Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 95
General Vanderspeak checked his pict-screens once again, measuring the remaining distance. Adamantine Spear's engine was silent, the command suite running off reserve capacitors. Oxygen was limited outside, there was not enough to sustain a thousand idling engines and the sapper crews, so the Land Leviathans waited in silence, buried alive in the deep tunnel, adopting their namesake entirely.
Vanderspeak glanced at the digging crews as they hauled back the tunnelling machines. A long slope had they dug from the deep earthworks, taking three kilometres to rise to the surface. Carefully they had excavated an exit behind the Terran's lines, all that remained was to blow the last few hundred metres of dirt away. Reinforced braces supported a tunnel thrice as wide as the Hellhammer, air exchangers working tirelessly to purify the atmosphere. Even so it was damned hot in the armoured superheavy, he couldn't imagine what it was like for the soldiers packed into the Crassus transports behind but then most of them wouldn't live to see the end of the day anyway.
Three hundred thousand Tellarites squatted in the long tunnel, or waited to enter, a spearhead larger than any he'd commanded in a single action. They would burst out of the ground deep behind the Terran lines, rampaging freely. With the God-Emperor's blessings they would wreak havoc and at the same time the Tellarites would surge forward across the entire front, overwhelming the trenches at every point. It would be a stunning victory, or a catastrophic defeat, perhaps one that would end the war.
Vanderspeak would never say it out loud but he'd seen the reports. By conservative estimates half a million men died every day on the front line, gassed, burned, shelled, shot or cut down in the endless sorties and counter-sorties that fought over the same patches of mud day in and day out. Tellaris' hives were many and densely populated, but how long could they go on feeding their young into the grinder of war? How many more years could they sustain this rebellion before their vitality was spent? Terra had endless amounts of planets to draw upon, they could keep throwing bodies at the razorwire till the Tellarites drowned in blood. Unless someone daring and bold managed to break the deadlock the rebellion was doomed, that was why Severcole commanded from the front, where he might make a real difference.
The digging crews raced back, crowding into reinforced blast bunkers buried into the walls. Seconds later a red glow poured through the armourglass slits ringing Vanderspeak's head. Melta-bombs, set at the far end of the tunnel, blasting away the last few hundred metres of dirt. Vicious gases and vaporised stone had nowhere to go but back into the tunnel and a plume of steam and debris washed over the tanks. The light dimmed as the Hellhammer was coated in superheated grit and the air grew even worse. The pressure wave became a tornado, ripping open one of the bunkers and leaving the diggers to die screaming as they were boiled alive, but it was impossible to help them, to exit the tank was to die.
Suddenly the blast fell silent and a faint light glowed ahead, they'd done it, the far end of the tunnel was open. Air exchangers squealed as they cleaned the air, feeding precious oxygen into the waiting engines. With a roar to shake the bones of a sleeping giant the Tellarites started their machines, stirring the engines with invocations of war upon their lips. In every transport hands gripped lasguns tight, eager for the conflict to come.
Vanderspeak hit a vox-rune, "Awaken Land Leviathans! This is our world, this is our day! Forward as directed and let no man stop you. For the God-Emperor: Tellaris Triumphant!" Adamantine Spear was the first to move, massive treads spinning as the tank began to climb the ramp. To the right was the Baneblade Lance of Righteous Truth, to the left was the Stormlord Gorgon's Eye, driving forward as a wedge of impenetrable armour. The wave behind waited thirty seconds, then they set off, followed thirty seconds later by the wave after them, six abreast, Crassus transports rumbling forward as one. They rode fast, but the slope was long and the exit far away, even at top speed it would take minutes to exit the deep tunnel, Vanderspeak could only trust the Terrans were reeling, baffled by the sudden explosion erupting beneath their feet.
"Ready all weapons," Vanderspeak informed the crew.
"We're locked and loaded," Gun-captain Haldrist called.
"Processional moving as directed," Baratel reported.
"We hit them hard, clear the exit zone and spread out, nothing slows us down," Vanderspeak commanded.
"Without void cover we're sitting ducks for Terran artillery," Laval grumbled.
"We couldn't bring Colossi down here, but the offensive will keep the Terran's artillery occupied. The God-Emperor will be our shield!"
A dot of light ahead signalled the end of the tunnel. Vanderspeak checked his inferno pistol one last time, wondering if he would use it this day. No more time for worry, the light of the tunnel was filling the vision slits, all the General could do was watch the pict-screens intently as they burst into the light of day. A scene of hell awaited them, blasted earth and raging fires. The melta-bombs had done their work all too well, turning a patch of earth into a miniature volcano. Bodies lay everywhere, charred black and dissolving in puddles of molten rock. Tents burned as they collapsed upon trapped men, smothering them in cocoons of fire. Smoke obscured vision in all directions but Adamantine Spear's auspex picked up saviour teams racing towards the devastation, bringing suppression foam, they thought it was an accident, how little they knew.
Adamantine Spear was the first to break into the light of day, surging out of the steaming crater with boiling mud flying from its tracks. Heavy bolters were already firing, reaping crowds of would-be rescuers before they understood what was happening. The entire cabin jolted hard as the front tracks slammed down, crushing wounded men under broad plates, driving over confused human beings with all the consideration of a man stepping on a bug. Then the Hellhammer cannon fired, sending a high-explosive shell deeper into the camp and spreading the misery further.
Adamantine Spear drove forward, every weapon thundering. They fired blindly but it didn't matter, they were deep in the Terran's rear ranks and anything they hit must surely be an enemy. Vanderspeak tracked the situation as best he could in the pict-screens, counting seconds until the next wave appeared. Lance of Righteous Truth veered off to the right, creating a second thrust into the heart of the foe. Gorgons' Eye was already firing as it pivoted left, the Megabolter screaming as it disgorged a hurricane of rounds into the packed foe. As a scythe cutting wheat it mowed apart flesh and blood, leaving a red wake of ruin as it inched forward.
The second wave burst into the open, Praetor launchers already rising to fire. Incendiary missiles flew away, streaking into the sky before falling back to land deeper in the reeling army. Fireballs lit all around as the mobile launchers rumbled forward, blasting away with wild abandon. There was no time to stop and orient their targeting, no moment could be wasted, they had to open the beachhead quickly or they would all die. Vanderspeak knew they were reaping a fell tally but it would be for naught if they got pinned at the tunnel entrance. The Terran army could easily bring Earthshakers to bear or divert bombers and gunships to hammer them at the entrance. Speed was everything, they had to spread out as fast as possible, a traffic jam in the tunnel would spell disaster.
"Next wave, advance and deploy!" he voxed. A wave of Crassus transports surged out, dozens of vehicles chasing the diverging Superheavies. They drove through the flaming ruins of the base, crushing anything the guns and rockets had missed. Past the slow Praetors they raced, then ramps slammed down and soldiers poured forth, rubber gasmasks bouncing on long hoses and plastek eyelenses fogging. They were no less ferocious though, laying into stricken Terrans with las and bayonet, showing no mercy as they culled the fallen. More waves of transports burst from the tunnel, they were doing it, carving a vicious wound into the Terran's encampment. Further and faster than any could have predicted, total surprise on their side. They were doing it, God-emperor be praised, they were doing it.
Moments later Vanderspeak was slammed against the side of his command suite as something struck Adamatine Spear in the flank. The Superheavy rocked as he'd never known it to before, suffering badly. The auspex crazed, denying a sight of the attacker, then another punch rocked him sideways. Cold dread ran down his back he saw an indentation form in the wall. Throne save them, what kind of gun had the power to dent Hellhammer armour?
"Impact!" Laval roared, "Left flank!"
"Can't see anything!" Baratel hollered.
"I need a target!" Haldrist cried.
"Mass-reading, vector 300!" Laval shouted.
"Focus all surveyors, pulse the auspex system, insult the Machine Spirits if you must, but get us a target!" Vanderspeak yelled.
The auspex suite hashed, but then cleared, revealing their attacker. A tall machine, a Leman Russ by build, but better armed than any he'd seen before. The barrel sticking out of the turret seemed ridiculously long, but all the more deadly for it. The Auspex revealed turboaccelerators, water-cooled jackets and augmented stabilisers and targeting scopes. He'd thought the Terrans had run out of such rarefied relics years ago, but here it was, a Leman Russ Vanquisher, a dedicated tank killer.
"Vanquisher!" Vanderspeak hollered, "Vector... give me a vector!"
Laval cried, "Aspect 298, it's damned close!"
Baratel cried, "Range... Throne... range five hundred metres!"
"I see him!" Haldrist bellowed, "Prepare to eat..."
Suddenly the Vanquisher fired a third time, slamming a penetrator round into the Hellhammer's hull. Vanderspeak bit his tongue hard, tasting blood as a violent impact shook the tank like a rattle. Any lesser machine would be dead but Adamantine Spear still suffered, screeching whines filling the interior as the smell of smoke gushed forth.
"Turret's jammed!" Haldrist cried.
"Turn us, turn us!" Vanderspeak bellowed.
"Too slow," Baralet hollered.
"Motivators are fried, enginseers are attempting a bypass, they need two minutes to fix the turret!"
"We don't have two minutes!"
Vanderspeak hit his comms and shouted, "Target them with the Demolisher Cannon!"
Buried in the prow of the Hellhammer was a massive bore cannon, short-ranged and meant to peel open fortifications, a blunt weapon but a powerful one. The Hellhammer ground tents and bodies in its axles as it pivoted on the spot, trying to bring its heavy gun to bear. The Vanquisher's crew would be frantically reloading, trying to hit a vital system before it was too late. Vanderspeak wanted more than anything to have his hands on the drive levers, or even to be working the cannon's sights, something he could do to tip the scales and change the outcome. He was helpless to intervene, a mere observer in events. The cold irony stole over him, he commanded hundreds of thousands of men but at this moment he was the least powerful of all.
The Vanquisher seemed to swell as the sands of time ran down, but then with an almighty roar the Demolisher cannon fired. A shell wide as a man flew free and a heartbeat later crashed into the Terran tank. The screen whited out, blinded by the point-blank detonation, and Vanderspeak swore his heart stopped beating in dread. When the vision returned he was amazed, the Vanquisher wasn't just gone, it was obliterated. Flaming debris was scattered in a wide circle, eviscerating any man who hadn't fled already. Of the tank only two pairs of lower treads remained, smoking comically in defiance of all laws of probability. The finest tank hunter the Terran army boasted was no more, torn to shreds in a single shot. The superior forges of Tellaris had proven their worth once more.
"Target destroyed!" Laval shouted.
"Destroyed?!" Baratel laughed, "We cracked it like an egg!"
"That'll teach the blasphemous scum to defy the God-Emperor's Chosen!" Haldrist proclaimed.
Vanderspeak shared their elation but barked, "That's enough, get back to work. There's still a battle on and we're going to win it. On men of Tellaris, on! Nothing they've got left can stand in our way!"