The day finally arrives, for the past two days I spent that time briefing my unit and wrapping up any loose ends, this was definitely a suicide mission and everyone knew it. We mounted and started our tanks in silent, the infantry got in the transports and a voice came over the vox, "Attention all, this is Colonel Asera speaking," the crew tenses up as she speaks "we are about to embark upon what will most likely be the most dangerous operation yet" the tanks rumble forward with Vilvex's Strength, Asera's personal Baneblade tank, taking the lead "I know some of you have doubts, however with our strength we shall persevere", for this operation she rallied the entire regiment consisting of forty tanks, with five main tank platoons and one command platoon for herself, Asera continues "Vilvex yearns for liberation against these traitors, and I see no reason why the sons and daughters of Vilvex shouldn't be the ones to take part in this large scale strike" I lean out of my hatch as I watch us pass a checkpoint while Asera continues "We shall crust these traitors under the treads of our tanks, and once we knock out their air defenses I have been promised that they will be razed to the ground with the same fire and fury we have been showing them for the past two years of their pathetic attempt, from the first rebels to those we have killed just this past week, they will falter!", as her speech ends a roar of jeers and cheers are heard over the vox, looking behind I notice a convoy of several sister Rhinos tailing behind, it seems they're partaking in this operation as well. As we pass by the final checkpoint and enter territory not directly under our control I enter my tank and shut the hatch, This is going to be a long day
I space out as we continue moving through hostile territory, ever since the final checkpoint the entire regiment has maintained radio silence, even so it is anything but quiet as salvos from artillery is heard in the distance, I check the chronometer and it displays "1242H LCL TME", we've been on the road for almost five hours now and have not encountered any resistance, unsurprising as the path we are on was cleared weeks ago and sensors placed to determine the safety just far enough for the battle to begin. As we approach a horizon, all barren from the constant artillery we hear it, the sound of the heavy planetary anti-air artillery firing from the distance, as we approach a slope that leads down the ridge towards an open field where the large structure of the anti-air emplacement is housed, we take cover behind a small hill and the convoy stops as the line faces perpendicular to the hill and thus the anti-air gun, the vox cackles to life once more with a much more serious and somber tone from Colonel Asera "Attention all, this is it. Just beyond the hill to our right is an open field that leads straight towards the battery's housing, it has been heavily reinforced and entrenched as you are all likely aware of" I pop out of my hatch to get a good view of the line, sure enough there stands our entire regiment's strength of tanks, with support artillery and mortars disembarking to set up positions for a fallback location. The sisters' Rhinos are here as well, a closer look at the ones at the back reveals Hang on, is that an organ on the back of those Rhinos? I don't get much time to think as Asera continues "all we need to do is get the engineers to the gun and get out, alternatively we hit the gun with all of our firepower up close, but let's stick to the main plan" I spot Asera sticking out the top of the Vilvex's Strength, eyeing the entire line from the front, "I trust that all of you have said your prayers, the eyes of the Emperor are upon us this day. Now then, all tanks, right face!" As she says that all the tanks in line face the hill, Asera takes a good look at the row of tanks before facing the support staff, the chief of the support staff having set up the fallback points and mortars now gives two thumbs up to signal his readiness. Asera speaks "All tanks, button up" any crew member hanging around on the outside of their hatches all promptly re-enter and lock hatches upon entering, I follow suite as Asera states finally, "All tanks, maintain formation and charge the enemy," a short pause ensues before in a deafening boom "FOR THE EMPEROR, FOR VILVEX!"
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.
A loud explosion is heard coming from the emplacement and smoke bellows from the top of its impregnable structure The bastards did it! I think to myself, the remaining Chimeras and Rhinos return to the entrance to pick up the dismounted units, as they arrive however a shot lands on a Rhino destroying it almost instantly, recon reported no such heavy guns except for the artillery being present, even so everyone could tell that was a shot from something on the same level as us and not some blind artillery luck, I glance over my shoulder, my autogun completely depleted to see one of our Rogal Dorn tanks point straight at the destroyed Rhino, it had stopped after being rammed by a mining vehicle and seemingly had its hatches torn off, another shot rings out from the main cannon and this time it hits a Leman Russ for similar effect, it was clear to all that the Dorn was being crewed by the traitors, and thus the vox sprang to life once more as Asera's voice boomed, "All tanks, destroy that Rogal Dorn! It has been co-opted by the enemy!" As she said that's flash of several salvos hit the tank, to the design's credit it took the beating and fired back, managing to destroy three more tanks, now we were left with only twenty five left. The remaining troops finished embarking, the dead left behind in the burning wreck that was the anti-air emplacement, as we began to head back more shots rang out in the distance with deadly accuracy, it hit a further four tanks and immobilizing three, in the distance we could now clearly see what was hitting us, a handful of Basilisks were now present in the ridge line, having shelled us indirectly they were now shooting through line of sight, they decimated more and more with each shot, I order my gunners to target the Basilisk when.
A deafening blast fills my ears as I am lunged forward by the sudden stop of my tank, I land on the ground, headfirst into a sea of charred and crushed corpses, I lay both my hands on the ground to regain stability before looking behind me to assess the damage. My tank was burning, a large hole on the side of the tank evident by the blazing inferno seeping out of it, I lay there in disbelief of what I saw, I look around to see similar scenes, with both sisters and guard running away from the fires and towards the hill, I look behind me again in horror as more traitors unending in their zeal approach and overwhelm lone soldiers, not even the sisters stand a chance as their red colored silhouette gets overwhelmed by a sea of dark rags or purple ichor, I stand finally regaining my composure as I take a good long look at my surroundings, I see Mauler in the distance, it's distinctive Grox skull decal on the rear making it as noticeable amid the sea of wrecks, they're charging the Basilisks from the side covering two of them with a large dose of promethium. I take out my laspistol and begin firing at the oncoming hordes, I notice a guardsman struggling in melee against one of the traitors so I rush over there and knock the traitor on the ground before shooting it in the head with my laspistol, "Thanks, almost lost my bloody head there" the guardsman says, I stand next to him and begin laying supporting fire as we cover the retreat of guard and sisters still too close to the waves of traitors, "What's your name?" I shout, while shots fly overhead, "Krav! Name's Krav!", I reply "Good to meet you Krav, name's Reeves". A strong gust of wind washes over us as we hear aircraft fly over us, I look up to see two Valkyrie transports fly in, me and Krav are relieved at the sight of these fine birds. As they touch down and the doors open and ogryn descended started attacking the retreating troops, relief turned into fear as now with most of the tank support reaching the hill, those of us who remained closer to the emplacement are now boxed in by the tides of traitors and the corrupted ogryns as well, a voice shouted among the deafening sounds of battle "FOR THE EMPEROR!", the rally cry brought some into a frenzy as we all frantically charged the ogryn. Krav shouts"Look out!" As an ogryn hand swats me onto the ground knocking my head upon a hard rock.
My vision goes blurry and I lay there, I see Krav run up to me and say something, I can't hear him, I don't know why. I look down at my hands, Is that... blood? Krav shakes me even more, time seems to have slowed as I watch in the distance ogryns with maces smash into the sisters' power armor, others have pulled their grenade pins and charged the traitors, all the while tanks continue on their retreat and pass us by, guardsmen trying desperately to grab onto them with some even being crushed by our own tanks, I look up in despair Emperor, please come for us, I pray in silence. As I blink I see movement in the skies, at first it was small, like a piece of debris blown from the ground, but the closer it came I saw that it was a fireball heading straight towards us. I close my eyes and prepare for the worst. It lands in the distance in front of me, right in front of a swarm of traitors, a panel bursts outwards towards the traitors and large machine makes its way out of whatever just landed, it's hull decorated with purity seals and on its back a mark of the Adeptus Mechanicus, before it turned around I catch a glimpse of text on the body of this hulking behemoth that appears, on a maroon colored cloth on the center of its hull, the text itself white, reads "Erik". As it turns to face the traitors a booming voice comes from the behemoth "No Pity! No Remorse!-" as its plasma cannon begins to glow a bright teal "-NO FEAR!" As it fires a shot into the wave, absolutely obliterating anything that was standing before it.