"We need to take this bunker out right now, heavy weapons to the left flank, supressing bolterfire on my command! I repeat we need..."
A detonation, just a few meters from his position ended his sentence as the blastwave threw him to the ground, covering him in sand & pulverised rock. The auto-senses of his power armour tried to protect him his senses, by turning numb for a second, but even then, the noise left him disoriented for a few heartbeats. Sergeant Alois of the Ravenguard jumped back on his feet and threw himself behind the remainings of a burned out Leman russ chassis. In a fluid motion he threw out his empty boltmagazine & reloaded. It was his order to take this position, to reclaim this fortress in the name of the emperor. He was Astartes & he would not fail his mission.
The enemy has been allowed to hold this fortification for too long. This lonely bunker-complexe, in the middle of this endless desert may seem to be a minor threat compared to the planetwide invasion of chaos forces, but it was in the perfect position to protect the Gallarn-canyons to the east. Those canyons are the only way the imperial guard could use to re-inforce & bring their tanks to the front. In the fine desert sand, even the mighty machines, blessed by the Omnissiah of mars, would sink in otherwise. The planetary defence forces learned that the hard way. Nobody used the endless sea of sand on Callarx 5. The few imperial fortresses & the hivecity of Callarx primus were all been build on solid rock. So it was a shock for the planetary governour to find out that the arch enemy has been able to land his forces in this deadly inviroment. The first wave of armoured defenders, who were send out to gather informations about the hated invaders, and (if possible) fight back, dissapeared beneath the sand in minutes. 2000 souls lost, without a single shot fired...
As the Raven guard made planetfall, Sergeant Alois first order was to execute this so called "gouvernour" for this fatal decision. Heavy machinery would not last out here, so he ordered the tank-batallions to protect the hivecity and the few solid passages. Only infantry & scout sentinels were able to opperate under such conditions, which let the brave soldiers of the Imperium drasticly outgunned. Without air superiority, thanks to the frequent sand-storms, they stand no chance, not against the arch enemy, not against traitors of the worst kind, not against chaos-marines. So the missions depended on him and his astartes. The raven guard would show no mercy, they would not fail.
"Sergeant, enemy in sight" His com was hard to understand thanks to the atmospheric disturbences on this desert planet. Alois nodded.
"Clearification?"
"Iron Warriors sire"
Iron Warriors, the betrayers of Istvaan V, bastard-born scum of Perturabo, may his soul burn for eternity.
The grip around his Bolter tightened as he peeked around the corner of his fragile cover. 400 meters in front of him, ontop a small mountaintop, he could see the enemy bolterfire from the trenches. A burning flower of destruction appeared as the fortified artillerie fired again, annihilating a rockformation to his left like it was made out of paper.
"Your orders Sergeant?"
Brother Sergeant Alois changed from intercom to speaker, so that his voice could be heared clearly on the battlefield as he rised and fired his bolter in righteous fury:
"Sons of Corax, my brothers, in the name of the Emperor - attack! Let there be no mercy!"
Even through the fine sand, his geneticly enhaced physike, combined with the strenght of his blessed power armour, carried him 3 meters with every step as he stormed into the enemy fire. He could see one of his battlebrothers fall, his chest covered in bloody holes where the heavy-bolter had ripped open Armour, flesh & bones with ease. Another Raven guard dissapeared in a plasma explosion, leaving just a flat crater of molten sand behind. Alois knew that the chances of sucess in this operation were slim & degrecing by the minute. But he was Astartes - he would not fail...
I hope you can excuse grammatic errors, english is not my main language. This is setting the stage for a story, developing each day. We play a 40k campaign in ouer local club & the story we put behind it, is what you just read. If you want to know how the defence of Callarx 5 had developed so far, i will be happy to write more