Death. I wait for it. Finally my time has come. I have fought with my soul ablaze in the galaxy unlike any who have fought before. Doing the duty to my Lord without question, striving to see that His will is done and our people survive.

All about me lie the dead and dying. Friend and foe alike. Peace finally found on the ground beside one another, like it should have been in life, had they not turned from His light.

I feel the light fading; the suns of this place are setting, taking with it the warmth of my body. It's light as crimson as the blood that stains the very ground about me. My own now included to its sanguine hues.

Though my sight is blurred and every fibre of my body cries out so desperately in pain, I manage to move my line of sight to the sky, to the very heavens themselves. It's beautiful, beyond words to me dying eyes. I remember seeing the skies of many places, in many different shades and colours. Yet none have looked as sublime as the one that hangs above me.

So strange, this place, this sky is all so unfamiliar to me and yet I feel at home. Calm and serene as though I had lived all my long life in this place. Though part of me knows that in some sense it is.

My master is lord over these worlds, and I serve Him and his domain. I am part of Him so every corner of this galaxy that pays homage to Him is a place I can call my home.

I smile, somehow through the agony, happy in the fact that I will meet my fate here and find myself not lacking. My part here is complete for it is nothing but His will that has felled me. Not the weapons of my enemy but the will of my Lord. I have tread the path laid down at my feet to its end and as I have done so with my duty, I do not fear what is to lie ahead for me. I have and will never fear my own demise.

Grey. The colours are lost to me now. All about me is dull. No longer will my eyes see the beauty of my home, no longer will I look upon the wonder of the places I was charged to protect and defend. No longer will I gaze upon my brethren, the people I have fought along side for as long as I can remember. They are lost to me now, as I am to them. Gone forever, never to be returned.

It is cold now, bitterly so. The warmth totally and irrevocably leached away with the blood that flows so freely and unbidden from my body. I shiver despite myself and I cannot fathom the reason why. My world, my universe is so changed. Narrowing to a thin line of vision. And in it I see nothing.

I strain my ears to try and pick up any sounds, but they are gone too. The world is empty to me now. In it is only myself. My mind begins to wonder. Am I truly alone here? Have all fallen in this battle. Is this world lost to all as well as myself?

No. My unspoken questions are answered. A face swims into my sight. A face that I now and clearly recognise. A vision of mercy in my eyes, a vision in pure white. He speaks, though it sounds like from a great distance away, though I still understand his words.

'Your wounds are too grave brother' he speaks softly to me. 'Do you desire the Emperor's Peace?'

A click, quiet as a whisper, but as loud as thunder rolls around me. I open my lips to speak, to ask. But my words are lost in my chest. The white Angel nods in complete understanding.

'

The others? They are whole, brother. You saved them. Your name is entered in the Book of Honour'

I nod. My strength all but spent. Content in the knowledge that my brothers still live. I have given my all for them and all the people I serve. My name will be remembered and through my brothers I shall not be forgotten and so live on through them even though my soul is returned to my Lord's side. I close me eyes and feel no more.