[lachmcki]

Gai awoke in a field hospital, upon a hard bed with thin, grey sheets. All around him, wounded, dying men moaned or slept, with medics going between them.
“Ah, you’re awake,” a medic said as he came towards Gai. He looked at a data-board attached to the bed. “Says here you got a concu-“the medic began mumbling in such a way that Gai couldn’t here.
“Oh well,” the medic said. “Looks like you’re good enough.” After that, he walked away, leaving Gai lying in bed.
An hour later, a Sergeant walked into the tent that the hospital was located in, looked around, and after he saw Gai, walked over to him.
“You’re clearing out now,” he said. “Now get up and go to your barracks, over that way.” He pointed a bit to his right.
Suddenly, a whistle filled the air, followed by the loud bang of an explosion. Gai instinctively ducked in his bed, before the Sergeant started laughing.
“Must’ve missed it all, then,” he said. “Greenskins been trying to get to us for a week, but we’ve been holding them back. Now move!”
Gai leapt up, and jogged towards the large, grey building that he guessed was his barracks.

Four days later, Gai found himself again in his company, on the move along with other companies. Hundreds upon hundreds of guardsmen marched along a huge highway. Throughout the column, Chimeras carrying the higher ranking troops drove, and Sentinels walked along the edges. Up front, Hellhounds and even a couple of Leman Russ’ powered down the road.
Two days after that, Gai was so bored he could fall asleep. There was nothing happening, nothing interesting to talk about.
Suddenly, a wave of missiles slammed into the company, sending men flying and blowing up Chimeras.
“Greenskins!” a Commissar yelled. Gai immediately raised his lasgun in the direction of the shooting. Upon a great hill, scores of Orks shouted and brandished ugly weapons, whilst even more charged towards the column. Without the need for orders, the men of the Imperial Guard showed proof of their nickname: the Hammer of the Emperor. Laser beams numbering in the thousands arced towards the Ork horde. Hundreds fell, but for every one that fell, four showed up in its place. Gai even managed to take down a few after a couple of short bursts of gunfire.
Eventually, however, the green tide reached its destination, only to face the gun barrels of storm troopers and the bayonet-tipped guns of Ogryns. However, not even that could hold back the horde of beasts. Men were disemboweled left, right and centre. Sentinels were ripped apart by huge Orks. A group of battle-crazy Orks even managed to destroy a Leman Russ, though they managed to kill themselves in the process, as they obviously weren’t thinking properly when they decided to put a bomb on a too-short stick.
And as Gai gunned down Ork after Ork along with his comrades, all heart left him as the lumbering monstrosity of a Stompa walked onto the battlefield.
“To me!” Gai turned as the commander of his company bellowed his request, all the while killing Orks with his massive power sword. Gai looked back, and after shooting an Ork, who got a bit too close, ran towards his commander. But when he got there he was surprised as he heard the officer whisper to himself, “now.”
A second later, four huge blasts rained down from the sky, ripping apart the Stompa. Then drop pods rained down from space, landing amidst the Ork horde, showering rock and dirt everywhere. From these pods emerged soldiers, clad in great suits of armour. Suddenly, Gai had a flashback to the previous battle, seeing the great soldiers who saved his life.
“The Salamanders Space Marines chapter,” said the commander behind Gai. He turned around and looked at the smile upon the officer’s face.
“Now get back out there,” the commander said, “before I decide its better to execute you instead.”
“Y-y-yes sir,” Gai stammered before running towards the battle line.

Late that night, a couple of hours after the last of the Orks were decimated, the same commander that had talked to Gai leaned against a Chimera, pondering his day. Suddenly, a scuffle of rocks and dirt to his left alerted him of movement. He looked and saw nothing. But a couple of seconds later, he thought he saw a black shape moving through the night.
“Just seeing things,” he said to himself. However, those were his last words as a blast of gauss broke him down atom by atom.