Over a year ago, I posted the first part of the first major tank battle of the Arrakian Campaign. Here is the prelude to the battle.
Fountains of dirt erupted aroundthe front vehicles of the ork column. The leading battlewagon was disabled, though the turret was operational. Warbuggies and Wartrakks pass by to continue up the valley road. Buried mines activate and destroy them.
A silhouette of a turret was spotted over the top of a nearby hill as it rotated. It fired at a trukk close to the front. The resultant explosion send ork pieces and shrapnel flying in all directions. A nearby trukk had its tires shredded, and the blast pressure toppled it.
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"Scratch two ruskets," Lieutenant Taylor stated. While the driver and sponson operators cheered, the turret gunner loaded another AP shell. Taylor looked back through the periscope.
Fire and dirt obscured his view. The sound of the explosion drowned out all noise from inside the tank; even people talking over the headphone couldn't be heard. When his view was cleared, Taylor saw the main gun on the disabled battlewagon aimed at them.
"Gabby! Two-point-five degrees left, minus fifteen degrees azimuth." The hand-crank was used to rotate the turret and another adjust the vertical. Two beeps alerted Taylor it was ready to fire. He clicked the talk toggle in response. The recoil from the gun shook the entire tank.
Their target exploded with such that the turret flew off of the vehicle. Another trukk close by lost its driver when the barrel of the flying turret smashed into it. The battlewagon was engulfed in a fierce fire.
Shells rained down around their Leman Russ, the WyrmSlayer, but only a few came close to hitting. Battle cannons lobbed shots over from the hills on the other side of the highway. The orks tried to leave the way they came, but their retreat was blocked by the arrival of a company of Malcador Heavy Tanks. Leading them were the three Thunder Dragons' Predators.
A volley of fire launched from the flanking attack. Vehicles at the rear of the ork column were torn apart. This stopped the greenskins from moving. At the same time, Captain Kaga called in an airstrike. Marauder Bombers streaked in and unloaded their payload.
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Ork tanks that were destroyed pulled out to either side of the road. A Fire Prism rolled past the first line of hills on the tracks salvaged from a Baneblade. Prism Cannon aimed quickly and killed a Russ in one shot. After it cleared the way, buggies and trakks zoomed ahead.
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WyrmSlayer was already taking aim at the orkified tank. Signal gave, and the shot was fired. The shot went wide; slamming into the ground some ways away. "Ken, get us out of here," Taylor yelled.
Back in the periscope, the enemy moved behind while elevating its main gun to hit them in the rear. With a jerk, the tank ran towards the tank. Taylor's face bashed into the viewer. It happened again when the Russ impacted the Prism. An energy beam was heard firing overhead.
Things went tilted as the tank went forward and over the side of the hill.
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A round zoomed right below the main cannon of the Prism from behind. The Prism turned around; the Malcador was running full speed at it. An energy beam reached out; a sizable portion of the tread was blasted off. The rest of it fell off, halting the Malcador.
Its muzzle blasted another shell. The impact was against the side of the turret, but the shell bounced off and exploded some distance away. Another impact, and subsequent explosion, rocked the tank. But, the shot failed to penetrate the hull.
A second beam hit the underside of the Malcador's turret, and blasted it off. The vehicle was engulfed in flames. A second explosion soon tore apart the rest of it.
With that, the cannon on the Fire Prism rotated as the vehicle turned. A Leman Russ was backing out of its pit, and another shot came out. It struck the hill off to the side. The Prism retaliated with shots of its own. Multilas secondary guns shot off the front-mounted lascannon, while the main gun melted the gears for the treads.
Engines roared as it sped by the disabled enemy. The Prism ran over the burning husk of a warbuggy, and back onto the highway. Its turret tracked the movement of WrymSlayer up ahead. Two shots later, and the Leman Russ was set ablaze.
A woman hopped out of the cupola, and ran for cover. The multilas gunner ended her flight. At the bellowing of the Tank Nob, the vehicle roared on as its fastest speed.
It only stopped at the sight of a mighty Baneblade, Hammer Against The Horde. All weapons on the beast of a machine quickly trained on the Fire Prism and unleashed the barrage. The orks inside their looted tank never had a chance to return fire.
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The ambush of the ork armoured column worked out better than the Captain had planned. While the brunt of the greenskin's armoured might was stymied; it was not without great cost. Of the thirty Malcadors sent in to box the orks in, only twelve survived the attack. Fifty-four Leman Russes and over 600 Guardsmen lost their lives.
An estimated 180 ork vehicles and over 9,000 greenskins were killed.
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