Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Warhammer 40,000, please don't sue me.

Chapter 10: Decisions

Sunlight was starting to brighten the horizon, but the break in the clouds was only along the horizon. The sun would appear for a short while before it would disappear again. Light would bring several things, one being the ability to see well. But, it also gave the same advantage to their pursuers. Renji, Rukia, Ikkaku, and the two remaining guardsmen moved through the shattered homes of the suburban district. They could still hear the gunfire of their comrades and the rebels, but it was more sporadic. It had only been the exchange of small arms fire for the last two hours, but it still let them gauge the distance they had to travel back to the frontlines.

Tomiki was starting to get worse. He had been shot in the shoulder and even though the wound had been plugged, it was beginning to smell, and there was a strange greenish discoloration around the bullet hole. He had started sweating profusely and shaking, his outlook was not looking good.

Rukia had been checking in on him ever since they managed to evade the Traitor Marines. The sergeant was giving her concerned expressions and she did not have a good feeling about this. They had no medics and only the basic knowledge of first aid; it was all they could do to just keep him alive long enough to get him back to the medical company.

She checked her kit and made sure she had everything she needed. Her map was where it should be as well as her compass. She still had two energy packs for her las rifle and three extra magazines for the auto pistol at her hip. Her canteen was down to half, and her first aid kit was all used up. The only thing remaining was one syrette of Morpha, but she didn't see herself needing it anytime soon.

Sergeant Kamiyama was bandaging a laceration on his fore arm and Renji was busy looking through his magnoculars keeping an eye out for the enemy with Ikkaku. She had to admit, now that she had gotten herself into the shit, as they called it, she was beginning to know why it was that her brother might have been pulling strings to keep her away from it as much as possible. But, this was her job, and she was trained for things like this so it went to say that she was going to do it, no matter what.

"Lieutenant," Kamiyama said stepping away from the shaking body of Tomiki. Rukia snapped out of her thoughts and returned her attention to the real world. This hell that was all around her shot back into hard focus and any thoughts she had were replaced. She looked at the older sergeant and nodded for him to speak. The man leaned in close and tried to keep his voice to an audible whisper.

"Lieutenant, I don't think he's gonna make it," Kamiyama said.

Rukia looked into the man's eyes. She didn't want to believe that Tomiki was not going to live to see another day, but there was the little voice in her mind that told her what the sergeant was saying, was the truth. She kept her emotions hidden as best she could. She was an officer, and she was a Kuchiki, her brother had taught her that to show one's emotions plainly was a sign of weakness. This had been drilled into her ever since she was brought into the Kuchiki house and those lessons did not fail her now.

"Is there nothing that can be done to ease his pain," she asked keeping the tone low. She maybe a Kuchiki unable to show her true emotions to others, but she knew that to the enlisted guardsmen any lack of compassion toward there brothers and sisters would any breed resentment toward the upper tiers of command.

"Well, we could always give him an extra shot of Morpha," the sergeant said looking at the already used syrette in his hand. "But we may need these for ourselves should anymore of us get wounded."

"No," she said her emotions slipping a little, "we can't just kill him."

"I don't want to kill," the sergeant rebutted quickly, "but sometimes there are things much worse than death."

"I will not allow it," she said before falling silent. She wanted to help the man, but from the survivalist aspect, he was slowing them down. They could come back for him, but one man, wounded as badly as he was, would be no match should the enemy find him. And given the horrors she had witnessed in the warehouse, she was not going to abandon any of her people to that fate.

"It's your call, ma'am," the sergeant said, "I'm just here to follow orders."

Rukia thought for a moment trying to think of a way to get out of this mess they were in. Over half the strike team was dead, and those that were alive, were exhausted and running low on vital supplies. They had to fallback to the front; they could not risk staying behind enemy lines any longer.

She pulled out her map and compass and began working out their position. They had moved almost three miles behind enemy lines the night before and if everything had gone according to plan, then they were roughly a mile behind the lines now. Also, during the early hours of the morning Ikkaku and Renji had reported rebel activity away from there area, but it was moving back closer to the city.

"Okay," she began, "we are here, and by now the front lines should be here." She indicated a long main roadway that ran through the middle of the suburbs. "If we move now, and we keep our heads down we can link back up with the Colonel Kyoraku and his attack element, and we should be there before midday."

"That sounds great LT," the sergeant said, "But what about Tomiki, he's not as light as you might think." The sergeant gestured making a lifting motion and giving a strained expression on his face. Rukia smiled and shook her head, she began rethinking her calculations.

"Okay, then by late this evening, or even early tomorrow morning."

"That sounds like a plan LT," the man replied as he looked over the map and began trying to familiarize himself with it, and make a metal copy.

"What sounds good," Ikkaku said approaching from his watch position.

"I think we can get back to regiment if we basically walk a straight line back the way we came," Rukia replied. Ikkaku looked at her confused.

"Our jobs are to stay behind the lines and sow confusion into the ranks of the enemy, which mean fighting them at every turn."

"I understand that, Lieutenant Madarame," Rukia said wondering what to make of the man's comment. "But right now there's not a lot that can be done."

"We haven't received any orders to return, and why should we pass up an opportunity to do some damage along the way," the man said absently stroking his bald head, "we have our orders and we should follow them."

"If you haven't notice, over half the team is dead," Rukia said her irritation starting to show, "and the vox-link and microbead are down, we couldn't get orders even if they used smoke signals."

"Exactly," Ikkaku said, "I haven't been told to return yet, so I'll be damned if I'm leaving the battlefield."

"You're insane, what you're saying makes no logical sense," Rukia exclaimed, "I have a severely wounded who needs more medical attention than can be provided here and you're worried about leaving this place?"

"Whoa," Renji said walking up to the argument and trying to understand the thing without having heard it from the beginning.

"He's dead already," Ikkaku gestured back toward the still very much alive Tomiki, "You should just put a bullet in him and end his suffering. It would be the humane thing to do."

"You son of a bitch," Kamiyama said stepping forward, Ikkaku turned and moved to meet the man mid step.

Renji stepped forward got between the two men and held them back. Rukia grabbed her sergeant's arm and tried to keep the man from going at the officer.

"Okay, we just need to calm down; we can't be going at each others throats here. If you haven't noticed there are already people vying for that chance." Renji said with a sigh and the two men backed down, the frustration of both easily seen on their faces.

There was a long period of silence while everyone cooled their heads and separated from one another. Rukia sat down on a pile of rubble and rubbed her forehead. The map in her other hand while she looked at it blankly. Ikkaku kicked rocks and sent them clattering across the ground. The sergeant returned to looking after Tomiki and Renji just stood there looking back and forth between the other two officers.

"We can get back to the regiment," Rukia said with a sigh, "and get Guardsman Tomiki some help."

"Or we can stay and do our jobs," Ikkaku retorted, "Which, by the way, we haven't finished yet."

"Well looks like it's a split decision," Kamiyama said quietly, mostly just to himself, but it was loud enough that Renji heard it. He looked back and forth between the two officers and then glanced over at the trooper lying on the ground. His condition was getting worse with each passing hour and he was going to die a horrible death if they didn't get him some medical attention soon.

He looked at Rukia and the woman just stared at the map as if she was looking straight through it into the ground. Glancing over at Ikkaku he saw that the man was hell bent on doing his job. Renji sighed and shook his head.

"Emperor, damn it," he cursed and turned to the sergeant, "alright, get him up, we're heading back."

Rukia looked up at Renji and was at a loss for words. Ikkaku grunted in disgust and looked out of the blasted building and onto the street. Rukia was just about the thank Renji when she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. It was only a quick silver glint but it was enough for her to recognize from the night before.

There was the crack of gunfire and she instinctively dropped to the floor and covered her head. She looked up and saw Renji fall to the ground he gripped his shoulder and grimaced in pain. He quickly slid over to a half destroyed couch and kept out of sight there. Rukia got in a doorway and watched as the tracers from the bolters flew past. The sergeant dragged Tomiki behind a pile of rubble from a collapsed wall. Ikkaku was no where in sight.

"Where's Ikkaku," she shouted over the gunfire. Renji either didn't hear her or he was in too much pain to care. The bolt round didn't appear to have hit him too badly; it looked as if it was only a graze. The shell probably didn't detonate like it was designed.

"Lieutenant," she heard the sergeant shout and she looked up. The man was pointing to something that was laying in the middle of the room that had just been turned into a shooting gallery. Three small pineapple looking devices slowly spun in place. Her first instincts were to freeze for a half second, but then she dove further into the hallway where she had taken cover and got as close to the ground as she could.

Then the world went silent. She felt a quick strange wave of energy wash over her and then it was accompanied by things falling on top of her. She couldn't see and it felt impossible to move her body. Her hearing was out and she wondered for a brief moment if this was what death was like. Then in a rush as if delayed by some great unseen force; the roar of three loud explosions rang in her ears. She opened her eyes and saw only a small shaft of light, she was lying on her stomach and she tried to move her arms and legs but it was like she was being held down. She was tired, very tired, and she wanted nothing more at that moment than to simply go to sleep.

******

The two marines had opened fire into the rear of the house which was now left open for all to see by the destruction of artillery shells. Both men had unleashed a torrent of bolter rounds into the building where the guardsmen had been arguing. If it hadn't been for their stupid squabble, then the pair might have passed the location up, but lucky for them, the Chaos gods smiled upon them today. After the grenades detonated they exchanged magazines and left their cover and stepped into the destroyed house.

"Check for bodies," one said. The other replied and the pair split up. As the first entered he looked off to where he had seen the woman dashed off. He saw a pile of collapsed ceiling had caved in and covered just about all of her body. One leg was sticking out from the rubble, but blood was beginning to seep out from beneath. He went over and saw the other man that had ducked behind the couch was lying in a pool of blood and not moving.

The other marine walked over and saw the sergeant and the wounded guardsmen. The wounded man was dead, but the sergeant was still alive. He slowly tried to raise his pistol, but found that the task was almost impossible with the broken arm he suffered. His face was cut up and he was bleeding profusely from his chest, where shrapnel had hit him from the grenades.

"You Chaos scum," he breathed. Without a word the marine raised his bolter and fired a trio of rounds into the man. the first hitting his stomach, the second hitting his chest and the last hitting his head and painting the wall behind him in a sickly gore red.

"Targets neutralized," the second marine said.

"What about the third officer," the other asked.

"He must have gotten away, let's find him, and claim the glory for ourselves," the second replied and they both began heading out the way they came. They started their hunt all over again.

******

As the two marines left one pile of rubble began to stir and move. First from beneath it a hand appeared and then another. Then finally, the bruised bleeding head of Ikkaku appeared. He shook his head fiercely trying to shake the cobwebs out and become more coherent. Slowly, he cleared the rubble off of his body and freed himself from the trappings.

"What the hell happened," he groaned and then looked over and saw the body of Renji laying there. He growled in anger, he saw the corpse of the two guardsmen and he felt his anger grow in him more. Those bastards, he thought, well I'll show them what for. He took the sergeants pistol and retrieved his chainsword. Ikkaku was going to complete his mission, and he was going to challenge the best opponents he had ever faced.

He looked around and began heading north; surely he would find his prey there. As he ran out of the destroyed house he was unaware of the twitching body behind the couch.

End Chapter 10

Author's Note: Well, it took me a while to post this one up, sorry about that. I hope that you enjoyed reading and I look forward to writing some more for you guys. Please Read and Review, no flames please, if you think there are some things I need to improve upon then please drop me a line. But yeah, it would seem that the shit is hitting the fan. Will Renji survive, is Rukia DEAD... (no). And what is Ikkaku going to do. Find out in the next chapter or couple of chapters…it depends how long it actually takes to get through the other points of view.

Thanks,

Big Mack