The Journal of Corporal Militis, 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers W11357

"Shit." I muttered, after telling my squad the plan. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shitty shit, shit."

"Don't worry about it, Corpse." Trooper Vrell said, reassuringly. The squad had taken to calling me Cropse, both as a pet name for my rank and because if I pulled too many stunts like the one on that first day, that is exactly what I would turn into. A Corpse. "It's not like you volunteered us for this part of the plan."

"No, but because of our display with the reactors, everyone in this assault has heard about the 'Twelve year old Corporal and his band of gods destroying half of the enemy's fighting strength with one well placed grenade.'" The squad chuckled, especially hearing about how men from other regiments thought I was too young to be in the guard, too. "Ah, shut up, the lot of you. Anyways, thanks to us performing too well that day, we've been voluntold to get this job done."

"More glory for the twelve year old and his gods." Trooper Tre said, raising a fist into the air. The group burst into laughter and I couldn't help but join in. "So, are we the only ones going into the refinery, Corpse?"

"No, we're the only ones being dropped in via Valkyrie, though." They all knew that meant we were going to be the only target in the sky, unless we had some sort of escort, and we were going to be the only ten Imperial soldiers inside of a Chaos held building for several hours. "If anyone doesn't want to go, you're still going, but you can get it off your chest and I won't make fun of you… to your face." Smirks broke out across their faces, and now that they all knew what was coming, I decided to have them hit the sack early. "Get some rest, now. No card games, no late night lho-sticks, get some sleep. You'll need it."

* * * *

Day break was usually a serene time, no matter what planet you were on. It was a time for everyone to brush the fatigue away and get about their business. Today, it was different, though. I looked at my chronometer and sighed heavily. Ten minutes and we would be loading into the Valkyrie. The number seven kept popping up into my head. Seven of these bastards were scattered in these buildings and it was up to us to slay at least one of them. He was no doubt well protected. If the enemy could throw their foul version of our Titans at us, I had no doubt in my mind that they would have Traitor Marines with them. We had been issued hot-shot ammunition long ago, and we were assured that it could punch through a Space Marine's armor, even at its strongest points, but we all had our doubts. It was a risky endeavor to ever engage a Space Marine, no matter the distance or if you were in a tank of any sort.

"Alright, buckets on." I ordered. The men complained a bit but they slid their helmets on and clipped the face masks securely to the helmet. The Valkyrie's pilots lazily walked towards us, one of them with a half smoked lho-stick in his mouth and the other talking passionately about some hot topic, swinging his arms out as if that would help the dismissive co-pilot grasp the scale of what he was saying. "Hurry up!" I barked. Probably taking me for someone higher in rank then a mere Corporal, the two pilots, who had to be at least warrant officers to hold that position, ran quickly, the one with the lho-stick taking one last, heavy drag and then tossed the butt to side.

"Alright let's…" one of the pilots began, and then caught a glimpse of the two chevrons on my sleeve, indicating I was a corporal and gave me an angry look. I caught a glimpse of the silver bar on his shoulder, indicating he was a first lieutenant. Apparently he wasn't happy with me ordering him to get his ass in gear. Oh well. "Let's get on board, Corporal."

I nodded to the squad and they hopped on board and started talking about some pre-battle topic to keep their mind off of it. I wasn't really paying attention to what was being said. I only caught something to the effect of 'Yeah, she did have a nice body.' I rolled my eyes and hopped onto the Valkyrie behind them all, banging my fist against the hatch to let the pilots know we were ready to go.

The flier lifted off of the ground with a lot of puffing and moaning and sped towards the inner city, apportion completely owned by what was left of the Chaos Resistance. A red light blinked on and the ramp closed itself. I clicked the vox in my ear, connecting to the pilots.

"What's the deal?" I asked.

"Enemy ground personnel." One of them replied. "We're getting some fire from the defenses down below, but they don't have anything in the AA department, so we'll be alright."

I nodded and gave the squad a thumbs up, letting them know we were alright. Several minutes of flying was brutally long. It was almost painful, the anticipation I was feeling. Soon enough, though, the red light turned green and the ramp closed. I looked outside and I could see muzzle flash, but they were coming from weapons that weren't designed to take down air craft. I looked back at the squad and waved my hands towards me, indicating the two with the ropes lower them. Shaz, the squad's plasma gunner, tossed down a length of rope, as did the squad's sniper Terrag. I grabbed Terrag's rope and slid in first, with Shaz. We repelled down about three stories, until we could see a room big enough for the whole squad to fit in. I pushed off of the glass window, swung out and then swung right back, shattering through the glass and bringing my hellgun up. Shaz was right behind me and we held our position until the whole squad was inside. I looked out the window and signaled for the Valkyrie to move on. The pilot nodded, doing something with his hand that was obviously supposed to be an obscene gesture and turned the flier about.

I was already turning when I caught a glimpse of a small dark object, with a smoking tail behind it heading for the Valkyrie form the roof. I wanted to yell out to them, but I bit my tongue. If I said anything, they'd pin point our location and we'd be up to our necks in Chaos before we got anywhere near our target, where ever he may be. The rear of the Valkyrie erupted in a ball of flame and it started to spin through the air as it slowly fell to the ground. I looked over at the squad, but they weren't moved by what had happened. There was no time for any of us to show pity, we had a job of the utmost importance to get done.

I stood against the wall, just inches from the door way that lead to the north of the building. Shaz fell in right behind me, followed by Corrick and Shobar. The rest of the squad took cover, waiting for us to breach the door. I sent my left hand back, tapping on the thigh of Shaz, who did the same all the way back until I felt Shaz tap me on the shoulder, indicating everyone was in place. Shobar came up from the rear and we both swept our hands along the door, making sure there were no booby traps and then he kicked the door in. I ran in, shooting a heretic through the torso in the center of the room and then moved to the left. Shaz blaster another heretic right out of the window behind him and moved to the right, with Corick spraying two closely clumped heretics who were running in from another room. Shobar came in and took cover a few feet behind Shaz and we all covered the two doorways leading into the room. The six others moved in, checked the room the two heretics had come in from and then stacked on the door on the opposite wall. If we had to clear the whole building like this, it would be a long day, and our squad would have a big body count by the end of it.

Corporal Preliat Militis

3rd Squad, 1st Platoon

Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers

The wrath of the Emperor is to be feared, not because he is the God of Mankind, but because it's our regiment that will see it is carried out!