[h2]Collab between [@agentmanatee] and [@Bright_Ops][/h2]

The question of who was in charge on the combined Tushiena-Hirisit forces was rather up for debate; Major Nelson of the Tushiena company had given the order to dig in and secure the breach in order to prevent an ork counter attack from cutting off Imperial forces that had already gone into the city before taking several platoons worth of troops forwards in an attempt to aid the Endoran forces that had charged ahead and gotten themselves surrounded by green skin forces. For reasons currently unknown, vox contact could not be established with him and the remaining officers were trying to work out who exactly was in charge of the Tushiena forces in his absence...  as well as who was in charge of the combined forces.

This didn't bother Belgond all that much; He was just one of the base line grunts after all and thus he only had to worry about making sure that the trench he was helping to dig would serve its purpose correctly. The arrival of new troops caught his attention briefly; The first regiment to pass through the trench didn't seem to think much of them despite the sacrifices of blood and lives that had been given to give the arrogant bastards safe passage into the city. 

The second regiment seemed to be much more friendly as it stopped in order to discuss matters with them. Some of the red coats were even helping them dig their defensive positions, making them alright in Belgond book. Taking a moment to roll his shoulders a bit, he glanced over at Ninke for a moment before asking "[color=00a651]Any word yet?[/color]"

Ninke had been trying to contact her regimental command for a while now, but to no avail. She got plenty of transmissions from other regiments picking up on their rather amateurish lack of security on their frequencies... of course she supposed they [i]were[/i] fighting orks, who were not infamous for being particularly bright. She hadn't seen any of her squad members since the charge, further confirming her fears on their... status. She had been turned away from Belgond and kneeling next to the vox, her helmet was off to use the headset easier. Before responding she quickly rubbed her eyes, a motion Belgond could not have missed, then turned to him and shook her head, her eyes were slightly red. Then she returned to the Vox, she didn't really care about the leadership problem or the new regiment. 

Belgond couldn't really say anything as he saw how upset Ninke was becoming with every passing minute without word from her squad. They were honestly most likely dead at this point...

Taking a quick break from trench digging in order to walk over to the Hirisit vox operator, he carefully placed his hand on her shoulder. "[color=00a651]I'm sure that they will turn up sooner or later.[/color]" Belgond meant his words as he said them with a strong conviction. He truly did believe that they would come across her squad sooner or later; If they were still [i]alive[/i] when they were found was something only the Emperor could tell at this stage through. "[color=00a651]Working yourself up with worry isn't going to help you find them sooner; At the moment you're here and I for one would like to thank the Emperor that you are. Try to keep your chin up, alright?[/color]"

She listened to Belgond's words and nodded, a faint smile coming to her face as a few of the last tears fell, [color=f49ac2]"Ja... ja I... is ok, I know. Thank thee Emperor I am alive Ja... thank you, Belgond."[/color], she took the headset off and replace it on the Voc Caster and put her helmet back on.

Now she took notice of the Red coated regiment that had joined them, and actually pondered the question of who was in charge. The Hirisit officers were... few and far between at best. She had seen one of the Lieutenants and Commissar Jarack but other than that no real commissioned officers. She was technically an NCO but that didn't really matter, she looked out over the defenses they were building, trying to see if the Greenskins were coming back. Aside from some of the little bastards looting corpses there wasn't any sign of a counter attack yet. She took a quick few shots at the little ones, more out of frustration than anything, and caught one in the arm severing the extremity. They scattered after that, she looked at Belgond, [color=f49ac2]"So, vhat is happening? Are we just digging in?"[/color]

Belgond shrugged a little at the question as he raised his gun up and took a moment to look out over the ruined street that was in front of them. "[color=00a651]From what I've heard, we're digging in to secure the breach and make sure that the green skinned fuckers don't retake it. Something about preventing Imperial forces in the city getting cut off from support. Not the most heroic of jobs but someone has to do it. Beyond that, no idea.[/color]"

He paused in his sweep as Belgond noticed what appeared to be movement coming from the ruins of an old building. Focusing on the ruin for a moment, he carefully said "[color=00a651]We have movement over there. Could be friendly but I doubt it-[/color]" The ear splitting sound of some kind of cannon firing cut Belgond off, his eyes almost closing as his ear drums almost burst from the sheer force of it... and -felt- the orkish mortar shell hit the dirt somewhere nearby. There was screaming. 

Ninke was about to say it was probably the Gretchin she had stirred up when the sound of Ork Artillery split the air. She grabbed the sides of her head reflexively, before she was thrown from her feet. The impact was  close. Her eyes shut and she slammed head first into something hard, and then the ground came up to meet her. She looked around, everything was blurry and disorienting, She tried to stand up, but just fell again, the world was swimming and she was terrified, the Orks... Ninke found her Lasgun, but could do little more than hold it, the loud ringing in her ears caused her to shout, [color=f49ac2]"BELGOND! WHATS HAPPEING??! WHERE-"[/color], her voice was cut off by a second shot, and impact close by.

Belgond was [i]fairly[/i] certain that he had started shouting out for people to get down; He could feel his mouth moving but he couldn't exactly hear the words themselves. He  could still hear noise, but it was much like being underwater with something covering your ears... very muffled and distant. He really hoped his ear drums hadn't been destroyed... Being deaf would rather suck.

Looking around to try and get an idea of the damage, he noticed that Ninke was on the ground, shouting something that he couldn't quite make out. Reaching down, he helped her to her feet and pulled her to join him against the wall of the trench in the closest thing to shelter that they were likely to get in an attempt to let them recover their respective senses of balance... The fact that he was effectively holding her rather protectively was the furthest thing from his mind as there were greater concerns at the moment.

The foul orkish device was still firing; You could feel it shaking the ground whenever it fired or one of its shells landed. Risking a glance over the top of the trench, Belgond noticed the trails of smoke coming from the building he had seen movement in... Glancing towards Ninke, he took a deep breath before leaning in and kissing her for just a quick moment before letting her go and climbing out of the trench and [i]running[/i] towards the building he had seen. 
 
 Was what he was about to do insanely stupid? Most likely. If he survived this the Emperor clearly had some grand plan in mind for him. 

Ninke felt as someone tugged her up from the ground before her back was against the trench wall, she opened her eyes and found herself staring at Belgond. The shells shook the ground, and the sound of them being fired was now more consistent, the ground shook as dirt and blood were thrown into the air, her ears roared with the sound of blood, it was incredibly loud. She saw Belgond looking over the trench wall, and didn't get what he was doing, then he appeared to take a deep breath as if steeling himself for something, then kissed her. She was to surprised and in to much shell shock to have much of a reaction, and it was over as quickly as it had begun, and Belgond had hopped over the trench wall. For a moment Ninke just stood there, confused, before she took a look over the trench and saw what he was doing,

The smoke from the building he had pointed out earlier, and the fact he was now sprinting towards it told the story, and she thought she heard herself curse as she pulled her lasgun up, ready to do what she could to provide covering fire. On his heals she noticed, a few of the red coated Guardsmen had run after him, clearly having the same idea... [i]Emperor protect him[/i] she thought, [i]I have to talk to him about this, so please don't let the orks kill him[/i]

The charge across no-man's land was reportedly one of the most suicidal things that a guardsman could do; The fact that had leaving the trench and making that charge alone was insanely stupid and suicidal was not lost on Belgond in the slightest but time was a factor and despite the fact that he was almost certainly going to die he couldn't just leave that mortar there; Every shot it managed to get off endangered lives.

He didn't look back; He needed to focus on running and looking back would just slow him down and risk tripping over something. Lasgun in hand, Belgond tried to keep his breathing under control as he focused ahead and tried to not think about the guns that were no doubt trying to draw a bead on him at this very moment...

The sprint was brought to a sudden halt as an orkish shell landed in front of him. For Belgond, the universe seemed to hold its breath as he looked at the shell, half buried in the ground and waiting for the moment to explode. 

And yet... it didn't. 

Belgond's heart hammered in his chest and he wasn't afraid to admit that he had pissed himself a little bit at the sight of death staring him in the face and offering him a wink. With great care as to avoid accidentally setting the damn thing off but keeping in mind that standing still would most likely get him shot, Belgond made his way around the unexploded shell and just kept running until he had reached the [i]relative[/i] cover of the building that the orcs had sighted their mortar at. 

Looking back at the distance he had covered, he finally noticed several of the red coated guardsmen had followed him... One of him seemed to have been hit by a bullet, but his movements suggested that he wasn't dead. He was [i]fairly[/i] certain that Ninke was in the trench, providing him covering fire... or lining up a shot on him for kissing her. Both were possible.

Luckily for Belgond, Ninke wasn't vindictive enough to try and kill him for a kiss, especially not when it was most likely because he thought he was going to die, though he wasn't in the clear if he didn't die. Ninke had started firing on the building where the Ork mortars were coming from, being careful to not hit any of the Guardsman who were with Belgond. Down the line, others were taking her example, Red coats, Lizards and Hirisit started to fire, pouring a steadily increasing amount of Las into the building around the charging Guardsman. Ninke hoped it was enough.

The lasfire that was flying around him was something that worried Belgond a little, but it was to be expected. It did seemed to be pretty well aimed; He hadn't been accidentally hit yet... through he did had the misfortune of seeing one of the red coats suddenly grab at an arm that took a stray hit.

Breathing deeply, Belgond [i]carefully[/i] looked through a hole in the ruined wall. There were about three proper orks standing around what had to have been their mortar, with several of the tinier, goblin like creatures running around to carry shells and load it. None of them seemed to notice him through, far to focused on loading the next shot. 

The shells themselves were hap-haphazardly stacked on top of each other, the foul things clearly looking rather unstable... and located rather close to the mortar itself.

Removing his last two frags from his belt, Belgond prayed that this would work before pulling the pins and throwing them, one towards the shells and the other towards the mortar. Both bounced along the ground before hitting their respective targets. 

Recognizing that one hell of a boom was about to happen, Belgond started running back towards the trench line, making it a good twenty meters before jumping to the ground and covering his head and ears. This was going to be [b]loud[/b].

Ninke watched Belgond toss something into the building, then sprint back towards the trench and hit the deck. She decided to follow suit, kneeling behind the trench wall and covering her ears... not that it helped that much.

The grenades went off, the orks never even realizing what it was that killed them. The unstable shells went off, and the sound was something amazing. The crack sounded like the air itself had been broken, and that the sky would be split in two. The Fireball incinerated the building, vaporizing its occupants, mortar, walls, ceiling everything. For a few moments after, their was relative silence as the ringing filled everyone's ears... before several men started cheering. Followed by a few more men, until the trench was essentially shouting as loud as it could. Ninke didn't join in, instead she searched for Belgond, praying to the Emperor he hadn't been caught in the blast.

Depending on what point of view you wished to take, Belgond was either having a really good day, or a really bad one. Still, as he lay on the ground with his hands over his head, he was surprised by the fact that he didn't appear to be dead. Admittingly he was fairly certain that the hair on the back of his head had been somewhat scorched but he was [i]still alive[/i] to be aware of it. On the plus side, the heat from the blast meant that his pants didn't feel damp anymore. 

Shakily getting up, Belgond started the slow but steady process of getting the fuck back into the damn trench before he got shot or exploded. The Emperor might have been looking his way long enough to save his stupid ass but he wasn't going to push his luck; Emperor had a lot on his mind and you really couldn't count on the next shell being a dud... 

When he finally made it to the trench, he was visibly shaking; His heart seemed to be slowly down and the rush that had been going through his veins was starting to fade. Sitting down with his back pressed against the trench wall, Belgond barely had the strength to raise his head to look at Ninke. He didn't say anything through... talking took effort and he didn't want to waste words right now because he didn't know what to say.

Ninke watched Belgond walk back, slid into the trench shaking, and sit down. He looked like hell, which he very nearly went to with that maneuver. She looked down at him for a few moments, no angers in her eyes or cutting words from her mouth. What he had just done was quite possibly one of the most dangerous things a Guardsman could do, period, and he had not only survived but was virtually unscathed... Ninke let out a small sigh and dropped he lasgun. She walked to right in front of him and took off her helmet letting her dirty blonde hair out from underneath it. She dropped the helmet next to him, then slid down until she was sitting on his lap and looked hm straight in the eyes, [color=f49ac2]"Don't ever do somesing that stupid without telling me again. And, don't kiss me without my consent, ja?"[/color], she planted a light peck on his lips and stood up, [color=f49ac2]"That is for killing the Orks, come on, our job isn't done."[/color], she picked up her helmet and turned away from Belgond, picking up her lasgun and moving to her Vox caster.

Belgond blinked a little in stunned silence. That... was not how he was expecting things to go at all. His eyes lingered on Ninke for a little while before he [i]finally[/i] felt strong enough to get back on his feet and hold his lasgun again. 

If he hadn't believed in the Emperor before, he certainly did now. But deep in his gut he just knew that what had happened with that shell had been a once in a lifetime deal and he had better make the most of it. Before he went back to keeping an eye out for orks through, Belgond walked up to Ninke and gave her a quick hug from behind before letting her go with a smile on his face and turning towards the ruined city scape, now just that little bit clearer.

Orks weren't going to kill themselves after all.

Ninke sighed as Belgond let go of her, not out of sadness but more or less exhaustion. A lot had happened in the last few hours, but there was more to do, she shouldered her Vox and joined Belgond in his scanning, happy that the Emperor had made certain that she wasn't alone on this field. She gripped her necklace once, squeezing it, before returning it to her poncho and returning to the duty at hand.