Night of Thunder

[helterskelter]

A peel of thunder and a sheet of coruscating lightning, then the sky turned black. The rain hammered down so hard that visibilty by human standards was zero, fortunately for Captain Malinor he and his brothers were not completely human. He and his company were forced to make planetfall when a freak solar occurance nigh on obliterated the rear section of his strike cruiser, only 65 brothers himself included had made it to the surface. Arrayed before him, the remnants of the 9th company of the [records damaged] space marines, stood ready for battle, for their presence was requested due to an uprising of feral Orks. Captain Malinors company were on a training routine close to the system, and he was more than willing to enhance his brothers training regimine.

After making orbit, scans of the surface had shown the planet was in a period of global warming, and it was theorised Ork spores from a previously eradicated invasion force had somehow become trapped in ice during the last glacial cycle. The warming had then released and encouraged the renewed growth of the spores. It was not long after this theory had come to the fore when a massive solar eruption struck his cruiser, knocking out the safety protocols of the plasma drives, which led to the destruction of Melinors ship and planetfall.

More thunder, and another sheet of lightning.

"A good omen for us my Lord." Voxed Sergeant Kallimir, the rains making normal speech redundant.

"We shall see" responded the Captain sternly.

The whole of the company were armed with heavy bolters, the only weapons to survive the destruction, barring Techmarine Ramyrez's Thunderfire cannon, and 20 suspenser units, one of which the captain had for himself, for the sake of maneuverability. The rest were shared between three understrength squads, to allow the choice of firing on the move if required.

Once more the thunder came, and the lightning lit up the world before him, improving visibility for the merest second. Ten thousand Feral Orks charging towards the marines lines.

"Open fire." The order given, and this time the thunder came not from the sky, but from 64 heavy bolters firing in unison, its lightning a series of air-bursting shells from the cannon.