TITANS

"Warhound Turalis to Cap-Com. Approaching front at sprint-speed. Alert all Guard units in area that we are moving through their sections."

There was a brief crackle of vox, and Fayder sighed theatrically.

"Cap-Com, Gigas Dol Thundaris, did you receive last transmittion?"

"Echo Vigalis, we received you, Turalis. Be sure not to forget your clearence codes again, Moderatus..."

Fayder rubbed his temple, mentally cursing the tactical jek-heads back in the Capitol Imperialis.

The Titan bounced theatrically as it ran at full speed across the plains. Below it, Guardsmen ducked in their trenches and braced themselves as the earth shook. Weapons swinging, the Titan strode clean over the support trenches and artillery positions, and with another two steps, was out into no-man's land.

"Titan, this is Wing Commander Majorn, Valkrian 404th. We'll be your air cover for today. Progian Valkyrie Squadrons are coming in at 08:15, with considerable support. If you can keep the big stuff off of us, and flatten any Flak, we'd be thankful."

"Not a problem, Majorn. Fayder out."

The Warhound slowed to stalk-speed, head and body swinging left and right to seek potential threats. Servitors began arming weapons, and the Enginseer activated the Void Shield Generators.

"Codis Mort Purgator, this is Moderatus Nordal of the Mathial, is anyone out there?"

Fayder clicked open the vox, "Mathial, this is the Turalis. What is your position?"

"Still don't like clearence codes do you?"

"Still a jek-head, Nordal? Position, now!"

"Transmitting... damn! Void Shields just collapsed, get down here!"

"We've got your position, hold on!"

The Titan sped up, running to the fray. Nordal's Warhound quickly came into view. Her carapace was dotted with scorch marks, and her Plasma Blastgun was shrouded in heat-haze. The storage battery was ruptured.

"All hands, go live! Enginseer, divert all available power to weapons. I want our Turbo-Laser screaming death fast and hard!"

The enemy contacts were armour pieces, built locally. Most were six-wheeled, similar in body to a Chimera, but sporting large turret-mounted plasma cannons or Multi-meltas, referred to as "spiders" in the tactical manuals. Others were large, flat bodied armour pieces with a single, powerful cannon. A quick check with the Machine Spirit confirmed them as "Incubus" MBTs, weaker than the Leman Russ, but still deadly.

Turalis opened fire. The Vulcan Mega-Bolter shredded two of the Spiders, while the TLD cooked apart an Incubus. The Mathial let out a burst of plasma from its Blastgun, vapourising another Incubus. Her own TLD fired repeatedly, but missed.

The tanks fell back. The two Warhounds turned together to drive them off, only to see why they had withdrawn.

The thing was massive. It stood at least as tall as a Reaver, and walked on four, powerful legs. It carried four powerful weapons; two Volcano Cannons on its arms, a Plasma Destructor on its left shoulder and a large, unidentifed cannon on its right. A Titan, but nothing close to any STC, and certainly superior to two Warhounds.

"Brakk! What the jek is that thing!?" Nordal's voice came panic-filled over the vox.

"Who cares, level it!"

Turalis opened up once more, bracing her right leg hard into the earth, and turning to put the Titan on its left. The body rotated to centre the target, providing as small a surface area as possible for the enemy to aim at. Mathail, clearly damaged, stood stoically in place, weapons levelled.

The beast's shields crackled, popping and flashing occasionally as one went down.

The enemy opened up. With one horrific salvo, the Mathias was immolated. The multi-ton war machine flew backwards like a rag-doll, landing half a mile away. Her blackened, burning torso was filled with the sounds of explosions as internal damage tore the Titan apart piece by piece for the best part of two hours.

"Brakk! Enginseer, get us out of here! We can't hope to stand against this kind of firepower!"

With a whining of servos, Turalis broke into a run. Because of her stance, she was able to move off while still maintaining a target lock, and began to outflank the enemy. The target Titan slowly cranked its torso around, but couldn't move fast enough. A Volcano Cannon fired, but the shot went wide. Turalis had the speed, maybe they could use it...

Spiders and Incubi opened fire again, but Turalis ignored them. One of the Incubi was crushed utterly as the Warhound stamped down upon it. Two more exploded, flipping and burning, as distant rocket-fire struck home.

"This is Majorn, we have the Titan in our sights! We'll begin a bombing run, hang in there!"

Fighters and Bombers shrieked from the dark clouds above. Rockets, laser bolts and autocannon fire rippled across the Titan's shields, as well as the hulls of some of the tanks below. Turalis maintained a steady stream of fire, hoping to find a weakness.

With a sub-sonic bang, the shields failed. Weapons rang against the behemoth's hull, and Fayder gave a cry of excitement.

"Hit it now! All power to guns!"

"Sir, shields are fai-"

"I don't give a damn about shields! Just give me guns, got it jek-head?"

"Sir!"

The Titan was barely visible amidst the the weapon smoke. It was clearly struggling to hit the small, fast-moving flyers. Suddenly, the machine shuddered as a lucky shot from the TLD struck a fault where the body and legs joined. Smoke billowed from the Titan's waist, before internal explosions threw the body clean into the air.

"Yes! Did you see that? Did you see that!?"

Fayder laughed, "Of course I did you jek-head, I blew the bastard up! Let's finish these tanks and get moving!"

The Turalis reared, like a predator boating over a hard-won prey, and its weapons spat death out into the fields for many hours to come...