Here I am, in a rhino transport heading into the depths of a forest. Inside the rhino my men give their weapons a final check. Vilkas load his heavy bolter, his baldhead shining red from the glow of an interior lighting system. Next to him Amriel is going through the last of his checks for a flamer. The other seven are checking their bolters or checking their pouches. Suddenly a voice comes through from the driver's compartment.
"Sir, we have reached a point where we cannot advance any further, too many trees and we couldn't even knock them down. Not without a dozer blade. You'll need to continue on foot."
"Right, I'll convey it Kalkan."
A voice comes through a vox receiver on the wall, "I heard everything, Cenn. We'll disembark here and have the guardsmen do the same."
"Aye, you're squad ready?"
"As always."
I can tell he would have a smile on his face, like he always does. I look to my squad who obviously heard the whole thing as the holstered anything they could and are latching their helmets into place. I do the same. Suddenly the red light that I was used to for the ride was gone, replaced with the digital scanners from my lenses. I can clearly make out every detail on the power armour everyone wears. I remember where most markings where received, Amriel has a deep scratch on his shoulder guard from a time when an Ork tried to cut him up. He refuses to let the armour be repaired, says it adds definition.
The rhino suddenly comes to a halt, and as the rear door opens eight of the nine men under my command line either side of the transport with myself in the middle, although Vilkas needs to stand behind me because of the size of his weapon of choice. When the door comes to a halt on the ground I walk out first, followed by the rest of 2nd squad. We are in some sort of a clearing, Kalkan and 4th squad are walking towards me in the same manner as my own squad. We nod to each other as we wait for the two chimeras to stop and let their men out. I glance at Kalkan and his squad, all adorned in mk7 armour, one plasma gun, everyone else armed with bolters.
Suddenly the chimeras that were following us have stopped and men are walking out and towards us, with the inquisitor leading them. He stands out like an Ork in an organized room. He stands there in a black trench coat, while his guardsmen from the Cadian 405th are in the light green flak armour, and desert coloured breaches and coats. They remind me of the Cadian 8th we fought with some time ago. Everyone here, except the Inquisitor, fits right into our surroundings. The guardsmen are wearing their green armour, and the astartes around me clad in their green armour as well. The forest that surrounds us is a perfect example of undisturbed nature, the bright green trees tower far above my head, and further to the east I can see the trees are tightly clumped together. I turn my head back to the mere mortals walking towards me.
"We must continue on foot for the next bit, not far to march, about another 10km or so. I will lead, Inquisitor Torfen, you will be with me. Kalkan, you will follow two hundred meters back along with the guardsmen."
Everyone nods, seeming to accept the plan. I turn to my squad and say through my vox, "Spread out, far enough to effectively deal with a problem, but so we can still see each other."
They all start to spread out at my orders, with about a dozen meters between them. I make a thrusting move with my hand and start our advance into the forest.
We haven't been walking too long, maybe an hour or so when Kalkan's voice comes through my internal vox, "We're going to stop for a moment, the guardsmen are tired."
As I hear what he has to say I speak to my own men, "Hold up, the others are resting, we may as well do the same."
My men nod and converge around me and the Inquisitor, I look down at him to see him sitting on a rock, clearly out of breath.
A few minutes pass, I was ready to move out once again when I suddenly hear gun shots from where Kalkan was.
"Men, on me!" I bellow through my vox, 2nd squad forms up around me, weapons raised. We are scanning the forest around me when I see movement.
A small shape lunges from the darkness at one of us and takes off guard, it forces one of my men to the ground and bites into his neck. We open fire, not hesitating, knowing the astartes on the ground was dead. Once the body of the hostile had stopped moving I move closer to investigate it. Red carapace armour, white flesh, large talons. A tyranid.
"Well Inquisitor, we found Xenos."
He looks a tad shocked before he recomposes himself, "I'm not blind sergeant, I can see that. We should move."
"And nor am I stupid. We move back to the rhinos. Double time!"
My men start a light jog back to where we came from. I dread to think what has happened to Kalkan.