Nessa Bourah
Nessa Bourah[3f] was a Verghastite Sniper of the Tanith First and Only regiment.[3a]
Biography
Verghast
Nessa was born in Vervunhive on the planet Verghast in 341.748.M41.[3f] A teenager by the time of the Sabbat Crusade's actions on Verghast[1a], she was a nurse-in-training when the fallen Hive Ferrozoica attacked Vervunhive.[1a][1b] Stationed in the outer habs, she managed to survive the Zoicans' initial artillery bombardment of the hive and, along with a number of other civilians, met up with a unit of the Vervun Primary led by Captain Olin Fencer.[1a]
Fencer recruited all of the able-bodied civilians he found to reinforce his company's defensive position, knowing that the Zoicans would lead an infantry advance. Nessa was placed in charge of a field hospital stocked with medical supplies from a bombed-out mine. When the Zoicans ceased the artillery fire and led their first infantry assault on Vervunhive, Fencer's company's position was overrun and Fencer himself was killed.[1a] The survivors, including Nessa, regrouped as a Scratch Company led by the miner Gol Kolea.[1b]
In the final stages of the Siege of Vervunhive, Kolea's scratch company was detailed by Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt to guide a force of Imperial Guardsmen through the hive to attack the enemy command vehicle and assassinate their leader.[1c]
At the conclusion of the war on Verghast, Vervunhive was reduced to ruins and planned to be demolished. Warmaster Macaroth issued an Act of Consolation, allowing any surviving Vervunhiver to sign up for the Astra Militarum and reinforce one of the Sabbat Crusade's regiments that had been sent to aid the hive.[1d] Kolea's scratch company all took the offer and were recruited into the Tanith First and Only, the legendary "Gaunt's Ghosts".[1d][2a]
Sabbat Worlds Crusade
As a Trooper in the Tanith First, Nessa had to overcome a number of obstacles - she was a Verghastite (and therefore a newcomer, seen by some of the Tanith as unworthy of being Ghosts) and a woman (prior to the Act of Consolation, the Tanith had been an all-male regiment).[2a] In addition she, like many of the other Verghastite recruits, was deaf due to exposure to the Zoican artillery bombardment and so had to make use of lip-reading and improvised sign language.[1b][2a] Despite this, Nessa was regarded as an excellent shot[1c][2a], with Captain Daur believing that she and a number of the other women of Verghast would one day challenge the Tanith's established expert snipers like Larkin and Rilke.[2a] She even managed to be one of the first Verghastites to be allowed to train for the regiment's marksmen corps.[2c]
On Hagia, the first theatre of the Sabbat Crusade that the regiment fought on after Verghast, the Tanith First were part of the assault on the Holy Doctrinopolis. Nessa was wounded by an Infardi cultist that shot her in the gut.[2a] She was left behind in the Doctrinopolis with the rest of the injured Tanith when Colonel-Commissar Gaunt was later ordered by Lord General Lugo to escort an honour guard to the Shrinehold of Saint Sabbat and retrieve the Saint's remains in preparation for the evacuation of Hagia. However Nessa's officer, Colonel Corbec, who was also among the wounded left in the city, had been experiencing visions of the Saint beckoning him to the Shrinehold. When Corbec decided to take a Chimera and follow the visions, Nessa was one of five Troopers who accompanied him on the journey.[2b]
By the time of the regiment's deployment on Phantine, Nessa had completed her specialised training and been officially inducted as a sniper.[3a] She was attached to Kolea's platoon prior to the assault on Cirenholm.[3b]
Later in the campaign she was selected personally by Gaunt as part of the Tanith component of Operation Larisel.[3c] Nessa, along with Doyl, Milo and the Skyborne Specialist Cardinale, were assigned to team Larisel 3 under Sergeant Adare.[3d][3e]
Trivia
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Nessa is the only one of the Tanith First to be consistently referred to by her first name as opposed to her surname.