Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 479 06.0478: "Kill the Shepherd Dog"

Although these two Tau Empire destroyers were busy, they still became thorns in Horatio's side.

Their presence seriously slowed down the efficiency of the attack.

"Harvey, report the latest relative position of the enemy convoy that we have monitored."

"About 10 kilometers, estimated speed 14- void knots. Estimated arrival time, one to two Terran days. Captain, this is the most accurate estimate we can make based on the clues we have."

"Continue monitoring. When they are 50,000 kilometers away from us, send Fury interceptors to investigate in the direction of the signal source."

"Yes! Captain."

Sixteen Terra hours have passed since the attack was launched.

The first squadron’s total number of destroyed ships: 6.

Sitting on the command throne, Horatio licked his lips that were cracked by the cold air from the ventilation duct, and took a cup of strong black coffee from his accountant.

"Thank you, Miss Yin." His tone was filled with a sense of sleepiness and fatigue, which seemed to be contagious, making the listeners feel sleepy and unable to help dozing off.

"Captain, do you really not need to add milk?"

"No, the bitter black Reka coffee is more refreshing."

The Rekha coffee of the 41st millennium is essentially an industrial flavoring stimulant that takes effect faster than naturally grown coffee beans, has a higher yield, and is in supply in a quantity more in line with the empire's expanding population.

Relying on its cheapness, large quantity and stronger advantages, this product eventually squeezed out the living space of native coffee beans, causing it to disappear in most of the human civilization. Perhaps only some archaeologists or nobles can still taste it as a luxury.

High-quality Laka coffee is a combination of artificially extracted caffeine, taurine, spirulina, and steroid ginsenoside compounds.

In short, it is 'technology and hard work', but compared with real military stimulants, it is not as harmful to the human body.

But it is so powerful that it can instantly raise a person's heart rate to 180 beats per second. Those who drink it will feel extremely high, but for people with heart disease, it is like dancing near the line between life and death.

Because it is refreshing and also a hot drink, the Imperial Navy, which needs to work in several shifts without interruption, set up a chemical factory in the prison area to produce it in large quantities to supply the entire army.

The taste was just as Horatio had said, it was not the delicious hot drink that he had experienced on the Blue Star in his previous life.

It tastes more bitter than the pure black coffee I remember, and has an indescribable sour and strange taste.

But once you accept the taste like black coffee, it has the same addictive and dependent nature as coffee, and is a must-have for people who need to maintain concentration and energy for a long time.

After tasting it carefully, Horatio had to admit that it tasted just as pungent as black coffee, or, to put it bluntly, worse than drinking coffee concentrate.

It has a sharp and sour taste, so anyone who can afford it, whether they are officials of the Ministry of the Interior, nobles, officers of any rank, or even civilians, will try to add dairy products or various condiments to make the taste smooth and delicious. The difference is whether real milk or other synthetic substitutes are added.

If he was not the captain and attack squadron commander, who needed to be on duty and command operations intensively, he would not have touched this.

Although he liked mellow coffee in Blue Star, he didn't have the masochistic habit of drinking Rekha coffee here.

He took a sip of Reka coffee, looked at the merchant fleet in front of him that was occasionally bursting into flames, and kept paying attention to the progress of the attack on the destroyer on the other side.

The wolves changed their route. They pressed forward step by step, getting closer and closer. From the west side of the relative position, they drove the merchant fleet off its original route into the distant and cold void.

The alpha wolf knew that he had to lead the pack to hunt the sheep in the dark so as to avoid being shot to death by the shepherd.

But as it happened, the shepherds had not yet arrived.

Now there are only two sheepdogs ruining his plans. As long as he can kill these two sheepdogs, it is not impossible for the wolves to kill all the sheep before the shepherd arrives.

Horatio put down the empty cup of Reka coffee, snorted coldly, and twisted the corner of his mouth.

The fleet has lost more than ten ships, and the remaining 60% of the merchant ships huddled together for warmth and shrank into the escort range of the destroyers.

The fewer ships left, the easier it will be for the destroyers to defend them.

At the same time, the wolves' offensive will soon reach a stalemate bottleneck, and the efficiency of the attack will inevitably decline.

However, what the sheepdog didn't know was that three more hungry wolves had joined the hunt.

Three attack ships from the Third Attack Squadron of the First Hunting Group of the Gothic Fleet approached from the direction of E-96 Epic 241.

Horatio was the one with the highest rank and reputation here, so the three attack ships commanded by the captain of the Gothic fleet joined his command sequence without hesitation.

Of course, all this was going on quietly, and the three new wolves had already circled behind the sheepdogs. If they wanted to share in the exploits and fame of this hunting spectacle, they had to prove their usefulness.

Twenty-four Terra hours have passed since the attack was launched.

The 1st Attack Squadron briefly stopped its free firing.

Just when the exhausted Tau captain thought the disaster was over, or at least temporarily relieved, every ship in the First Strike Squadron, along with the three new attack ships that had joined the hunt, simultaneously fired a full salvo of torpedoes.

Without radio control, captains can communicate tactics freely on the squadron channel.

They were bullying the two destroyers who had no way of managing the fleeting encrypted signal sources coming from all directions.

The large number of communication signals frequently detected around these places made the captains of the Tau Empire feel creepy. This undisguised communication demonstrated the confidence of the Imperial warships in their absolute superiority and instead played a role in psychological warfare.

They knew they were surrounded by a group of small hunters, who, as the legend goes, fought with powerful torpedoes.

There is no tolerance for error. Once hit and falling behind the cluster, you will be eaten alive unless you abandon ship.

At Horatio's command, as many as 32 torpedoes nearly meters long headed towards different targets. The tail flames and the gasification cooling fluid intertwined into a shining dense net, which looked extremely spectacular.

"Maneuver to evade! Fire decoy bombs! Don't stop!" the Tau Empire captain shouted at the top of his lungs.

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The density of the torpedo net exceeded the firepower limit of the close-in defense gun. The destroyer even experienced overheating of the rotary close-in defense gun barrel, and had to carry out emergency heat dissipation cooling.

Whoosh whoosh!
A large row of torpedoes swept past the destroyer that was dodging urgently, sped past the captain's desperate eyes, and shot towards the surviving merchant ships in the HX229 merchant fleet.

Suddenly, the captain discovered that the two torpedoes had turned a corner. They were hidden among their peers pretending to attack the merchant fleet, but in fact they were artificially controlled and their target was the destroyer.

The destroyer made an emergency evasive maneuver, but its close-in defense guns were overheated and its energy supply was insufficient. The ship was unable to perform super-maneuverable evasive maneuvers and was therefore powerless.

He looked like an exhausted sheepdog being walked by a pack of wolves.

"We have done our best. The contributions made by all of you in this battle are worthy of the Supreme Good."

The Tau captain lowered his head in self-mockery as he watched the two torpedoes coming from intersecting directions grow larger and larger in his field of vision.

boom!
Under the cross-hit of two torpedoes, the destroyer was blown into insignificant powder and debris in the vast sea of ​​stars.

When the crew of the only remaining destroyer saw this tragic scene, they were filled with indignation.

"Let these enemies see how powerful we are! We must let them see our courage! Go! For the Greater Good!"

The remaining destroyer engine's super-powered maneuverability was fully charged once again. She abandoned the "flock of sheep" that she was no longer able to protect, and rushed straight towards the wolves, trying to exchange her life for theirs, even if it meant death.

"Brave, but useless," Horatio snorted.

The Voss-type automatic light macro cannons on the ridges of the five attack ships nearby turned their muzzles towards the destroyer.

Bang bang bang bang!
Five light cannons opened fire at the same time. The crew on the destroyer's bridge were shocked by the flashes of several cannon flames. The captain then realized that he was rushing towards a net.

If you swing your fist towards the cloth, the only result is that you will be caught in the middle and beaten.

E-96 and E-99, together with the three newly arrived attack ships of the Second Attack Squadron, pointed their bows at the speeding destroyer and opened a round of concentrated fire.

The destroyer's upper gun deck was instantly smashed to pieces by the platinum shells, and one explosion after another burst across the ship's surface.

Although the attack ship only has one light macro turret, its single-ship firepower is indeed no match for the destroyers of the Tau Empire.

But when five ships concentrate their fire, it is equivalent to nearly two Scimitar-class escort ships concentrating their fire on the target, and the instantaneous amount of firepower projected is extremely terrifying.

In addition, the attack boat's cannon used an automatic shell hoist. After only twenty seconds, the second round of artillery fire was launched again under the transmission of the automatic mechanical structure that was twitching so hard that sparks flew.

The destroyer was knocked off course by the fierce artillery fire, and the ship's twin light railguns were also blown away.

The sheepdog rushed towards the wolves with all his might, but was eventually bitten all over by the wolves.

The attack ship didn't even use torpedoes. Just three rounds of concentrated fire were enough to completely destroy its combat capability. The only reason it was still moving forward was because its engine was disabled and the hull could only rely on its previous inertia to move.

"'Alpha Wolf' calls the wolf pack, start killing as much as you can, and pay attention to the time. We don't have much time left to hunt. The enemy escort fleet will arrive in the airspace around us in 8-10 Terras.

Until then, our mission is to destroy as many enemy merchant ships and the cargo they carry as possible."

(End of this chapter)