PREFACE
An excerpt from the audio logs of Inquisitorial Journalist T. D. Paxton.
"It is a very simple, well-known, and ancient fact; soldiers die. Day by day, year by year, and now throughout the millennium, the death of the soldier has become an integral part of the human condition. Men volunteer or are drafted, they are trained, they fight for what they believe is right, and then some day after, inevitably their lives will be snuffed. Some are lost one by one, and others fall alltogether in a single instant.
"Long ago it may have been singular heroes slain in battle whose names were passed down in reverence for ages. Perhaps it then became heroic squads given posthumous awards, medals given to families for their selfless sacrifice. Soon enough it would be regiments only remembered in textbooks, then armies listed as negative numbers in volumes of statistics. Now, entire planets and systems are wiped of their populations, regiments of millions raised and razed each day.
"Who remembers them?
"As humans in this the 40th millennium, we are taught one way or another from birth that we are forever being watched over and cared for by the power of the Almighty and that he will embrace us in our final moment. The Emperor loves us. In the end, the Emperor will remember us.
"This is, perhaps, the ultimate comfort of the Imperial Guard. One does not don the uniform of a Guardsman with the expectation to survive to a ripe old age, retire with honors, and settle down to start a family. Though it is a hope well clung-to and a romantic fantasy, it is utterly a hollow dream for most. Though the words are often uttered in parting or desperation, the commonly known casualty statistics take any and all power from the phrase "The Emperor Protects."
No, subconsciously the Guardsmen do not truly look to the Emperor for protection. And why should they? So they may merely live today to die tomorrow? This begs a question: Why, then, should they put so much faith and reverence into this entity when they know they could come face to face with Death at any given moment? I propose a simple answer.
"They wish to be remembered.
"If one takes a moment to consider the vast nature of the human Imperium, it becomes obvious that it is impossible for anyone, even the Mechanicus, Ecchlisiarchy, or Administrarum to keep a record of every single individual soul whose has fought in the Emperor's name, no matter how ordinary or heroic. Some may beleaguer this statement as heresy and indicate how much reverence is given to the ordinary soldiers who fell to hold Vraks, Armageddon, or Cadia, but how much more prolific could any battle be than these? Would Vraks have been remembered if it had been seized in three years rather than eighteen? Would we sing songs of Armageddon had the charismatic Yarrick died at Hades Hive?
One must wonder, how many worlds have been swept away and forgotten in the numerous Tyranid and Ork incursions? There is little hope that as a single Guardsman your name will ever be mentioned amidst those of Olanius Pious or Lord Solar Macharius. What little hope you do have can logically only be placed in the Emperor. Who else has the power and will to remember every man who has served in his name?
"The Emperor remembers."