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Hey guys, little late, but i just wanted to throw out the story i've had ideas about for quite a while now and any criticisms or thoughts you guys have, i would love if you guys would let it be heard.

His eyes were beating. They were near in tune with his heart, beating faster and faster for every meter that Mathias fell. He and his fellow Chathens had been falling from their Valkyrie for several minutes now just as they had done a thousand times before on scores of different worlds against Xeno and Heretic alike with the Chathis Storm troopers.

Mathias’ body was rushing from adrenaline, something these combat drops would never stop giving him. Thirty seconds until the grav chutes would activate themselves and they would land in the mountains below, the one thing Mathias dreaded about these drops were the chutes themselves. He had seen too many of his friends and comrades smash against alien planets before they could even deliver the Emperors wrath to the enemies of the imperium. He hoped now just as he did every time that they would all make it down and be able to kill.

Here it came, the ground before him, his chest tightened and his eyes, although protected from the ever present storms upon the planet, began to tear as the ground grew ever closer.
And then the violent and sudden yank of the activating grav chute ripped him from his head down position into an upright one and his legs braced in one of the beats of his own heart. Within seconds of the chute activating Mathias’ legs slammed onto the ground with a thud, and with a sigh of relief Mathias released the chute from his back, double checked the status on his hot shot lasgun and began area assessment.

“Wonderful” Mathias muttered to himself as he surveyed the surrounding area. He pressed the rune on the side of his helmet “This is Echo two dash seven, I repeat any Echo two’s?” his question was met only with static.

The storms had played hell with vox coms in the past on this hole of a planet. Could the xenos be jamming them? Maybe thought Mathias, with their tech he suspected the Tau might even have the capability to jam all imperial communications on the planet. Mathias shrugged the thought off and began to walk towards the edge of the plateau and looked down upon the grey muddy, crater marked, scorched, and bloody.

“At least Chathis has trees…” said Mathias with a grim smirk.

Just as Mathias was about to try his vox bead again a bod y flew down past him in a blur and landed with a gut wrenching splat upon the rocky ground below. Mathias looked over the edge of the plateau to see a body of a Chathen, his black and red carapace armor cracked open revealing the troopers own cracked body and his innards. At this sight, Mathias’ lip twitched up in disgust just as it always did at the sight of such a death.

His heart jumped and his head shot around towards the sounds of chattering maglights and screams, both human and xenos. Mathias began to sprint, weapon drawn toward the only viable path. After about five minutes and passing several more very dead storm troopers he arrived to see several dozen storm troopers hunkered in cover in a fire fight with the Tau.

Mathias took a quick survey of the battlefield noting the two or three positions the Chathens were hunkered down in and how their cover was being widdled away by the powerful alien weapons. He began to sprint, rifle trained on an exposed alien, releasing burst of lasfire on the thing hitting in between where the leg met the body searing through the flesh down to the aliens bone and a guttural scream slowly escaped from the alien’s body.

He slammed his shoulder into the rock hard, right next to a fellow trooper, who looked at Mathias expectantly.
“Echo two, where is echo two?” shouted over the din of rain and battle the trooper stared blankly at Mathias and nudged his head forward, behind Mathias.

Mathis quickly turned around to see a trooper standing tall on a rock bearing a flamer swerving it back and forth as it doused several aliens in holy promethium sending them to the ground rolling in pain. And then he began to hear it, the laughter, the mad, absolutely bat gak insane cackle of Grogan, Echo two’s engineer, who to be quite honest with himself, Mathias thought was a loon. Mathis watched as Grogan dropped quickly back into his rocky cover just before the rock he was now crouching behind was sprayed with fire by alien weaponry.

Mathias broke out running from his current cover over to Grogan and the several other members of Echo two who paid no attention as the ground behind Mathias was kicked up in heaps just before Mathias dove behind the cover with the remainder of Echo two. The other four members of Echo two he could not make out, other than Grogan who was unmistakable, but just by size and height he guessed it was Slost, Ferd, and Troud, the sergeant who Mathias could make out by the scabbard holding his chain sword. He nodded to Troud whom nodded back to him.

“Thought you might have fallen a little too hard like some of our other comrades.” said Troud through vox bead which surprised Mathias.

“I suppose so sir” replied a breathless Mathias. “Orders?”

“You bet your arse boy, Echo one through three has been ordered to remove this communication hub, its supposedly broadcasting some load of grox crap ‘encouragement speeches’ from their leader. That and about 50 meters below there’s a big old enemy outpost that we could smash the hell out of if we blew a chunk of this plateau down onto it”

“Creative” said Mathias flatly “Whose idea was that?”

“Some idiot officer with the elysians suggested it I’m told, said it would save their precious Vandettas ammunition” replied Troud, followed by him popping out from behind the rock and felling another xenos.

“And they’re not assigned why?” snapped Mathias in unision with the rush of flame from Grogan’s flamer.

“Heh, you tell me” said Troud, and just as he finished two large red mechanical constructs smashed into the ground in front of them, Tau battle suits.

I would like to thank those that read all the way through and again i would appreciate any suggestions or criticisms you may have. I do wish to add more to this as well.