Farida secretly glanced at Horatio beside her.
[He… why is he looking at a… ship with such a covetous gaze?]
Farida felt deeply confused.
He had never shown such a drooling, covetous look even when looking at women; instead, he was staring at a ship as if he was about to drool.
[Even Dad is like this; when he's painting ship models, he doesn't allow anyone to disturb him, always disappearing for several hours before emerging. He didn't even come home for St. Giles Festival dinner, just sent a ship model and rushed back to the ship. Is this how all men are?]
Seeing the brilliant light in Horatio's eyes, Farida put a big question mark in her mind.
The frigates in the support fleet swiftly sped forward, and the destroyers previously guarding the southern warp rift also joined the attack against the enemy approaching from the northwest.
Thirty-two massive Void Fighters soared over the sword-like, speeding frigates, heading straight for the Imperial enemy.
The three frigates beside the Unyielding, like hounds against wolves, activated combat speed and charged towards the Blood Army assault ships of similar size.
They tangled together, their smaller forms engaged in a struggle no less intense than that of larger ships.
Deterrent ramming, close-range broadsides, intercepting maneuvers—every available tactic was precisely communicated under the command of the seasoned Lieutenant Colonel Captain and implemented by the Lieutenants.
Eighteen martial arts, under exquisite command, were like Void Dragons, twisting and intertwining on different planes.
Amidst this, cannon shells flew and laser beams crisscrossed.
In the close-quarters combat, both sides' Void Shields quickly overloaded, followed by mutual tearing of flesh and drinking of blood.
Giant Macro cannon shells violently penetrated the enemy ships.
The large-caliber laser point-defense guns on both sides of the hull continuously poured fire onto the opponents. Shaped like super Gatling rotary cannons, they could cause immense damage to fragile small ship hulls at such close range.
The hull was shredded by a humming barrage of high-energy lasers, dense like tongues of flame, turning into debris, with the dismembered limbs of cultist crew members floating in the dark void.
The Unyielding was entangled with three large enemy ships.
She was like a Void Tiger, utterly ferocious.
Her massive, somewhat bloated hull, under the control of the Imperial Navy's elite Naval Officers, became nimble.
The Unyielding maneuvered through the gaps between the three warships, separating them.
Both broadside gun batteries fired simultaneously, lashing out the whip of punishment at their opponents.
Although the two spindle-shaped heretical warships exchanged fire with the Unyielding, their objective was the Blood Angels battle barge, and they charged recklessly towards this Void Whale.
The other broadside guns of the Avenging Blade opened fire, and the bombardment turrets on the ship's spine slowly turned towards the encroaching enemy.
The Thunderhawk squadron ceased attacking the crippled Murder-class Cruiser and instead charged towards the approaching enemy.
Captain Peru would not let the enemy succeed so easily.
The 5.3-kilometer-long Unyielding, in a slight drifting diagonal posture in the void, activated her side thrusters and made an emergency turn.
"Torpedos ready! Engines full power! Brace for Impact!"
This was the Imperial Navy's most dreaded order: Brace For Impact!
Meaning 'Brace for Impact!'
Whether for the enemy or oneself, it always portended immense destruction.
The massive torpedoes were preheated amidst the binary chanting of the Tech-Priests.
The plasma engines spewed out huge golden flames, scattering like an explosion.
The Unyielding charged at an astonishing speed towards the blasphemous warship that was approaching the Avenging Blade, intending to board her.
"My Lord! The False Emperor's servants are charging at us!"
"Evade! Emergency Evade!!! Let the servant's warship block him!" roared the fallen Astartes commanding the Murder-class Cruiser.
What he didn't know was that the renegade Dreadnought-class Light Cruiser couldn't possibly block a Doomsday-class battlecruiser twice her tonnage.
Inside the Unyielding, intense, urgent impact alarms flashed.
"Boots, activate magnetic-lock mode! Hold on tight!" Horatio shouted to Farida beside him.
"Magnetic-lock… magnetic-lock, ah, this is it!" Farida activated the magnetic-lock mode on her void boots.
Instantly, she felt her feet firmly clamped to the deck.
Horatio stood behind her, one hand on her shoulder, the other gripping the handrail in front of the display console.
The sudden pat startled Farida, who was already nervous experiencing impact preparation for the first time.
She glanced at Horatio's hand on her shoulder, and the tension in her heart eased slightly.
The Unyielding's extreme acceleration was too fast; the entire hull, every deck, vibrated violently.
Many people who didn't manage to grab a railing fell.
Under the 'Brace for Impact' command, everyone on the ship had to prepare for impact.
The energy conversion chambers concentrated 80% of the ship's power onto the Void Shield, even if it meant interrupting the fire of the lances.
In the medical bay, under the Medical Officer's command, steel hoops rose from the middle of each bed, firmly securing the severely wounded patients to their berths.
The cannon shells in the ammunition chambers were all secured like mummies with thick chains wrapped around them.
All fire doors throughout the ship slammed shut with a 'bang.' Crew members gripped onto anything that could secure them.
During this impact acceleration process, both shell loading and crane operations would halt; otherwise, if a massive shell were to fall from a hook and smash onto the gun deck, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The ship's tremors grew increasingly violent, causing concern that it might break apart.
Every officer who had experienced it on the command bridge would agree there was nothing more heart-stopping, more adrenaline-pumping, than a ramming attack.
Everyone watched as they charged recklessly towards the crimson blasphemous cruiser, getting closer and closer.
The blasphemous cannon shells were blocked by the massive adamantium-armored prow; the majestic prow's Skyhawk, with contempt for the enemy, glared with wide eyes.
The colossal power ram began to charge.
A peculiar hum could be heard throughout the entire prow, the wave noise produced by the disintegrating field waves from the largest power weapon in human history. It was terrifying.
But this was not the end. Before the ram plunged into the enemy ship's hull, there was one final step.
The Tech-Priest in the torpedo launch bay, using the vocal array mounted on his mouth, chanted a strange, ethereal, and chilling binary hymn.
The massive Helios-class fusion torpedoes, like slumbering giants suddenly opening their eyes, spewed out huge flames from their tails.
Six colossal fusion torpedoes burst from the already open launch tubes, charging directly towards the enemy ship.
The two enemy ships unleashed an overwhelming barrage to try and intercept them.
But the torpedo launch distance was simply too close.
None of the six torpedoes were intercepted; they passed straight through the virtually useless Void Shields and struck the enemy ship amidships.
Boom!!!
A colossal burst of flame rose, accompanied by a dense shower of debris.
Six torpedoes, spread over 6800 meters, tore off half of her port side, almost crippling all of the heavy point-defense gun arrays along that entire flank, a total of 12 of them.
To make the Angels bleed, the Murder-class Cruiser, filled with Blood Pact Army troops, was instantly filled with heart-rending wails and screams.
Countless traitors on the side boarding decks, preparing to invade, were instantly reduced to ashes along with the ship's armor.
The molten iron was full of calcium.
Fire, collapse, disintegration—these traitors witnessed firsthand the hell created by the Imperial Navy.
Their proud blasphemous warship became a giant furnace, a purgatory comparable to that beneath the Brass Throne.
Temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees spread throughout most of the ship's hull; anyone caught by the infernal wind was carbonized, and the subsequent flames caused the structure to disintegrate.
"Ah!! Ah!!!"
The un-dead stumbled, screaming and rolling, clutching their melting, collapsing faces.
But the nightmare wasn't over yet.
Bang!!!!
A earth-shattering roar that echoed throughout the entire airspace drew everyone's attention.
I hate the plum rain season!!! It makes me feel like I'm living in the bottom hold of a sailing warship every day. Outdoor humidity 97%, indoor humidity 75%.