The Gunners had already taken massive casualties from this fight already, this fight was unlike the fight with famine. Not only were the cultists fighting back with more than just their bodies, but they fought with intelligence, laid traps, and never gave up. The only saving grace was that the cultists looked to be under equipped. Not every man had a gun, not every gun had ammo, many carried kitchen knives and other such improv weapons. There was no doubt the Cultists had a sizable armory to pull from, judging by the firepower Adam had heard coming from the front, but since many of their forces were already out into Chicago they had not left enough behind for everyone remaining to be fully armed. That was the saving grace.
That being said the cultists were fighting with such fervor one would never guess they were outgunned. Between the boy he saw rip a Gunner's throat out with his teeth and a man who literally dove down from the roof onto a gunner with nothing but a scalpel and carved a huge chunk of his face off before the cultist was stopped, they were fighting tooth and nail.
However they still had work to do. Adam could still hear the tell tale signs of a fight going on everywhere else in the building. The only reason they had finished so fast was because the section they had cleared was quite short, the rest of the building was no doubt still crawling with them.
"Let's move people!" Colonel Harrison said as he led the remains of his men, and Adam, back down the hall, over the piles of corpses of friends and foes alike, towards the main thoroughfare again. The Gunners who were too injured to continue on stayed behind to tend to their wounds letting the rest continue on unimpeded.
Once more they began their sweeping operation, going door to door, clearing them out. However the first few rooms were already cleared thanks to Adam, Deccanus, and whoever else had come this way. Still, if they did not double check the room there was a good chance they could be encircled, they had to be sure. As they marched on, Adam could see the carnage out front. It was a scene of hell. An innumerable amount of dead warfighters lay shot, bloodied, and cold on the ground leading up to the wall. The main gate was blown open, the door thrown several feet away as if hit by a large force and a melee focused skirmish had broken out on the front lawn inside the wall. Several warfighters were brawling with cultists while War himself seemed to be dueling Confessor Cromwell. Each man with their own signature weapons. Despite War's immense strength Cromwell seemed to be able to slink past each swing of his sword and stayed just enough inside War's range that he could threaten War with his sickles. At least he was until despite the close-range War unhooked a grenade rifle from his side and fired it at the ground causing an explosion of dust to kick up into the air. The action obscured the view, but very likely killed, or at least wounded, Cromwell.
However the oddest thing about the fight going on out front was that Pearl had somehow found herself mixed up in that mess. She was full of bullet holes, and clearly not in the best shape, however she was swinging the super sledge around like she had all the energy in the world, even sending one cultist flying clear over the wall with a single hit. Meanwhile, almost as if to keep her back clear, some of the warshippers were fighting at her side, fighting with a ferocity that was on par with the cultists. Each one of the Warshippers had their own ways of fighting, but each seemed extremely adept at it, and, more than that, they had an incredible synergy.
Of course all of this was information Adam took in within a matter of moments. He had to focus on the dangers that lay ahead of him, not focus on the fights that others were having, so he had to redirect his focus to the room clearing that he was going through with the Gunners.
Still there was a small feeling growing inside Adam that the battle was ever so slightly starting to swing in their favor. Nothing too grand, mind you, but enough that he had a renewed sense of confidence in the battle plan.
As they cleared Adam's role got more and more busy. They had too few members now to split up safely so they were forced to walk past a few turns that led to their own, probably uncleared, rooms. There were simply too many places for cultists to hide that they couldn't clear alone. Which meant Adam's role as rear guard became increasingly more and more important.
At first it was one cultist charging at him. He could handle that. Then it was two, a man and a woman. He took them down easily enough with only a bit of cover fire help from the Gunners. And then one of the cultists rounded the corner with a heavy MG. That was a problem.
"Get down!" Adam yelled to the Gunners as he watched the man quickly set the heavy MG down and begin to open fire.
The Gunners all did hit the deck as Adam ordered, however one of them was too slow and a bullet ripped through his shoulder, very nearly taking his arm clean off his torso.
Due to the way the Heavy MG was placed it actually was not able to aim down as well as the cultist would like. However a simple adjustment was all that was needed. Unfortunately for Adam the cultist had good cover. So while Adam's suppressing fire helped a bit, it did not solve the main issue.
Then Baxter came out of seemingly nowhere, walked up behind the guy, and blew the cultist's brains out with his service rifle. After he had done this he grinned at Adam and then stepped back into the doorway he came from to resume his own hunt. Adam didn't have time to think about that in the middle of all this insanity but he was very grateful Baxter had shown up when he did.
"The gunner is down! Rear clear!' Adam shouted to the others with him so they knew it was safe to move again.
"Lieutenant Paxton! Grab that MG!" Colonel Harrison yelled to one of his men, the lieutenant Adam had spoken with briefly back at Gunner HQ, who did as ordered and then ran to the gun, grabbed it with some effort, and then carried it back to the group.
One heavy machine gun added to the group, they all continued to advance forwards. Ever deeper into the Church.