Ranger Unit 2044-Pullo hauled his Transuranic Arquebus up to the second level of the ruin. The Ruin was the corner of an old manufactorum, the walls and floor of which had been destroyed after years of war. There was a nearby opening where there was once a window, the bottom of the window was 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.

He looked over the battlefield, war was raging for miles around. The forces of Forgeworld Ryza, the knights of House Treskothic, Planetary Defence Forces, and ofcourse the foul Xenos, lit up the night sky with shots fired into the air, and explosions from artillery and bombing runs. This war was a nightmare, but it was a nightmare Pullo had been built for.

"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, they were shouting at one another, while surrounded by other smaller Orks, perhaps an attempt to gain dominance. "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 grant precision and stability, 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," affirmed Pullo, "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 rifles. 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, they were travelling down what remained of a through road with ruins either side. Until 2434-Keabis, the ranger who carried the squad's omnispex, made a call. "Multiple single pilot conveyances 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 anywhere.

The ranger squad stood patiently and awaited the ork's approach. They heard the bikes long before they could see them. Ramshackle and clumsily built, 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 ordered and 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, putting a round straight through the engine block of the motorcycle, 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 it 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 black.