The assault on the city had finally begun, much to the excitement of the Cadian 88th Mechanized Infantry, and to Lance Corporal Caius Mortem in particular. He was currently sitting, alongside the rest of Echo squad, in a Chimera armored troop transport vehicle, rolling straight for the left breach in the city walls. The Orks, using a supply of makeshift and looted artillery and explosives, began shelling the advancing Cadian vehicles. The rocking explosions made Mortem's stomach flip and lurch inside him, though he still maintained the grim determination he always showed during battle. After losing two of the fifty Chimeras before even reaching the interior of the city, the guardsmen inside were given the order to exit the tanks, though Caius was under a different command. His orders were to begin battlefield repairs on the Chimeras, which he quickly set out to follow. Fate was against him, however, as the Greenskins began to push forward into their position. Caius found himself fighting for his life against an innumerable amount of the smaller 'Grotz', as his squad and regiment were slowly cut down.
[hr]After a time, one which seemed like hours to Caius but was far less in reality, his regiment was finally capable of holding its ground. They held two of the Chimeras, one critically damaged, and numbered at around two hundred and thirty of their original force of six hundred. Caius, the sole combat engineer still alive, was at work on the damaged Chimera, attempting to get its Autocannon and rotary turret back into working over. After finishing the repairs he was currently capable of, Caius joined in the counter-attack, pushing forward alongside the others of his regiment, his lascarbine firing shot after shot of red energy at the Greenskin horde, all the while silently reciting a prayer to the God-Emperor as he marched.

[i]...and though I stand face to face with death itself, I know that I shall withstand any attack, for I am His hammer, and with my might the God-Emperor shall smite the foes of Mankind. Praised be His name, and blessed be His light.[/i]