A huge explosion woke Golden Valor up with a start for the twentieth time in the night. It was another artillery shell, and judging by the crater to the right of the building that they were sheltered in and the debris flying through the air, that the hab-block that the 427th had taken shelter in had been obliterated. The rest of his near-destroyed brigade was also awoken, the gas masks on their muzzles giving their faces a ghostly look. The powdered debris from the weeks of bombardment of the hive had powdered the ferrocrete of the destroyed buildings and many fighting men had bloody throats from breathing the near invisible poison.
"We need to move," said Sargent Fire as he trotted through the half asleep soldiers. "I have two bits of news, not that it matters anymore."
"W-what it it sarge?" asked a drowsy soldier.
"First, the orbital fleet has been destroyed." stunned silence met this grim news. Without the fleet, the supply lines were cut and there was no evacuation.
"Second," answered the grim sergeant " The warp rift is acting up again, if the sensors can be believed, the planet will be... Consumed."
This was impossible. With what little he knew about the warp, he could only assume it would be destroyed. The warp is described as a nightmare dimension, filled with daemons and other, more sinister things. The Imperium only used the warp for space travel, but that didn't make it any less of a hazard. Their enemy, the one they were dying fighting, and soon, all dying fighting, worshiped these evils. They say that they were once Guardsponies like them, but the daemons whispered in their ears and made them forget their loyalty to Celestia. Now the server their new masters, taking the Imperium to unimportant worlds like this one and killing off the ponies they once fought beside.
Golden Valor was neither golden or valorous, but he assumed being in Celestia's Hammer was worth some measure of glory. He was a grey Earth Pony with a dark grey coat and brown tail and mane.
Valor and his comrades hailed from the martial planet of Krieg. He and all who were born on Krieg are at that moment, sentenced to death. Krieg was a miserable planet, with much of the planet's atmosphere being toxic. The pony inhabitants were forced to do everything to survive, which ensured only the strongest survived to serve in the Imperial Guard. Almost 1,000 years ago, Krieg's rulers declared independence, and the war to subjugate Krieg was a horrible, and when it ended the Imperium ordered that Krieg tithe more ponies for the Imperial Guard, and assigned them to the most horrible war zones. Such as quarantine zones and radiation-ridden and toxic planets.
Hall's Redemption was one of those radiation-ridden worlds covered in continent-spanning cities, which made Valor feel like he was fighting on Krieg itself.
"Now, we still have work to do," shouted the sergeant, regaining the discipline in his troops. "Commissar Dark has ordered a last ditch attack on the enemy positions. We are to move out in 45 minuets." The troops protested.
"We are being hammered by artillery! How does the commissar expect us to move out under the barrage?" Shouted a more inquisitive soldier through his re-breather.
"Idiot! We are already dead! Would you rather die on your knees while the world gets devoured? Or on your hooves punishing the heretics for their betrayal of our God-Empress?" At this the soldiers looked at him, a grim determination filling their eyepieces. They all knew that they were destined to die for Celestia, but they never thought they would have to come to terms with that horrid fact. As for Valor, he swore to serve until his planet's betrayal had been payed for in his blood, and he would have no fear for that day.
Right now, he wasn't making good on those promises. He wanted to go out and fight, but he just couldn't move. His emotions were mixed, and he just sat there-his gas mask hiding the battle being fought in his heart.
"Ready to move out. Gather your squads, prep your vehicles, we leave soon. Liberty Unto Death!" shouted the sergeant and the company echoed the phrase. The ponies got up and rustled around as sergeants called their squads to them. Valor got up to join his own squad, as he passed tank crews lined up before their vehicles, he saw Sargent Fire with his squad. Colonel Star Striker had been slain earlier in the fighting, and with all other seconds being killed off, Fire took the mantle as the leader of the 97th Siege Army. As he reached his own squad he surveyed his own ponies. Starting with ten, the squad has been chipped away at, and gratefully, received reserves from the backup force. Now all reserves were being committed by Sergeant Fire, and their battle-scared squad only fielded seven. Valor was the acting leader, with their own sergeant dying in combat.
Valor was still grateful to have as many as he did. Some squads didn't receive reserves, and he passed squads of three men and even squads of one.
Departmento Munitorum officials distributed lasguns, ammo and harnesses to the squads with looks as blank as the masked men they supplied before grabbing one themselves and joining the most depleted squads.
Chimera transport tanks fired up their engines and the titanic compound was filled with rumbles as tanks backed up near squads to offer them transports. Valor marched his squad into the nearest Chimera and sat down as the back door of the Chimera closed and the tank lurched as it drove them towards certain death. The tiny caged light illuminated their helmets, casting a hellish look on their masks.
"Message from Sargent Fire," grumbled his vox-tech from under his mask as he motioned Valor to lean and listen to the speakers.
"Alright sergeants," growled Fire's voice from the vox, the rumble of his own transport audible through the speakers. "The commissar ordered fast deployment, we are being dropped at the beta sector so you shouldn't have any lack of cover." Valor knew, the beta sector was the site of a collapsed hive, and was littered with rubble, ruins, and burning wreaks.
"The heretics have seized the barrage, as you may have noticed. Scout reports have noted that the enemy has mobilized infantry to the beta sector, and armored regiments to the gamma sector, we are going to meet them. You should be reinforced by our own armor if the enemy switches forces to the beta sector, but until then, your only objective is to eliminate enemy infantry, and move to better positions to gain on the artillery devices."
"There will be no retreat, kill anyone who stands before you. and remember, Liberty Unto Death!" Valor sat back on his seat, the fire of cannons and small arms fire. The time was near.