Blessings of uncertainty

Chapter 3.5: Gunpowder and Promethium

The tanks rumble forward and quickly rush to their own platoon formations as we charge towards the enemy positions, it takes a second for the enemy to notice us but once they do we are set upon by a furious barrage once more, no orders needed to be given as all of the tanks open fire in retaliation against the defenders. Shots ring out as the support artillery in the rear open up, the mortar shells making a distinctive noise as they fly over before detonating in the enemy lines. For the first minute of the assault we seem invincible, shots were landing but none were damaging anything vital, that was quick to change as now the lascannon turrets mounted in the anti-air emplacement aims downwards and hits a few of our tanks, the damage is less than lethal to some, however to the more lighter targets they prove more than a match, a concentrated volley hits a Chimera, it bursts into flames with the crew and infantry disembarking only to scramble for cover as the rest of the row presses forwards. From behind I can hear a low rumble, it starts off subtle but as it gets closer it becomes clear, a flight of Vendetta heavy gunships roar towards the enemy lines to strike at the enemy, they hit the enemy at blistering speeds and circle a few times while we continue or charge towards the defenses, the enemy seems to have taken notice now as fire is now directed towards the Vendettas as one is shot down almost instantly, the remaining Vendettas immediately start making evasive maneuvers as small arms fire almost all directly points upwards, a further two more are shot down before the rest of the flight deplete their munitions and retreat back to friendly lines, however in the process one more gets shot down, it is not for nothing however as our tanks smash through the crippled lines and arrive at the base of the large structure that is the anti-air emplacement.

The engineers and infantry disembark, they flank the main entrance to the emplacement which was reinforced haphazardly with visible bits of flak armor plates welded to the door, the engineers try to make proper calculations to break the door down before hearing "MAKE ROOM YA BASTARDS!" A booming voice from the vox, it's Mauler. The troops stand aside as Mauler's heavy meltas melt cut through the door like a power sword through flesh, as it melts a few Rhinos arrive and dismount the sisters inside as they rush towards the freshly melted door, clad in their powered armor they enter first and the rest follow soon after. After dismounting their troops, the Rhinos join the defensive line of steel around the main entrance in a broken but layered semi circle like formation around the entrance, all the tanks are constantly moving as sitting still makes us a bigger target. I beckon orders to my crew, "Driver maintain current movement pattern, gunners shoot everything we have and try to at least limit the amount of friendly fire, and loader hand me my autogun!" The crew do as they're told and the loader hands me my autogun, I pop open and stick out of my hatch just enough to start shooting. The battlefield is a bloodbath, corpses litter the ground around us, some of the Devildogs are overextending back to the hill to keep the infantry from assaulting the support unit, and the rest move in sporadic patterns across the craters and trench lines. I spot a unit of what appear to be infantry approaching, I steady my autogun as much as I can and fire a burst towards, the bullets land but some are unphased, they reveal from under a cloak what appears to be an old school rotary grenade launcher, it fires a few shells at us for minimal effect, I was going to shoot in retaliation but then the sponson guns light up with a thunderous rage and tear the bastards to pieces, a round seems to have hit the shells on its belt as they explode in fantastical fire. The battle goes on for half an hour or so before we see large movement on the horizon, dozens of trucks and mining vehicles approach with traitors even hanging off from it, for a moment the tanks bring all guns to bear but that's when we hear it, a deafening noise is heard coming from behind us Are those, hymns? I think to myself, indeed they were as the Rhinos with the mounted organs start playing at deafening volumes, and from the pipes of the organs come missiles which bear down on the approaching trucks and vehicles, as quickly as we spotted them they were engulfed in a fireball of explosions with only some escaping and continually barreling towards us, our tanks open fire and pick off most of them, some of the vehicles however managed to ram a few tanks to devastating effect, some had their traitor infantry exit their vehicles and climb on the tanks they rammed into and tried to violently make their way into the fighting compartments of the tank, others upon ramming the tanks detonated disabling or even destroying the tanks outright. By the end of their mechanized assault we were left with twenty eight tanks out of the forty we had in the regiment, of note two Baneblades of the command squad and one new Rogal Dorn were utterly destroyed, one by a direct hit from an artillery shell previously and the others by the most recent charge.