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Commander Thesa 'Refumee had been in precious few battles with Human filth before now. He had never before seen the titanic beasts currently rolling across the empty plain. Compared to everything else he had seen the humans field, they were veritable behemoths of armour. Compared to his own sleek, sturdy Wraith tanks, these things looked like they had compacted as much metal as possible onto a single frame. Painted a drab olive colour, with mottled camouflage atop it, the gargantuan tanks trundled towards him as though they had no reservations, or fear.

Four treads chewed up the ground underneath, and pulled the vehicle’s heft and bulk along by sheer force of traction. A cannon extended out from a turret mounted on the back, and smoke belched from the back as it shifted gears to get more and more speed. ‘Relumee could barely believe that such a vehicle could be propelled by wheels and treads alone.

There was no information on these vehicles anywhere in their records. He didn’t even know their offensive capabilities, besides what he could see from his limited vantage point. They crawled and trundled ever closer, like a pack of wild animals. Fitting, that the barbaric beasts would use equally barbaric vehicles in the defense of their home.

Thesa could barely remember what this pit of dirt was called. Camber, or something of the like.

The first time he had met Human vehicles in combat, they had been small, two-person vehicles, or perhaps no larger than a Revenant, with a gunner on the back. He thought it pathetic. He thought he had seen the full ‘might’ of Human vehicular warfare.

He was, apparently, wrong.

‘Relumee looked back at his own complement of armour, then around at the other groups set up along the hillside. Having no other frame of reference, he decided to treat them as he would treat an opponent’s Wraith tanks. He would need to hit them from range, before they could get in close. Thankfully, the elevated position would assist with that.

Up the center of the Human formation, smaller, faster-moving vehicles rushed out like water from a dam.

‘Relumee brought the monocular away from his eyes. “All mortars fire!” he yelled into his comms. The wraiths began to stir, their carapaces straightening, and their mortars blossoming open.

The cobalt glow from within grew to a white-hot intensity, and the five tanks around Thesa opened fire. For a moment, twenty new suns had appeared in the sky, arching overhead and bathing the dirt below in sapphire. ‘Relumee brought the monocular back up, and eyed the convoy. The tanks may have been beyond the mortar’s effective range, but the fast-moving vehicles were not.

These shots were range finding shots, meant to probe the coming onslaught and calibrate the rest of the line’s weapons. Fixed emplacements tracked the arching balls of superheated plasma, as it arched downward with ever-increasing speed. ‘Relumee saw the impacts and detonations, then the sound hit him a half second later. Thunderclaps jarred the earth, and scorched dirt was kicked up into the air, as well as the half-melted chassis of three of their fast-moving vehicles.

‘Relumee waited while the Wraiths cycled for another volley, he took deep, calming breaths to stem the fluttering of exhilaration in his chest. He could barely stand the passing beats of his heart, but he had to wait while the guns readied, sighted targets, and made adjustments for range.

When he could wait no further, he ordered everything to open up on the attacking human vehicles. The Shade turrets began sputtering hot white globs from atop their small incline. Thesa saw them clip and chip away at the metal and flesh. The force and heat from the rounds buckled the front-ends, and forced the approaching fast-movers to break off their direct assault.

“Fools!” ‘Relumee shouted to himself, keying his comms. There would be no retreat. “Run them down!”

Seconds later, the warbling cries of Ghosts haunted the hillside. They slid into view, almost out from under the hovering Wraiths, and over the rise, down underneath the hail of plasma. Gunfire began burping out from the humans’ vehicles in response. The hillside had become a vicious melee now. Shade turrets took inconsequential fire, but the Ghosts were much more vulnerable. Thankfully, the hail of fire from the Shades kept much of the Humans focus, and by the time they realised they should be firing on the Ghosts, they were far too close.

He held up his hand again, then brought it down in a cutting motion. “Fire!”

The Wraiths launched another volley, up and over the embattled vehicles below. The monocular again raised, ‘Relumee looked towards the Human tanks. He paused, checked the Monocular, then looked again. The tanks had halted in place. The plasma mortars came up, then down, and exploded with more reverberating thumps.

When the dust cleared, ‘Relumee saw that they had exploded well short of the Human line. Snorting derisively, Relumee watched as the Human tanks arched their barrels. If he couldn’t hit them at this range, then he would enjoy watching their own mortars fall short. The only way they could hope to defeat him, is if they entered into his kill-zone.

That was what he thought, before he saw the ends of their cannons flash red. Something whizzed by his ear, and he cowered away from it on reflex. This proved to be the smart decision, as his Banshee’s canopy was torn off and splintered into a thousand tiny shards.

The 90mm shell impacted the Wraith that had set up behind his personal flier, detonating right atop its cannon. The shell of the tank blistered and blew outwards as the power source ruptured, and the entire contraption fell to the ground with a thud.

Thesa stared at the ruined, burning tank with dawning horror. More shells came, more impacts, more detonations. The Humans had a much longer effective range than he did! He had to think fast.

“All Ghosts break off! Attack those tanks at the rear!” he barked into his comms. He looked down the hill. His Shades had stopped firing, so as not to hit their own soldiers. Thesa’s eyes went wide as he saw a Ghost take a small, short burst of fire from one of the Humans’ rotating guns. The wing of the Ghost splintered, and the whole vehicle listed, impacting the ground and throwing the rider.

The Ghosts scrambled to follow his order, and were paying dearly for it.

The tanks launched a second volley, and three more Wraiths exploded, as well as two Shade turrets.

“Shade turrets, fire!” Thesa ordered. If the Shades kept the wheeled vehicles busy, then the Ghosts could attack the tanks.

“But—” the protests were cut off.

“I said FIRE!” he ordered.

The shades did as they were told, and launched another blistering salvo down the hill. The Human vehicles followed the Ghosts as they made for the back-line, but three were caught by plasma fire and reduced to molten slag. The guns span up and returned fire, one unlucky Unggoy gunner caught rounds to the leg, and his gun emplacement listed, with him still holding the trigger. The plasma rounds instead tore into the Lance of Covenant underneath him, and melted the end of his gun when they began firing into the dirt.

‘Relumee watched the Ghosts approach the human Tanks, and begin firing. Small plasma rounds tore into the metal, but did little else. ‘Relumee gulped around a suddenly parched throat. The Tanks’ barrels came down to aim at this new threat. Almost as one, they fired. The front line of Ghosts was enveloped in a barrage of blossoming explosions and glistening, razor-like shards.

When the smoke cleared, ‘Relumee could see not a single Ghost survived. The second line managed to get through the corpses and craters left behind by the first, and engaged the Tanks. 'Relumee could see that they were about as effective as gnats. The slow-tracking turrets couldn't quite line them up, but the machine gun turrets mounted next to the driver cabins could.

That, and the faster Human vehicles would soon catch up to them.

'Relumee had to act fast.

“Fall back.” He ordered.

There was no movement. It stung his honour to repeat the phrase, but they would all die if they stayed. He needed his full complement. He needed to re-strategise. He couldn’t win with an elevated position against an enemy that could shoot virtually anything they could see with impunity.

“I said fall back!” he repeated, shame burning in his gut.

The Wraiths began to back up. They would make for the staging area, less than five macrounits behind them. They would regroup, reinforce with the reserve Wraiths, and, more importantly, he could restrategise now that he knew the capabilities of his enemy's armour.

The Shades were abandoned as more of them became nothing more than black smoke and orange flames. Thesa realised all too late his mistake of pulling the Wraiths back, as the human fast-moving vehicles crested the hill behind him uncontested.

‘Relumee hopped aboard a Wraith as it passed. The plasma turrets and gunners in the Wraiths began firing, desperately, as the battle became a rout.

When a shell exploded next to his Wraith, and he was thrown into the side of the vehicle, all he could do as he lost consciousness was think how dangerous the Humans were when they were underestimated.