The close, linear formation of guardsmen I was in continued to move forward. The battlefield around me was loud. Too loud. And by that I mean it was so loud I couldn't hear the orkish deff dread moving towards me. So when I saw it, it was already withing shooting range. And so were the 5 others I could see. And so was the horse of orks behind them.

Beck's cry of "fire at will" was cut off when she took a big shoota round to the chest. My vision after that was obscured by the rain of mud and flesh as the weaponry of several deff dreads and lots of infantry swept over the platoon. The sound of all the weapons firing combined with the explosions and the screams deafened me. The flying body of someone landed on me, knocking me to the ground and saving my life as several bullets slapped into the poor guy on top of me.

An explosion nearby whipped me forward about 10 feet; I rolled over the bodies of the people who not 2 minutes ago I had been fighting with. I was covered in their guts. As my vision got blurry around the edges I saw what looked like a good amount of Imperial Guard tanks rolling towards me. A bit too late I thought to myself before everything went black.

Everything hurt. But at least my limbs could all move, including my prosthetic left arm. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up, groaning as pain rushed through my core. The battle was still raging around me, but at least the Guard lines had moved up a little so I wasn't directly getting shot at. Up ahead of me a Baneblade was blasting orks to bits, along with a couple Lemon Russ tanks, some Cadian infantry, and a platoon or two of Mordians. More importantly were the bodies all around me. It seemed that the entire platoon I was a part off had been wiped out. There were a few moving like me but the majority of the platoon lay still, heaped on top of one another

A Cadians medic sprinted up and dropped to a knee beside me. After checking me over for wounds he pointed towards a platoon size grouping of Mordians near the company commander. I half jogged half stumbled over that way. As I got close one of the men in the company commanders enterouge walked over to me and told me what was going on.

" Sergeant, over here!"

"Yes sir?"

"These are the men left from the 2 platoons who took the most casualties. Seeing as your the only sergeant left, I'm promoting you to Lieutenant to lead these men."

The first thought that ran through my mind after this was 'I hope I don't end up like Beck'. The second thought was 'oh crap'. My rapid rise through the ranks really showed me how hellish it is down here. My only qualification was I hadn't been killed like everyone around me. I could feel my confidence rising as quickly as my sarcasm.

I walked over to my new platoon. There wasn't a single person in it who wasn't covered in blood. With grim looks the platoon formed up into the linear formation typical of the Iron Guard. I picked out three sergeants from the guardsmen assembled before me, not one of them seemed fazed by their recent promotion. I then found a vox-operator and instructed him to stay by my side no matter what. With my new platoon all set I reported to my company commander that the platoon was fit for battle and requested his orders.

"I tell you what just sit tight and pick up a few stragglers from the rest of the survivors, I'll vox you when there's a gap you need to fill."

"Yes sir!" I replied, excited by the opportunity to not get shot at for a little bit. We sat around for ten minutes, a couple ragged looking men and women walked over and joined the platoon, but not many. The battle was moving forward, so I decided to move the platoon a bit closer to be sure we didn't get left behind.

My vox operator tappes me on the shoulder. "Sir, defensive positions are being set up ahead. Command wants us to help fill them."

With that, I informed my platoon what we were doing and continued marching through the horrid battlefield. Destroyed tanks, and tons upon tons of bodies littered the battlefield. I was used to the stench by now. On the bright side, I was able to find a las pistol and chainsword in the bodies. With my new weapons in hand I arrived at the defensive positions and ordered my platoon to start digging.