501st Journal entry 1: Death from Above.

Republic Intel Record Begins:

Intel Agent: Captain Rex, I have been ordered to debrief you about the recent invasion of our galaxy. Your troops were there when the first shots were fired. I know this will be difficult for you, but its important to know as much as we can. As you know full well, we are being pushed back on every front by a relentless foe that seems to be willing to commit any atrocity and suffer insane losses simply to take a minor world.

Captain Rex: I know, I won't thank you for this, but I know you are just doing your job.

Intel Agent: Are you… ready to proceed?

Cpt. Rex: Ya, (long sigh), let's just get this started.

Intel Agent: Then tell us please, about the first encounter with the… Astartes.

Cpt. Rex: Starting easy, eh? (tired chuckle)…

It was the first time we encountered them, the Imperium's Angels of Death, The Astartes. (Shuddering intake of breath). We are engaged with droid forces on Christophsis… again. The battle was going in the usual fashion, endless lines of clackers and tanks marched on us relentlessly, the wide flat streets offering little cover from the withering firestorm.

Then, a thundering sound of sonic booms, a radio transmission come in, telling me that unknown ships had just entered orbit and were dumping massive bombs on the city. I wish it had been simple explosives, at least it would have been quicker. At least, I wouldn't have seen… (clear throat) anyway, I ordered my men into whatever cover was available. Christophsis doesn't have much cover so we were forced to jump into the nearest sandbagged shell or bomb craters. Then the "bombs" began firing deceleration rockets and I knew something was wrong.

With horrific crashes, the pods smashed into the droid lines, centre mass. The sheer force sending dozens of droids flying like toys. Then like some mechanical flower, the pods opened… after a few seconds of silence, I took a chance and looked over the crater lip, with my magnoculars, and saw huge multi-barrelled cannons lowered into firing position, revving up, pointing in all directions.

I scream over the comms "EAT THE DIRT!", just before the "death blossoms" opened fire. A fraction of a second after, the guns opened up… a roaring sound like an angry god and a stream of fire erupted from the cannons… indiscriminately ripping into anything or one. The roaring of the guns lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed like forever, (slow intake of breath). I could hear ripping sounds as the huge shells ripped apart droids, walls and vehicles alike, several craters full of troops got blasted into a bloody pulp in the 10 seconds or it took for the cannons to run out of ammo.

Several seconds of total, deafening silence followed as the guns reeved down… there was no sound of droids clanking, no B1's chattering, nothing. I took another peak over the crater lip, more carefully this time. I couldn't believe what a I saw. Right up to that point we had been outnumber at least 100 to one, not including armour, now all that was left of the Droid infantry was piles of mangled scrap, each radiating out at least a hundred meters around each pod. AAT's were burning, the sheer weight of fire having ripped into their vital systems.

(deep shuddering inhale), I thought it was over… by the force I couldn't have been more wrong.

I began a routine comms check, who needed help, who was hurt. Several squads had not covered in time and were missing… anyway, that's when the comms began screaming…

ALERT! ALERT! ALL GROUND FORCES, INCOMING DROP PODS AND HEAVY GUNSHIPS! ETA 30 SECONDS! GET INTO COVER, I REPEAT AHHHHHH…CRACKLLEE.

Cpt Rex is silent for several seconds, clearly hearing that poor man screaming over the commlink.

Intel Agent: Pause recording. Captain… Captain Rex, do you need a moment?

Rex: ya, ya… you got some water?

Intel officer: I'll have some brought.

End of Chapter 1.

Authors Note:

SO…ya a lot longer then I thought, I wanted to go into more detail, provide a suitable setup and got carried away. But worth it, I think. I wanted this to be a formal after-action interview by an anonymous Republic intel agent, and a nice one at that… really helps show that Rex has seen some S #$.

So anybody who plays 40k will probably know those were Deathwind Drop Pods.

Guess what comes next? I HEREBY SIGN THE DEATH WARRANT OF 6 MILLION SOULS, AND CONDEMN THE WORLD OF CHRISOPHSIS TO THE EMPERORS MERCY. Please give some feedback aspecially on spelling, star wars stuff have some weird spelling.

also please go and view the youtube video which inspired this! /vBmW66d_bHk