Filling in the story and filling in the images:
A year or so ago, Thaddeus returned from the war on Landfall 6. He was in a bad way, unable to sleep and waking slippery with sweat from nightmare flashbacks. At the end, his base Dune Outpost had come under rocket attack and a sandstorm buried what was left of the base together with Thaddeus and his fellow troops, dead and living. All he remembers clearly is being hauled out of the sand by his platoon buddy, Coral.
syb & me 