Author Notes:
I say, this new GSS chapter was actually darn fun to write. So I hope you all good people have fun reading it as well!
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The Regalia Dorn rumbles forward, crushing the corpses of expired heretics before crashing through a thick plascrete wall. Yet, this is not a Loyalist Regalia Dorn, painted in the Cadia-pattern camouflage scheme. No, this is an unfortunate Battle Tank that the cultists of the Cult of Tzeentch corrupted. This Regalia Dorn is splattered with the unholy marking of the Changer of Ways and the god awful dirtied blue livery. The paint scheme twisted what was once a proud defender of humanity into some abhorrent mechanical monstrosity.
After deploying yet another round of smoke grenades and activating what can only be described as an attempt at making an engine smoke exhaust system, the cultists crewing the corrupted Regalia Dorn are surprised to see that someone hasn't bothered to shoot them yet. In confusion, the Battle Tank commander references his map, only to confirm that the Regalia Dorn has already arrived in front of the worshippers of the Corpse Emperor's position. Having been bombarded the entire way to this very spot, it's unbelievable that the Cadians will abandon the position they have fought so hard for now. Yet, even when he peers through the commander's optic, the heretic can only spot the surviving cultists from the earlier attack waves crowding his Regalia Dorn. Seeing the fearful cultists hanging about his prized armored fist, the tank commander sneered in disdain. He refuses to believe that this cannon fodder was enough to beat the fear of the Lord of Fate into the ignorant Cadians.
Popping out of his tank's hatch, the heretic commander then points at the nearest cultist, who is kneeling in prayer near the Regalia Dorn's Tzeentch iconography.
"You, yeah you! Get on the Heavy Stubber back here! The rest of you, form up around the tank! We must investigate that Cadian position ahead!"
"B-But we already lost so much there..." A frightened cultist answers, casting a hesitant glance in the direction of the stubborn Cadian 8th defense line.
"Are you more afraid of this blessed icon here or the fools up ahead!?" The heretic tank commander barks in annoyance. As if to emphasize his point, the engine of the Regalia Dorn lets out a low, menacing growl.
Gulping, the hesitating cultist takes a few steps back before falling into formation around the blue Regalia Dorn. The heretic commander lets out yet another derisive huff as the newly designated anti-aircraft gunner of the Regalia Dorn takes control of the pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber.
"Ehm... Sir..." The cultist holding the Heavy Stubber reports in a nervous manner. "The firing mechanism for this gun is melted..."
The tank commander turns around, nearly blowing his top if not for seeing the very obvious melted furniture of the pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber. Breathing rapidly, the heretic tank commander barely keeps his anger in check. "Then stay up there and use whatever weapon you have to cover your... Friends."
"Sir..." The cultist scratches his messy head; the eyes behind the beak-face mask display an obvious sense of embarrassment. "I only have my club..."
The cultist then raises the club he has left hanging on his hip... Which is already destroyed, nearly down to its handle. Seeing that, the heretic tank commander nearly pulls out his autogun and shoots the cultist in the head. Instead, he takes a big calming breath before giving the unfortunate sod his sidearm. Afterward, the tank commander ignores the cultist's grateful glance before slamming the roof of the Regalia Dorn's turret a few times. Then, the corrupted Battle Tank lurches forward, bringing with it a sizeable group of battered cultists, enough to fill two full Platoons. However, the escorting cultists' effectiveness is doubtful, with almost half of them bringing makeshift melee weapons instead of anything with a bit of reach. Other than being meat shields against close-quarter ambush, the cultists can be counted on to do nothing against the elite Cadians. It's up to the heretic tank commander and his Regalia Dorn to blow them all up, now that the pesky Aeronautica Imperialis is not here to bother him. Indeed, those Avengers must have foolishly expended all of their ordinances in futility, trying to get through Regalia Dorn's armor.
Due to the low visibility of his constantly deploying smoke screen, the heretic tank commander must rely on his dataslate, which is connected to the local command network, to update himself on the Battle Tank's position in real-time. From his vantage point, the heretic tank commander can barely see ten meters in front of the Regalia Dorn. The worst can be said for the Battle Tank's driver, who is stuck with a vision slit that can barely see anything at all. This has left the Regalia Dorn bumping into the numerous wrecks and rubble on the way to the Cadians' position. Fortunately, the bulk and sheer horsepower of the corrupted Regalia Dorn mean that it can crush almost anything beneath its tread, despite the less-than-ideal way it was serviced before this battle. Yet, as they get closer and closer to the blinking red dot on the dataslate, what greets the heretic tank commander and the cultists around him is nothing but silence... And the countless corpses of fellow worshippers of the Master of Fortune.
As the tracks of the Regalia Dorn turn yet another broken corpse of a cultist into mush, the heretic tank commander finally lays his eyes on the seemingly derelict Cadian defense line, barely a stone's throw away. Even with all the smoke and blood, the traitors can still make out the discernible white stripes running down the helmets of some of the wasted Cadians.
"Ha... Haha... Hahaha!"
"W-We won!"
"We beat back those unenlightened apes!"
After a great many losses, the cultists escorting the Regalia Dorn raise their arms and weapons in wild cheering when they finally see the Cadians have tucked their tails and run. Yet, is it so easy? Having been subjected to the near-unending pursuit of the Aeronautica Imperialis, the heretic tank commander doesn't think that this battle is so swimmingly won. Installation 08 is now a clear hotbed of heretical activities, perhaps the biggest thorn to the Imperium on this side of the universe. Even if this site is seemingly theirs right now, the human traitors will no doubt have to fight for their very lives, very soon. After all, Cadia will never tolerate such an obvious breeding ground for Chaos in the Materium. It will be a major weakness to be exploited by a future Dark Crusade if not dealt with.
Perhaps it's because of his paranoia or the thirst to dedicate a victory in exchange for more of the Lord's favor, the heretic tank commander remains calm enough to analyze the surroundings. He then barely catches on to something weird in one of the nearby buildings. The structure is already half-bombed to collapse, looking already unstable, with Cadian corpses visible in some places. Yet, is that a blue glow somewhere deeper in the building's ruined interior, or is it just a trick of the light? The heretic tank commander can barely utter the first syllable of a command to the cheering cultists when he is interrupted by a very, very familiar screech reverberating through the smoke clouds.
"Avenger!" The heretic tank commander changes from a command to a warning shout before unhesitatingly flops back inside the turret, with a hand pulling the hatch tightly shut.
Ignoring the surrounding cultists' confusion, the heretic tank commander orders the driver to move anywhere but here. His decision, while being the right call to make, comes a bit late. Before the corrupted Regalia Dorn can speed up to a reasonable escape velocity, the pair of Avengers from before has already homed in on the avenue the Battle Tank traversed. Even though they don't have a visual on the Regalia Dorn due to the smoke cloud, the Aeronautica Imperialis pilots can still strafe a straight line just fine.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTT
The first Avenger tears through Regalia Dorn's obfuscation smoke screen with its Avenger Bolt Cannon, nearly dissipating it all in one go. The numerous bolt shells eviscerate the cultists escorting the Regalia Dorn before hitting the Battle Tank directly on the upper front plates. However, because the Avenger has been unable to pinpoint the corrupted armored fighting vehicle, not enough bolt shells have hit the Regalia Dorn to disable it fully. Instead, only the vehicle's hull-mounted Castigator Gatling Cannon is destroyed, its multiple barrels shot out by a bolt shell, while the upper plating remains remarkably durable with only some cracks here and there. Still, the heretical tank crew will be wrong to think they have weathered the worst.
Now that the smoke screen is dissipated by the first Avenger's strafing and its low, high-speed flyby, the second Avenger immediately moves into an attack vector. With the visage of the corrupted Regalia Dorn made visible, the second Avenger has but a brief moment to strike before it redeploys its smoke screen and runs away once more. Aligning the targeting scope on the hateful heretics, the pilot of the second Avenger carefully pulls the trigger, sending out not just a hail of bolt shells but also two bright beams from the aircraft's two Lascannons. The two beams strike true, albeit slightly to the right side of the Battle Tank. They do, however, completely destroy the Regalia Dorn's right-side twin-linked Heavy Bolters and track. The multiple bolt shells further add insult to the injury by cracking one of the Battle Tank's Battle Cannons and killing its driver by penetrating through the vision slit. Afterward, the second Avenger rattles the surroundings by flying low and fast to the ground, its screaming engines signal to the hiding Cadian 8th that it's time to spring the second stage of the ambush.
"Let's kick some asses, Cadians!" Comes the battle cry of Sergeant Johnson, who springs out from amid the corpses of fellow Cadians. It's Johnson who fires the first laser that kills a cultist lucky enough to survive two strafing runs.
Then, as if bats outta hell, the rest of 3rd Platoon appears from their chosen hiding, wielding their top-of-the-line service weapons with deadly finesse. Remnants of their allied Echelon join in as well, charging down bombed alleyways in a flanking maneuver in the same manner the cultists had been doing in earlier engagements. Accompanying the battered-but-not-yet-destroyed Echelon is the Hunter-Killer Armored Sentinels Platoon. The suddenness and the sheer, immediate firepower coming from the side have taken the crew of the Regalia Dorn off guard, and the last of its weapon sponsons are immediately disabled by a Lascannon beam. Before the heretic tank commander can direct the only remaining Battle Cannon to the 9 o'clock position to take out the Cadian Armored Sentinels, Scorpin's Special Weapon Squad, who have been hiding inside the building the commander found suspicious, they unleash their anti-tank weapons. A ball of blue plasma impacts squarely between the Battle Tank's two Battle Cannons. While it may not be enough to knock out the tank's last Battle Cannon, the volatile plasma is more than enough to completely destroy the gunner's primary targeting sight. With no other recourse, the heretic tank gunner is forced to use the back-up sight, which is mounted on a very unfavorable location that is to the far left of the tank's turret. In desperation, the tank's remaining Battle Cannon and hull-mounted Heavy Bolters roar to life, the latter more wildly than the former. Yet, either out of inexperience with using the offset back-up sight or because the targeted Armored Sentinel is much too nimble and swift, it sidestepped to narrowly dodge the shot, the heretic tank gunner failed to score a kill. Out of rage, his tank commander curses him aplenty for such a costly mistake now. While it's not solely the gunner's fault for making such a faulty shot, it is, however, the very last mistake he will make.
Before the next round can be fully rammed into the chamber of the Battle Cannon, Scorpin's Squad fires a single Krak missile in the direction of the tank, having noticed it lacks any sort of active protection system. The Krak missile is launched out of the tube, reorienting itself straight up, before igniting its booster. Moments later, it flies down from heaven before impacting the roof of the Regalia Dorn and detonating in a major, merciless blast that temporarily blocks the view of everyone. When the black plume is clear, the Battle Tank has ceased any activity, save for its sputtering engine. The corrupted Regalia Dorn has long since lost its heretical livery, replaced by cracks and scorch marks all over its armor. Its mighty Battle Cannons, one exploded in a conical fashion while the other lowered limply near the destroyed Castigator Gatling Cannon. Black, cracking smoke and embers escape from the tank's sponsons, while the roof of the armored behemoth has a noticeable caved-in area, damage left behind by the Krak missile. The hull-mounted Heavy Bolters that tried to target Sergeant Johnson's unit, which is on the same street level, fall silent with white smoke wafting out of the overheated barrels. They didn't even manage to hit anything properly, owing to their limited traverse.
After a brief moment of silence, the Vox-link comes alive with Ein's cheerful tone.
"Well, I'll be damn. It's been a while since you boys and girls finished a boss fight without my active participation."
Johnson, who is lighting a cigarette in the bloodied trench, smirks. "Oh, spare the MVP spot to us grunts sometimes, won't ya girlie?"