Rogal Dorn Tank

The group poured out of the Shuttle. Armed personnel and tanks pushed forward, forming a circular defensive perimeter.

Then the Tech-Priests drove heavy tow trucks down and began hauling vehicles away.

Li Qinwu made a quick circuit of the tank wrecks. He ignored the Ork Tanks—they were junk—and passed over any human tanks that had been completely blown apart.

He stopped beside a Leman Russ tank. Its turret had taken a hit, leaving a huge shell hole in its side.

He climbed onto the tank, opened the hatch, and looked inside. The crew had been torn to pieces.

The unlucky crewman hit directly by the shell had burst into a bloody mist, coating the equipment inside the hull.

The other bodies were more intact. Metal fragments and flying rivets had killed them.

Li Qinwu climbed inside and dug the dog tags out from among the mangled bodies.

He climbed back out with five tags, shook off the bits of flesh, and called over a Tech-Priest working nearby.

"My lord?"

The Tech-Priest bowed.

Li Qinwu pointed at the tank and asked:

"The people inside were killed by flying rivets and metal fragments. With a spall liner, they might all have survived. Don't you have that technology?"

Li Qinwu had once been a bit of a military enthusiast. He knew that even when a shell failed to penetrate a tank, the impact could still send metal fragments flying through the interior and kill the crew.

The fix was simple enough: line the inside of the tank with Kevlar.

And human tanks were still built with damn rivets. That outdated armor design was absurd enough; the lack of a spall liner was even worse.

The Tech-Priest explained:

"My lord, the tanks we build do have spall liners, but they aren't necessary.

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