Silver was jerked into awareness by the symphony of an Earthshaker cannon barrage. His physical body was going through the motions as his mental existence rapidly merged into its new fleshy container.

“Reload! Reload! Damn it Silver, get your head out of your ass and move those shells!” The artillery battery’s acting commander shouted. Their emplacement was running three seconds behind schedule in the barrage, Silver along with his two fellow loaders would need to pick up the pace if they were to resynchronize for the next bombardment.

“On it Sir!” Silver yelled back as he took full control over his body and began to rapidly apply his newly assimilated skills into his task of loading the Earthshaker cannon. The high-explosive shells were longer than one of his arms and thicker than the thigh of his leg, each shot would deliver the fury of the Emperor in the form of a thirty-eight kilogram shell across a range of over fifteen kilometers.

“Adjust elevation down by ten degrees! Fire on my mark! Three, two, one, Mark!!!” The commander barked. The one-hundred-thirty-two millimeter caliber gun belched fire as it sent the loaded shell downrange at over eight hundred miles per hour. The symphony of guns sounded off together, all eight stationary Earthshaker artillery batteries perfectly firing as one.

“Pick up the pa… Incoming! Get to cover!” The commander shouted, the crew dived behind sandbags as a counter-barrage screamed down onto their position. Explosions rocked the earth. Sandbags, bodies, and limbs were launched airborne. Silver barely had a moment to think before searing pain erupted around his right shoulder, he had been sent flying as well, his right arm blown clean off.

Pulling himself to his feet deliriously, Silver’s mind was filled with an odd clarity as a result of the pain. Stumbling forwards, he soon found a few survivors among the craters. Some were missing a leg or both, others an arm… the dead were barely recognizable if at all. Almost mechanically the scattered crews gathered together, Silver shambled his way towards a mostly operational Earthshaker cannon, the other survivors who could still walk trailed behind him.

The injured and dying crewmen worked together to reload the damaged cannon. Silver adjusted the elevation according to coordinates received over a vox-caster which still functioned. A few crewmen pushed to forcefully adjust the horizontal orientation. The cannon creaked and groaned as it was moved.

“For the Emperor!!!” The crewmen shouted as Silver fired the Earthshaker cannon. However, their last efforts were in vain as the cannon was too far gone from the artillery strike. Although it appeared mostly functioning on the surface, the internal barrel was warped beyond redemption. The shell detonated within the cannon’s barrel as a result, erupting in a thunderous explosion. The last thing Silver and his fellow crewmen saw was a burst of flame and shrapnel.