The Last

The sound of shells filled the air, and the fortifications of the traitor Warmaster Horus still stood. I gripped my Bolter grimly, waiting for the second wave to arrive. The defenses were stronger then we were told they would be. I popped up and fired my Bolter at an Emperor’s Children marine. My shell hit him in the collar bone region, punching through his armor, and nearly decapitating him from the explosion. A Son of Horus grabbed a grenade and threw it at me. I grabbed it, and through it back. It exploded in mid air, showering the Traitors’ Positions with shrapnel.

A squad of Death Guard Marines began firing their weapons at my squad.
“Hunker down till they reload!” I said calmly over the vox built in my helmet. Sure enough, the Death Guard Marines crouched behind their fortifications, reloading. My men and I popped up, and when they stood, about to fire on us, we fired first. The Death Guard knew not what happened. They died swiftly, Bolt rounds landing in their heads.

Abruptly, more Drop Pods landed. I was overjoyed. With the might of about seven Legions of Space Marines, we could finally destroy the Traitors, and discover why they had done this foul deed. When the Drop Pods opened, out spilled Iron Warriors and Word Bearers, and Alpha Legionnaires, and Night Lords. However, my joy did not last long. The four legions opened fire on us, the loyalists! I was so shocked, and filled with fury. These were Traitors too! I knew what I had to do.
“Open fire. Kill the traitors! For Ferrus Manus, and the Emperor! OPEN FIRE!” I yelled. Instantly, my men opened up with their Bolters. We began hitting the Iron Warriors’ marines.

Nevertheless, true to their nature, the assaulted us, and took a heavy toll on my men. Of the ten men in my squad, all veterans of countless battles, and innumerable campaigns, the Iron Warriors killed seven. I was even more angered by this. I grabbed the Heavy Bolter from one of our positions facing the fortifications, moved it over towards the Iron Warriors, and opened fire. My rain of bullets killed the enemy squad that had nearly destroyed my squad. The Iron Warriors threw a Krak Grenade that landed near me.
“DOWN!” I shouted to the few men alive in my squad. They obeyed, but it was still not enough. The grenade killed the two men and wounded me in the arm. The last thing I remembered was seeing my Primarch, Ferrus Manus, battling the Traitor Fulgrim.

+++Several hours later+++

I woke with a start. I was near four other marines. Two were from the Salamanders, one from the Raven Guard, myself and another from the Iron Hands. We were crouched behind, and among the bodies of our fallen comrades. There was a broken, wounded figure that the Raven Guard marine never let out of his sight. I figured this was Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard. Normally I would be delighted to meet a Primarch, but now, after seeing such evil from my former brothers’ legions, I was only dimly happy of seeing one Primarch alive. The others realized I was awake, and a Salamander crawled over to me.
“Listen, we must get the Primarch to safety. He must survive, and so must we, so we can repopulate our Legions. The plan we have, is to steal a shuttle. How we’ll escape the system, I don’t know.”

I nodded. It sounded like it was the best plan we had. We quickly grabbed our weapons. I was to be the guard, making sure that no one followed us, and to make sure that anyone who was guarding the shuttle did not live. I walked and listened to see if anyone was following us. Nothing stirred. We soon arrived at the shuttle’s landing zones. There were two to choose from. There were only two guards here. I sneaked over to the Salamander and whispered to him.
“How are we going to deal with them? If I fire my bolter, the others done at the fort might hear.”
“It’s a risk,” he said. “we must take.”

Again, I nodded. I aimed down my bolter’s Iron Sights, and prayed to the Machine Spirit to allow me to kill those two sentries. My helmets night HUD turned on and it showed me all the information I would need to kill the two guards. I fired one bolt, and then while the other pulled his bolter from his shoulder, I fired again, killing him. Both guards were dead. We moved as quickly as we could to get Corax on the shuttle. We ran up to one, and saw that it had medical supplies in it. We chose that one and I took co-pilot seat, while the other Iron Hand took pilot.

As the Salamanders and the Raven Guard settled Corax into a bed, and hooked him up to all the medical devices, the Iron Hand, Dietrich, and I began priming the shuttle for take off. The Salamanders took seats near us, and buckled in, while the Raven Guard stayed near the medical bay. The others and I took off our helmets. We were all tired from the days fighting. Finally, the shuttle took off, into the night. We traveled through the atmosphere and were in Space before we knew it. We passed through all the orbital defenses, and sped off into the dark void of space.

+++Meanwhile+++

On the Iron Warrior Cruiser Perturabo’s Might, Veteran Sergeant Frantz looked into the auspex and noticed a blip coming from several miles away. Frowning, he entered a code and started a communication with the shuttle.
“Shuttle 248, what are you doing? You were ordered to stay on the surface. Who is piloting this craft?”
Thinking quickly, Dietrich came up with a name.
“I’m Brother Sergeant Hector of the tenth Grand Company.”
Frantz thought for a moment. He did not now anyone from the Tenth Grand Company.
“To what authority do you leave Isstvan V?”
“Warmaster Horus’s authority.”
“I’ll need to verify that.” As Frantz began to work on contacting the Warmaster, I sent out Distress signal to Imperia Navy only.

An Imperial Destroyed had just come out of its Warp Jump. The signals officer received our signal sent its reply.
“Come aboard immediately.” I read to Dietrich. He began piloting it towards the Destroyer. Just as Frantz was about to come onto the line, The we had gotten onto the Destroyer, and it had left the system.