Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 388 05.0387: "Taking office on the front line"

"Starboard guns, front to back, first salvo, fire!"

Following the order from Officer Macron.

Boom!Boom!Boom!Boom!
Every ship in the line opened fire, and every roar from the huge gun muzzles was accompanied by a violent shaking of the entire hull.

Even as Horatio stood at the top of the command bridge, he could feel the vibrations coming from the gun deck beneath his feet.

Flame is the symbol of the birth of human civilization, and it has also been accompanying humans towards the cold void.

Live ammunition weapons will always enjoy loyal fans among human beings because their firing and design are so shocking.

The target of these platinum shells was an oval-shaped boat with a small frontal projection that was even too small for a void ship.

The vanguard of the alien fleet, a swarm of small green junk ships, were rushing forward at an extremely fast speed with thick smoke billowing out of their tails.

Many of the boats had huge, razor-sharp adamantine blades on their fronts.

That is a true 40-meter machete, and that is just its protruding part.

These adamantium blades are their rams, and due to this distinctive feature, these small boats are called "ramming ships" by the Imperial Navy.

The ship itself is equivalent to a huge boarding torpedo.

Relying on brutal ramming, they pierced into the hull of the battleship, and then sprayed tens of thousands of dirty green skins at the hull, defiling the sacred and precious naval warship.

This is an act of blasphemy that no soldier in the Imperial Navy could tolerate.

There were also some boats that were apparently small in size, but in an extremely uncoordinated way had on their bows a gun that was slightly larger in caliber than the Imperial Navy's heavy cannons.

The heavy cannon on the bow does not conceal the brutality and threat given to it by the green-skinned alien master.

Except for the looming greenskin threat.

The officers of the Lookout Department were also nervously paying attention to the four-colored evil light emanating from the dark void about 30,000 kilometers away in the opposite direction.

"God, stop these small boats!" the captain of the operations department shouted to his weapons officers.

"Report! Alien battleship is approaching.

The Chaos Fleet is coming towards us from direction 296, and it seems that they want to cut off our fleet's battle line."

Another bad news came from the Lookout Department.

"Unlike the first void war, now we only have limited room for maneuver, but we cannot retreat. Once the enemy bypasses us and heads straight for the Far Star, the entire battle will be over." Captain Sterling frowned.

"The frequency of these small boats' attacks is too high. The void shield needs to be decompressed! There will be a 15-minute gap! Everyone be prepared to be attacked! We must release the excess energy before engaging the enemy's main force!"

The dazzling shells flew through the void and hit the green-skinned garbage ship directly.

There were too many of these small junk ships, and the orders they received were like they were to weaken the capital ships of the human fleet at all costs.

Therefore, they paid no heed to the ferocious firepower and just rushed forward, getting closer and closer to the Imperial Navy warships, until they were close enough that their own powerful crude weapons could fire or directly ram them.

Around the battle line, escort ships and destroyers came out one after another, like well-trained war dogs, rushing forward to bite these small boats.

Desperately trying to intercept them before they threaten the capital ships.

The heavy macro cannons carried by the Imperial Navy's cruisers can paralyze such a small boat with an average of one round of shooting. The light cruisers with up to 6 rapid-fire light macro cannons on one side are more effective against these things.

Light Lance are a greater threat to these smaller ships, but they fire infrequently and recharge slowly.

In order to stop these suicidal enemy ships, even the close defense firepower was involved in the firing.

Behind them, the starlight illuminated a dozen larger junk ships and giant flying rocks.

That was the greenskins' main fleet, also rushing over with thick smoke.

"Everything is going as Captain Horatio said. Have him come over from the aviation bridge and we will discuss the timing of the next tactical maneuver."

"Yes!"

"Captain Horatio Cochrane, the captain has ordered you to proceed to the command bridge and the command throne immediately." The herald popped his head out at the aviation control desk and said after a quick salute.

"Got it." Horatio returned the greeting, then placed an aviation directive on the table, then turned to Collingwood and said, "Archie, you've done a good job so far. I'm going to report to the command bridge next. Keep it up."

"Don't worry, leave it to me." Although Collingwood's face was covered with sweat, the nervousness did not really affect the performance of his excellent brain. He still gave orders and made plans in an orderly manner, combining organization and decisiveness.

laugh!
Horatio took the captain's ladder and reached the command bridge as quickly as possible.

In the void nearby, there was a constant flash of light from the huge explosion that occurred after the green garbage ship was destroyed. The debris after the explosion flew everywhere, causing the nearby destroyers to dodge frequently.

He could even see the hideous faces of the "green art" on the front of those boats.

"Captain," Horatio saluted.

Suddenly, he felt the iron hand tremble slightly, which was a warning from the omen fragment.

"Mr. Horatio, you will serve as my temporary staff officer next to me. We are now in a situation where we need to seize the opportunity..." Captain Peru paused in the middle of his words, then he stood up and shouted to the helmsman:

"Hard left! Hard left! Everyone prepare to be attacked!"

"Captain, be careful!" Horatio pulled the brigadier general behind the adamantine command throne.

With a loud crash, the glazed portholes on the command bridge suddenly shattered.

The passage of time seemed to slow down, and Horatio clearly saw with his peripheral vision an incomparably huge shell with a diameter of nearly seventy or eighty meters, which shattered the tall armored glaze layer of the command bridge.

Countless metal fragments and glass fragments collapsed from one side.

The giant shell spun and violently broke the golden eagle tied to the statue of the God-Emperor with iron chains, and rushed past Horatio about 300 meters away, shattering the glass layer on the other side, and flew out without detonating in the ship. Boom!
The huge deformed adamantine sky eagle broke free from the chains and fell from the top, hitting the surveying platform at the navigation area below.

In an instant, two officers and three reserve officers disappeared from people's sight, leaving only a huge deep hole on the command deck.

No one knew which level below the command bridge the adamantine Skyeagle statue had crashed into, nor how many lives had been lost in the process.

People didn't care about these things because what followed were more falling objects such as broken glass and shattered steel.

The largest ones were tightly grasped by the steel wire anti-fall net, but some sharp metal bars and glass fragments relied on the huge impact potential energy to directly cut several holes in the anti-fall net.

Small fragments fell from the sky, shining brightly, and showered the command bridge like a deadly rain of crystals.

At this moment, there was chaos on the bridge. Some people were unable to dodge and were stabbed in the exposed legs. Others were even more unfortunate and had their torsos smashed into mud, or were hit directly in the head and fell to the ground with blood gushing out.

For a moment, the sound of ping-pong collisions, the hissing sound of damaged circuit cables, and the screams and wails of the people mixed together and echoed in the empty command bridge.

Boom!
One of the sharp, prismatic pieces of glass fell around the handrail of the fleet's command bridge.

If Horatio had not been quick-witted and pulled Brigadier General Peru behind the golden throne, he would have been broken into two pieces.

"God-Emperor." Brigadier General Peru walked out from behind the fleet command throne, looking at the sudden change, and muttered with lingering fear.

Soon, he discovered that the warship's direction was not right and it had deviated.

It's not the damaged yaw, it's the human-controlled yaw.

He immediately looked at the Lord Captain sitting on the battleship's command throne.

"God Emperor, what happened? Report the situation, Captain Lord Sterling."

The sound of coughing up blood was heard from the sound array.

"Report...Captain. Ahem!"

Captain Sterling endured the severe pain and sat up, but could only lie half-paralyzed on the battleship's command throne, with many deep scratches on his body and face.

Some broken pieces of glass pierced into his abdomen and chest, puncturing his internal organs and causing heavy bleeding. As soon as he opened his mouth, blood was coughed out from his alveoli.

"Captain Lord is injured! Second mate! Take over! Send the medical officer and medical sister over!" the brigadier general shouted.

He looked at the combat position of the second mate, the operations captain, and saw a half-cut body hanging on the Thinker array.

A second lieutenant nearby was sitting on the ground with a pale face, frightened, watching the blood and colorful organs flowing out from the severed half of the operations captain's body.

"Third mate! Third mate!"

"Captain, the command center is short of officers, and two people are injured! One is lightly injured and the other is seriously injured!" The captain of the command center wiped the blood splattered on his face, took the position of the wounded, and said that he could not escape.

The fourth and fifth mates were too far away from the battleship's command throne. By the time they ran a kilometer or two over, it would be too late.

Captain Peru immediately looked at the young captain next to him.

"Captain Horatio, take over the battleship command throne! Right now, I urgently appoint you as the acting captain of the battlecruiser Indefatigable!"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Commodore."

After receiving authorization, Horatio took immediate action.

He leaped up from the platform, holding onto the railing and jumping down the metal steps, and ran towards the battleship's command throne.

The 13th captain, the least senior officer on the ship and the one who had never held this position before the Indefatigable had an aviation department.

Horatio's command of the battleship should have been last in line among the captains.

Normally, the battleship command throne is where the captain himself sits, while the fleet command throne is where the fleet commander and generals sit.

However, as a commodore, he can serve as both the commander of a small strike group without battleships and the captain of a ship.

So, Commodore Edward Perroux, as captain, took the throne of fleet command.

The first mate of the Indefatigable, Captain Lord Stirling, therefore took the seat that should have belonged to the captain.

"Hurry... young man, it's time... to use the skills I taught you..."

The captain in front of him was completely different from the elegant, calm and earnest one he had seen on the Q ship.

At this moment, he was covered in blood, his face was pale, and every breath was filled with blood. Blood foam accumulated at the corners of his mouth, making the words he uttered unclear.

Horatio nodded with a resolute look on his face. He carefully cut the nerve plug on the lord captain's back, helped him up, and laid him flat on the ground.

Then he sat alone on the blood-stained battleship command throne.

Although it was his first time docking with the Indefatigable, he still skillfully connected the neural plug of the captain's throne.

"Received a new access signal..."

"Identification in progress..."

"Horatio Cochrane - Lieutenant of the Imperial Navy - Chief of Aviation of the Indefatigable"

"The identity has been authorized by the Navy Department, unlocking all permissions on the entire ship."

"The Indefatigable awaits your command, Captain."

A soft female voice sounded in Horatio's ears.

This sound does not come from the sound array, but is a panoramic sound that seems to come from the bottom of the heart and go straight to the mind.

(End of this chapter)