Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 462 06.0461: "The Epic's First Prey"

"Captain, we have infiltrated the rear of the Tau Empire's transport network. There are not many patrol ships here, and we can clearly receive the communication signals of the Tau Empire's transport ships at a longer distance."

"According to the encrypted code report, the other five attack ships also successfully infiltrated behind enemy lines without being exposed." Lina reported the encrypted communications sent by other attack ships in the squadron.

“Everyone, this operation is aimed at supporting the front-line battle by disrupting commerce, so our first priority is to destroy as many alien transport ships as possible, rather than engaging in a confrontation with the alien warships.

Only in this way can we play a greater role in the battle situation on the front line."

He gave the order: "Increase the detection of the enemy and give priority to finding the source of the single ship's signal wave."

The Epic was sailing in an elusive manner, conducting surveillance patrols in the void behind enemy lines.

The void is so vast that a warship measured in kilometers in length is just a small boat in it. Finding prey is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It not only requires the support of professional new equipment, but also the officers' courage and carefulness, as well as a certain amount of luck.

It just so happened that the Epic was an attack ship equipped with experimental technology, and all of its officers were outstanding graduates of the Abridal Loyal Academy, and they met both of the above conditions.

"Captain, Tau Empire millimeter wave communications detected in the 23rd direction."

"distance?"

"About 23300 kilometers. We have sent Tianying to approach for confirmation, and Tianying has also conducted independent reconnaissance in the surrounding area."

"Chase after him, maybe this will be a suitable target!"
-
A merchant-class cargo ship sailed slowly in the void.

As the military conflict between the Orks and the Tau continued, the latter was forced to mobilize the main force of its fleet to fight against them.

Taking this opportunity, the Empire launched the Second Damocles Gulf Expedition with the goal of recovering lost territory. In order to support the garrisons on the southern border, the Home World sent a large number of cheap merchant-class cargo ships to the border.

The Guardian Fleet had to deal with the threats from both the Empire and the Orcs at the same time, and its strength was stretched to its limits. It had to adopt the form of a void cordon to reduce escort costs.

But this is exactly what Horatio wanted.

Such an arrangement is very conducive to his idea of ​​"killing him while he's ill".

The Tau Empire's merchant-class cargo ships use highly automated mechanical equipment, so there are not many crew members.

According to general intelligence, there will only be a few Tau Qi crew members and a few small teams of vassal troops serving as guards.

Not long after, the battleship's observation officer reported that although the cargo ship was the size of a light cruiser, it did not have any deterrent railguns or close-in ion cannon systems.

A pure cargo ship.

In the isoplanetal gas cloud less than 600 kilometers away from the Merchant-class ship, the sawtooth sword ray revealed its ferocious teeth.

"Open torpedo well number one."

Horatio leaned over the observation mirror on the observation platform and issued his attack orders in a casual manner.

Louise immediately implemented his order and passed it on.

The dark silo opened its cover silently.

Inside was a standard Helios short-burn torpedo.

Horatio was planning to use a cargo ship to test the effects of a standard torpedo hit on the belly.

Since they are not combat ships, there should not be too many damage control personnel on unarmed merchant-class cargo ships.

So Horatio needed to verify a hypothesis, that is, after a torpedo that normally would not be enough to destroy the entire ship hits the cargo hold, would the enemy crew choose to carry out damage control in time, or would they choose to abandon the ship and escape directly.

"Precise calibration, hit rate, 97%!"

Although they were hiding and ambushing an alien cargo ship, the officers on the Epic were still on high alert.

"emission!"

The necessary prayer process to the God of All Machines was quickly completed, and the main engine of the thunder body was ignited.

With the surging thrust generated by the high-temperature gas in the launch silo, the short-burning torpedo rushed out.

Standing on the command bridge, Horatio watched the blazing tail flame of the torpedo fade away as the nearly 100-meter-long projectile rushed out.

The history of torpedoes can be traced back to the early years of the human empire. Its reliability, durability, and easy maintenance have allowed it to last for thousands of years without requiring any changes.

Its size means that although it is called a plasma torpedo, it is technically a small boat propelled by a plasma reactor and engine.

Standard torpedoes use plasma warheads, which, upon impact with a ship, detonate the reactor along with any remaining plasma fuel.

Although not as fierce and brutal as the new cutting-edge miniature thermonuclear technology of nuclear detonation torpedoes, it is still a powerful weapon. As long as it is at the right angle, it can threaten those large ships and cause critical parts with fatal damage.

After all, a warship that is five or six kilometers long and hit by a plasma explosion in the middle cannot avoid fatal damage even with thick armor and protection. Short-burning torpedoes are extremely fast, 1.5 times the speed of standard torpedoes.

It is more like a supersonic anti-ship missile than a slow standard torpedo.

"Kan#feng! An unidentified object is approaching the middle of the port side of our ship at a closing rate of 50! It is expected to reach our ship in ten seconds!" The Qi family observer with slender limbs scanned the unidentified object heading towards the ship at high speed through the radar in a short time.

But they didn't know it was an Imperial torpedo, nor did they know where it came from.

Because their enemies are not just the Human Empire.

Rather than a torpedo fired by an Imperial ship, they believed it was the work of greenskin pirates.

Although the Merchant-class freighter made evasive maneuvers, it was too clumsy and slow, and its extremely long hull was simply built to withstand torpedoes.

"Help! Help! Our ship is under attack, requesting support! The source of the attack is unknown, suspected to be orc pirates!"

The moment the Merchant-class discovered the torpedo, the crew inside issued a distress alarm. Even if they really could not escape, it was necessary to issue this alarm. Perhaps after a while, warships from the Tau Empire would come to investigate what had attacked their cargo ship.

"Expected hits, 10, 9, 8, 7."

Horatio used the stopwatch to count down.

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"4, 3, 2, 1."

"Torpedo hits enemy ship amidships on port side!"

"Yeah! Great! We hit it!"

Horatio opened his monocular telescope with the longest viewing distance and looked at the enemy cargo ship in the distance where a blue flower was exploding.

Through the firelight, he could vaguely see the supplies being transported inside through the gap.

A small number of damage control personnel drove the maintenance drones to carry out emergency repairs, but soon, a blue spark exploded again at the gap, perhaps due to the detonation of fuel or ammunition, and these unfortunate damage control personnel could only die unwillingly in the second explosion.

"Open torpedo silo No. 2." Horatio frowned slightly. If one torpedo could not force the enemy to abandon ship, he would have to use his second-hand preparation.

He wanted to continue observing.

As expected, although the hull was not completely destroyed, after losing the valuable cargo in the hold and confirming that the maintenance drone was unable to repair the huge wound caused by the torpedo in an instant, the life-threatening Tau crew began to abandon the ship in lifeboats to prevent the loss of more lives in the next attack.

But to the Tau captain's surprise, the attacker only delivered this one blow and then remained silent.

But the crew who had already abandoned the ship did not dare or want to return to the burning cargo ship.

They were afraid of being hit again shortly after boarding the ship, and the captain's decision to abandon ship had made them miss the best time for damage control.

The hull, which had already been severely damaged, was now spreading due to the chain reaction of the explosive cargo. It would not be long before the cargo ship was burned into a ruin floating in the void.

"Captain, do we need to destroy the escape pod?" Louise asked.

"Let the Fury fighters mount swarm missiles and launch attacks on every target that looks like an escape pod. We must do it thoroughly and kill all the survivors at once through saturation strikes to prevent intelligence from being leaked and the enemy from knowing that it was the Imperial Army that did it.

Our ship will leave immediately and head to the 7002 mark to hunt down the next target. After the Skyhawk Squadron executes the escape pod, it will gather at the new coordinates. "

He adjusted the brim of his hat grimly. "Power Department, open the shadow field, Navigation Department, plot a route to leave the area and head to the location of the 7002 signal source. We are short on time and have a heavy mission."

"As you command, Captain!"

Three days later, a search and rescue team consisting of a Tau Envoy-class light cruiser and several frigates rushed to the scene of the attack.

But they found only the remains of a burnt ruin.

All the escape pods were destroyed and the crew members were ruthlessly killed, leaving no one alive.

The cruelty of the means is consistent with the crew's report that it was suspected to be the work of greenskins.

But there were also some anomalies that caught the attention of investigating officials: Why were some large wreckages left unplundered?
It's really puzzling to Titanium.

However, looking at the charred wreckage caused by severe burning, the investigation officer of the Earth Clan shook his head.

Perhaps these wreckages have been damaged to such an extent that even the greenskins think they have no value.

He recorded this in accordance with the investigation process.

The search team conducted an intensive search in the surrounding area but found no trace of any enemy ships.

The investigation was forced to end because they soon received distress signals from other ships and had no time to waste limited military forces on a wreck with no survivors.

(End of this chapter)