Editing Love and Krieg Spinoffs (section)

===They Held.===
Lord Commissar,

I'm not exactly sure of all of the events of today. My head is still spinning and the Apothecaries say I'll need a few more treatments before I'm fully healed. 

I'll start with the bad news. It seems that some of those slaves that we freed were of weak wills and in their cowardice, gave themselves over to the Great Enemy. I can offer no excuse. I should have paid attention to them, instead of the Ork hordes which we had well in hand. If you deem my failure an executable offense, then I accept your judgement.

We had no idea that we had the enemy within our camp...until they summoned the Demons. Three of them. They tore through us, most of the squads were obliterated, and our line broke. Ironically, the Ork horde rushing in to fight the demons was a blessing as it caused two of them to become occupied with the xenos long enough for the Astartes to arrive and dispatch them. I had ordered the troops to fall back, so we could effectively regain our defensive position, but the third Demon cut us off. A horrible parody of the human form grafted onto what looked like the body of a scorpion. A horde of heretic cultists behind it. The men fought, but we were obviously overpowered, the demon's powers giving the heretics strength and power. I was hit on the head, and I fell to the ground unconscious. It was only by the Will of the Emperor that I survived.

When I returned to awareness, I was on the ground. The cultists must have thought I was dead. I saw that they were gathered around in a circle, with the Demon at its apex. In the middle of the circle were the still surviving Krieg soldiers. Eight or nine of them, it was hard to tell. I frowned in surprise. They weren't being executed ritually, or fed to the demon. Also, why had they only spared the Kriegs? For an instant I thought that they were traitors to the Emperor as well...and then the Demon spoke. A horrible voice, smooth and silky, subversion and seduction itself.

"You would be fools to refuse this bargain, my bargain. I can see into your souls, my little boys and girls. You ache for that place. Terranis. I can send you there...but why should I send you to an empty barren rock? You know, you all know that there is nothing left of that paradise. Your Corpse-God let the Hungry Shadow gobble it up. What kind of loving God would do that? However...if you give into my master. Praise yourself unto him. Then she will reward you with the ultimate prize. The warp will bend to my master, and you will find yourselves, not on the empty, devoured rock...but back when it was fresh and whole. Can you not see it? I will show you."

I must have been in range of the Demon's power, because for a moment I saw visions. Visions of this place that the Krieg spoke of with reverence and hope. Of people, places, stories, a song played on a piano that caused Krieg eyes to fill with tears. I understood. I have heard the librarians and chaplains speak of paradise, of how the Emperor rewards the faithful with all of world delights and more, how spending eternity among his reverence is bliss itself. To a Krieg, one day on Terranis was enough. I found myself hard to argue with it.

The vision ended and the Demon looked at the Krieg soldiers. "You don't even have to pledge yourself to my master...all I ask...all my master asks...is that you say 'Please' and I will send you to Terranis in its prime."

One of the Krieg slowly removed his gas mask and looked the Demon directly in the eyes. He spat on the ground.

"Terranis holds."

The Demon snarled. Motioned with one of its appendages, and the cultists fell upon them. Their deaths were not quick.

I am sure they would have noticed that I was still alive, had not the Astartes arrived. (Too late in my opinion, but I will not deny that ending two other demons takes time.) The Demon and the cultists were, of course, no match for the Emperor's greatest. They also discovered that I was still among the living, and evacuated me along with their chapter, back to the battle barge, where the inquisitor presiding over the reclamation of the planet called for Exterminatus. With the Ork presence and the Ruinous Powers so prevalent, I did not argue.

I think of those Krieg soldiers. I had only heard the faintest whisper of the power that Demon had used, the level of corruption forced into their minds would have broken battalions. I look out into the stars, and I think of that one little planet out there...lost to the Imperium and set to be devoured by an innumerable swarm that almost nothing can stop...and I believe this to be true in my deepest soul,

Terranis holds.