Karafat awoke, in a way, she became aware. She was lying down, the feeling of cold metal on her back and the smell of, smoke... smoke? smoke! She opened her eyes, and looked around in complete panic. The first thing her eyes fell on was the body of... Where was she? The Leman Russ, the battle, the explosion... Oh no, who was that lying in the corner? Karafat crawled over into the corner, well, tried to, however only one arm managed to move. She realized then that she was lying in a pool of blood, specifically hers, probably coming from the stump of the arm that had not been willing to move before. She clutched the ruined shoulder, wanting to scream, but only gagging sounds and stomach acid escaped her mouth. Then Karafat passed out again.
She woke up again, this time immediately opening her eyes, she made peace with the fact that she no longer had a right arm, and started bit by bit crawling towards the body in the corner of the turret, she grabbed the shoulder and turned the body over. The stomach on gunner James Dernsey was completely gone, leaving a shredded hole that nobody could survive. Karafat was shocked, but she already had trauma from the loss of an arm. She needed to get out of the Russ, now. She tried to stand up and fell multiple times, finally succeeding on the sixth attempt. She pushed on the hatch, thankfully it was unlocked, taking a gasp of... smoke, blood and no small amount of horror, she coughed and let out what little contents were left in her stomach.
The area outside was covered in bodies, broken metal and vehicle wrecks lay everywhere, multiple smoke columns rose up into the grey skies above. She tried stepping out but tripped over a sentinel leg and landed in something squishy she felt that she didnt need to see. Karafat needed a weapon and had been too stupid to search the interior of the Leman Russ. She walked over to one of the nearby bodies, half a guardswoman, the legs nowhere to be seen. The face of... Private Bernette Paulson, Karafat remembered from somewhere, was frozen in an agonized state of shock, the laspistol of the unfortunate woman was still in her hands, Karafat apologised in her mind as she pulled it away from the body.
Karafat picked a direction and started walking, she didnt know how long she walked, it felt like hours, and she was still walking in the same bloody mud, with no end to the massive amount of bodies, Human, Eldar and Tau alike. She was exhausted, she sat up against the treads of a tipped chimera that relatively few bodies nearby. She had managed to pick up a med-pack along the way and decided to try patching up her wounds. She started with the arm, she wasnt much good at bandaging, especially with only her right arm available, but she had a decent cover within some minutes, she was about to pull out a shard of metal in her shin when the sound of footsteps interrupted her.
She grabbed for her laspistol instantly, and stood up, the firearm outstretched toward the sound. The footsteps stopped at the sound of Karafat standing up, the sound came from behind a valkyrie wreck twenty meters in front of her. She walked towards the wreck, next she knew, her and an eldar guardian stood with guns pointing at each other. The guardians face mask was half gone, and what should have been a white chestplate had a bright red gash. They had a showdown for what seemed like hours, until the sound of a machine starting was heard just ten meters left of them.
Immediately two guns aimed at a tau fighter cockpit opening, the pilot looked around and pulled out his weapon, aiming it in trun at Karafat and the eldar guardian. The intensity built up, but nobody wanted to make the first move, nobody wanted to cause more death. Soon all three realised this, slowly lowering their weapons. "What is your name, Monkeigh?"
The question came as a surprise to Karafat, who stood dumbfounded with her weapon still weakly pointing in between the two others. "You heard me. What is your name?" repeated the soothing voice of the eldar guardian.
The meek answer came "Karafat."
"Karafat? I believe that is the tau word for miracle?"
The tau mustered little more than a "yes".
They stood in the mud for a short time before the guardian spoke up, "My name is Aeros, thirteenth dragonbone guardian squad, army of the larifule craftworld. Pilot, who are you?"
Before the pilot could answer, the guardian coughed, blood squirted out of the gash in his chest and he fell unconscious. The tau pilot clutched his head and did the same seconds later, Karafat followed suit and hit the ground hard without even knowing she had fallen, quickly blacking out.