Geratomran Reconquest - Ambush on Highway 4: With the bridge gone, Honoured Lieutenant Lo Bannick correctly assumed that the armoured column they were supposed to link up with was caught on the other side of the river. To confirm his assumption, the Baneblade's commander ordered his vehicle up the highway to try and locate the promised convoy. Once at that location Cortein's Honour sighted an immobilised column of vehicles, mostly Leman Russ battle tanks and Chimera APCs as well as a few flat-bed trucks. But the column didn't move. In fact nothing was moving. Raising his Magnoculars, the Honoured Lieutenant could see that the first vehicle in the column was nothing more than a burnt-out shell.With the identity of the enemy still unclear, Cortein's Honour needed to properly assess the situation. This meant crossing the Drava and getting a look for themselves. The crew was in luck, for while the Drava was a wide river, at the junction with Highway 4 it was not very deep. Since the riverbed had been consolidated with pebble stones, the super-heavy tank could attempt to cross it without getting bogged down. The only precaution needed was to close all the lower hatches and the Baneblade would be good to go.The Baneblade's driver took Cortein's Honour across the Drava, moving slowly to prevent water entering through the exhaust pipes into the tank's mighty generatorium. The water sizzled and turned into vapour where it touched the Baneblade's engines, but Cortein's Honour made it across without further impediment. As they passed the height of the broken pillar, Bannick's First Gunner carefully studied the structure's broken remains. His conclusion was unequivocal: the concentrated blast-marks indicated that the bridge had been brought down by Demolition Charges and no Battle Cannon. The bridge had indeed been sabotaged. But the identity of the perpetrator remained unclear.As the Baneblade drew near, the crew could make out the telltale sign of carrion birds flying over the column, confirming their worst suspicions. Stopping at a safe distance from the immobilised column of vehicles, Cortein's Honour hid in the leeway of the earthworks carrying Highway 4 towards the broken bridge. Bannick decided to progress on foot, taking with him the two most expendables members of his crew, the First and Second Loaders, a Paragonian of the Vaskigen Clan and another transfer from one of the warrior clans of the Feral World of Bosovar, a small pinkish man named Gollph. Having armed themselves with Lasguns from the Baneblade's small armoury, the three men investigated the fate of the Imperial column.Hundreds of corpses littered the four wide lanes of the highway, some having already started to bloat in the warm midday sun. The road was painted red by the blood of fellow Imperial soldiers, the bodies broken open and severed limbs lying all about. The gore was such that Vaskigen initially thought that the Drukhari might be responsible, but to the trained eye the slain Guardsmen displayed the wounds typical of people slain by mass-reactive bolts.This observation was quickly confirmed when further down the ambush site the trio encountered the first enemy casualty: it was undoubtedly a Space Marine, but its appearance was vastly different from that of the Black Templars Bannick had witnessed fighting on Kalidar. The dead Astartes' Power Armour was clad in violent hues of pink and purple. Had Bannick possessed the necessary security-clearance he would had quite easily identified the livery of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion, the Heretic Astartes dedicated to the service of Slaanesh, the Dark Prince.The slain Chaos Space Marine carried an archaic Bolter, the weapon's sides decorated with the carvings of leering faces. Now that he knew what he was looking for, Bannick quickly identified several dead Astartes, all of them lying in a heap of slain foes. He also recognised one of the burnt-out husks as a Rhino, an armoured troop transport almost exclusively used by Space Marines.Bannick was about to order a hasty retreat to the security of the Baneblade when Gollph discovered a survivor. The soldier's face was covered in blood and both his arms and legs had been broken, but he was undoubtedly still alive, his cracked lips trying to say something none of them could hear. Gollph was reluctant to draw closer as on Bosovar booby-trapping the corpse of a defeated enemy was a common enough tactic, but Vaskigen was not so careful.Upon seeing the Paragonian uniform of the severely wounded man, he rushed to help his comrade from another regiment, springing the trap. Both the helpless victim and the First Loader were torn to pieces by an explosion, perhaps a hidden Krak Grenade. Had the Second Loader not jumped upon Bannick and pressed him to the ground they too would have been slain by the explosion.If the trap failed to do maximum damage, the explosion did not fail to draw the enemy's attention. Somewhere out of sight, engines began revving, prompting the two surviving tankers to hurriedly leave the ambush site and join their comrades in the Baneblade. Rushing back to their tank, Bannick ordered his driver to prep the engine via his Micro-bead, and Cortein's Honour’s powerful power plant sprang back to life.Perhaps half a Terran mile down the highway, their opponents came out of their hiding places, including three tanks Bannick quickly identified as Predator Annihilators, dedicated tank-killers thanks to their two pairs of Lascannons. Far lighter than the lumbering Baneblade, the Predators capitalised on their greater speed to close with their new target. Even launched at full speed, the Predators rained terribly accurate lasfire upon Cortein's Honour. Two quickly broke off to the right, trying to attack the Baneblade from its wounded side. Cortein's Honour began to back away, firing its guns but all of its shots missed due to the Metus Astartes, the psychological shock regular human beings face when first fighting the transhuman Space Marines.The Predators continued to press the advantage, trying to get a clear shot at the Baneblade's back where its armour was the thinnest. Third Gunner Leonates raked one of the Predators with Heavy Bolter fire, damaging one of its sponson-mounted Augur arrays and disabling one of his target's Lascannons. Almost in response, one of the other Predators scored a direct hit on the Baneblade's vulnerable turret windows, melting the armourglass. Even if the Baneblade's armour was proof against their weapons, the enemy could disable Cortein's Honour in a number of different ways.The Baneblade was herded back to the Drava, the enemy undoubtedly thinking to catch the super-heavy tank between their guns and the river. Obviously they didn't know that the river posed no true obstacle to Cortein's Honour. Two of the Predators were still driving on the highway, using the road's elevation to fire down at the Baneblade. The thirds followed a parallel course to their own, making sure to stay out of the Demolisher Cannon's frontal firing arc. Its turret-mounted weaponry destroyed the Baneblade's left sponson, bringing its tertiary weaponry down to one pair of Heavy Bolters.Barely slowing down so as not to drown its engines, Cortein's Honour reached the Drava and slithered down the banks into the water. With two of their enemies still on the highway, the Baneblade made a sharp right turn, placing itself directly beneath the bridge. Cortein's Honour’s turret tracked the remaining Predator as it reached the riverbank and killed it with a direct hit of its Mega Battle Cannon. The crew cheered at their first kill, but the two remaining enemy tanks were still at large.The Emperor's Children decided to split up, one remaining on the bridge while the other descended on the left side on the highway to flush the enemy out from under the bridge. As the second Predator entered the Drava it emerged on the Baneblade's wounded left side. Again a steady stream of ruby lasbeams began to hammer Cortein's Honour.Alarms sounded inside the super-heavy tank as the Predator on the bridge finally got a fix on the Baneblade. Cortein's Honour retreated further into the deeper waters of the Drava, its more powerful engine allowing it to put some distance between itself and the pursuing Predator. The Mega Battle Cannon roared again, shooting at the tank above it but it only succeeded in blowing a piece of rockcrete from the bridge's fabric. Every crewman aboard the Baneblade realised that the enemy was gaining the upper hand.The true mettle of an Imperial Tank Commander is his ability to find a solution to his problems even in the thick of a seemingly hopeless fight. By any accounts, Honoured Lieutenant Colaron Vor Anselm Lo Bannick was such an exceptional officer. Faced with a numerically superior and more mobile enemy, Bannick took the only sensible decision he could: rob the enemy of its advantage by forcing it to run right into the guns of his own tank.Bannick ordered his driver to take shelter between the two legs of the great pillars supporting the highway's bridge over the Drava. Its flanks secured by the huge pillars of rockcrete, the front arc of the Baneblade would be secured by its Demolisher Cannon, while the rear was covered by the tank's main armament. Either way the enemy attacked, he would face a weapon capable of annihilating it with a single shot.As the solar seconds stretched into minutes, the nervous crew of Cortein's Honour believed the enemy would not take the risk, but in the end the Chaos Space Marines' constant blood-lust won out. The two remaining Predators attacked the Baneblade simultaneously, one from the front and one from the rear.The first caught a Demolisher shell head-on and exploded in spectacular fashion, but the second proved luckier when the armour-piercing shell from the Baneblade's Mega Battle Cannon glanced off its angled turret armour. Swearing, the First Gunner quickly reloaded as the Predator turned all four of its Lascannons on Cortein's Honour, readying itself for the killing blow.With nothing left to lose, Honoured Lieutenant Bannick ordered Cortein's Honour to ram the lighter tank, the Baneblade surging backwards. This unexpected movement threw off the Predator's aim and instead of hitting the Baneblade's engines, it pierced one of Cortein's Honour’s auxiliary fuel tanks, causing it to detonate and showering the Baneblade with burning Promethium.Cortein's Honour crashed into the enemy tank, the Baneblade's greater weight slowly pushing the lighter tank into deeper water. Once they reached the end of the gravel bed, the Predator began to sag, allowing the Baneblade to upturn it. Before the Predator's crew could bail out, a final shot from Cortein's Honour rang out, obliterating the last of its enemies.