Prologue

Anrei Kuznetsov sat in his foxhole as another earth shaker barrage went off nearby. They had been bombarded for months and still they waited. The 1212th Cold Bloods had been deployed in the Eastlight Nebula and were so overstretched most of them didn't even have a las-gun. The cold had started to get to many of them and less than half of them had survived the march across the frozen plains. Despite this, they still attacked the traitor lines and now were cut off from all support or reinforcements. It would be a miracle if any of them survived the day, nevermind the battle.

"Good day to die am I right Andrei?" Nikita said whilst smiling. Nikita had been caught in the edge of an earthshaker shell earlier and was loopy with blood loss. The crimson fluid ran down the sides of his head from his ears and down the front of his face from his nose. He was badly burned on his right side and was missing the leg from the knee down. With their medic dead from a falling sheet of ice, it was only a matter of time until Nikita bit it. They didn't dare shoot him for fear of wasting ammo or bringing a squad of traitor marines onto their heads.

"We're completely cut off, the traitor lines passed over us yesterday," The comm officer said with a tone of resignation. The comm officer flipped the vox off and left it on the floor of their dirty hole. It wouldn't help them anymore. If anything it would actually make it easier for them to be found due to the noise and how large the comm was.

"This is the end for us," The sergeant said sadly. "Let's take as many traitors as we can with us, yes?"

"For the Emperor," was the quiet response to the sergeant's declaration.

"Sir, what should we do about Nikita?" Andrei asked, not wanting to leave their comrade to the traitors.

"Leave him, we cannot waste time right now," the sergeant said while he started climbing out of the hole.

Andrei followed suit, the Comms officer and two other guardsmen following as well. They crept around the broken buildings under the new moon while hearing the screams of pleasure and pain from farther down the road. The Slaaneshi cultists had been taking what few Valhallans they could capture back there to do their infernal rituals. The entire squad shivered at the sounds. Of the five of them left, they had three las-guns, a las-pistol, and a chainsword amongst them. It was just enough to arm all of them and even then, they were low on ammo and starving. If any cultists ran across them now, they would surely die.

"Ready grenades."

The squad quietly pulled out the last of their fragmentation grenades and got ready to pull the pins. As they crept closer to the ritual site, the sounds only grew louder. Chanting became audible over the ongoing orgy. When the traitors camp came into sight of the guardsman they paled. There were thousands of cultists milling around, and hundreds of captives. The red light of dusk made the entire area seem like it came straight out of the warp.

"Back down. Back down," the sergeant whispered as they scrambled down the pile of rubble they had climbed up. "We will wait for a few more hours until most of the enemy is asleep, then we strike."

"Yes sir," the squad chorused quietly.

Waiting was the worst part of the mission Andrei thought. Knowing they could be found and slaughtered at any time, not knowing how the rest of their comrades at the front were doing. Knowing that some of their comrades were suffering and dying not even 500 yards away. It drove Andrei mad just thinking about it.

As the hours finally passed with only one minor incident when the comms officer snored during his nap, they were ready. The squad ate their last ration bars and went back up the rubble. The orgy was still going on, but most of the cultists were asleep in their haphazardly placed tents and bed rolls.

"We will go in and take care of the sentries, then free our comrades."

"Yes sir"

Andrei went back down the rubble and crept to the right. He wasn't the sneakiest, but the orgy going on was to the cultist detriment, as the noise disguised Andrei's footsteps. Andrei went behind his sentry and quickly grabbed and stabbed him. Blood coated the Valhallans' gloves as he dragged the cultist back in a broken shack. Looking over at his other comrades, they had also finished their objectives.

Continuing into the camp, the squad found that most of their comrades were stuck into cages, some were dead and others were missing limbs. The cages were made of ice? Tapping the bars showed that the cages were actually metal covered in ice. The squad quickly tried looking for ways to open the cages and trying to remain hidden when some cultists came by to drop off more captured Ice Warriors. The squad quickly scrambled to hide around the back of the cages. And waited for the cultists to leave.

"Did ya hear?" one of the cultists said.

"No hear what?"

"Apparently, the loyalists got themselves armor support and just broke through the lines."

"Impossible, the corpse worshipers couldn't find their own asses if they had two hands and a holo map!"

"Hey! I just heard this from the guys coming back from the front with more toys."

"I think they were probably using too much slaughter."

"Eh, doesn't matter, if they get here, the daemon that the psykers summoned will kill them."

"True, let's get some new toys and get back into the party!"

"Hahaha, yes, let's do that."

The Valhallans listened in and were wide eyed. They had psykers and daemons? They were screwed. They had no heavy weapons, six grenades between them, and hundreds of tired, starved, and crippled soldiers to maybe help. Once the gate into the cage opened, the Valhallans opened fire and killed the cultists, subtlety gone out the window. They had accepted that they were going to die, but by the Emperor they were going to go down, kicking, screaming, and covered in the blood of his enemies.

"Grenades!"

Immediately four grenades left the hands of the Valhallans and landed in the midst of the orgy. The Valhallans there would die, but many more cultists would as well. The grenades exploded, blowing chunks of viscera and bone fragments everywhere.

"Go! Go! Go! For the Emperor!"

"For the Emperor!" was the resounding call of the prisoners.

The former prisoners started to pick up whatever could be used as a weapon and immediately charged into the fray, the crippled missing legs were handed las-guns and started firing into the horde of traitors. The sounds of battle drew out the psykers who immediately unleashed unrestrained warp energies into the fray. The ground started to rumble as a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh broke down a wall and immediately stepped onto a group of guardsmen. The daemon didn't seem to be able to tell friend from foe and killed swaths of cultists and guardsmen alike.

"Aim for the psykers! We can't take the daemon with our weapons!"

Dozens of las-bolts went to the psykers, only to hit a barrier of warp energy.

"Shit."

The las-bolts drew the attention of the psykers who then burned a group of guardsmen with las-guns in warp fire, drawing agonized screams from them as their flesh came apart and melted off their bones. Andrei barely rolled out of the way but ended up losing the bottom parts of his legs to the warp fire. He cried out in agony as he kept trying to fire the las-gun at the pyskers with no change in results.

The sergeant fell next to Andrei, he wasn't as lucky with his dodge and ended up losing his head. Andrei quickly rolled over and put his las-gun on his back. He then gabbed the grenades, las-pistol, and chainsword of what was left of the corpse and tried to get out of the area.

Suddenly the battlefield erupted with fire as earth shook and debris was thrown into the air. The field fell silent and Andrei Kuzetsov died.