[@Lady Selune][@ReedeThe23rd][@BCTheEntity][@CleanBreeze][@Eisenhorn][@Irredeemable][@Reia]

[I]Time: 3:15 AM 

Location: Eastern Fringe Sector of Ventirest City, Vocintis. 

Weather and Temperature: Stormy, temperature 12 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.[/i]


Sithech had been holding his breath for almost the whole journey now, but as they neared the landing zone - the strip lumens in the troop compartment of the gunship changing from red to an amber colour - he began to slowly allow air to slip from between his teeth... that was until a sudden jolt forced it all out in one large gasp, the Lieutenant giving a grunt of annoyance as another hammer blow from without caused him to rail against his harness.

"Emperor's baws! Ah didnae expect thaim nae tae shoot us, bit cuid thay nae hae waited a bawherr bit langer!?"

The other Finrehters began to laugh, quickly silenced by a scathing glance, Greig checking his weapon one last time before a crackling voice came over the internal vox.

"We've run into some flak, so we're going to have to do a hovering bailout," by which the pilot meant they would have to leap and a roll a fair distance from above the ground, something that no foot-slogger relished but that may save their lives.

It as fortunate that, at least in these eastern regions, the enemy didn't seem to possess any [i]actual[/i] flak guns and instead were relying on smaller arms fire to bring down the incoming transports.

Mere moments later and the amber lights running down the length of the troop compartment began to shimmer from that brownish-yellow and into a much more glaring green, so bright it actually hurt the eyes to look at it, the co-pilot taking the vox this time, even as the gunship lurched and the thrusters took them into a hovering position – the gunship may have ceased it's movement, but the [i]ping[/i] and [i]whizz[/i] against the armoured vessel had not.

“Harness release in three... two... one,” a slight hiss and the restraints were razed, Sithech slipping from his seat with a fluidity that belied his age, simultaneously bringing his lasgun across his chest in preparation for a drop and roll landing, “lights are green, lights are green, everyone out and God-Emperor protect you all.”

Indeed the light had turned green, the Finreht contingent of the squad mustering about the open side-door and Greig narrowing his eyes as he watched tracer rounds move through the dim morning light, this was no time to be pausing in ones departure however and it was barely an instant later that the Highlander had disappeared out the door and was falling to the churned earth of the planet below.

A grunt and forced expulsion of breath, followed by the flutter of material and ending in the sudden filling of his senses by those of the battlefield; first to reach him was the firing of munitions, the distinct rapid fire of an autogun, the [i]whump[/i] of a cannon... soon after that the other sounds filtered in, the screams of the wounded and dying, war cries of bitter enemies, mud and blood and piss and shit all rolled in to one hellish cacophony. 

Adrenaline flushed his system now, the Lieutenant rolling over onto his belly and bringing his weapon up in front of him, the landscape around him most amenable to his needs for cover at least!

It had once been part of a series of agricultural fields dotted around the fringes of the city they had been planted to feed, nothing growing there now except for corpses, the twisted ruins of farming machinery visible by there hulking outlines – the scoops and whatever blades they may have had being taken by the insurrectionists to forge rudimentary armour and blades for the war effort.

Said enemy wasn't visible from where he now lay, having forgotten completely about the Valkyrie overhead for the moment in spite of himself, his bare legs scraping and scratching against dried dirt and stones as he found his way into a small crater, clearly the site of some shelling earlier in the tussle for planetary control, and only then did he raise his eyes from the concave side of the depression to watch and wait for the remainder of his squad.