The Wyvern Suppression Tank exchanges the Hydra’s
anti-aircraft autocannons for a pair of twin-linked stormshard
mortars. The tank excels in the claustrophobic environment of
urban warfare, raining curtains of shrapnel down upon luckless
enemy infantry without ever exposing itself to harm.
Utilising a bastardised version of the Hydra’s auto-targeting
systems, the Wyvern runs constant proximity sweeps for
concentrations of enemy infantry. The machine spirits of these
vehicles are renowned for their malicious streak – they actively
seek the most tight-packed or vulnerable groupings of the foe
and strain to target them, sometimes even overriding the
commands of their crews. When the tanks do let fly, their
stormshard mortars emit a distinctive, whooshing roar as they
spew clouds of shells high into the air. This sound becomes
the dread of enemy forces facing batteries of Wyverns in dense
terrain – it is inevitably followed by the howl of those same
shells descending, the crackling booms of their detonation and
the harrowing screams of the maimed and dying.

pecialising in close-ranged saturation bombardment, the
Wyvern fills a very different niche to the Basilisk. Though
lacking the all-out stopping power to fell heavy war engines,
Wyverns excel in generating an all-consuming storm of shrapnel
from which there can be no escape. A battery of these
belligerent artillery tanks can fill a street from end to end with
whistling, razor-edged death, relentlessly pounding enemy
infantry until nothing is left but bloody mulch and drifting
smoke. Cover will not avail their victims, for their shells plunge
down from on high and there is nowhere that their airbursting
rounds cannot reach. Undergrowth is torn to shreds, flakboard
and barricades perforated. Those crouched in craters, trenches
or gun-pits find their sanctuaries turned suddenly to death-traps
as they fill with whizzing metal and spattering blood.
In a galaxy where many of Mankind’s enemies leave Imperial
Guardsmen with a feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy, so
vindictive a weapon is popular amongst the men. Nothing
restores an Imperial Guardsman’s faith like watching arrogant
Eldar or terrifying Daemons reduced to flailing, frantic madness
by the relentless shelling of a Wyvern battery. For their sheer
spectacle alone these tanks are worth their weight in gold, not
only devastating the enemy’s forces but reducing them to a
powerless, terrified mass as they die.
The Wyvern is a very versatile weapon for an artillery tank –
whole batteries of them can certainly be drawn up to pound a
foe into oblivion, but more often they are attached in small
numbers to other formations. Even a single Wyvern can
provide an Infantry Platoon with invaluable close-range fire
support, fending off waves of enemies that might otherwise
overrun the hapless Imperial Guardsmen. When deployed in
support of other tanks, Wyverns prove invaluable in keeping at
bay those infantry threats that would attack the vehicles’
vulnerable flanks and rear.
Wyverns can strike directly at concentrations of the foe in
order to clear a path, or spread their fire out in ‘area-denial’
bombardments that force even the most tenacious defenders to
quit their posts or die. Even ultra-fast targets such as jetbikes
find themselves cut to pieces by experienced Wyvern crews,
who will lead their fire so as to ensure airburst directly above
the victim just as it passes through the target area. Each such
successful hit elicits a growl of satisfaction from the Wyvern’s
bloodthirsty machine spirit, even as its sensors hunt eagerly for
the next luckless victim.