[b]Marcus Goldstein - Escort Mission 'Operation Enduring Fustercluck'[/b]

“Turn around? Mister Goldstein I'm sure-” Rice protested.

“That right there is an ambush mister Rice. Jamming is already up. Get out of here.” Marcus cut the man off.

“But-” Rice tried again.

“NOW.” Marcus yelled angrily. The last thing he needed right now was criticism. Fortunately the drivers needed no more pushing to run for it. Praise the sun for small mercies.

“Okay team prepare for breach.” he warned the two atop his turret. Not even aura could protect more sensitive body parts like the eardrum from the full fury of the one oh five mill. Marcus picked a part of the fortifications more or less at random, then stopped to let his sights settle on target. Two quiet seconds passed.

“Fire in the hole!” Marcus warned.

For the briefest of moments, there was a flash. Thunder rolled across the plains. A great cloud of dust obscured the tank from view as the high explosive warhead left the barrel. The round buried itself into the fuel tanks of the unfortunate truck that was the target, tearing through the thin steel case with ease. Then the explosives detonated and blasted the entire machine in half. The engine block buried itself into the next truck in line with enough force to flip the entire thing over like a cheap plastic toy. The cargo bed that was the other half simply disintegrated into white hot metal splinters. Almost as an afterthought, the hot brass case that was ejected from the side of the turret set the brush below on fire. 

Before the smoke cleared, the Unsubtle roared forward into and over the newly created breach. It was classic shock and awe at work. Scare enemies with aggressive, forceful moves so they have no time to respond in an intelligent, organised fashion.

Marcus paid no heed to the runners. They were defeated, and seeing people run away drained the fight out of those who tried to stand their ground. Instead his sensors looked for those still with weapons. The autoloader clattered as it readied a new incendiary round. Oswald yelled from atop his turret, and Marcus stopped breathing.

The breaks squealed as they forced the Unsubtle to a sudden lurching halt. Aurellius blazed away with his minigun, laughing as he did so.

“Cease fire.” Marcus breathed softly. Sun help him, what had he done?

“Cease fire. CEASE FIRE!” he ordered more forcefully, even as the suit clad boy above him happily sang a dainty little tune as he continued to mow down everybody in sight. The machine gun mount next to Aurelius came to life, spun around and swept his feet out from under him. Aurellius athletically landed on one hand and flipped himself the correct way up without so much as a smudge on his suit.

“AURELLIUS CEASE FIRE SUN FUCKING DAMN YOU!” Marcus yelled at him. Okay, focus now. Bugs next.

“But boss, they're still shooting at us aren't they?” Aurellius whined.

“I do not need this shit right now! You want to shoot something shoot those bugs.” Marcus told him. At the same time with an agility that was just plain weird for something so massive the Unsubtle swung around to bring the cannon to bear on the new threat. A few agonising seconds passed while Marcus sighted a patch between the lead swarm and the still moving convoy.

“Fire in the hole!” Marcus yelled.

Once more the cannon thundered. This time instead of just an ordinary lump of high explosives it sent something far more nasty screaming downrange. Just before it smashed into the ground the incendiary shell burst. In that moment, God scooped up a bucket of Hell, took a piss in it and poured it out over the grasslands between the swarm and it's target.