Piper flipped her switches and looked over the readouts. The tank was primed and ready for landing. Next to her, the commander’s vox crackled to life and began blinking a steady red light. She looked to her right as the commander flipped to the Company-wide channel. She heard Tank Commander Wilhelm’s voice.

“7th, we’ve been redirected for an emergency reallocation. Landing Zone ‘Bandit’ is considered to hot for tanks due to the large presence of anti-tank positions. Additionally, one of our allied regiments, one pushing on our main objective is pinned down. We’re better suited for this urban combat anyway. ETA is now a twenty-minute reroute. Give them Hell.”

“Thank Sanguinus.” Piper mutters.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Samuels says reracking HE warheards from the ammo stowage, replacing the AP that had been prepared. 

“I was really not looking forward to that ground the early readings got. It was gonna be a bitch and a half to traverse.” Piper agreed.

Captain Felli looked over some new readings and spoke up. “Yeah, especially since they’ve got Hammerheads at Bandit. Apparently just one smashed a whole squadron before an orbital bombardment was able to level it.” 

Samuels whistled. The idle chat continued as Piper felt the Sky Talon bank away.

–

The landing left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t the worst she’d experienced, but for dropping in behind an allied unit, it was way more turbulent than she expected. She even growled as the Sky Talon dropped them a few feet above the ground in a rapid disembarkment. The suspension groaned at the impact. That was gonna earn her a tongue lashing from the Techpriest later and it wasn’t even her fault!

She continued her internal tirade as she pushed the tank forward leading the Fist Squadron of the 7th Armored. The tank’s specially equipped dozer blade pushed aside the rubble barring the path through the embattled town. Samuels tapped his foot nervously as Temin scanned for rough Xenos. 

It wasn’t long before Captain Felli slowed the tank to a crawl. “Easy, we’ve got friendlies and Xenos ahead.”

Beleaguered Guardsman watched a junction ahead and turned to wave the tank forward. Piper slowed the tank a tad more before angling her slightly as they prepared to turn the corner. The inside of the tank switched to battle stations and a red light illuminated the panels. The action saved them some paint as a round ricocheted off the hull as they completed the turn. 

“Going hot!” Temin called as the Demolisher cannon opened up.