Flash Bang

Flaming debris from the Thunderhawk fell with thuds and screams from the Belsimar Boys. Shots started sniping in from the horizon. The rattling grinding noise was coming closer. A second Thunderhawk fusion flame appeared over head. This time the blazing line from the horizon was steady and a second explosion flared overhead. A third fusion flame appeared above and the leeringly bright line joined it to the horizon and was almost immediately followed by yet another blazing flaring debris casting detonation.

Alfus and Athelwist cowered in a depression on the ground they had so recently captured. One of the first transport's engines had crashed on to the command platoon crushing the Captain.

"Lost three Thunderhawks!" snapped Inquisitor Hawk. "Stop the disengagement."

More Hand Signals

Standing amidst the shattered bodies of the enemy Alfus saw hand signals flickering around the platoon again. The Lieutenant had ordered kalm only, blur off, form perimeter, hold position, await thunderhawks. Alfus slipped off his mask as everything slowed down. Too much blur and you burned up. How much was too much was an imperial secret.
He nudged his mate, "What do you reckon they are, twists?" He pointed at the shattered armoured suits scattered around."
"Do you reckon we should do a Yarrick now we're finished with gun-babies?"
"Why not," Athelwist replied. "What about that over there, that smart expensive looking box?"

Look at That!

Shards of tracer flicked past Alfus and his squad. They were breathing kalm so it seemed as dangerous as a light show. The shards flickered and steadied on one of the pods. It glowed red and then exploded shredding a squad that had just disembarked. More pods were pitching down, their thudding impact drowned by the throaty crack of the enemy fire. Hand signals semaphored from squad to squad. The chem dogs passed orders by hand as their masks precluded verbal orders.
Alfus read the signal, mix kalm with blur 50:50 and advance on enemy. Forward we go he thought as blur coursed through his muscles. On this mix the squad advanced at the double. The enemy tracer fire seemed so slow that Alfus tried to catch some in his hand until he realised that was a bad idea. The Belismar boys rocket forwards covering the 2 kilos to the enemy guns in under a minute. More hand signals, this time torch them. Alfus open fire on the armoured figures that appeared to move incredibly slowly as they reacted to the sudden appearance of the troopers.
Soon their armour began to glow and split under the impact of hundreds of lasgun shots at close range.

Landfall

The drop-pods hit the steaming vegetation in a staccato series of muffled thumps. A brief interval of stunned natural silence was terminated by an explosion of racketing bird-reptiles launching themselves skyward towards the bright lapis lazui horizon from the dusky orange vegetation. Their coarse cries were lost in the sound of the drop-pods cracking followed by the battle cries of the imperial chem dog mercenaries launching themselves onto the forgotten world.
"Alfus look at that!"

Elsewhere