BOOM!!!
A deafening blast erupted at point-blank range, the muzzle flash almost swallowing the target whole.
The high-explosive shell slammed squarely into the Rangdan Overlord's frontal force field. Its overloaded psychic energy shield erupted in dazzling purple arcs, then shattered like glass!
The shell's remaining kinetic energy and fragments poured into its body without resistance.
The towering xenos was hurled backward by the savage impact and crashed heavily into a heap of twisted metal wreckage.
The carapace covering the front of its body cracked and tore open, spraying great gushes of fluorescent blue blood that reeked of acrid energy.
"Great shot!" Warren's cheer rang through the Turrets.
Before his voice had faded...
WHOOSH! BOOM!
Another deadly blue plasma beam suddenly lanced out of the ruins on their flank, striking the Emperor's Blade's vulnerable engine compartment with pinpoint accuracy!
Flames and thick smoke billowed up instantly. The massive Tank shuddered violently, its interior lights went out, and a shrill scream of tearing metal rang through it.
"Damn it!"
Thrown about by the violent shaking, Warren slammed his forehead against the cold metal wall, and his vision went black.
Fighting back dizziness and the warmth running down his temple, he kicked open the heavy hatch overhead and scrambled unsteadily out of the crippled steel behemoth.
BANG!
A searing blue beam grazed his scalp, singeing his hair and blasting away his trademark peaked cap, caked with oil and dust.
Warren stumbled and tumbled off the Tank, landing on the scorched ground.
He shook his ringing head, his gaze falling on the cap burning a few paces away.
The flames illuminated the fresh scrapes and blood on his face, and the steel-blue eyes that had suddenly grown colder still.
He glanced at the cap without a trace of attachment, as though discarding a piece