Journal Entry

Conquest of Adraxinus VII, Day 2:

I apologize for the late hour of this recording. The patrol today was a bit . . . exciting, so we were late returning to camp. I'll get to that in a minute.

I woke up this morning to the sound of yelling coming from outside my tent. Stumbling out of my tent, I looked up, and was greeted with a large meteor hurdling across the sky. My squad and I all rushed to the edge of the ridge as the meteor slowly descended. It finally impacted near a small lake, lighting up the sky like a small nuke. When we finally regained our vision, we were surprised to see only a mere plume of smoke marking the point of impact. We quickly took note of its location, and after a few vox-comms with command, we got ourselves a plan. My squad leader assigned myself and two other squad mates to go investigate the impact area.

My first squad mate was Guardsman Cassio Marcula. Casio is a new recruit, and a native to Catachan, so we shared some common ground. His weapon of choice during training was always the Heavy Flamer. Trust me; he was quite skilled in its usage. The training sergeants all praised him as an "artist with a flamer." His official file labels him as "an expert in the field of pyrotechnic/ combi-pyrotechnic weaponry." With these commendations, it wasn't too difficult to guess his role: heavy weapons/support. He is extremely humorous, and always looks for the bright side of every situation (which would, in turn, explain his love for bright, fiery things . . .). He is also fiercely loyal to his squad, his duty, and most importantly his Emperor.

My second squad mate was Veteran Guardsman Taurus Formarun. He has served the XXIV Regiment as a trapper and hunter for a little over five years. This has resulted in a number of skull tattoos on his arm, for that is how we symbolize the years of service in the Catachan Regiments. He bears many scars, most of which are covered by his camouflage paint. He is an expert infiltrator, making it easy for him to get in and out of a situation without causing a stir. He is also extremely versatile when it comes to melee combat. Since his work requires silence, he is not a very vocal person. It is truly a gift of the Emperor himself to have him along.

We set out from the camp fully armed, since we had no knowledge as to whether this was just a simple meteor, or perhaps something . . . worse. We didn't say much, since we were outside of camp at that point. Each of us had our own sneaking suspicion as to what was going on, but we didn't voice them along the trip. The mission came first.

The objects impact had definitely stirred up the jungle wildlife. In fact, I believe that we encountered more wildlife on that single trip than we had our entire lives on Catachan. Strange avian creatures, the likes of which I had never seen, were screeching through the jungle. Many swarms of insectoids crossed our path as we made our way towards the impact crater, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. Some species we encountered were hostile to us. Such encounters allowed Marcula to put his heavy flamer to good use, as even the bravest beast will shrink away in fright when faced with the prospect of a burning death. Even so, we moved quickly. It was already almost mid day on the planet, and if the creatures we saw were anything to go by, we weren't eager to see what would rear its ugly head when night fell upon the planet.

We made it to the impact area at around 1400 hours. The object had definitely impacted with a great amount of force, as it had created a sizeable crater. The object itself was long, jet black, oval shaped, and definitely xenos in nature. We quickly broke out our surveillance gear, and began to take readings and record holo-images, as per instructions. Strangely enough, the object seemed to have cooled down very quickly, as the temperature readings came out to around normal levels. The object was covered in strange markings. They emitted a sickly green light, which seemed to pulsate and shift as we circled around it, causing us to keep our distance from the object itself. After we finished up, we took a few minutes to rest. As we stood at the edge of the crater, we were filled with a sense of dread. We left the crater a few moments later, all three of us muttering prayers to the Emperor under our breaths.

We arrived back at camp at around 2100 hours. We were challenged by the sentry, who recognized us immediately once we stepped into visible range. The camp was quiet, the only noise coming from the squad leader's tent. We entered quickly and quietly, and gave him our report. He took a few moments to read over the details. He then ordered us to go and eat, while he vox-messaged all of our information back to the Doombringer.

As I sat down by the fire to eat, Marcula approached, taking the space next to me. He had a worried look on his face.

"What's on your mind, Marcula?" I asked.

"I truly don't know, Natheus," he responded, shifting a bit. "I've just got a bad feeling about that object."

"What do you think it is?"

"I'm not entirely certain. I do know this; it isn't natural, and it isn't human."

"Well," I said, as I continued to eat, "the Emperor willing, we'll know soon enough. The squad leader has sent our info to command. They're bound to know what it is."

Marcula stared at me for a bit. "You know, Natheus," he said, "I truly hope you're right."

We sat in silence by the fire for e few minutes, eating and contemplating on what the future had in store for us. After a while, I decided to head for my tent, to get some rest before tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll know the origin of that object by then. Until then . . . end log.