Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 421 06.0420: "Horatio's Epic"

"Farida, Louise, congratulations on becoming official military supervisors and commissioned officers."

Seeing the two sweet lovers reunited after a long separation, Horatio suppressed his joy and greeted them in return.

"Congratulations, Mr. Cochrane. Um, but I think I should call you Major now."

In front of so many senior people, Farida used a more distant tone, but only she and Horatio were familiar with each other in private and spoke with a smile.

"Lieutenant Commander? I remember there is no rank of major in our military rank sequence." Horatio was stunned and quickly recalled the naval officer rank list.

"There weren't any before, but things have changed now. I think you should have seen the new warships parked in an orderly manner in orbit, a total of one hundred of them," said Farida.

"Of course, if you mean the E-type attack ship, it is indeed an eye-catching 'little guy'."

[This 1.2-kilometer-long 'little guy' is only considered a little guy in the Empire. In any other civilization, it would probably be a monster on the level of a space battleship.]
In his time, the largest warship in the world was only 300 meters long, with a crew of 3000 and global strike capabilities.

"According to the Navy Department's decree, a naval captain has the right to independently command a non-classified ship to conduct military operations. But that was in the past, when non-classified warships were used to clear out various crudely made pirate ships.

Now, the Navy Headquarters of the Hazy Star Region has approved the trial use of this new type of attack ship, which will be carried to the war zone by a dock ship with subspace navigation capabilities. A dock ship can carry six such warships.

Based on the dock ship's carrying capacity, the Navy Committee directly decided that a squadron would consist of six attack ships. "Venaska Katalia answered Horatio personally.

"Unlike escort ships, when the captain of an attack ship is a captain, the squadron needs a senior commander to unify the command. Therefore, the Navy Headquarters has used the rank of Lieutenant Commander on a trial basis. Mr. Horatio Cochrane, you have been selected by the Navy Committee of the Hazy Sector to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander of this sector. You may also be the first Lieutenant Commander of the entire empire."

Standing next to Lord Admiral Katalia, Lord Colonel Elphinstone spoke elegantly and respectfully with his back straight and his hands crossed behind his back.

After hearing this, Horatio immediately understood what it meant.

Since the Blue Star Era of Holy Terra, for a long time, Navy Captain was the lowest rank in the Navy that could command a small warship.

Lieutenant literally means 'assistant officer'.

They are required to be able to take over the command of the ship at any time according to the command sequence when the captain loses his command ability, so independently commanding a warship is considered their basic operational quality.

This tradition was further developed as the number of naval ships increased with the development of the times.

When the navy transitioned from the sail and steam engine era to the diesel engine era, torpedo boats and submarines joined the navy one after another. The torpedo boat captains and submarine captains who served as their commanders usually had the rank of naval captain. When there were insufficient number of captains, naval lieutenants could command.

Horatio and naval commanders of the era understood that the best way to unleash the power of these small, high-threat, fast-attack ships was to use them in groups.

The rank of Lieutenant Commander was also fully formalized in the British Navy during the Victorian era.

The meaning of the word changed from the original 'assistant commander' of the naval lieutenant colonel (Commander) to the real 'captain commander'.

Responsible for commanding a squadron of torpedo boats or submarines captained by naval captains to conduct cluster attacks.

To maximize the attack effectiveness of this type of ship and improve the survivability of the warship.

"In the name of the Obscure Star Region Naval Council, thank you for your loyal service to the Empire and its Holy Navy, Major Horatio." Louise directed two servants to come over, and they walked towards Horatio holding the thick and large letter of commission.

"The commission will take effect immediately upon receipt. You are now a lieutenant commander of the Imperial Navy, the captain of the E96 attack ship, and the captain of an entire attack squadron.

At the same time, the Misty Star Region Navy Committee has decided not to change your accumulated military merit points, and will still include them in the Lieutenant Colonel promotion index, and you will be promoted after reaching the original Lieutenant Colonel standard. "

"Well done, young man, you have achieved two-thirds of your goal of being promoted to lieutenant colonel." Brigadier General Peru patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile.

"Thank you, Louise. I didn't expect that you could bring back two letters of commission after a trip to Sepra-Mundy. You are really capable." Horatio was in a good mood and said in a teasing tone.

"You helped me a lot. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to pass the lieutenant exam."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries reserved for young men, Horatio turned to the two senior officers of the Gothic fleet.

"Sir, will these attack ships be used in the second Damocles Gulf expedition?"

"You're not wrong, Major.

However, we have not yet fully determined the specific use of this warship in combat. Many captains believe that they should play the role of destroyers when fighting with capital ships, launch sneak attacks on enemy fleets from the side, and accompany the fleet in normal activities. "

"I have an idea," said Horatio.

"Go ahead, Major."

“The proposal of our predecessors is indeed a good idea, but I don’t agree with the point that it will be accompanied by the fleet’s activities in the end.

Since it is a fast attack ship with torpedoes as its main attack weapon, it will not be able to play its due performance if it only accompanies the slow-moving fleet on weekdays. I think that when there is no fleet-level void battle, the captains of the attack ships should be given the power to attack independently and focus on the enemy's logistics supply lines.

Based on my limited understanding of the Tau, they have two types of large fleets. One is the Tau Guardian Fleet, which is the main fleet of the aliens responsible for homeland defense and combat. It generally uses cutting-edge warships, but they are small in scale and expensive, and will only attack in groups during fleet decisive battles.

The other type is the Tau merchant fleet, which is the most common fleet in the galaxy.

These Merchant-class warships have slender hulls and move slowly. They mostly sail in the void as single ships and can also be upgraded with light weapons.

(A fully armed merchant ship is classified as a light cruiser by the Imperial Navy when carrying weapons. It is the most produced ship by the Tau, but its position as an armed merchant ship still means that its firepower is weak and it is difficult to compete with real warships.)
In previous battles, the Imperial Navy lacked small attack ships that could cause effective damage to Tau warships. The light macroguns of escort ships were often unable to quickly destroy the merchant ships of the Tau trade fleet. As long as they were not completely disabled at one time, they could use maintenance drones to repair most of the damage to the hull.

The small ships of the Imperial Navy basically accompany the fleet in operations and rarely sail independently to carry out anti-commerce tactics.

On the other hand, these aliens will use small and fast ships and cutting-edge tracking torpedo missiles to pose a threat to our transport ships and supply ships.

Now that we have our own cutting-edge torpedo attack ships, it’s time to give them a taste of their own medicine.”

After these words came out, the female admiral was silent for a while, and then said to the lord colonel next to her:
"It seems that I was right. He is indeed talented and perceptive. The conclusion he reached is consistent with the advice given to us by the Navy Committee. It took those old men a year and a half of repeated deductions and discussions to reach this conclusion."

"I think that's why Admiral Jervis, who advocates the sabotage theory, appointed Cochrane as the first lieutenant commander, allowing him to perfect the merchant fleet sabotage theory through actual combat training."

Then Lord Colonel Elphinstone looked at Horatio and said, "Please follow me, Major. I will explain to you the unique features of this new warship so that you can better use your tactical thinking."

The group followed the Lord Colonel to the assembly control room of the orbital shipyard.

In the dimly lit control room with tangled cables, dozens of Vospa mechanical priests wearing yellow and red holy vestments were adjusting parameters in front of a console full of flickering indicator lights.

"Pull out the design drawings." the captain ordered.

"Look, sir." The leading mechanical priest said respectfully. His face, which had been completely mechanically transformed, showed no expression. Only the two gas mask-like optical sensors on his eyes were silently emitting orange light.

"The E-type attack ship is 1.2 kilometers long, 107 meters wide at its widest point, 203 meters high excluding the bridge, and 246 meters high from the belly of the fin to the top of the bridge.

In the overspeed navigation state, it can reach an extremely fast speed of 18 void knots. The maximum speed of the shadow field is 8 void knots. If the speed exceeds 8 knots, the camouflage force field of the shadow field cannot be activated. 5 knots is the optimal concealment speed.

The ship is equipped with 24 Helios-class torpedoes, four torpedo silos at the bow and one anti-pursuit torpedo silo at the stern.

On the ship's spine is installed a light macro-gun turret of the same type as that of the Scimitar-class escort ship. It uses an automatic shell hoist for loading, has a firing rate of three rounds per five minutes, and has fierce firepower.

Since the battleship does not have the ability to navigate in the subspace, it needs to be transported by a special dock ship, but this also saves the space needed to install the Geller force field and subspace engine.

And because the interior of the ship is highly automated, only 5000 people are needed to ensure that the warship operates at optimal efficiency in three shifts.

Based on a crew of 10,000, the supplies on board can satisfy at least one and a half months of void voyage.

But if you want to cram in more crew members, it would not be a problem to reach the same 15,000 people as the Cobra destroyer by just squeezing them together.

But in this case, you may need to consider more about the morale issues caused by the poor living environment due to overcrowding.

After all, there is no need to carry so many torpedoes inside the Cobra-class destroyer, and the extra crew members crammed on the attack ship can only find space to hang hammocks in the gaps between the torpedoes.

Of course, this space can also be saved to accommodate more supplies so that the raiding mission can be carried out longer behind enemy lines without the support of supply ships.

However, the most eye-catching thing is this small ship, whose rear boat cabin can actually fit four Fury interceptors and two small law enforcement transport boats.

The specially designed retractable apron can mount the aircraft from the inside and raise it to the back to facilitate takeoff.

In addition, the design concept of prioritizing combat effectiveness makes the design of this type of warship a bit too extreme from the perspective of livability for naval officers.

Although the living area on the ship is fully equipped, it is very small.

The captain can only be allocated a separate living room of 50 square meters.

The officers' bedrooms are designed in the mode of "three bedrooms and one living room", which, to put it in a high-level way, gives them a very "homey" feel, which is in line with the civilian standards of China.

But in fact, the officer's bedroom on the destroyer was divided into three rooms from the inside.

The three officers could only each have a bedroom of less than 25 square meters, and then share a living room and entertainment room.

Of course, this is just a design layout. After you officially take over the battleship, you can arrange the specific space inside the ship freely.

Your ship, the E96 'Epic', is an experimental command-type attack ship. It is said that it is equipped with better experimental equipment. You have to explore it yourself."

(End of this chapter)