Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords! - Chapter 522

Chapter 518 06.0517: ‘The Hound of Pursuit’

Horatio did not stay in the remodeled operating room where howling echoed for too long. He soon returned to the bridge to continue his duties.

The overall speed of the fleet was slowed down by the pilgrimage ship. This extremely large void giant Kun had a speed of barely 8 void knots.

Even the Imperial Bell-class merchant ship was much faster than it – it could reach 12 void knots under afterburner.

“Captain, unknown subspace fluctuations were detected, the nature is… jump!”

Swoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several Tau warships appeared at Mandeville Point, 16,000 kilometers behind the Epic.

As officers of the Imperial Navy, they were not unfamiliar with the Tau warships’ subspace navigation method.

In essence, they also take the warp route, but unlike the Imperial warships, the Tau, as a race without psychics, finally came up with a method of using the warp jump from going deep into the “Ocean of the Highest Sky” to “lightly floating on the water”.

Their warships are like a stone floating across the surface of the warp at high speed, whizzing forward and passing by lightly, and will not really go deep into the undercurrents and dangerous waves of the warp.

But this is not without cost – their sailing speed is slower than that of the Empire, because they need to fluctuate back and forth between the real universe and the warp, and are restricted by the basic time laws of the real universe.

When Horatio sank the merchant fleet, rescued the pilgrim ship, captured the spy ship, and almost ran back to the control area of ​​the Imperial Navy, these blue-skinned alien ships finally arrived.

“Commander, how should we deal with them?”

“We will not abandon the pilgrim ship unless we are destroyed.”

“Our ship has no torpedo reserves. We will continue to accompany the escort and summon other attack ships to delay them.”

“Archie, how long will it take to reach the Imperial Navy control area?”

“At least 12 hours, but it is reported that Vice Admiral Samuel Hood’s fleet has set off and entered the warp, and the arrival time is unknown.”

“God Emperor bless us. The attack ship battle group will immediately disperse and adopt a blocking tactic. Fire all the torpedoes.”

After giving the order, the wolves immediately scattered and implemented a blocking tactic.

Captain Krezimer of the E-99 attack ship boldly turned around and headed towards the enemy fleet.

Seeing that the E-99 was so radical, another captain Prien, who was also known for his radicalism, also went with him.

E-46, E-47, and E-103 planned to rely on the nebula to carry out a safer “hit and run” tactic, and to assist the evacuation of the E-47 and E-99 attack ships.

Among them, the location where the E-47 and E-99 attack ships went exceeded the maximum command distance of the Horatio Void Sand Table.

This was the first time that the other attack ships launched a group battle on their own without the squadron leader joining the battle.

This was a “final exam” that was tested with life.

“Captain, the enemy fleet group has entered the field of vision and has been identified. There are three cruisers, four light cruisers, and eight destroyers or frigates surrounding the fleet. They have just finished jumping and are lining up.” The officer on the E-99 reported.

“Got it.” Captain Krezimer straightened his wrinkled white-topped captain’s wide-brimmed hat and replied.

“You have been following Lieutenant Commander Cochran for so long. Show us what you have learned and let other attack ship colleagues look at us with new eyes!

All torpedoes in the bow torpedo silo are preheated. Torpedoes No. 1 and No. 2 use FAT guidance heads, and torpedoes No. 3 and No. 4 use thermal energy tracking guidance heads.” After a brief and simple encouragement, Captain Krezimer stood in front of the binoculars on the observation platform again, observing the target and giving orders.

“Torpedo preheating is complete, Captain.”

“Open the slide cover and prepare to launch torpedoes No. 1 and No. 2. After 15 seconds, launch torpedoes No. 3 and No. 4.

Send the launch plan in the form of flag signals and keep it for reference to the E-47 attack ship.”

Soon, the E-47 attack ship also responded with the same attack strategy in flag signals.

The two ships then agreed on the launch time.

Captain Krezimer and Captain Prien pinched their pocket watches and watched the pointers on them rotate. Everyone was highly nervous in silence.

“Fire!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

First, four torpedoes were fired from the bows of two ships in different directions, speeding towards the Tau fleet that was assembling.

The enemy also reacted quickly and immediately started the plasma engine to disperse freely.

Soon, two torpedoes equipped with thermal guidance heads were fired at the same time when the enemy’s engine was maximized to avoid the torpedoes.

This was Kretschmer’s tactical plan – first use two FAT guidance head torpedoes to force the enemy to maneuver, and then use two thermal guidance heads to chase the enemy ship’s engine.

Whether it is destroyed or not, as long as the enemy ship’s power can be paralyzed and it cannot catch up with the pilgrim ship, it can also be regarded as achieving the tactical goal.

When the four FAT torpedoes approached the fleet group, the surging close defense firepower immediately retaliated, and the destroyers and frigates took the initiative to rush to the torpedoes, intending to use ion cannons to destroy the torpedoes that threatened the fleet.

It has to be admitted that once the Tau ships reached a certain scale, the close-in firepower network they formed was indeed tight – after all, both the Imperial Navy and the Space Marines of the Human Empire liked to use torpedoes, and they would rely on their sturdy adamantine bow shields to charge straight in and fire at close range.

After repeatedly paying a heavy price, the Tau warship development strategy has also been adjusted in a targeted manner – even if the heavy anti-ship guns are reduced, it is necessary to ensure that there are dense ion close-in defense guns with all-round shooting to deal with the imperial army’s torpedoes and ordnance.

In this case, torpedoes fired at close range can be intercepted to the greatest extent, not to mention the torpedoes fired by the E-47 and E-99 attack ships at a distance of 1,500 kilometers. This long distance leaves enough time for the Tau warships to react.

The first batch of torpedoes were completely destroyed by the surging strafing of the warships. The huge shock wave of the nuclear explosion hit the dark void. The power of destruction made all the Tau officers and soldiers stunned and frightened.

If such a torpedo hits their own warships, the consequences will be unimaginable.

The radiation aftermath of the nuclear explosion torpedo briefly paralyzed the detection array on the warship, and the small ship was also affected by the huge shock wave and swayed.

“Kan # Bong! The second batch of enemy torpedoes!”

It was a nuclear explosion torpedo equipped with a thermal seeker that was launched after a delay of 15 seconds.

This news made all the Tau crew members who had breathed a sigh of relief breathe again.

They immediately made an emergency turn, and the turn also made the flames at the stern leak out, and it became more and more obvious in the eyes of the psychic in the seeker.

Just as the psychic rushed towards the light of death, the Tau warships sprayed out decoy bombs at the same time.

The shimmering foil strips, the dazzling heat source, and the harsh high-frequency noise generators were sprayed from the nozzles all around.

The psychic in the seeker was dizzy and dazzled by the chaotic light in front of him, and lost the original trace of the target in his eyes.

Then he was tortured by the harsh noise and screamed, which was extremely shrill.

After being illuminated by the decoy bomb and losing the correct position of the maneuvering target, they used neural plugs to control the torpedo rudder to turn.

In order to survive, the Tau warships spared no effort to spray decoy bombs, even if this would affect subsequent battles – because decoy bombs can be consumed.

Seeing this, Captain Krezimer contacted Captain Prien, and together they fired four more bow torpedoes – this was all their trump cards, but as long as they could achieve a result, they would have done their best.