One street to the east Vitruvia's ragtag militia advanced, pausing occasionally to search passersby for anything with the whiff of heresy. The powerfully built sister of battle gave them quick lessons as they advanced; not in scriptures for the fires of their faith had already been stoked to a raging bonfire but instead she gave short instructions on the fundamentals of Imperium tactics. Stick together. Obey your superiors. Fear not martyrdom. The men had only begun to absorb her instruction when the planetary defense force appeared about three blocks ahead. Vitruva's power armor whirred as she walked out in front of her squads, bolter in hand. She turned the volume in her helm's voice amplifier up and shouted a challenge. [b]"MEN OF FAITH OR FAITHLESS MEN?"[/b] The PDF drew to a disorderly halt and pimple faced boys shuffled and clutched their weapons in sweaty hands while old men, bent at the back and shoulder squinted in the harsh glare of the sun. There was muttering among the officers and confusion spread among the ranks. It was one thing to put down a revolt in the gutters; another entirely to open fire on a holy warrior adorned in holy iconography. No clear orders were ever given on either side. Out of nowhere a las beam struck Vitruvia square in the chest. There was a moments stunned silence and then a dull growl from Vitruva's militia. The tall sister of battle calmly flipped her bolter to full auto and swept murderous fire across the completely exposed front line of PDF. The emotional tension stroked to a boil by Horacio's sermon was released in an roar of murderous rage and the militia swept forward in a human tide, firing their weapons blindly and charging headlong into the PDF. Servo motors whirred as Vitruvia bounded up the base of a decrepit statue of one of this world's long dead heroes while the tide of frenzied human flesh washed around her like the froth of the tide about a stone. Faith alone would not prevent her militia from being cut down by the PDF's superior firepower before they could make contact. The sister of battle squeezed the trigger and the Godwyn-De'az bolter jerked in her cermite armored fists, a meter of fire spewing from it's muzzle like dragon's fire and casting the black and white clad sister in hellish light even in the bright of day. The stream of bolts slammed into the unprepared and wavering PDF, a wave of hammer blows that punched through flimsy armor like paper and blew heads into chunks of gore and blasted limbs from dying bodies. Most of the men in the PDF had never even seen a bolter before, much less been caught in the open with no protection against a sixty round drum. Officers shouted contradictory orders and men froze or hid or fought, each following his own nature rather than acting in unison. Most dived for cover against the barrage of bolter shells rather than firing an organized counter-charge volley and the sporadic fire that did emerge did nothing to check the maddened human wave. One unfortunate soul was hit twice in the belly by Vitruva's bolter and blown completely in half, gargled screams and blood pouring from his mouth as he crawled across the pavement before one of the militia men reached him, bashing out his brains with the frenzied blows of a makeshift club. The front ranks simply disintegrated as the militia made impact. Some fought and some ran and the collapse of order was the death of many men, hacked apart and battered to death and sometimes simply torn limb from limb. In the rear disaster loomed. A trio of PDF chimeras had rounded the corner behind the PDF forces, rusted multilaser turrets promising disaster for Vitruva's militia which was still trapped in hand to hand combat with the rapidly collapsing PDF front. The first chimera had panicked and attempted to back up, colliding with the chimera after it and jamming the streets but through her helmet's magnification Vitrvia could see an officer on the scene attempting to take control of the situation and move the chimera's into position. Vitruvia dropped to one knee, flipped to single auto and put her eye to the bolters optics. She squeezed and a bolt blew out the entire front of his neck. His head dangled back grotesquely, neck broken by the force and clawed at the air for a moment before falling dead. But she could see a knot of officers and NCO's move in after him, stopping the flight of fleeing PDF soldiers, organizing a defensive position and slowly gaining control over the vehicles. She knew a disaster when she saw one. The untrained militia would be spent after the hand to hand fighting and the officers would have a strong defensive position and covering fire from the chimeras. Their first headlong charge would not work a second time. The faithful would be cut to pieces. Multilaser fire struck the statue and an explosion of superheated stone sprayed her armor. The athletically built sister didn't hesitate, leaping from the base of the statue, boots landing with a thump on the pavement and breaking into a run toward the nearest storefront. She lowered her head and smashed through the glass window, turned right and fired from the hip as she ran. Bolts punched through cheap walling and blasted the occasional support into chunks of half-rotten wood and the power armored sister followed, smashing through the weakened walls at a full sprint. A few seconds later she kicked open the final door and stood a dozen paces from the knot of officers and the three chimeras, having advanced through the interior of the buildings to bypass the mass of fighting men still clogging the road and the firepower of the chimeras. The looked at her, dumbfounded. She raised her bolter and squeezed the trigger. It clicked empty. They drew sabers and chainswords and the chief among them a power sword that crackled with energy. "Kill her." He said. It was one against a dozen and three vehicles. Vitruvia felt no fear or doubt. A childhood of psychosocial conditioning, brutal lessons and hourly indoctrination in the Schola Progenium had been followed by fanaticism of the Sisterhood. The fearless insanity of the martyr came upon her but who but the insane had the strength to prosper? Chainsword and bolt pistol swept into her hands and las pistol fire raked her power armor. Embolden by their numbers the officers met her charge. Vitruvia met them with maddened furry. Men fell, faces little but gaping wounds from her bolt pistol and her arm went numb from the hammering of chainsword against chainsword. Her bolt pistol was lost as a power sword drove through her left forearm and blood ran freely from a deep cut on her left side, under the cermite plate. The force of her attack carried her through the mass of men, in her wake leaving several dead and two others dying in puddles of their own viscera. She darted between two of the chimeras and climbed aboard one as it's driver panicked and reversed once more. The top hatch flipped open and one of the crew members fired his laspistol point blank into her armor. She blistered from the heat and split his head to the teeth, chainsword roaring as she ripped it free. The officers screamed for the chimera to stop and Vitruvia swayed as she dragged the crewman free, tore the grenades from his belt and hurled them into the open hatch and leaped free of the vehicile. It's promethium fuel cells exploded with a dull 'whump' that knocked her flat. Orange flames spewed fifteen feet into the sky and black smoke billowed out, flickering with the sinister glow of the inferno at their heart, like a barely obscured portal into hell. T Every bone in Vitruvia's body ached but she rose, animated by a hatred so deep hatred was no longer the word. Blood slicked fingers fumbled as she slammed another sixty round drum into her bolter. The officers choked and gagged as they stumbled and crawled from the smoke and one of the chimeras reversed blindly, bouncing up the curb and ramming the wall. Jammed it's gears screamed as the poorly trained driver made things worse. Concealed within the black smoke Vitruvia dropped to one knee, flipped her bolter to semi auto and activated her helm's thermal vision. She could see the cold bar of the transparent durasteel view-slit against the hotter cermite armor of the chimera. Behind it was the driver. Vitruvia aimed and squeezed. The durasteel held. She fired again. Again. Gears screamed and the chimera jerked as the driver lost his nerve. Brilliant beams of light punched through the smoke as the multilaser fired blindly. Bolt after bolt slammed into the slit until it shattered and the sister of battle could see the dim glow of brains and bone against the seat. The gunner scrambled from the hatch. Vitruvia shot him in the back. She walked out of the smoke as the last of the PDF front gave way, fleeing in terror before the righteous horde. Those too slow to escape were hacked to pieces. The final chimera bounced down the street in full flight. Vitruiva fired a burst into it's left track. A second. A third. The poorly maintained track snapped and the chimera careened wildly, rolling over the curb and splattering head first into a ditch of dirty water. Militia men swarmed it, prying at the hatches with bloodsoaked hands. The officer with the power sword stood shellshocked in the road as his broken men streamed by him. Soot and mud and Vitruvia's blood smeared his white uniform. Vitruvia walked toward him, drawing her chainsword in her good hand. The officer tossed the powersword aside and drew an ornate laspistol. He put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It was over.