Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1016, 08.1015: The Final Offensive

When the violent collision occurred in the next dimension, the Swift Eagle was engaged in battle with the massive Duke's Pride from a higher orbital plane.

The shockwaves from the shells traveled along the ship's hull, sounding like a giant beast groaning in pain.

Her port armor was torn to shreds by the fierce firepower of the rebel flagship HMS Duke's Pride, which had over thirty light cannons.

Each shell that hit left a circular wound on the ship's hull, shimmering with a red, melting light, like an ugly scar left by stars on a dying steel sky.

Her ship's rudder was severely damaged, and the plasma beams from the engine nozzles, torn apart by gunfire, flickered erratically, looking as if they might go out at any moment.

The entire warship tilted a full six degrees to starboard, staggering through the void, making onlookers worry that it might lose control at any moment and plunge headlong into the endless darkness.

At this moment, in the chaotic and complex space, fragments of armor, twisted metal beams, and broken pipes from both sides' warships formed a deadly nebula.

Amidst this wreckage float countless crew members' bodies, frozen in time.

They were sucked out of the damaged cabin, and the vacuum and lack of oxygen instantly took their lives. A layer of white frost covered their terrified faces, turning them into eternal ice sculptures.

In the center of the Gothic cathedral-like bridge, a huge holographic image flickered on the tactical projection in front of Captain Horatio.

On the structural module diagram of the "Swift Skyhawk", four areas representing the gun deck have been completely darkened.

Verbal reports received from weapons officer Leidos confirmed that four large guns on the port side were completely destroyed—either their steering mechanisms were shattered, or the entire turret, along with its base, was directly hit and turned into a cloud of scorching metal.

To confront a traitor's warship with firepower more than three times its own and a much larger tonnage difference... was it really too much of a stretch?

Horatio's knuckles turned pale from gripping the armrests of the command throne so tightly, and he exhaled sharply.

Boom! !
A blinding red light pierced through the thick armored glass of the bridge, illuminating Horatio's tired face in a blazing red.

On the holographic projection in front of him, the majestic No. 2 turret on the spine of the "Swift Skyhawk" was hit by a light macro gun shell that was scattered and flying horizontally.

The shell easily tore through the relatively thin armor on the top of the turret and triggered a violent secondary explosion in the ammunition compartment.

A violent fireball shot into the sky, its intense light causing everyone on the bridge to tense up, as if their hearts were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

Fortunately, the turret ammunition compartment was designed with this worst-case scenario in mind from the outset.

The violent energy surged into the void through the pre-designed channel, forming a brief but magnificent fountain of fire, instead of blasting the entire turret diagonally towards the bridge structure and causing secondary damage.

"I want you to close the fire doors there at all costs!"

With a grim face, Leidos issued a ruthless order to the damage control department through the internal communication system.

As the commander-in-chief of damage control, his voice was devoid of emotion, as cold and resolute as steel, because every order he gave carried the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

“But sir, there are still crew members inside…” The damage control team leader’s voice sounded hesitant and pained amidst the hum of the electrical circuits.

"Close the gates!" Rydos roared, his voice echoing across the bridge. "Otherwise, the hundreds of thousands of people on this ship will die immediately! Execute the order!"

"Yes!" The voice on the other end trembled for a moment, then became firm.

The closed-circuit telephone on the bulkhead didn't even have time to hang up before the receiver made a hollow impact sound on the metal deck.

Leidos could even hear, from the ambient noise remaining on the communication channel, the agonizing screams of those engulfed in flames, and the hoarse roars of the damage control team amidst the howling firestorm.

"Quick! Quick! Get out here!"

Is this the last person inside?

"There's no one inside! Close the door! By the Emperor's grace, push harder!!!"

"Why can't I push it? Damn it!"

"The hydraulic booster rod was destroyed!"

"Everyone! Come and lend a hand! Use the crowbar! Push harder!!!!"

Boom!
A heavy, loud bang was heard.

Old Joe and his two sons, along with other damage control team members dressed in heavy fireproof suits, gripped the heavy manual rotary valve of the fireproof hatch with their hands, which were covered in heat-resistant gloves.

After using all their strength to close the huge adamantine gate, they tightened the locking mechanism with all their might.

At the same time, the ship's life support system also cut off all oxygen supply to the No. 2 turret area on the stern.

Soon, as the flames exhausted the last bit of oxygen in the confined space, the fire that had swallowed dozens of crew members finally extinguished.

All that remains is the charred, blackened base, standing still like a giant tombstone, maintaining the direction it was aimed at last, silently testifying to the gunners' final loyalty.

But the Duke's Pride, which caused all this damage, didn't fare much better—more than ten of its turrets were no longer combat-ready, and its engines were barely enough to support its warp travel to the next planet.

boom!
Another shell hit the bridge of the Swift Skyhawk.

A glass window, tens of meters high, suddenly shattered, and the glass flowers turned into countless beautiful yet dangerous fragments that fell like rain.

One of the fragments flew toward Horatio, who was seated on his command throne. Fortunately, he reacted in time and leaned back sharply. The fragment only left a shallow cut on his face instead of slicing off half of his head.

He calmly wiped the blood from his face with his white-gloved hand, then raised his head, staring intently at the massive enemy, his stiff jaw tightening as he clenched his teeth.

"Captain, a micro-rift in subspace has been detected! The Duke's Pride is trying to escape!" The lookout's report was like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone's heads.

"Countless brave officers and soldiers sacrificed their lives for this opportunity! We must not let this traitor escape!"

Horatio rose from his command throne, took a deep breath, and, forcing back his exhaustion, shouted to the bridge, "In the name of the Emperor, order all warships in the fleet to stop it at all costs! Let's charge one more time! One more time! Launch the final offensive!!!"

When he shouted "Final Offensive," his voice even became hoarse.

"Torpedo compartment report: Reassembly complete, preparing to recharge via energy pipeline!" "Helmsman report: Rudder efficiency severely reduced due to damage to the balance rudder! We cannot keep up with its jump maneuvers!"

“It’s too late, he’s going to escape…” David Betty von Ravensberg, drenched in sweat, took a deep breath after saying this. The fact that they had made such a great sacrifice but still failed to stop General Pompey was frustrating for many officers, including himself.

While it's hard to say whether the "Duke's Pride" can hold out until it leaves the warp, the fact that this rebel flagship wasn't destroyed means that this threat could potentially resurface in the future.

“No…are we just going to stand here and watch them get away?” An officer stood in front of the Thinker’s battle platform, his brow furrowed and his eyes filled with resentment.

For the Imperial Navy, such a threat must not be allowed to continue; it must be destroyed!

"Torpedoes detected approaching from below! Three!" the lookout officer suddenly shouted, pointing to three newly appeared fiery trails on the tactical projection.

Horatio's eyes lit up; it was a nuclear-incendiary torpedo launched from the orbit below by a friendly attack ship.

Strangely, the direction in which the torpedoes were launched received no identification signal from any friendly ships; it was as if the torpedoes had vanished. Neither the E-99 nor the E-103 attack ships issued the required firing warning. It was as if these three torpedoes, carrying the wrath of the Emperor, appeared out of thin air and fired at the enemy ships.

This unexpected blow rekindled Horatio's hope.

Three silver death messengers, trailing long, dark blue plasma contrails, hurtled towards the enemy ship's relatively vulnerable hull from the lower levels, atop the dense close-in weapon system of the "Duke's Pride."

Beams of laser light and a dense hail of bullets intertwined around the torpedo, creating a deadly web.

A guided torpedo was intercepted by concentrated fire and exploded into a silent burst of sparks in space.

But the remaining two are speeding along in complex anti-interference postures, their internal thinkers rapidly calculating evasion paths.

The first huge burst of fire exploded in the center of the enemy ship's hull, eliciting a suppressed cheer from the bridge of the "Swift Skyhawk".

Immediately afterwards, a second torpedo accurately struck the starboard rudder of the HMS Duke's Pride.

The violent explosion snapped the massive structure in half from the rear.

It's like a Gothic cathedral with its corner blown off, a lame giant collapsing to the right with a crash.

Blazing flames erupted from the wound, licking the hull and shooting up to the magnificent bridge dome and spires.

The large cruiser HMS Duke's Pride, which had been hit by two nuclear-explosive torpedoes again, was crackling and sputtering everywhere, and the molten steel began to collapse.

The entire traitor's warship was engulfed in flames, teetering on the brink of death, its condition extremely precarious. Yet, it still struggled with all its might, dragging its wrecked body, stubbornly fleeing towards the forming subspace rift.

"This severe damage may increase its chances of getting lost in the warp, but from an engineering perspective, it's not impossible to repair the ship within the next four or five decades. As long as... well, it wasn't completely torn to shreds."

While leading her team of technicians to repair and plug the leaks, Chief Technician Father Lati calmly analyzed the damage to the enemy ship through her data link.

Her voice was filled with sorrow and regret. Large cruisers, an ancient type of ship from the Great Expeditionary Era, were few in number; the destruction of one meant one less in the world.

As she spoke, her brain's data link mobilized almost all of her modified mechs, including several surviving Castellan combat robots and XV8-I wet-component mechs, to forcibly plug the gap in the ship's hull with massive steel plates.

Subsequently, the captured and "purified" Titanium drones were used for emergency welding with hot melt welding guns suspended from their undersides, and the molten metal emitted a dazzling white light in the vacuum.

Numerous servo skulls and drones carrying fire-extinguishing foam sprayers worked in conjunction with the damage control team to carry out emergency repairs throughout the ship's compartments, striving to maintain the "Swift Skyhawk's" final combat capability.

This battle was far more devastating than Horatio had ever anticipated.

The extent of her damage was comparable to that of the battlecruiser HMS Indulgence after the war in the Far Star Region. After colliding with the Greenskin's boulder, she was towed into a dry dock for years of dismantling and overhaul.

This also gave him a clearer understanding of the gap between tonnage and the effectiveness of a surprise attack—in the face of an absolute tonnage advantage, a head-on confrontation is almost hopeless, and even a well-planned surprise attack is unlikely to achieve results safely.

"Torpedo reinstallation complete! But..." Fideo's voice was full of helplessness, "The technical priest of the torpedo room reported that the power supply lines connecting the stern energy center to the bow were severely damaged in the battle, with six out of thirteen cables broken."

Relying on the remaining seven to power the torpedo engines has reduced efficiency by 37%. We... I'm afraid we won't be able to launch it before it enters subspace, Captain. Everyone has done their best…”

Leidos gritted his teeth, turned around abruptly, and slammed his fist into the bulkhead behind him, making a dull thud.

"No, it's not over yet!" Archie Cuthbert Collingwood's roar suddenly came from the sound array.

In the high-altitude orbit above the Swift Eagle, a dazzling meteor, like a vengeful sword, hurtled towards the fleeing Duke's Pride.

"Aim at its bridge! Launch torpedoes!" Archie shouted into the communications channel, his voice trembling with excitement.

Whoosh!Whoosh!
Two torpedoes roared eagerly from the dark torpedo silos of the USS Akali Sword.

The distance between the "Sword of Akali" and the "Pride of the Duke" is less than 100 kilometers, and they are closing in at a suicidal speed.

She fired the most lethal shot she could as a destroyer, almost at the minimum safe distance for torpedo launch.

Ahead of the large cruiser "Duke's Pride," the subspace rift had been torn open, with multicolored, mottled light surging within. Purple lightning, like tentacles reaching out from hell, bared its fangs and claws, trying to drag the bulky warship into it.

They have already attached themselves to the broad, flat, adamantine bow, and it won't be long before the giant ship sails completely into the crevice.

At that very moment, a torpedo struck the rear of its bridge.

boom!
It was like a block castle being detonated from the inside.

The "Prince of the Duke," engulfed in flames and overwhelmed by its own weight, had its bridge—the magnificent Gothic cathedral that symbolized rebellion and glory—crash apart.

Countless spires, flying arches, and statues transformed in an instant into a torrent of crimson, molten metal, spraying outwards in all directions.

(Illustration: A cruiser with its bridge command center destroyed. However, in the highly motivated and well-trained Imperial Navy, sometimes a warship could continue to fight even with its bridge destroyed.)
With the loss of the bridge's command center and the complete destruction of the propulsion system, the subspace rift in front of the "Duke's Pride" lost its energy supply.

Driven by inertia, it glided forward, and although it wasn't completely blown to pieces, it was utterly transformed into a cold, lifeless space wreck.

On the bridge of the Swift Eagle, the surviving crew members silently watched the scene of steel, flames, and death. No one cheered; there was only a heavy silence of survivors.

Volume 8 Complete
(End of this chapter)