[centre][h2][colour=008000][u]Gerad[/u][/colour][/h2][/centre] As Sven pushed the tank forward, Gerad stood up and joined the advance, drawing almost as much fire as Sven and the Chimera. VLA shots burned down two more thugs before he focused his attention on the APCs; Silas, Cyne and Ducaelia could deal with the foot mobiles and gun trucks easily enough, but only he and Sven had the firepower to make short work of the APCs. Leaving the ones in the open for the tank, he spotted two in hull down positions near one another. One had the cluster of aerials of a command vehicle, while more imminently dangerously, the other sported a rail-gun as its primary. Fortunately the gunner seemed to be focusing on the tank, which Gerad was most grateful of; that rail-gun had almost no chance of harming the battered Chimera, but it could give him a real bad time. He was about to do what he did with the earlier APCs, VLA to disrupt the shields, PRP to fry them, when he spied a way to do that [I]and[/I] scatter the dug in troops near them. Smiling to himself, he adjusted the impact point of his PRP. --- Troop Leader Stilson swore from the back of the [I]Alecto[/I] class Armoured Command Carrier. Watching through the gunners sight feed, he saw the tank that Command [I]swore[/I] was out of action, lumber towards them, sure it looked like it wasn’t in great shape, but the smoking crater that used to be the second wave, showed that it still had teeth…far more teeth than anyone on [I]his[/I] side of the firing line had. The rear hatch was open and he could hear the crackle of small arms fire from his men and the other units, the ‘thumping’ of the old style chemrail auto-cannons on the standard [I]Megaera[/I] class troop carriers, the ‘zipkrak’ of the rail-gun on the [I]Tisiphone[/I] beside him as well as the barrages from the jury-rigged gun trucks. Another rail slug shattered against the tanks defences, [colour=9ACD32][b]“May as well try and piss on it…”[/b][/colour] Fortunately the tank seemed to be ignoring them. However movement from the [I]far[/I] side of the tank suddenly drew all of Stilson’s attention. The squat, quadrupedal profile, coupled with its seemingly total immunity to hostile fire, could only mean one thing; a Garundin. [colour=9ACD32][b]“Raptor-6 shift fire to the Garundin, left of the [I]Chimera[/I].”[/b][/colour] [colour=808000][b]“Say again, Raptor-1. The what?”[/b][/colour] [colour=9ACD32][b][I]“THE FUCKING FOUR LEGGED THING BESIDE THE FUCKING TANK!”[/I][/b][/colour] Stilson watched in horror as the Garundin’s shoulder mounted cannon pivoted in his direction. During a raid early in his time with Apocalypse, his unit had tangled with a [I]small[/I] Garundin patrol; they’d out numbed the patrol 5 to 1, only 10% of his unit had survived, and they never brought down an single one of those damned four legs. Now, all he could do was watch in slow motion as he was about to die. The plasma cannon fired…and Stilson opened his eyes. Somehow he was alive? Maybe that little bastard had taken more of a beating than he’d thought; he was about to shout at Raptor-6 again, when one of his men rushed into the back of the [I]Alecto[/I]. [colour=8FBC8F][b]“TeeEl, tower’s coming down!”[/b][/colour] It took a moment for the words to click. They’d gone hull down beside an old transmission tower…already unsettled by the events so far, he ran, shoving the man aside in a bit to get clear. Staggering outside, he looked back at the tower as it toppled and realized the Garundin [I]hadn’t[/I] missed, instead blowing a sizable chunk out of the bottom of the tower…and dropping right across the two APCs and and firing positions of his men. There was no time to do anything, the tower fell right across both pieces of armour, their shields sparking briefly before collapsing, the impact taking the turrets out of the fight. Some of the men saw what was coming, and managed to warn others, scrambling clear. Too many weren’t fast enough and were crushed under the mass of metal, and even those that survived [I]that[/I] now found a new problem, in their desperate bit to get away, many now found themselves out in the open. Troop Leader Stilson was knocked from his feet by a piece of flying debris, and though his body armour stopped it from killing him, it still took the wind out of him. Laying in the dirt he could only watch as his command was crushed and scattered. The man that’d run to warn him was dead, the chunk of metal that knocked Stilson down had first gone through the man’s neck. Stilson had just managed to drag himself to his knees when he was slapped back down as Raptor-6 exploded, a Garundin plasma bolt smashing into it’s mangled turret; he died before he’d even realized what’d happened. The next shot slammed into Raptor-1, searing [I]its[/I] turret and gunner away as well, sending super-heated gases boiling through the hull of the APC but, unlike Raptor-6, Rapto-1 had its rear hatch open and that acted like a nozzle, directing the gases straight into one Troop Leader Stilson, incinerating him on the spot. --- Gerad surveyed the carnage with appreciation. One enemy strong point shattered, the survivors rattled and exposed and a potentially serious weapon destroyed, all in a few moments; all in all a great success. [colour=008000]”C’mon ye slackers!”[/colour] He chided to the squad as he opened fire on the now scattered and exposed thugs with his VLA. [colour=008000]”Them boy’o ain’t a pity fuck, dey no gonna jus’ lay der an’ take it!”[/colour]