A Man and his Tank - Prologue

Hello, everyone. This is the prologue to a military sci-fi series following a human supersoldier and a sentient tank fighting alien walkers. This is my first time posting here and I'd appreciate your thoughts on it. Thanks for reading.

On the dry fields of Eridije, a thousand war machines advanced in disciplined formation. Not an uncommon sight, at least not in recent times in this tiny corner of the galaxy, yet it felt equally marvelous everytime time. Over the scalding, dessicated sand of the desert, a thousand metal behemoths were moving towards a crestline on the horizon. One that was appearing more artificial the closer they went.

Lt. Arjun Singh sat inside the turret module of his Mk. IV MBT, commanding the rest of his platoon and co-ordinating with higher command. It was only slightly more comfortable inside with the life support but an experienced supersoldier like him did not mind that. The helmet of his suit provided him with a constant stream of data from both his tank's sensors and the comms feed. For now, to reduce the sensory load, he kept his sights on the I/O boards of the tank while his helmet kept him updated with the external world. Beside him was his gunner, Sgt. Nidhi Jatav, who kept her eyes fixed on the the omniscope sights. Below them was another vacuum protected module where the driver, Cpl. Shayan Hafeez and the mechanic, Cpl. Kavya Iyer rested. The United Nations March was blazing on the tank's intercom.

"Platoon, we are within engagement range of the enemy. We are to park right at the crest line of the dune at twelve o'clock, four hundred meters out. From there, we will turn and probe the defensive line. Over." The lieutenant ordered. "Gunner, load NE."
"Done, sir." Confirmed Nidhi, slamming the shell into the breech of the gun with mechanical precision.

Beside the lieutenant's tank, there were three other Mk. IV MBTs and four Mk. II IFVs, in a V shape, half a kilometre on each end. As the formation approached the crest of the dune, it collapsed into a line and turned around. One by one, the tanks peeled above the sandline. Against them, stretched from end to end and a hundred times beyond was a wall that formed the outer layer of the fortress where their enemy sheltered. Along a bunker line on its base, hundreds of tiny dots could be seen, while behind its crenellations, were the only war machines that could use these fortifications - the knightly mecha of the Covenant of the Creator.

The regimental artillery was raining down on the castle much like sea waves and they were breaking against the force fields of the castle, again, just like sea waves. The yellow star of Eridije was being outshone in broad daylight as nuclear plasma was clashing against electromagnetic fields high in the air. Yet, their atomic howls were not entirely in vain, for they kept the defenders of the castle hunkered down from their shock waves as their enemy studied them.

"Gunner, fire on the bunker under the portcullis at eight o'clock." The magnetic cannon spat out the nuclear explosive shell on the bunker but before its commanders could look at the results, a different magnetically accelerated projectile slammed into the momentarily exposed hull of the tank. "Damn it! The drive train has been hit."
"Smoke!"

The vehicle rotated erratically and slowly ground to a halt though thankfully, away from the enemy's line of sight. From the rear of the nearest IFV, a squad of armoured infantrymen emerged, covering the disabled vehicle under the thick filament smoke.

Kavya did not need an order. Immediately, she got to work. Keeping her geiger counter close, she opened the engine hatch, cut the offending shrapnels out with magnets and replaced the broken shaft with a spare, under twenty seven seconds. With a barked order, the squad rushed back to the IFV and both vehicles sprang back to motion at full speed, just as a mortar round vaporised a sinkhole in the very ground they were on a moment before.

"That was close. Good job, Kavya."

The fortress was a sophont-made structure, regular in its geometry. The line of dunes against it, was not the same. It curved and meandered, too close at some points and too far at others. As the lieutenant's tank caught up with its previous position in the formation, the commander took note of a crest that got rather close, close to a force field generator dome, as the current leading vehicle in the formation had observed. Just one and a half kilometres. Could a solid shell pierce through the force field at this juncture?
"Hafeez, can you get us close to this position?"
"Consider it done, bhaijaan."
"We need to get a shot through quickly. Make sure to just peek the turret out and reverse immediately."
"Do not take tension, bhaijaan. I am here, all right."
"Gunner. Load MARS. Are you ready?"
"As ready as I am always, sir."

Like a bolt of thunder, the 60 ton beast danced to the edge of the cliff under Hafeez's fingers. A tiny window of time, just a fifteenth of a second, was all the tank peeked out for and that was all Nidhi needed to find the target, get range and elevation and nail it.

The next tank in the formation confirmed the hit. Even though the dense shell of neodymium had been reduced to a beam of plasma by the force field, its great velocity took it through the dome in a slice and a sonic boom.

The lieutenant tried to contact HQ back, to request them to pound through that fault in the shield line but the jamming was being a hindrance. Luckily for him, the next shell in the suppressive barrage landed right at that spot, doing more than just pin the enemy. The wall at that spot, was vaporised, reduced to a shock wave of dust and rubble flying out violently. Hundreds of meters of fortification were gone in an instant, and a way had been made.

"All right, Hafeez, let's roll!" The lieutenant commanded, tightening his seat belt with a smile. "We are going to assault that fortress, immediately, at full speed."
The second half of the order was not met with equal enthusiasm.

"Sir, we should wait for the infantry to disembark and then drop down to low speed. Assault the fortress in a combined attack."
The Lieutenant considered this for a moment. What Nidhi had pointed out was correct doctrinally. When assaulting an enemy line, it was standard for armoured vehicles to slow down to a cruising speed of ~15 m/s, at which the power armoured supersoldiers could keep up and screen them. However, he was not a commander who was afraid of breaking protocol to take initiative and decided to stick to his guns.
"Your input is appreciated, Nidhi. However, our mission was to probe the defenses and on finding a weakness, exploit it. We cannot let the enemy regroup at this point. We must strike immediately at full speed."
"Sir, should we not at least report this clearly to brigade command?"
"Our long range comms are being jammed. We cannot wait for a communication window to open. Just inform company command about it."

The platoon commander got on the comms and repeated the same to all units under him. Usually, this would be sent up to brigade commander, Colonel Gurmeet Kaur but under the heavy interference, the request to push the attack was relayed to the captain of the company instead, who approved of it. Only a flare was sent up to signal the brigade artillery to send a creeping barrage up their way. A thousand tonnes of tungsten and guns now turned up and rolled down the crest. The artillery covered their charge in mushrooming clouds of dust. Within half a minute, the armoured spearhead had broken in through the canyon carved out of the mountainous wall. Before them, lay the soft bailey of the enemy - barracks, godowns, artillery nests, the heavy anti-starship weapon silos that were threatening away orbital support. A feast for the metal cavalry.

"Sir, we have contact at three o'clock", and just then, all hell broke loose. Facing the weaker side of the company, stood a lance of knights. Towering walkers, painted in the proud blue and golden heraldry of their humble house. They held tank sized weapons on their limbs as if they were parts of their flesh. They moved with a miraculous grace, as they raised their arms.
"Gunner, load NE, qu-"

The lieutenant's orders were cut short as a breeze of shrapnel hit his ears. Then, for him, all went dark.