Tar growled softly over comms when her plan was disregarded, but moved off with the rest of the team nonetheless.

With the storm front rumbling over the mountain peaks behind them, Aegis team fanned out to surround the gun platform. Tar’s clawed boots scraped lightly over the uneven granite rocks as she carried on along the western ridge, passing the others as they got situated. It was impossible to be totally quiet, but it didn’t matter anyway. Almost all noise the team made was completely subsumed by the hammering rain, wind and thunder.

There wasn’t much cover on the outcropping furthest from where they’d emerged from the caves. So Tar just lay prone at the edge with her Carbine barrel wedged into a groove that let her peer down onto the platform below. Water whipping across the rocks found its way inside her armour and pooled around her abdomen. Lightning flashed in the thick clouds behind the massive cannon, which sprouted up from the platform below to tower over them.

She watched through her scope as sheets of rain alternately obscured and revealed frozen Unggoy sentries. The wait seemed to go on forever. Then came a verbal confirmation from Grikgar, another wait, then the explosion.

It married perfectly with a thunderous boom rolling over the western peaks. A gout of blue-green flame erupted from one of the supports, licking the cliffside underneath where most of Aegis was hidden. The ground shook, and a hideous note of rending metal carried on the wind.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the platform started to tilt. A startled Unggoy lost balance and began sliding towards the cliffs. Suddenly, a jagged bolt of lightning flickered down the side of the cannon snout, lighting the whole scene. “Hit.” Tar confirmed from her angle, turning her attention to the nearest structure sat atop the listing platform.