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A piercing shriek, that’s the last thing he remembered, before his balance flew from him and all was madness. A screaming blaze of white noise and a flash, a lance of focused anger sent seemingly from the Gods themselves before he was violently thrown from his feet into hard gravel below. His jaw impacted with the hard ground and a racing pain shot through his face as his teeth clamped harshly on each other and slivers of sharpened rock slashed his skin. He lay there, pain in his side and face, blood flowing from above his watered eyes and nothing but ringing in his ears. Men in grey bearing arms ran past him, oblivious to his prone form. In their dozens they ran through a hail of gunfire, ruby beams and blazing shells flying past and through them. Clouds of debris and men erupted around him as more star fire fell amongst them, explosions that shook the ground he lay on, yet all he could hear was the damn ringing. Some men returned fire into the dim mists of smoke and smog, whilst others threw themselves behind broken walls or the corpses of their already slain brethren, screaming what could only be curses or prayers for salvation. A soldier stumbled drunkenly through the ranks in the other direction, burning from head to toe in neon flames, his arms flailing madly for aid. His fellows shunned him and dove past the glittering figure for fear of contracting the blaze, until he was past their sight in the mist. Blood blossomed where shots hit, stones flew from the impact of ruptured bodies and tears flowed from the eys of the terrified. A trooper clutched his throat suddenly, dropping his rifle violently and collapsing to his knees in pain. A round had punctured his larynx and hot sticky fluids splashed down his fatigues turning them a sickly brown. He coughed silently, bloody vomit and foam rushing from punctured windpipe to smear down the front of his uniform. Their eyes met for a moment, he and the dying man, and both gazes concurred.
Why, why was this happening?
The God-Emperor only knew...
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