“Copy, once we find solid ground. Firing for effect.” The commander responded across the main net and hung on tight as heaviest of the group lumbered slowly and carefully up to where the recon and engineers said would be hard ground for firing. “Nord, keep us off that slope.” 

Over 60 tons hit softer sand and began to rotate as one track skidded and lost grip but it soon regained and swung back rolling forward over ground where the wide tracks began to run more smoothly and there was less slipping on the drives. Slow steady going and the entire time they had to risk fire. They had to hope the engineers had got things right or they would need a recovery tank very early in this battle. 

“Iron Hide reached location E6. Requesting counter battery data from air assets” Calm Polish tone came across the frequency to the command posts, they needed to know where the enemy were before they gave themselves away. Anakin waited, eating what was left of his gifted meal, they just had to sit and wait and that was the hardest part.

“Orders boss?” The main gunner asked as he checked the systems for the nth time, all green and ready to fire at the press of a button. The auto feed was already stacked and specials sat on a separate manual load system ready to be fed into the guns breach. 

“Fire and move, Nord, we start move on round 2, 3 we moving. Xena reload us on 3, guns, 3 round salvo, simultaneous hits, standard HE. For now hold until we get accurate targets. Do not be tight about ammo, we need those guns dead ASAP.

Move from E6 and head to G, keep the gaps random, so they cannot pin us down so fast.” He finished and while none saluted the clear nod from his crew as he panned around, they fully understood exactly the orders. 

“Got it boss.” Came in a clear 3 voice ring about the hull, there was a lot of machinery in the big beast, even more so with their additions. 

“Copy that, ready to fire on mark" The Canadian gunner came over confidently and sat back on his seat as the music began to play over the internal speaker…Nord had taken the IPod it seemed as heavy metal boomed over the speakers, Lordi in native language began to pump up the crew and they the commander grinned as he flicked a switch to blast it externally. Who's your daddy boomed out with a heavy kick as the main gun turned and the tank began to roll out slowly, looking at angle and elevation. “Ready, cleared to fire.” The Canadians' voice gained a level of Canadian that was not good for the enemy, he was nice but…  nice was not always nice. 

“Ready, HE next on the racks, give em hell.” Xena said as she nodded along to the music choice, an 155mm round already resting in her arms.

The commander nodded and turned to his radio, switching to the inter squad net. “Punk Ass Deceptacons. Firing.” The final word the main gun began to sing the song its people, 3 155mm rounds raced out firing on the move as the tank began to advance behind moving and attempting to Duke as the second salvo echoed out at the next positions on their list by Intel before shrapnel hit its hull and the SPG rocked from blast wave of a counter battery shot but the hull held. 

“Damn, fuckers are good, keep firing.” The commander showed his iron resolve and looked out the top hatch, seeing the other tanks advancing before ducking back down again, iron but not stupid. 

“Morter pits, send emm the tungsten.” He shouted over the noise of the ringing and music. Being a tanker meant you just got tinnitus by default. The gun recoiled as they blanketed the porters with a rain of directed tungsten balls at near supersonic speeds.