Glory to the God Emperor!

- Chapter 1 - Planetfall -

(Commissar A . Harken POV)

"Attention soldiers of the Argarian 5th! We are entering an active war zone to reinforce our comrades on the surface on thier northan flank! Ready your equipment and be ready to enter the Valkyries, you have thirty minutes!"

I yelled at the top of my lungs loud and clear for the entire hanger bay to hear me, swiftly the men and women below me got to work doing thier final checks on thier gear and loaded up any additional supplies for the shock assault upon the enemy force that is approaching our allies.

As this went on I had took the liberty to equip my own Steel Legion patten rebreather as I decended the platform to the impromptu war council for the Company present, designated for the first wave, men and women ranging from the standard uniform for this regiment...

To the more decorated or veteran soldiers of this regiment....

And of course among this congregation of personel was the Platoon Commanders and the Company Commander, heavily decorated soldiers that earned thier rank or simply obtained it via other means.

(???): "Ah Commissar Harken! We were just discussing what platoon should be at the spear point of this assault as well as any other strategies that we can employ, care to share your thoughts?"

I approached the holo table and placed my hands behind my back as I inspected the map, the traitors has dug themselves in good it seems...

From the reports given to us they have anti air flak cannons as well as more primitive but effective heavier weaponry on thier trench line, these three vital components had certainly explained the heavy casualties on the surface.

"I believe that Platoons One through Five shall be our spear point for this assault, the rest of the platoons, mainly the mechanical platoons, shall approach on our flanks while delivering heavy ordinance to the enamy line that the Valkyries miss, its a gamble to be sure but we need to hit this foe quick and hard if we hope to secure a foothold against them and to buy precious time from our allies, I'll be at the front to rally the men in the event the situation gets dire"

A quiet chuckle escaped one of the officers present before he spoke.

(???): "Well that's exactly what we were thinking of doing Commissar Harken"

He then turned to the rest of the personal present.

(???): "It seems we are in agreement gentlemen, now let us be off to our Valkyries, we have a war to win"

With nods and the alarm now blaring, we all went to our respective shuttles, once seated I took out my bolt pistol and gave it a final once over as the other eleven men took thier seats and got strapped in, almost immediately our Valkyrie shot out of the hanger bay, quickly pulling us in the same direction before stabilising in space.

Within what seemed like minutes we broke into the planets atmosphere, almost immediately we experienced some heavy turbulence courtesy of the sudden shift in the gravitational pull and some oncoming flak fire, not accurate but it was enough to put me and the Sargent opposire me on edge a little bit, just enough to sharpen our focus.

(???): "Get ready back there, we're approaching the fortifications now!"

On cue the red light turned green, signalling to get up and get ready.

Once up and with a firm grip on my bolt pistol I grabbed onto a hanging bar with my free hand for stability as the men behind me did something similar, all of us anxious to leave our potential steel coffin.

More rumbles and pings of debre and shrapnel sparked off our Valkyrie requiring us to have an iron grip on any form of support that was until we were hit in the side knocking some of the men off valance and into each other.

(???): "I'm gonna have to lad you boys now! We're taking heavy fir-!"

The poor sod couldn't even finish his sentence before the front part of the Valkyrie blew apart.

"Brace men! Brace!"

It was all I could of said before I blacked out from the crash.

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Author notes:

Hey everyone! Apologies for a long wait on what us a pretty short chapter, I've been constantly re-writing this chapter a good twenty times at least just to find a good opener that wasn't a complete snore fest, also to add onto the delay, I must state m that life (mainly work) got in the way from me finally finishing it off.

Hopefully it was a good enough for you all to get a taster if what's to come.

Also! I am brand spanking new to writing a story like this so I would appreciate any and all helpfull criticism (for my writing etc) and suggestions for future plot points, have a wonderful day/night and I see you in the next chapter which hopefully will come out in the next few days..

Toodles!

- The Author

- another edit 31/8/24
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