Day 34
Spent entire day practicing stealthy combat in the forests with the rest of the squad using rubber bullets. We are all covered in bruises.
Got back at about midnight.
One of the Dreads decided to get Cog-Brother Simonium Fisk of the First Company to replace one of its claws with a projector. Spent until morning watching a film called "Tech-Magus Frankenstyn".
Day 35
Breakfast was honey (from the hives in the orchard) and bread and arsenic. Lots of arsenic.
Learned that the planet we will be going to tomorrow will have extremely high concentrations of sulphur. REALY high. Pictures show a yellow and browny yellow landscape. Entire Company painting armour various shades of yellow.
Looked at the atmospheric data. Taking the Osmotic Gill. Painted it yellow.
Learnt that two of the Dreads are coming. Dread Gertrude and Dread Waylum. As they don't breath they should be fine.
Day 36
Breakfast today was Toast sprinkled with Sarin. Chapter Master Sternist really believes in this poison adaptation idea.
Was very ill after breakfast. Too much Sarin. Tasted nice enough on the way down, but not on the way up.
Nobody else was ill. Must be getting old. Feel depressed. Going to look at photo-album again.
Ship arrived after dinner. Looks like an Adeptus Mechanicus owned one. Very posh.
Went to play cards with the dreads.
Day 37
The ship is mind-numbingly boring. But on the positive side the Black Tempelars wont be picked up till tomorrow.
Todays meal was an Adeptus Mechanicus special. Which meant it came out of a tube. I dislike synthesized food. The only things that should come in tubes are glue and toothpaste.
Can hear tapping and chittering sounds coming from under the deck plates. I think we have Hrud stowaways on board. One of the nicer xeno species at any rate. The worst they ever do is knick your sandwiches if you leave your lunch box open.
Day 38
Dropped out of the warp briefly to pick up the Black Tempelars. They've been ork bashing on an agri-world.
Don't like the looks those Tempelars are giving us.
Dinner was a tube of something purple that tasted of roast Pike. Don't trust it, didn't eat it.
An incident broke out in the mess just after dinner. Apparently the Tempelars started throwing things at Brother Jepish 'Bear' Skog. Brother Bear, as we call him, had an unfortunate reaction to the Black Carapace and now suffers form lots of hair growth. The fangs that all our chapter share make him look like a big blonde bear. He also had his vocal cords and lyrix ripped out by the Dark Eldar, poor sod.
This is why I don't like the Tempelars, any variation from the norm and its 'Kill and purge, kill and purge...' nearly all the Lore Guard suffer one slight oddity or another. The Fangs for instance. Many suffer from having black on black eyes (like sun glasses under the skin) and very few suffer from looking like a bear.
They started on Librarian Gvon for being a psyker. The only reason this has not gone, as the orks would say, WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!! Is because they out number us 3 to 1.
Day 39
Snuck into the high security storage area early this morning (as if that word even applies in space), with the help of Tech-Priest Kwith. Big battle banner all in gold and black with the words 'Burn The Unclean' in purest white. It now reads 'Wash The Unclean'.
The Black Retards have just seen their new banner. You should have seen their faces. Apparently it was a holy relic once belonging to the First Chapter Master or whatever title they give him.
If I can get away with it I'm going to paint all terminator armour pink. Just have to find some red paint. But that's the thing about being on a Cog-head ship; they are obsessed with the colour red. Think it's the colour of an important forge world or something.
Spent the rest of the day playing cards with the Dreads. They have started telling light bulb jokes as they play cards now.
How many Cog-heads does it take to change a lamp wick?
Oh no, they've forgotten how to make light bulbs again.
How many Imperial Guard troopers does it take to change a light bulb?
Just one. Basic training. Reloading a lass-gun.
How many Tyranids does it take to change a light bulb?
None, they just ate the person trying to change it.
How many Slaanashii cultists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Two. But how did they get in the light bulb?
How many Emperors of all mankind does it take to change a light bulb?
Just one. And it shall be so bright that you can use it to navigate the warp by.
Day 40
Got sick of the jokes. Went wandering. Ship is huge.
Started hearing the clicky chittering sound again. Really freaky.
Wandered into part of the ship where the lights are spaced further apart. Gloomy with many shadows that dance and swirl as the source of light moves
Some move when the light is still.
Day 41
Dreads have now moved on to the knock, knock jokes;
Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
Inquisitor of the Ordo Heriticus.
Inquisitor of the Ordo Heriticus who?
Anything you say or do will mean nothing all records of your existence will be erased and you will be executed!
I get the feeling that neither of them likes the Inquisition much.
Heard that we will get to the war zone before the Great Devourer. But only just.
Found some red paint and a spare drum of cooler for the plasma reactor. Mixed them together and they are fluorescent pink.
Used the maintenance shaft and a length of rope to get to the Terminator armour. Under heavy lock and key. Had to paint whilst hanging from the ceiling.
Day 42
There is something out there in the warp trying to get in. We can hear it whispering to us in our sleep.
There is something in here with us, in the shadows. We hear it when we are awake. I hope it's just the Hrud. If its not we are in big trouble.
It's getting louder, like things hammering on the shuttered windows. The Dreads have stopped playing cards (its that serious!). They stand ready to strike.
The Geller field is really taking a beating. We dare not open a window shutter to see what is going on outside. That would be really stupid.
Day 43
The Black Retards have just found their bright pink armour. They blamed it on warp beasts.
Spent the day polishing the sniper rifle. Captain Zakaris has given the orders that the sniper squads are to find high ground and try to take out the synapse creatures.
Dinner was a sort of protein rich chewy bar. Looked horrible and tasted worse, left most of it.
Found a way of patching music into the comm. System. Now that's good.
It's nearly midnight (back home its nearly midnight, I should say) we will be going down in a few hours.
Day 44
We landed just as soon as day broke near the entrance to a really big building. Looks like a space elevator. (What you do is you get a big space rock stick it in geo-synchronous orbit and build a lift from the surface to the rock. The rock can then be used as a building platform for a spaceport)
Climbed up the main building some distance. Apparently the Astro-seers predict that the Roaches will hit the ground here. The Spaceport also acts as the main entrance to the underground inhabited tunnel complex.
Got stocked up on ammo. Really big pile of bullets.
Planet is not as dead as it looks. Some sort of local xeno plant life has evolved. Everything grows yellow or browny-yellow because of the high concentrations of sulphur.
Entire planet stinks of an eggy fart. Brimstone everywhere.
Day 45
The sky almost had the sun blotted out. They are making planet fall. The meagre planetary defences are being overrun.
Started playing music over headphones. Ancient song from Cadia; Smite The Fallen Deamon.
The tide of abominations seems unending. Our 2nd Company Terminators are like islands in the see of horror. So many targets.
The Dreads are SERIOUSELY making their presence felt. I just saw Dread Gertrude tackle a Carnifex.
This will be all day of a job.
Day 46
Nearly ran out of bullets, thankfully a member of the PDF (Planetary Defence Force) came and gave me a whole box full. Poor sod looks like he is no more than 14. This is not how the Imperium should be.
The Terminators and Tactical Squad are getting swamped. On the plus side the Bugs now have to run up hill.
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Just got a barbed scythe like forelimb nearly slice my left leg clean off. One of the big bat-like ones. Knifed its head off.
Maybe I shouldn't have been listening to music.
Stopped bleeding. Can walk, hobble, and if need be I can still perform a lurchy run.
Day 47
Saw a load of multi-limbed abominations trying to run up the stairs to my position. Thank goodness for caltrops and steep stairs.
I really hate Zeothropes. Mastery of the warp as an intrinsic genetic factor. You have to wait till one of them is busy with someone else and distracted before you can put a bullet through its big head.
On the positive side killing a Zenothrope seems to make the other Bugs falter for a very short while.
Leg is itchy. Think its infected or something.
Must be some hell of an infection if it can beat the Astrates immune system.
Day 48
Can barely see the ground. Everything is just a sea of corpses. Theirs and ours. The number of Nids was far greater than the amount that we were told. If we had been given accurate information we would have taken the 1st, 3rd and 4th Company's as well.
Am running out of ammo again.
Run out of ammo. Chucking grenades over the wall.
Run out of grenades. Got two knives. Whilst I can still stand I will not cower in safety, I will meat the enemy in a blaze of glory and Death.
Day 49
Day 50
Its over.
Slept amongst the corpses for a while. Got up. Went to Apocrathy Dvis to have the leg looked at. He says my body will probably kill the infection eventually. Got stitches. Quite a large chunk of flesh was hanging off.
Went to dinner. Was Carnifex stake. Tasted better than it looked, but not by much.
32 of our Company are missing. They could just be buried under corpses. Now starts the horrible job of body sorting. Anything that looks like one of ours is to be sent to the Apocrathy for identification. There is a chance that they will be OK when we find them. Probably a vain hope, but its the only sort their is at the moment.
Dread Gertrude and Dread Waylum survived, barely. Both need considerable repair work.
Day 51
IT'S A MIRACLE. We lost no one. What are the odds? After all night of searching we found all of our friends buried under the corpses.
Apocrathy's say some of them are in a dangerous state, many have been poisoned with xeno poison of unknown type. 16 are in comas. It is unknown weather they will ever awaken or not.
The Apocrathy's have started to place bets on who they think will wake up first.
Just received message that a Dark Eldar raid is starting on the only habitable planet in the system of the other star in this binary system.
Those that could boarded ship immediately. We left the sleeping in the care of the locals.
Day 52
Trip took slightly over a minuet. Less than three light year distance.
Took the drop pod to the surface. Took the bikes with us. Managed to get hold of a power sword.
Day 53
Chased the Dark Eldar into the web-way. Doh! Really stupid idea. Can't find my way out now. It's like being lost in a maze of tunnels.
Glad that I brought the bike. Covered a lot of distance. Must be an exit somewhere.
Picking up strange static on the radio. Switched it off. Sounded like the whole universe laughing at me.
Sometimes I see things out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn around they are not there. This means that I am either seeing things that aren't there, things that are only half in reality or something is tracking me less than 2 strides behind me and can move EXTREMELY quick.
The tunnels seem to be made of a plastic-like substance of varying hues, slightly warm to the touch.
Not sure where the light is coming from. But I can see.
Day 54
In my long, long life I have seen things that people were never meant to see. I have seen the hearts of stars and the colds of space. I have seen abominations of the warp and the beauty that is an unspoilt world, precious like a perfect fragile gem. But I have never seen anything like this place. It is just too indescribable. I don't know the words to describe it. I don't think any human does. I wish I had my camera.
As I came along that tunnel it was in a long curved path to the right, like a big scythe blade. As I look back it goes of in the other direction. This place is not playing to the usual rules.
I am extremely grateful this bike is powered by a micro-fission reactor and not some easily exhaustible fuel.
Day 55
I am starting to get a little hungry.
I think I can hear something sniggering just on the edge of hearing. Or maybe it is something really close but quiet. This place is creepy. I have gone against the hordes of the warp, I have been hunted by a gene-stealer cult and I have faced the horror of the Necrons wearing the still wet skins of their last victims and I say nothing is as freaky as this place.
I am sure something is following me. I don't want to meat it. I dare not ride any faster in case of sudden corners.
What ever it is that is following me it is gaining on me. I do not know how I know this but I do. I don't want it to find me, not in this place.
I am not going to sleep tonight. I wouldn't be able to if I tried.
Day 56
What ever it is it's almost on top of me. I can almost see it when I turn around. It skitters away out of the corner of my eyes. No matter which way I turn there is always a 'behind me' that I cannot see.
Have started going faster, much faster. Distance seems to be a not entirely stable concept in this twisted place.
Wish I had painted the bike red and not brown and green leafy patterns. After all, Red Ones Go Faster.
It's almost reached me. I can all but hear its heart beat it is that close. I can hear its raspy breath and its slow but determined foot falls behind me. The bike cannot go faster and it is keeping pace with me at the speed of a gentle walk. I hate this twisted strange place.
I will not be weak I will not prey to the machine spirit of the bike to go faster (I'm not gullible to believe in such things), I will not pray to the Emperor for such help as he cant give, I've read (and made) history and I share the view of the chapter that if the Emperor was a god why would he depend on a machine for survival. I wish I had something to pray to. I am alone, utterly alone.
It has found me.
Day 57
Day 58
Day 59