"The marauder Destroyer is the ground attack variant of the Marauder Bomber. Specializing in low level attacks, it has a reduced bomb payload in favour of direct firepower from its 6 nose mounted autocannons and eight underwing Hellstrike missiles.

The Lady Jane

“OK Maniac, we are BINGO fuel, your on your own from here on in”

“Roger Bulldog, catch you back at base, get me a cold one in”

“10 4 Maniac, have fun down there'

The Thunderbolts peeled off one by one and disappeared into the cloud, “ Grommit, Romeo, limber up guys, we are solo to target”

Romeo's voice came over the intercom “ About time Maniac, those fighter jocks were taking all the glory!”

“Hell yeah, he does have a point Maniac, few more minutes I could have used a deck of cards up here”

Maniac chuckled at Romeo and Grommit, the best crew he had ever served with and a good sense of humour to boot, the ‘Lady Jane' was in good hands.

Maniac checked over his panel, 50 clicks until target, “keep it frosty guys, try to enjoy the scenery”, he rammed the control stick forward and the Jane screamed into a steep dive

“yeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaawww” Romeo never got bored of this part, being in the rear turret of the Marauder he always got the best gut wrenching feeling of free fall as the clouds above rapidly disappeared

The Lady Jane levelled out at 100 feet, this is what the Marauder Destroyer was built for, low level death and destruction and maniac and his crew had proved themselves ruthlessly efficient in over 25 missions

Suddenly Maniacs panel lit up “Warning, enemy detected” Guys, heads up we got incoming, 3 bogies 5 O'clock high'

“ I got em Maniac, Ork Fighters, come and meet Grommit and his little buddies you ugly green skinned slime balls” Grommit slammed his top turret round, in the blink of an eye he zeroed in on the first fighter and watched the range dial.

A yellow streak left the fighter at supersonic speed “Missile incoming Maniac”!

“On it Grommit” Maniac flicked his eyes over to the defence panel, “FLARES” he screamed into his helmet

“Flares away' came the soothing voice of the Lady Jane, that's one of the things he always loved about the Jane, she could always instil a calming influence with those dulcet tones, OK, deep down he knew they were just programmed response keys written into the Marauder operating system but you don't go through the gates of hell day in and day out without feeling a certain bond with the hunk of metal that always bring you back in one piece, he swore one day he would find the women who owned THAT voice and buy her a drink, it was the least he could do

The flares did their job, the missile veered off and slammed into the ground behind them sending a plume of dirt and smoke into the air

Grommits Crosshair turned green, “say hello” he said under his breath as he squeezed the trigger, The twin heavy bolters chattered to life, tracer rounds screamed towards the first Ork Fighter. The 3 second burst found its target with deadly accuracy, the front of the fighter disintegrated and the aircraft spiralled uncontrollably into the ground vaporising instantly.

More red lights appeared on Maniacs ground attack radar, the Jane identified them as Ork Battle wagons, in an instant 5 Hellfire missiles snaked there way towards the targets, 5 seconds later Maniac was rewarded with 5 satisfying explosions on the distant horizon.

“Maniac, give me some port man, cant draw a bead on this slippery son of a slaneesh whore”

Romeo felt the Jane side slip, that's all he needed to lock onto the second incoming fighter, both his assault cannons burst into life, hundreds of rounds sliced into the enemy, tracers ignited the fuel tanks and the fighter exploded in a fireball of yellow and red. “YES” Romeo screamed down the intercom “Check out those fireworks Grommit, strike another for the Romeo, still one up on you Rookie”

“Lucky shot, there is still one out there and he has my name stamped on his dog tags Romeo!”

Maniac let out a laugh, “ both of you playing catch up fellas, I already got a head count of 5!” OK, so he knew strictly speaking they were the Janes's using her automated targeting system but hey, a little competition was always good and the banter kept spirits up.

The last fighter punched through the air towards the Jane, he stood little chance, with both Romeo and Grommit wanting the kill rounds swarmed towards him in a wall of tracer fire, even to this day they still cant agree just who got the kill that day, only thing for sure is they both enjoyed the ensuing fireworks as the fighter spun out of control and cart wheeled into the ground

Maniac looked over the GAR (ground attacks radar) once more, to his right about 15 clicks Jane identified the 109 th Heavy cavalry punching there way through the enemy front line. Off to the left he identified the guard force that were pinned by Ork heavy artillery, at 100 feet he could make out individuals on the ground, some raised there fists in what he assumed to be cheering, seeing the Marauder screaming overhead, they knew that in the next few minutes that heavy artillery would cease to exist.

12 O'clock low Maniac eyeballed several bright yellow targets, Ork Dreadnaughts! Targets of opportunity, now these DID belong to him! Adjusting the awe, He gently lowered the nose of the Jane, the dreadnaughts had very kindly obliged him with a column formation, he returned their hospitality with a burst of explosive canon fire that walked towards the target in huge plumes of dirt and smoke. The whole Marauder shook as the 6 auto cannons delivers their deadly message

“woooah, sounds like your having some fun up there Maniac, save some for me” Romeo panned his turret 6 O'clock low, he knew from experience that whatever was left of the target would be coming into view in a few seconds. Flashing beneath him he saw the burning wreckage of 2 Ork Dreadnaughts “Bag yourself 2 Maniac” opening up with the assault cannon he cut down several Ork boys and sent a bike careering from the road and exploding into a tree

Maniac looked down at his GAR once more, primary target 10 clicks, this was it! The belly of the Marauder opened up to expose its high explosive innards. Target 5 clicks, Maniac flicked open the safety cover of the main ordnance release switch “get ready for some fireworks boys!” he looked through the targeting reticule, down below he could see the cluster of artillery batteries which were causing so much destruction to the guard forces he had passed “open wide fellas, I got a big present for you courtesy of the Lady Jane” He squeezed the trigger. There was a deep thud barely a second apart as the each of the bombs released in a ripple effect, as each one dropped the Jane rose a little with the sudden release of weight, they gracefully arced in the air landing right in the middle of the artillery cluster, timed to detonate as one there was a couple of seconds delay from the first bomb burying itself in the ground, it always seemed like an eternity…..BOOOOOMM!

Behind the Jane Romeo had the best seat in the house to view the ensuing carnage, men and machinery were thrown in the air, secondary explosions from the munitions tore into the survivors rending Orks limb from limb, fires burned and smoke filled the air “yup” Romeo thought to himself “there aint no more bad news coming from that lot for a while”

“Another job well done maniac, now lets get the hell out of here”

“Sure hope Bulldog got those beers in, could kill a cold one right now” Grommit piped up

“ Hey maniac, I told you he wasn't asleep! Romeo heard laughter over the intercom

Maniac pulled back hard on the stick, the Jane clawed into the air rising into the low cloud cover, he patted the console “looks like I owe you another drink lady”