Ranger Unit 2044-Pullo hauled his Transuranic Arquebus up to the second level of the ruin. The Ruin was a simple, plain concrete construction and a broken floor. The window ledge was too low, so he pulled the magnetic gunstick from his back and planted it in the floor in front of him, he then dropped the arquebus into its cradle atop the gunstick.

The gun now had a secure and stable firing location, the machine spirit would be appeased with the correct and righteous application of the rifle. Pullo whispered into the oversized rifle, "be still sweet spirit." He knew that communing with the machine spirits in this verbal method was a waste of time, but he would be praised by the techpriest for the respect he heeded to the blessed machine.

"Arquebusiers, confirm acquisition of target," called A648-Lieus over the squad vox.

"Target Confirmed," said 7732-Janus.

"Target Confirmed," said 2858-Akresa.

Pullo had aligned his own internal ocular array with the Arquebus and zoomed to what was practical for the effective range of the weapon, he spotted the orks in the heavy armour. "Target Confirmed."

"Commence termination of marked priority targets." ordered Lieus.

Akresa took the first shot. She was always the fastest to take the first shot. It was close, but the Orks still stood.

Janus shot next, he shot a piece of armour off one of the orks, and it appeared to be close to a kill shot, but the Ork didn't notice.

Pullo muttered a prayer under his breath, "Omnissiah guide my shot, keep my aim precise and allow me to remove the creators of the unholy machines from the galaxy." He gently caressed the trigger with his finger and squeezed slowly until the glowing projectile was shot from the oversized rifle.

"Priority Target eliminated," commented Pullo as he watched the Orks unarmoured head erupt in a burst of blood and brains. It clattered to the ground, the other orks in the heavy armour were now in disarray and started to look around for where the shot came from.

"Additional target acquisition requested," said Janus, looking for permission to engage the other high value targets in the area.

"Granted," confirmed Lieus.

The Arquebusiers in the unit began to open fire on the other orks that they could see down range, eliminating multiple targets; they continued until the remaining heavy orks had been scattered or killed.

"Negative contacts, range cleared," said Akresa. "Praise the Machine God."

"Confirmed," said Pullo, affirming what Akresa had said, "Honour and glory to the omnissiah."

"Confirmed," said Janus, "I give my thanks to the machine spirits."

Squad Alpha Lieus issued the command, "Directive received, changing position to the following codified coordinates." Lieus sent through the coordinates for their next firing location in binhiric over the noosphere. It was about 4 K on foot, but this was no problem for the Skitarii for their mechanically enhanced legs made travelling long distances easy.

The Skitarii Ranger Squad was ten strong with three Snipers with transuranic arquebuses and the rest armed with the standard issue galvanic rifle. Standard issue, but an elegant weapon for the soldiers of the machine god. The ones with the galvanic rifles confirmed that the immediate area was clear, then the ones carrying the arquebuses followed. The transuranic arquebus being too large and heavy to be used as anything other than long range fire support.

They continued walking through the scattered combat zone until 2434-Keabis, the ranger who carried the squad's omnispex, made a call. "Multiple single pilot conveyance approaching." Keabis then pointed in the direction they were coming from. Likely Ork bikes, a dangerous enemy and mobile, but not precise.

"Quantity?" asked Lieus.

"Five."

Lieus then gave the binhiric command for a defensive formation and the squad of ten took positions. Pullo took the gunstand from his back and once again planted it in the ground. Not only did it hold the gun steady, but it made a handy swivel for shooting different directions, useful for when there is a fast moving enemy that could be coming from any direction.

The ranger squad stood patiently and awaited the ork's approach. They heard the bikes long before they could see them. Ramshackle and clumsily build engines, they made a disgusting noise, the sound of an engine continually sputtering fuel and rattling itself apart. Machines that orks built should not be possible and were an affront to all that was glorious in the eyes of the Machine God. All Skitarii's emotions were suppressed to an extent, but Pullo did feel a certain amount of delight when destroying the creations of these vile aliens.

Pullo spotted one of them approaching from the left, but the others spotted it too and that ork was shot down before it could get close. The other four all came into view at the same time, all coming from different angles, Pullo traversed his rifle round and took aim at the first ork he could. Letting loose a shot, destroying the ramshackle motorbike he was using, but the ork still lived.

Pullo heard the roar of another ork bike coming behind him, he tried to swivel his arquebus to face the ork, but the ork was too fast on approach. He was smashed to the ground by the bike's huge front tyre. His gun was left propped up on the stand, but he was unable to get up on time, another bike tore through the ranks of the Skitarii, towards Pullo. He tried to raise himself from his back, but the other bike was on top of him. He raised his arm out of instinct to protect himself from the ork's axe as it approached, but it was pointless. The Axe went straight through his arm and smashed the side of his head.

Now in a daze, there was a huge, hot blast from near his head, nothing but ringing, his ocular array became fuzzy, then everything went blank.

…

A white light flickered into view on Pullo's ocular array, he was coming online again. A quick reel of text flashed in front of his vision as the kind machine spirits of his augments composed the diagnostic scan on the systems that had been gifted from the Machine God.

+++ Scan Complete +++

+++ Augmentations 100% Operational +++

+++ Biological systems impaired +++

+++ Seek Medical Attention +++

+++ Honour and Glory to the Machine God +++

'Praise the Machine God,' thought Pullo all his augments were unharmed, the only parts of him that were hurt were these weak fleshy parts he was burdened with as a human. He did not have a diagnostic readout for his biological systems, but he could feel a pain in his head and his arm was in seering agony.

"He's awake!" came the voice of a nearby woman. Pullo looked around. He was on some kind of bed in a makeshift hospital. There were other combatants laid about the room. Mostly from the local PDF, he couldn't see any other Skitarii around him. It's hard to tell what this building was before the orks invaded, it was a plain place with plenty of desks with which to lay the injured.

The woman who called out rushed over to him, she appeared to be a nurse, at least her white uniform suggested this. "How are you feeling?"

Pullo responded in binhiric, but the woman looked confused. She didn't appear to have the augments needed to understand binhiric and was confused by the sound. Pullo engaged the vocal language of the imperium, "I am operational," said Pullo, "but I require medical attention."

"I have some bad news to give you," said the woman with a heavy sigh. "Can I ask your name?"

"I am Ranger Unit 2044-Pullo." stated Pullo.

"OK, Pullo," said the nurse with a deep breath, "When we brought you in, the damage to your arm was too great and we couldn't save it."

Pullo looked down and could see the bloody-bandaged stump where his hand used to be. He had lost his right arm from below the elbow.

"I'm sorry," said the nurse, "this must be difficult for you."

"This is good," said Pullo, confusing the nurse again, "this was only my organic hand. Having it removed leaves room for it to be replaced with a superior machine hand."

"We can't do that," said the Nurse.

"Then I require transfer to a skitarii base. The tech priests there will be able to assist me."

"I'm sorry Pullo, we don't have any transport."

Pullo let out a sigh, "That is sub-optimal, I will need to wait here." This field hospital will have to do for now, the fighting wouldn't be far from here and any further skitarii casualties would surely be sent here too.