Gaunt's Ghosts/Heartwarming


 * A striking example from the normally cynical and dark Warhammer 40000 universe can be found in Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts short story "In Remembrace", an epilogue to the book Necropolis, detailing a civilian artist's visit to the shattered ruin of Vervunhive and meeting several of the Ghosts in preparation for a memorial for the hive. It's tough to pick out a single moment, but the closest might be Milo, after being asked why he and the rest of the Ghosts willingly go through hell and worse, simply replies: "Can't say I ever thought about that before. We go where we're told to go, do what we're told to do. We're Imperial Guard."
 * Then there's the moment in the Gaunts Ghosts novel Ghostmaker. Dorden, the medic, discovered that the Volpone Bluebloods had abandoned wounded sixty-odd men. The Ghosts can't evacuate them either, but Dorden refuses to leave them. Gaunt lets ten volunteers stay; Dorden gets nine troopers and Corbec, the regiment's colonel. He tends the injured, the volunteers hold off the enemy, and in a lull, Corbec explains why he knew Dorden would stay and why he stayed himself: years ago, as a young medic, Dorden had charged out into night to deliver a woman in a difficult labor. She would have died without him. The boy, being illegimate, went by his father's name, not hers, which is why Dorden had not recognized it. Dorden is so moved that he has to make a joke about how old it makes him feel, to know he delivered Corbec.
 * Only In Death:
 * During'Iron Star' short story
 * In Traitor General
 * In The Armour of Contempt, when Kexie who is Drill Sergeant Nasty to the point of sadism
 * It's a small moment, but there's a scene in Necropolis when one of the Vervunhivers thanks the Tanith for fighting for their city. To a serviceman, a simple "thank you" makes all the difference in the world.