Remnants.

Chapter One: Fleeting Resolve.

    'It's time men!' A commanding figure states from atop his steed.
     Couped up throughout an abandoned mining facility, were the remnants of a once great force. Imperial Guardsmen. Six hundred and fifty-six men remained, stationed in the desolate plains of a planet none cared to remember the name of. The mining facility had been fortified, well, reinforced the best way a small force was capable of, sandbags, old stone pillars reused to cover entrances, and for cover itself. Wind blew heavy against it's buildings, a calming sound of breeze echoing throughout the huge expansive hole left in the planets crust, near the end of the facility.
     'The xeno think us weak! Hindered by our losses! With this attack we show them wrong!' The man on his hot blood steed continues, clenching the reins to his mount. He was elevated above his force by the terrain, but even without the environment, his men saw him as an icon of the Imperium itself. The Imperium, that hadn't come to their aid.
     It'd been 2 months since they were deployed, they hadn't gotten reinforcements in that span of time. Vox communication was silent, the fleet they arrived on destroyed. The fleets they were waiting on to resupply them, never arriving. To put it shortly, they were dying.
     'Commissar Val, sir, may I speak?' A decorated soldier in tattered uniform salutes, her voice gravelly and weak, although her stature was bold and firm.
     Throughout the line of soldiers before Val, she had been the only one who spoke.
     'You may, Lieutenant.' The Commissar replies, the wrinkles on his face easing, as if it was a relief someone else was talking, even if it was for a moment.
     'I do not mean to question your judgement, but this raid could potentially damn us all. The vox-casters, along with the tech priests, are still working to get the mining facility's command room running to call for supp-'
     'We do this to survive. We're running low on rations... ammunition... resolve.' Val cuts the Lieutenant off, pauses, then continues. 'We die from starvation, or we die in his name. Either way, mortality takes us, Lieutenant Mein.' The Commissar stares her down, and she keeps his gaze.
     'Yes, sir.' Mein nods, returning her arm to it's original position.
     'Men! Will you fight with me?! Will you avenge your brothers and sisters, who have fought and died on this wretched planet?!' Val shouts, looking at the troops under his command.
     The courtyard howled, 'Yes sir,' in unison! Men marched out of the buildings sprinkled around the mining facility. Several Chimera transports exposing themselves from the larger structures, and two Leman Russ battle tanks following suit. Val looked at his men, deep inside he wished, this raid, his last battle. Emperor knows he's tired, even someone of his status isn't immune to fatigue, but he can't show it. He won't even think about letting it affect him. Every soldier here needed him, he was their only purpose. He was their resolve.