Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

The Leman Russ — a tank named after the primarch of the Sixth Legion — was the most common armoured vehicle in the entire Imperium of Man. General Hays was no stranger to these machines, famed throughout the Astra Militarum as the Anvil of the Guard.

Simple to produce, easy to manufacture, and — most importantly — light on the supply chain, the Leman Russ formed the backbone of the Astra Militarum's armoured strength when fielded in company strength. To meet every conceivable operational demand, the pattern had spawned no fewer than a hundred distinct variants.

Yet even Hays, a battle-hardened general who had seen more than most, had never laid eyes on the particular variant before him now.

From the rectangular turret jutted two 90mm main guns. Having two main guns was, admittedly, one more than a standard Leman Russ — but in exchange, every hull-mounted weapon had been stripped away.

This was, on the face of it, a net reduction in total firepower, and Hays made no effort to hide his dissatisfaction. He glanced at Lin, unable to fathom why Lin had claimed this vehicle would serve as a meaningful fire-support asset for their forces. Lin merely waved a hand, gesturing for him to keep watching.

The Leman Russ rolled out from Lin's laboratory and came to a halt on the testing ground. Then, to Hays's astonishment, the turret spun a full 180 degrees.

As it rotated, both 90mm cannons retracted into the turret housing. The rear section of the turret extended and unfolded in kind, and by the time it had swung to face forward, a 200mm railgun had assembled itself in full — its barrel angled sharply skyward. A 180mm high-explosive shell slid into the acceleration track.

Electromagnetic arcs crackled and spat. The round was gone in an eyeblink. Hays quickly raised his scope, and moments later, a fireball bloomed on the horizon — thirty kilometres away.

Hays erupted.

"Yes — that's exactly what I wanted to see!"

A standard Leman Russ mounted a direct-fire main gun with a bore of 120mm, while the most common indirect-fire platform in the Imperial arsenal — the Basilisk — fired at 132mm. Both were eclipsed by this 180mm railgun, which went some way toward explaining why Hays was so thoroughly delighted.

"This is a new variant of my own design. I'm calling it the Leman Russ Besieger for now," Lin explained. "The two 90mm guns handle direct fire during movement. But the vehicle's primary role is long-range bombardment with that 180mm railgun."

In practice, this was the Terran Siege Tank from StarCraft — though Lin had extracted only the siege cannon itself, leaving the rest of the concept behind.

A fully realised Siege Tank would obviously be superior, but Lin hadn't yet studied Warhammer's tank doctrine deeply enough to reconstruct the complete package. That said, the Siege Tank's Shockwave Artillery Cannon was itself a branch of electromagnetic weaponry, so he had started by getting the main gun working first.

Being a tank that Hive World factory districts could churn out, Cath Maximus still had a Leman Russ production line — specifically for the Leman Russ Exterminator variant.

The Leman Russ hull was apparently so ubiquitous that the departing Magi hadn't even bothered taking the hull fabrication lines with them. Instead, they'd packed up the production lines for the Exterminator Nova Cannon — the weapon mounted on top — and shipped that out instead.

You have the body; I have the gun. What were the odds of that kind of luck?

Imperial weapons had always carried a certain beauty-in-excess quality — much like German engineering of a bygone era — but the Leman Russ's seventy-tonne bulk actually worked in this case: the sheer mass of the hull meant the tank could fire the heavy railgun without needing to drop into a stabilised siege mode first.

Its tall profile and sluggish movement speed were obvious liabilities on a contested battlefield. But right now, having an existing production line was worth more than any tactical elegance.

All Lin needed to do was stand up the Shockwave Artillery Cannon fabrication line, and he could turn out this cut-rate Siege Tank indefinitely.

"Excellent. With fire support like this, I'm confident we can hold the Ork offensive."

Electromagnetic weapon or not, the calibre it threw downrange was clearly in keeping with Warhammer's core aesthetic — bigger is better — and Hays was thoroughly sold. "How many of these can you produce?"

"Around two hundred a month. Should improve somewhat after that."

Hays was visibly unimpressed with the figure. But it was already the ceiling for a single production line, and Lin had no better answer for him.

"Does the tank have any weaknesses?"

"It does. The railgun runs on a power system entirely separate from the Leman Russ's main engine. Being an electromagnetic weapon, the only current solution is externally mounted energy cells."

"That's going to be a logistical headache..." Hays's frown deepened.

The prevalence of solid-slug weapons and lasguns across the Imperium owed much to the empire's notoriously broken supply lines — which were themselves inseparable from the wretched realities of faster-than-light travel in the Warhammer universe. When the Imperium committed to a campaign, the soldiers at the front never knew whether their resupply would arrive early, late, or not at all. Under those conditions, powerful single-shot solid rounds and lasguns that could be recharged by sunlight in a pinch had become the Astra Militarum's irreplaceable foundation.

Gauss rifles that devoured small-calibre solid shot by the tonne, and magnetic rail weapons that demanded colossal power reserves? Some weapons simply didn't fit the underlying logic of the Warhammer universe.

That said, with a Forge World at their backs and the front line only a few dozen kilometres away, logistics for this particular campaign were manageable. Whatever came afterwards, Lin already had ideas for improving these weapons — but those plans would have to wait until after the Greenskin tide had been broken.

Just reconfiguring and restarting the production lines had consumed nearly half a month. Lin had precious little time left for further refinement. Maximum output was the only priority now.

The scout fleet dispatched to Jingang had reported back: the Orks there now had three fleets, each led by a battleship, and they had ceased their orbital anchorage above Jingang and begun manoeuvring through the star system.

That meant the Ork fleets were complete. Based on historical Imperial estimates, an Ork fleet centred on a battleship typically carried around ten million Orks. Which meant that before long, Cath Maximus would be facing the pressure of roughly thirty million Orks bearing down on it.

Under those circumstances, Lin fully understood General Hays's anxiety.

Still, he reached over and gave Hays a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"I'm still working on a few trump-card weapons. They just need a little more time." Lin cast a sidelong glance at the Titan wreckage he had salvaged and consolidated inside the laboratory. "And before that..."

He never got to finish the sentence. A Servitor stepped into the laboratory and delivered its report in a flat mechanical monotone:

"Report: Starport message 1919. The Exemplary Fists Chapter has arrived at Cath Maximus Starport."

Lin gave a slight nod.

"It seems our reinforcements have finally arrived. Come — we should go and meet them."

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