The steppes of Erengrad

**Cholio** · January 03, 2010, 02:00 PM

Year 2527 5th of December. Diary of Dietrich Müller, State trooper of the county of Stirland. Legio IX Hornau Halberdiers.

The horrors.. we had all heard the rumors but we could never have imagined this ..

We had been given orders to assist three other armies out of Stirland to reinforce the heavily suppressed armies of Kislev. We had just ended our successful campaign against the vampire lords of Sylvania, and we were still cheering and celebrating thinking that nothing would be able to stop us, not even the infamous Chaos that we had all heard so much about.
How terribly wrong we were..

The other armies had travelled earlier then us and had already arrived at the city of Erengrad.
By the time we had arrived our fellow soldiers of Stirland had already moved north to engage the armies of Chaos that was heading towards the city. As soon as we heard that they had moved north, Captain Gerhard gave the order to break camp and march north to relieve them. For three days we marched through the bitter and freezing winds on the vast icy steppes of Erengrad. The cold winter of the north was already chewing on our morale, but Captain Gerhard pushed us on keeping us on our feet.

On the third day, around sunset (At least i think it was, we never saw the sun once during our march) the wind ceased and a heavy fog surrounded us. It felt as if the fog was alive and its fingers were crawling all over me. It was so immense that you could barely see the man that was walking next to you. Then all the sudden Captain Gerhard was shouting out orders, we were to assume battle formations. Apparently our forward scouts had run into a regiment of Chaos marauders. And i really mean run into, since the fog was so thick they had not seen them until they were but a few feet from them. However one of the scouts had made it back, so now we were getting ready to face the advancing enemy army. What had happened to the armies that we were to relieve I do not know, I can only fear for the worst..

My regiment, Legio IX was placed in the center alongside several other halberdier regiments. Our flanks were protected by swordsmen and halberdiers as well. We had a regiment of Greatswords behind us, ready to pull in wherever they were needed. Time seemed to slow down, every minute felt as an hour as we waited to catch the first glimpse of our enemy. We didn't see the enemy first, but we heard them, the roaring thunder of the Chaos knights as they rode into our right flank smashing it into pieces. We could hear the swords clashing and the terrifying screams of our brothers, and could only imagine the horrors they experienced, as they were being brutally mowed down by the blasphemous knights. We all knew that we were next. And by Sigmar we were right. We were lucky though, as the fog had lifted slightly, so at least we were able to see our enemy before they were upon us.. Countless of Chaos warriors charging straight towards and you know that the only thing they want is to see your blood flow.. That is something I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to experience. Even though we kept our lines tight and gave them one hell of a fight, that wasn’t going to do. It didn’t take long until what was left of the right flank was either cut down were they stood or trampled down by the enemies horses as they were running away in terror. The left flank broke down nearly simultaneously, and so chaos broke out amongst us. Like a tidal wave of fear, that started on the left flank and spread swiftly across the line, we all ran.
I have never been so terrified in my whole life.

There is only a few of us left now as there was not many of us that managed to get through that madness alive. I have no idea where the captain is but he is probably dead or dying somewhere out in the snow. I can only hope that we manage to get back to Erengrad before they catch up with us, but I doubt it. I can almost feel them, as they draw closer and closer by every hour, every minute. The only thing that is keeping us on our feet is the hope of getting to the city and the fear of what will happen if they catch up with us, however with the enemy panting us in our backs that hope isn’t very bright.. We have to get moving now though, we have lingered here to long now.
If someone finds this I am most likely dead, or about to die. Pray for me that I was given a quick death.

Based it on a battle i did in the campaign, thought that i'd give it a try

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