The Empire
Quellor Sector, Cato Neimodia System, Cato Neimodia, Cato's Cradle
Primary Objective: Reduce the Bridge City to a burning rubble.
Secondary Objective: Provide armored support to friendly elements.
Friendlies: The Empire | N/A | [Open For Tags]
Hostiles: Local Planetary Defense Force | Galactic Alliance | [Open For Tags]
Directly Engaging:
Bayaz
Gear: In Bio
A faint, white plume of smoke billowed gently out of the Cataphract’s barrel, disappearing as quickly as it manifested, a moment after its main gun roared; the incendiary shell’s tracer left a white-hot streak in their thermal optics as it darted towards its target, nearly as swift as thought.
After striking a ferroconcrete wall inside the targeted building where the troops of the Alliance Defense Force holed up, the round detonated at a comically muffled
thump; but the devastative sizzle and hiss of the incendiary compounds, as it spreaded and blanketed the interior, was far from being comical. It choked the air out of the unfortunate men and women inside, but asphyxiation became the least of their worries in a matter of moments, as the incendiary compound expanded room by room and set alight to flammable substances, organic and inorganic alike.
Bullseye.
”Target! Ceasefire.” The young Tank Commander called out. The enemy troops left their posts in a fashion similar to those that spilled out into the street before them.
With the press of a button from his control panel before him, Hall was quick to assume command of the remote controlled weapon station mounted on the roof of their armored behemoth. The remote controlled heavy repeater brought to bear onto them, with the use of the control handle in the Tank Commander’s grasp, he let loose a long salvo of blaster bolts a moment after; the heavy repeater opened up with a roar-like thrum as the hail of blaster bolts left see-through holes on the enemy troops set on fire.
The remote controlled repeater fell into silence when the last of the troops set aflame fell to the ground, lifeless; it was the least any of them could have done, prolonging their passing
not a heartbeat further than it was necessary.
The street then fell into a strange, somber silence and solitude, with only the crackling flames from the building that ignited from the incendiary rounds, the growl of their Cataphract’s powerful engine that resounded in the empty and rubble strewn streets, and the distant blaster fire from somewhere in the city disturbed the silence.
In the wake of a muffled sigh, the young Tank Commander shifted his panoramic periscope away from the mangled bodies of the burned dead in pursuit of other targets to neutralize, as Litzke gently swung the turret from left to right, joining his TC’s efforts to keep their situational awareness high; the friendly mechanized platoon received contact no longer.
Not after they shelled the structures with a few incendiary shells.
To avoid sharing the same fate as the Alliance troops that once garrisoned the buildings across from their positions, the men waited for the thick, burning blanket of white phosphorus to dissipate in silent vigilance, before they left their cover and pushed forth towards their objectives.
It was around then they felt the ground beneath the wide treads of their tank tremble at a strange beat.
Something
big was encroaching.
The young man felt a burning sensation at the back of his mind shortly after; the telltale sign that warned him of imminent danger, towards the lives of him and his fellow crewmen. In urgency he heeded the warning from his senses. The periscope shifted towards the three o’clock of their hull’s orientation.
It was then he saw a massive silhouette of a walker move amidst the fog of war. It had just emerged from the lip. It was not a mere moment after he could see human-like silhouettes around the vehicle, spreading around in the alley.
None of them appeared friendly in his IFF.
”GUNNER, INCENDIARY, INFANTRY!” Hall shouted in
deathly precipitancy over their intercom.
”RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT, TRAVERSE RIGHT!”
The turret groaned and whined at a mechanical tone as Litzke immediately followed the gunnery commands at a silent response, bringing the gun to bear.
”KALE, SWING THE HULL AROUND!” he shouted, a heartbeat after the swinging turret came to a halt; the barrel looked at the scores of infantry that surrounded the enemy walker.
”AH, CHIT!” Kale swore loudly in between as he executed Hall’s command; the steel giant sprung into action a moment after Turning with the elegance and agility of a ballerina in a motion one would not expect from an armored behemoth, their frontal armor faced the group of enemy contacts that just emerged from their flank.
”OOOON!”
”IDEN’IFIEEEEED!”
”FIRE-FIRE SABOOOOT!”
The moment the words “FIRE” was uttered, the young Tank Gunner pulled back on the trigger of his control handles
hard. The gun breech recoiled back with a distinct
thump a heartbeat after, as a brass clangor resounded in the fighting compartment in the wake of the spent shell casing that fell into the metal basket underneath the breech.
After sending an incendiary shell towards the infantry support of the walker, Hall began issuing new set of commands the moment the street that stretched before them became carpeted in a thick cloud of white phosphorus.
”KALE, REVERSE, REVERSE!”
With a cough and growl from its exhausts the armored beast lurched rearward and moved, gaining acceleration backwards as they began backing off, closer towards their friendly infantry elements in order to get their much needed support with handling this brand new threat.
But they hadn’t left the walker’s reach just yet; As they backed up, an ion shell pierced the burning white blanket, and struck the tank. An electronic fizzle resounded sharply in the interior, as their reactive shields dissipated in a heartbeat in the wake of the EMP shell.
”UP, MOTHERKARKER!” Stege shouted; the gun breech closed shut after the Loader fed the selected round into the gun.
”GUNNER, SABOT, WALKER!”
”OBSTRUCTED!” Litzke hissed over the intercom with regret in his tone of voice, as he looked through his gunner sights; the cloud of burning white phosphorus hadn’t dissipated yet, and it prevented them from seeing the walker and its attached infantry support element, providing the enemy a means of momentary concealment.
But said concealment worked
both ways. It concealed
them from the walker’s optical sensors too, preventing thermals from piercing the shroud of white-hot incendiary smoke.
”SHOOOOOT!” Hall pressed him regardless, urging his Tank Gunner to send the round at the last known position of the walker.
”ON THE WAY!” Liztke curtly confirmed; the young man would take the shot in the blind at the Alliance walker in the coming moment after.
Their fight for survival began.
