, my lasgun got covered in the stuff. Their screams were drowned out by the crackling of lasguns as the front rank fired a volley.
Whatever hostiles had attacked us were apparently dead, as we received no incoming fire, we just stood there, watching for any sign of more enemies. Then a flash of light. Blood and gore splattered me from head to toe, my entire left side was painted by what was left of my comrades. My ears were filled with the screams of our wounded and the enemy alike. I just stood there staring at the massive hole in our ranks. It took a smack in the head by the man on my right to remind me of my duty to the emperor. I addressed gaps and opened fire on the greenskins flowing towards us.
The crackling of lasguns filled my ears, it was deafening. But that was fine, because the only thing that mattered was us and those damn greenskins who thought they could stand against the emperor. They died like the animals they were. They kept coming and we kept killing.
Eventually we ran out of greenskins to kill. Before we could address ranks I looked at the men around me. What I saw sickened me. Guardsmen were piled up at my feet, some dead, some dying. Regardless, as soon as I heard the order I marched forward with my comrades. These orks were gonna pay. We were marched over a small rise, and the first thing I noticed was the orks waiting for us.
In perfect synchronization with each other and the order, a volley was fired. Immediately after,the first rank dropped to a knee and the second rank fired. Greenskins disappeared in bloody mists, but there were too many of them to hold of with just laz fire. The second rank began firing as fast as possible while the first rank kept the orks back by bayonet point. I was in the second rank, so I simply fired until my lasgun wouldn't fire any more. Then I reloaded and kept firing. Green mush splattered on me as I fired point blank into an ork who managed to hack the head off the guardsman in front of me. I quickly dropped to a knee and took his place.
I sprayed fire downrange killing several orks, but like my comrades I also had to make use of my bayonet. A slightly larger than normal ork charged me head on. Everyone around me opened fire on it, but the thing had armor attached (well more like random pieces of hard material) and while our laz fire was slowing it down the thing kept coming. As it reached me I calmly took my lasgun and with all my pent up rage bayoneted the damn thing straight into the orks torso,right into a small part where his ramshackle armor didn't cover.
I had so much force behind the blow the ork was knocked backward and continued to be sprayed by laz fire. He collapsed before he could take another step towards us. Unfortunately for me my lasgun was stuck in the bastard's torso. Not wanting to step out from formation I retrieved a lasgun from the man I had replaced.
The last of the orks were dealt with, and our formation rushed to the positions previously occupied by the orks, including a series of trenches which we promptly occupied. As I hopped into the trench I looked around me and realized the full extent of the assault, as far as the eye could see guardsmen had advanced with us. Not just others in the 10th Mordian either, guardsmen from an assortment of regiments had made the push. It was inspiring how many men were willing to die for our emperor. Or, for some of the less pious, were willing to die because their commissar had a pistol pointed at their backs.
During the lull in the action after we set up in the new defensive position, a captain came through the lines and began ordering men to join first platoon, or as it's also known the "Veteran Platoon". "Sir, arn't we supposed to be veterans to join 1st platoon?" asked a guradsman.
"Yep," replied the captain in a gruff tone, "but since the veteran company got wiped out, the restrictions have been...loosened." The captain continued picking the occasional man to join the veteran platoon. A bit later I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to face the Captain.
"What's your name private?" the Captain asked me.
"Guardsman Odmar Konig, Sir!" I quickly replied and clicked my heels together.
"Welcome to the veteran platoon Guardsman."
This was my first deployment. After my first contact with the enemy, I had been appointed to join the veteran platoon. To say the least, I was shocked. But orders were orders, so I followed the other men who had been appointed to the veteran platoon. I arrived at a large grouping of men listening to lieutenant speak.
"So you're my new platoon, eh? Well we operate a bit different here. Basically we fight like the rest of the guard, so no more tight formations. The sergeants will be coming around shortly so just join up with one of them and we'll be off to scout."