(( [@Bright_Ops] and [@agentmanatee] Collab ))

The march through the city had been surprisingly easy compared to the charge through the breach. At least it seemed that way to Major Nelson. He would have considered it almost too easy if it wasn't for the knowledge that most of the green skinned beasts didn't seem to have the sense to set up an actual ambush; The few groups of foul xeno's that they had come across had either charged mindless at them and were ripped apart by lasgun fire or attempted to flee and were mowed down by lasgun fire. 

That wasn't to say that he was letting his men let their guards down. While the Major was confident that the forces that he had left behind at the breach would keep their backs clear and keep the supply and reinforcement lines open, it did not escape him that they were in hostile terrain and surrounded by highly dangerous, stupid xenos. Stupidity seemed to give the monsters a courage that they had no rights too...

Arriving at the site of what appeared to be the ruins of massive cathedral in the middle of the city, Major Nelson was about to take out his map and try to work out which direction the Endoran 3rd were currently being slaughtered at when his Vox officer waved his hand to get his attention. 

"What is it Corporal?" 

"Sir, orders from command. Everyone in the first wave is to try and secure the Cathedral of Holy Light... which is that building over there." Corporal Anderson answered, pointing towards the ruined Cathedral that was just towering above them in a shadow of its glory. 

The Major was silent for a moment, pondering the prestige that would come to their regiment for being the first to arrive so far ahead of the other regiments before he went into officer mode. "I want the First, Second and Third platoons to start digging in while Fourth and Fifth platoons start securing the Cathedral one room at a time! I want that building secure! Corporal, report that we have arrived at the target location and are securing it as we speak!"

............................................................................

The breach and clear operation of the Cathedral had started off without incident; While the sight of so many dead humans turned weaker stomachs, the squads didn't encounter any resistance. It seemed that once the orks had won the battle and looted the holy building, they had simply left it out of boredom. 

That changed when one of the squads entered one of the side rooms. Squads nearby started hearing screams and lasgun rounds. Before the nearest squad had even arrived at the door to assist, something that sounded like a frag grenade went off, silencing the screams. As the squad arrived and looked in the room, they raised their lasguns up and opened fire on what appeared to be nothing more then living red balls with teeth; Some of them had clearly been injured by the grenade that one of the guardsmen had set off after being ambushed, but Emperor help them the little demons were fast...

.................................................................................

Ninke glanced around in horror, so many bodies... the Cadians may have been arrogant and ignored their comrades but no one deserved to be slaughtered wholesale. Even the Hirisit weren't entirely wiped out, this was just not right. The bodies stacked, stripped of anything an orc would consider valuable, and now being looted by other Guardsmen.

She kneeled before one particular man, his eyes dead and glazed over, a small wooden effigy of some saint clutched tightly in his fist. She closed his eyes, and spoke a quiet prayer over his corpse. She stood sighing, as the Vox caster lit up on her back, the sounds of a transmission coming through. She quickly went to her knee, and pulled the large Vox off of her back and pulling the headset to her ear, removing the helmet to do so. The news was good, the forward platoons of Belgond's regiment had made it to the cathedral, she looked around for him, shouting, [color=f49ac2]"Belgond! News!"[/color]

Belgond eyed the bodies of what had been the Cadians that had so arrogantly gone ahead alone in an almost surreal way, his mind having difficulty taking in the slaughter in front of him. He had been expecting to come across dead bodies (This was a war after all, people died) but he had expected them to have been left where they dropped or something of the like; To see them piled up like this and just left... 

Shaking his head a little at the sound of Ninke's voice, he turned to look at the vox operator as he asked "[color=f7941d]Sorry, could you repeat that?[/color]" and ignored those guardsmen that were searching the corpses for anything of value that had been left. A distasteful practice, but Belgond wasn't going to stop them from getting a few extra supplies for the road ahead. Honestly, he was tempted to go through it himself to see if there were any grenades left.

Ninke exhaled sharply, annoyed at having to repeat herself, [color=f49ac2]"I said, news! I think it ees about your company! Weren't they the ones thaut went ahead?"[/color], she adjusted the dials, the signal becoming a bit more fuzzy, most likely interference from the tall buildings or magnetic atmosphereical problems. The message was very clear, the Tusheina company that had moved forward was securing th Cathedral everyone else was now headed to. Without a real superior officer, seeing as the colour sergeant had his own, she guessed she could tell whoever she wanted.

The discovery that the Tushienia's that had gone on ahead weren't slaughtered in the streets like the Cadians had been caused Belgond to perk up considerably. Granted it didn't mean that his squad was alive, but it was a damn good start at least. "[color=f7941d]That's great news![/color]" He said with a beaming smile.

... That vanished as something exploded from the direction of the corpse pile. Ducking his head on instinct, Belgond turned towards the source of the noise only to see dead and injured solders crying out in pain while medics tried to tend to them as best as they could. It would seem that the Orks had more then one reason to pile up the dead Cadians. 

Gripping his lasgun tightly, Belgond looked around wildly to see if they were about to get ambushed by those cowardly green skinned beasts while swearing under his breath.

Nine hopped up, pulling her lasgun to bear and looking around. The Cadian pile had... part of it had exploded, the orks had laid some kind of primitive explosive device in among the corpses. There were... bits everywhere, from Cadians and Red Coats, and Tusheina and Hirisit... anyone unlucky enough to be too close. It was... Emperor they were screaming, [color=f49ac2]"Mines! Away from the corpses!"[/color], she was sure everyone was thinking it but she had shouted it. She back pedaled from the pile, yanking Belgond back with her. 

Once she was far enough away, she to started to scan the buildings, going to one knee to reduce her profile. After the explosion things were quiet again... except for the Guardsmen screaming in pain. The buildings seemed empty... no orks, no Grots, nothing... then the gunfire started. A heavy shoota from a concealed position, the heavy caliber weapon roaring its fury into the Guardsmen below, Ninke suddenly wished she had her helmet. She glanced around for cover, a bombed out building seemed like a good idea. Again, she grabbed Belgond, yanking him with her as she sprinted to the hole in the wall, throwing herself through it and hoping Belgond wasn't to unhappy about being yanked around.

Belgond was more then happy to be yanked around if it meant getting out of the line of fire. Following the vox officer through the hole in the bombed out wall, Belgond slammed himself to the side of it so that he could provide covering fire to those guardsmen still out in the open, shouting "[color=f7941d]In here! Get in here now![/color]" to any human that would hear him. 

This honestly didn't make any sense! The orks didn't seem like they had the brains to actually pull of an ambush like this. Trying to find the source of the gunfire and finding himself becoming more frustrated at the like of a green skinned target, he turned to look at Ninke before asking "[color=f7941d]What in the Emperors name is this?! I'm not seeing orks... Do you think we've got traitors, or something working for them?[/color]"

Ninke was pressed against the wall opposite Belgond, and few other guardsmen from the assorted regiments had joined them in their cover. She peeked out from behind the wall, afraid to get too far out without her helmet... which was now out there with her Vox. She cursed, [color=f49ac2]"Damn it! My Vox!"[/color], she looked at Belgond, and thought about the heavy Shootas at the breach during her charge, [color=f49ac2]"No... that ees an ork gun, just like thee ones at thee breeach. Eet is... concealed though... like they're hiding."[/color], she couldn't see where the firing was cooming from past a general direction, and shook her head, [color=f49ac2]"What does the primer say about concealed positions? Do you remembair Belgond?"[/color]

The idea that the screaming, barbaric monsters that charged into lasgun fire were smart enough to actually set themselves up in a proper concealed position felt like it was the kind of idea that men only had when they were slowly going insane... 

Shaking his head in order to focus himself, Belgond was forced to accept the fact that this was actually happening and now they had to deal with it. Ninke's question was quite a valid one... trying to think about what the primer said about assaulting concealed positions, he seemed to recall that finding the concealed position so that it could be assaulted in the first place was a high priority. 

Taking a moment to look around in order to see what they had to work with, he quite simply asked "[color=f7941d]Someone see if there is a way upstairs or a hole that leads to the neighboring building that won't get us shot to absolute shit. We need to know where this murderous fucks are sitting on their fat, green asses![/color]"

Ninke nodded, and looked at Belgond, the stream of bullets had abated somewhat as most Guardsmen had found cover and it was now more sporadic, [color=f49ac2]"Ok, they are going to be hard to find if no one draws their fire."[/color], she began to remove her belt, and the ammo-packs on it, followed by her shoulder pads and then the armor in her legs, [color=f49ac2]"I'll draw thair fire, -you find them and kill them. Once your set up tell me and I'll run."[/color], she was now down to her only armor being the flack armor on her chest, and only her lasgun and one charge pack on her person.

She fixed Belgond with a look that brokered no argument, a look that said [i]This is what is happening[/i], and waited for both his response and for him to get into position.

Belgond looked like he was about to make a rather passionate argument for [i]No it's not[/i], but he never quite managed to say the words. As much as it sucked to admit, Ninke did outrank him and if she was saying that she was the one who was going to be acting as bait, there was very little he could say against it. 

Sighing in defeat on that front, he instead decided to just shut up and do the job in front of him to the best of his ability; After all, the sooner the shooting orks died, the sooner Ninke was no longer getting shot at. "[color=f7941d]Yes Ma'am. Try not to get hit Ma'am.[/color]" He answered with a slight grumble in his voice. She had better come back from this...

Looking around the room they were in, he noticed that there was a pile of rubble that could provide a good, semi-solid platform for a guardsman to boost his mates up through the hole in the ceiling that the rubble had originally come from, giving easy access to the floor above and [i]hopefully[/i] line of sight on the bastards shooting at them. 

Pointing at a random Tush boy, Belgond simply said "[color=f7941d]Right, you get on that pile of rubble and give everyone else a boost up. Corporal Ninke is going to try and bait the bastards out of hiding and when they raise their heads up our job is to remove them with all the holy wrath the Emperor wants to share with us. Now move it people![/color]" 

It wasn't the best display of acrobatic skill, but one by one the guardsmen got up there, even pulling their booster up to join them as they could all get a good line of sight. Once everyone was in position, Ninke would hear Belgond simply say "Good to go Ninke. Don't get yourself killed." To signal that she was good to go.

Ninke had started praying the second Belgond had conceded to her order. She held her small silver pendant in a vice grip, praying for all she was worth for this to work and for her to not meet the fate of her squad. She waited, until Belgond gave the go ahead, kissing the small idol around her neck and letting it hang there, she took off.

From the start she was sprinting full tilt, carrying her small frame as quickly as it could. She glanced around for a place to run, settling on a thick wall that was all that was left of a building to her left. She heard it, their weapon warm back up, and then open fire.

Bullets tore at the air around her, she felt the heavy caliber rounds slamming into the ground around her. The wall was still at least 20 feet away, she was nearly there, and then she was tugged into a forward and downward spin. She slammed into the ground, skidding forward, clambering to get back to her feet, she managed to throw herself behind the cover. Lying their, she wondered what had made her fall, she had felt a tug on her left side. She looked at her abdomen, freaking out and inspecting it with her hand... singular... her eyes grew wide as she saw it, from about the middle of her forearm down her left arm and hand were gone... a ripped bleeding stump. She gasped a bit, grabbing at the stump with her remaining hand trying staunch the blood flow. It wasn't stopping, she must have been in shock and adrenaline as there was no pain yet. She started messing with her belt, remembering a need to tie off the veins, when she realized she had left it behind. she ripped the strap off her lasgun, She wrapped it as tightly as possible, as dark spots filled her vision. She fell back against the wall, trying to stay conscious... and then the pain rushed in... and she screamed, louder than she had ever screamed in her life.

As much as he wanted to watch Ninke to ensure that she would be okay, Belgond's eyes were instead focused elsewhere, scanning the general direction that the bullets were flying from whenever the bastards opened fire.

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground next to him caused Belgond to look to the side... and blink somewhat in surprise at the fact that there was a heavy bolter currently being set up next to him. Looking at the strange team up of a Tush and a red coat that were setting up the gun, Belgond considered questioning where the hell they found the thing before deciding better of it and just getting back to finding the best place to aim the beast. 

Even with Ninke acting as bait to draw their fire, it took a distressingly long time to finally pinpoint the exact series of windows that the bastards had been using; They had used some sort of old purple cloth to create a 'curtain' like effect to hide where they had set up their gun nests, the fabric so old and worn that it was nearly as gray as the building around it. If you weren't looking for it and they weren't actively firing, you wouldn't have seen it. 

Once they knew where to aim the heavy bolter through, it was only a matter of seconds before Belgond was forced to cover his ears or risk his ear drums exploding from the sheer noise that was assaulting him, but after a good ten seconds of fire the bolter stopped and there was no more signs of life from behind the purple cloth. Belgond watched as some men grouped up in order to check out the target room to make sure that they were dead instead of just trying to redeploy... But his attention quickly turned to the medic that was running over to where he had last seen Ninke...

Managing to locate Ninke out of the crowd of guardsmen, Belgond could see that something was wrong, through he couldn't see -exactly- where she had been hit. Moving towards the hole in the floor they had climbed up in the front place in order to climb back down, he prayed to the Emperor that she would be fine.

She had stopped screaming just before the gunfire of the heavy bolter had stopped, starting to fade out by then. The medic got to to her before that, and so she was still conscious, moaning in pain, tears on her face as she shook in the medics grasp. She had stopped the bleeding with her strap, at least enough that death by bleedout wasn't going to happen. The wound itself was rather vicious, a part of her bone able to be seen and the red tear with several large pieces of shrapnel embedded in it. The heavy caliber round had... it had hit some sort of degree on its way down and splintered, most of it turning her lower forearm and hand into red mist or ripping it off. A fair bit though was still in her arm, sticking out from her wound, the medic was working on getting those shrapnel bits out now. As Belgond approached, a particularly large piece was ripped out of her, and Ninke's mouth opened in a silent scream, sharply exhaling instead and writhing, causing only more pain. She didn't see Belgond, to transfixed on her lack of lower arm and hand.

Belgond thought he had seen the worst of Orkish brutality when they had come across the bodies of the Cadians. As the blood drained from his face at the sight of Ninke's left arm, he discovered a whole new level of nausea that he had never known before and prayed that he would never see again. 

Letting the medic do his thing, Belgond knelt down next to Ninke, taking her right hand in his and squeezing it in order to encourage her to focus on him instead of the pain, if only a little. "[color=f7941d]You did absolutely brilliantly Ninke.[/color]" Belgond offered softly, trying to help in some small way. A part of him wanted to just pick her up and make a break back for the breach and Imperial lines beyond it in order to get her proper medical attention, but he knew in his gut that such a thing wouldn't work... They would most likely just get shot for desertion. 

If the Major was digging into the Cathedral, no doubt he would have made room somewhere to treat those who were going to be wounded. It wasn't the best medical help that was out there but in a city full of orks it was most likely the best they were going to get, even if he had to carry her there himself. He would have to rope one of the boys into taking her vox unit for her, but that wouldn't be hard. Couldn't just leave their lifeline to HQ laying in the street after all.

"[color=f7941d]Hang in there. You're going to be fine damn it.[/color]"

Ninke felt Belgond take her hand, and she gripped it as hard as her strength would allow, trying to focus on anything but the pain. she could hardly even glance at him as the medic finished pulling out the shrapnel, she shuddered with each piece until they were all out. He wrapped, took out a needle and stuck her arm with it, causing another shudder. Her eyes grew heavier, and the pain faded to a dull throbbing, the medic pulled her up with Belgond, speaking words she hardly heard, "You know her? Eh, don't matter. She'll live but... well I need to get back to my squad. She can walk, not much else. I'd get her gear from wherever she left it and get your squad to take her Vox. She ain't gonna be able to carry it doped up like this. Good luck to you, but if we get hit again she is a damn easy target,", the medic gave a nod to Belgond, and took off back to his own squad of red coats. Nike leaned heavily against Belgond, it was hard to walk.

Nodding his head to the medic, Belgond carefully positioned his arm so that Ninke could use him as a support to aid her in walking while he provided over watch for the both of them; Letting his lasgun hang by the strap because the damn thing was near impossible to hold and aim with one hand, he instead grabbed the pistol that had been issued to him instead. From what he had seen of the orks he doubted that it would do much, but it was better then nothing. 

Getting her vox picked up wasn't hard; The rag tag group of solders that had ducked into the hole in the wall had come to see just how the Corporal was doing and it didn't take much to convince them to help carry the vox unit, as well as the rest of her equipment. All Belgond had to worry about was making sure that Ninke herself managed to get one foot in front of the other as they continued to head towards their destination.