The ground shakes as the first salvo of traitor shells land on our position, all across the vox are voices of different units and troopers scream into it asking for support or declaring their final stand. I quickly switch the vox to my unit's vox frequency, immediately I am at attention at the mention of my name. "Captain Reeves, do you copy? This is the Mauler, requesting orders, over" I reach for the transceiver switch on my neck "Mauler, stand by for company wide orders, over", she responds in kind "Yes, sir. Awaiting orders" Bit too eager, aren't ya Mauler? I think to myself.
I pop out the hatch of my Russ to take in the state of the unit once more, three Chimeras, two Devil Dogs, and the four Leman Russ tanks are all we have left after the depot was attacked. To be honest, out of the rest of the units, we were the lucky ones, well if you could even call us lucky. Looking past my unit I could see just a frakk ton of guard digging trenches and foxholes, and approaching from behind a few Rhinos transports from the Sisters of Battle troops that came to aid the planet a while back. I re-enter my tank and shut the hatch on the way in, I checked the time, and I held the transceiver button once more "Guard, we have been given a task that I wouldn't ask lightly of you if I wasn't sure we could win" I take a deep breathe before continuing "our orders are to blunt the incoming assault by these traitor forces" explosions outside rock the defenders, even from within the tank I could hear the panic and disarray happening, yet I continue "the likelihood of us dying, is quite bloody high. Regardless, let's give these traitor bastards a black eye they won't frakkin' forget!" the vox is suddenly filled with the cheers and jeers of my unit. I'm going to miss you frakkin bastards I thought to myself.
Shells continued to rattle the ground in front of us, even with the many vision slits and periscopes I had access to I couldn't make out a single thing more than beyond the ridge line ahead, but our time was up, we had our orders and we would fulfill them. "All tanks of the company," I said into my transceiver, took a glance at my crew once more, then continued "advance into the enemy line" a short pause as I took a deep breath "FOR THE EMPEROR!" I shout and my tank jolts forward with the fervor of a predator at the scent of blood. The rest of the company rumbled forth, I took a look through my periscope to see a line of tanks rumbling forward towards the enemy. We had moved about a hundred meters before the rain started falling, a hail of lasgun, autogun, and in some cases bolter fire rattled our company. The ringing from the rounds became such an annoyance I decided to just peek my head out, Can't see a frakkin' thing I thought to myself as I opened my hatch to see the ongoing battle.
I could see ahead several vehicles of different make and model, some I could recognize as former guard apc's, tanks, and other vehicles. "Gunner, fire the main cannon twelve o'clock, distance is about two-thousand meters" I say to my crew "Driver keep up the push and don't stop until I say so, as for the rest of you gunners, fire at will" the gunners don't waste time with a response, they fire everything we have onboard. I look to my left and see Mauler, a Devil Dog tank, its heavy meltas aim at an approaching enemy Chimera and open up, the offending Chimera is engulfed by molten plasma, even from more than a grenade's throw away I see the traitors crawling out of the burning hulk only to be blasted by nearby explosions or covered by the meltas again. I take a look behind me to see the status of the dismounted infantry in their trenches, to my surprise quite a few are coming up from the rear, the Rhinos from the sisters are also here and I find myself listening to hymns and litanies booming from them. I look ahead and I see that we're approaching the enemy lines now, five hundred meters, four hundred, then three. I quickly re-enter and close the hatch as I hail the vox again and say "All tanks, button up if you haven't already. Traitors are close by"
Hatches are then promptly shut and the tenser fighting begins, more shots rattle the tank and the visibility up close offered by my viewing devices are bad to say the least, despite this however I can already tell that we're coming up on the enemy defensive line due to the thick treeline ahead. We were already really close to the enemy as now the entire trenchline in front of us opened up with every manner of small arms imaginable, from large autocannons to small las pistols, they tried everything to desperately pierce the armor. However nothing gets through and when we start firing back everything gets quieter, to add the Chimeras dismounted their troops and started clearing the trench lines in front. All was going according to plan and behind us, troopers were following across no-mans-land on foot or in troop transports.
Our respite was short lived however as a wave of artillery started hitting the ground around us and in the distance I could see the traitors running towards us. The guard and sisters who just dismounted either rushed right back in, or went for the trench line we just cleared. Needless to say the barrage hit many of the dismounted troops, gravely wound the the few bastards that were too close, we in the tanks fared slightly better but that sentiment didn't last long, as I look to my right I see a Chimaera burst into flames as an artillery hit the front plate and absolutely tear a hole into it before the powerpack ignited and flames spewed from the breach in the fighting compartment. The troops in the trenches weren't doing so well either, the traitors must have sighted their own trenches beforehand as the shells started falling straight into some of the trenches, killing the sods looking for cover. As the barrage started to let a up, a wave of troops could be seen pushing from deep within the forest, I tensed up for a brief moment, utterly bewildered by the sight, my hull gunners however didn't seem to share the sentiment and I was snapped out of my trance by the hull and sponson heavy bolters opening up at the approaching enemy, I reached for my vox and shouted "All tanks, fire at will against these traitors! Give them no ground!" the ground shakes once more as the concussive force of the tanks open up, the troops in the trenches stick their heads out in kind and start shooting as well. This goes on for a few minutes, the longest minutes I've felt in a while, eventually silence surrounds us as whatever remains of the enemy retreated.
I stick out of my hatch to survey the damage, anyone who wasn't in a trench is now dead and gone, pounded into the ground around us. I take a look at the troops and sure enough they're as hearty as they could be after surviving an onslaught, my gunner voxes and says "Lucky frakkin' bastards, ey commander?" he says laughing. If not for his laughing I wouldn't have noticed the deafening silence that now engulfs the battlefield looks like they pulled back, I notice something move in the distance say for one, I reach for my laspistol but the hull gunner sees what I see and fires a burst into the final fleeing enemy, the shells pierces the back and blows out the front of the traitor's chest. "Right lads," I say "I'm gettin' a souvenir, anyone want to come?" The crew decline as they slump onto their chairs while some just exit the tank and sit on the outside. I reach up and out of the hatch then jump to the ground and begin walking. As I walk through the trenches I see medics and hospitallers round up the wounded on stretchers, I even catch a glimpse of the sisters' Rhino leaving the battlefield with wounded troops all over it, I arrive at the body and take out my knife and begin to cut a finger off one of the fallen traitors. That's when I see it, a cloaked figure clutching his wounds in one hand, a medallion in another and-
I shoot him with my laspistol, he drops to the ground clutching a laspistol in his third hand. I walk over to the body and ensure it's dead by running my knife through its skull and just as quickly pulling out its serrated blade, a thick purple substance spills out as now I wipe my knife on the cloak of the dead traitor. I reach for the medallion being clutched by whatever this thing is, its logo has a golden sheen to it similar to an aquila, however the symbol itself is that of a small beast in a crescent shape with sharp teeth and a bony spine. I stuff it in my pocket and walk back to my tank. As I arrive the gunner greets me, "Find anything interesting, Captain?" I shrug "All I found was a medallion, probably was an aquila, different symbol though", the driver hears this and shakes his head "Frakkin bastards couldn't keep their hands off defacing an aquila, makes them a heretic and a traitor" the gunner responds "Wait, so does that mean we call em traitors or heretics?" The driver shrugs, the sponson gunner answers however "Traitorous heretics, heretical traitors, call em what you like I just end up shooting all of the bastards anyhow" the crew chuckles for a moment as I re-enter the tank and put on my comms equipment, as the static dissipates a voice speaks, "Captain Reeves, do you copy?" I responded "Yes Colonel, receiving you loud and clear". It was Colonel Asera, head of the 65th Vilvex Tank Regiment, my regiment. "Are you done with the mopping up, Reeves?" She says "if you are, RTB and report to my office for an immediate debriefing" "Yes, ma'am" I reply as I switch the vox channels, "Alright lads, all tanks we are RTB" I say, the other tanks vox back and we start driving back.
As we arrive back to our field HQ I can see the Colonel standing outside her tent as we approach, she's dressed in our usual regiment colors, that being a full tan colored uniform complete with coat and officer's cap, the only things that weren't tan was the black belt and silver buckle adorned with a gold colored aquila, and the red stripe that wraps around the officer's cap. As soon as the tanks are parked and shut off I hop out and walk towards her tent, the guards salute as I enter. The Colonel is sitting at her desk now, holding a dataslate with a few pieces of paper on her desk as well. She motions for me to sit and I reply "Ma'am" before sitting down. She looks meticulously at both dataslate and paper before sighing and says "Alright let's start, how did today's attack go?" She's not even looking up from the dataslate as she speaks, I respond "We took a few casualties, a Chimera and a Russ is out of the fight", she looks up from her dataslates at me now "Which ones?" she asks, "Vindicated and Roller were destroyed, one was hit by an artillery shell and the other by an enemy counterattack once we stormed the line", Asera sighed and said "Noted on both, bastards the lot of them" I raise an eyebrow and ask "The tanks, ma'am?" She slams the desk and says "Of course not, I meant the damn traitors! And can it with that 'ma'am' crap at least in person, we've been on the firing line long enough for formalities"
"Did you find anything interesting?" She asks "I knew you'd be trophy picking but I also heard there was a commotion about it" I nodded and reached in my pocket then placed the medallion on the table "Medallion some kind, reckoned it was an aquila before, y'know, this" she takes the medallion and takes a long look at it before frantically browsing the dataslate for information, "Something familiar?" I ask, she nods and after looking through the dataslate she hands it to me and says "Knew it, genestealer cults", one look at the dataslate confirms what she says and I see the same logo as the medallion on the screen as I read about the cults, "so we've been in deep shit for, what's it been, two years?" I ask, Asera nods her head "Seems like it yeah, an inquisitor dropped this on me only a few months ago, though I'm certain the men already had their assumptions", "That explains the heavy flamer and melta squads, anyways was that all, Asera? I'm certain all the information about the battle is on my report"
She shakes her head "There's more, Reeves. I've got an important assignment for you, involves me as well" as soon as I hear it's involving Asera I immediately ask "Is it that desperate?", she shakes her head "It's not desperate, but if we do this the war will end quicker than we could hope" I sit up and listen intently as Asera begins, "We have orders to destroy a few heavy anti-air emplacements near hive Hexon, as you're probably well aware the rats swarm that place like hell and it's deep behind enemy lines" I nod and ask "What exactly do we achieve by knocking out the air defenses?" Asera shrugs, "No clue personally, but the higher ups say they've had a plan cooking up for at least two months about a decisive strike at Hexon, something about special forces", Must be Scions I think to myself, Asera continues "Anyways that's it, knock out the anti-air and get the hell out, several other tank and even air regiments are being pulled from different fronts to partake in this operation, needless to say this will be crucial" I nod then ask "Hexon is deep behind enemy lines, what happens if we get surrounded?". Asera looks me in the eye and with a grim look she says "Then we fight to get out or take as many of them with us" I stand there shocked, this was uncharacteristic of her, I don't get another moment to think however as she states plainly "I don't like sending my men out there to die, but these are direct orders so I'm going with you all, just to assure the men I don't make this decision lightly" she looks at me, with a sorrowful expression "you understand, right?" I nod.
I brace myself as I ask "What exactly are our odds of coming out alive?", Asera looks down for what feels like an eternity before looking up and saying "Officially it's a high risk mission, unofficially it's a suicide mission" as she finishes she slumps in her chair "We leave at 0800 two days from now, until then get some rest", I salute her and leave the tent.
(Just a heads up, I will now be adding a chapter name to future chapters, thinking of adding them to the two previous ones as well, we'll see!)