Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 484 06.0483: "Over-interpretation"

Horatio pondered over his strategy. There was no doubt that the Tau Barracudas would arrive before the light cruisers.

Faced with the speed of carrier-based aircraft, the Epic, which accelerates slowly, might not even have the last five minutes to attack.

Just as Horatio was carefully considering how to make a decision.

"Captain." Anya Fasha's voice sounded from the side.

He turned his head and saw the eight pilots of Skyhawk 1 ready to go, saluted him in unison.

"Let's lead the enemy planes away." The female pilot with smooth chocolate skin said firmly, her flight helmet tucked in her arms, her big wavy black-brown hair swaying.

"It's too dangerous to rely on only your four fighter planes." Horatio said as he looked at the ripples that kept spreading on the battle situation frequency sent by Harvey. These ripples had at least 12 source points.

That is to say, the enemy fighters released 12 Barracudas in the first batch alone.

How to fight with a combat power ratio of 1:3?

"Don't worry, Captain. We have experience fighting these alien enemy aircraft. We can just launch a surprise attack, lure them away with a hit-and-run attack, and then cooperate with the carrier-based aircraft released by other attack ships in the distant airspace to surround and annihilate the pursuers."

"The plan is feasible." Horatio pondered for a moment and nodded slightly. Fasha showed his canine teeth excitedly when he heard it.

"But..." He suddenly added: "You, especially you, Fasha, are not allowed to launch attacks without regard for your own safety. I want all of you to come back alive."

Her eyes suddenly widened, her brown pupils sparkling with emotion, like a piece of brown amber, warm and translucent.

"Of course, Captain~" She smiled and said, "We will..."

Before Fasha finished speaking, Horatio raised his index finger to his lips to signal her not to raise the flag.

She immediately understood, and saluted with all the members of the Skyhawk Squadron, then strode towards the rear hangar with her long legs.

"All ships, continue to prepare for battle."

The right engine of the lone heavy equipment carrier was flashing intermittently, and it was obvious that the power supply was not smooth. This was a phenomenon of ion source short circuit in the energy transmission pipeline.

The power supply pipeline on its oblique side was torn apart, and now only one-third of the original pipeline was still transporting the ion source, and the speed also dropped to 6 void knots.

The Epic followed the gas cloud and unnoticedly reached the flank of the lone cargo ship.

The sliding cover of the No. 2 torpedo launch bay opened, revealing its ferocious fangs.

Thirty thousand kilometers away, a formation of Barracuda air superiority fighters from the Tau Empire was speeding in from afar.

They have beautiful shapes, and their excellent aerodynamic layout combines the controllability of the atmosphere and the void.

However, it is not without its shortcomings. According to relevant reports, its speed is even slightly lower than that of the Thunder fighter, not to mention the Lightning air superiority aircraft and the Fury interceptor which is faster than the Lightning.

The Barracuda fighter has a similar structure to the Thunder fighter, and has a large and fierce rotary machine gun.

But what’s interesting is that its Gatling-style ion rotary cannon is not centered, but is installed slightly to the left.

There are multiple missile attachment points on the lower part of the fuselage, which are equipped with advanced missiles assisted by artificial intelligence.

These fighters are flown by Air caste pilots. Due to their genetic structure, the Air caste have stronger three-dimensional situational awareness and better tolerance to acceleration than human pilots.

This naturally made the Qi clan a gifted pilot, but the experience of the Empire's top pilots gave them a powerful advantage, which made the Qi clan admire them.

However, they have a short physical lifespan of only about 40 years and enter old age in their 30s, which makes it difficult for them to surpass those elite or even ace human pilots in terms of experience accumulation and attainments.

Therefore, the artificial intelligence they carry will help them try to narrow these gaps.

"This is the Pibos Squadron, speeding up to escort the Il'Merchant-class, HX229 merchant fleet." "This is the Kvi Squadron, no enemies have been detected in the surrounding airspace."

An Air caste pilot reported calmly, looking at the holographic dial hovering before him.

But just as he finished his words, a dense array of locking alarms came from the side.

"Correction! Enemy attack from 270 direction! Repeat! Enemy attack from 270 direction!"

The Barracuda fighters made an emergency evasive maneuver, dragging blue ion flames, and their powerful rocket-boosted engines made their maneuvers appear light and nimble.

Faced with the sudden attack, many Barracuda fighters released a barrage of interference barrages together. They also had two tactical drones on both wings, some of which were equipped with ion cannons and some with wave frequency jammers.

This passive defense jammer can allow them to appear in a distorted and false orientation on enemy radars, acting as electronic warfare aircraft in the fleet.

Missiles flew overhead and exploded among the aircraft.

Although the scene was grand, the effective hits of this wave of missiles created the lowest record in the air combat Horatio had ever witnessed.

Less than 20% of the barracudas were hit, and less than 10% of them were completely destroyed.

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But this does not affect the success of the Skyhawk Squadron's luring plan itself.

After the missiles of the four fighter jets were empty, they deliberately exposed their position and then continued to maintain radiation control to hide their identity as attackers.

Everything looks natural.

Faced with an enemy of unknown number who were clearly ready for battle, the captains of each Barracuda squadron had a discussion and then decided to report the situation to the mother ship first and wait for further instructions.

After determining that the type of ship that the Empire had used in operations in this star region could carry carrier-based aircraft, the Tau Empire mothership concluded that the opponent might be a cruiser-class Imperial battleship.

After all, in the Empire, except for some rare and daring captains, few people dare to fight independently in large-scale military conflicts in a single ship mode.

In other words, it is very likely that an elusive and highly skilled Imperial cruiser detachment attacked XH229!

Ether, who was in charge of the fleet, rubbed the golden and silver scepters with his four azure fingers, carefully pondering the empire's intentions.

[Given the style of the human empire, they would never dare to engage in such a reckless single-ship battle.]
"Calling the commander of the commerce raider serving as the vanguard fleet."

A projected head of a fire warrior with long braids appeared in front of Ether: "What are your orders, sir?"

"Suppression commander, slow down the pursuit immediately."

"Why?" The Fire Clan's commander seemed very surprised: "The enemy is destroying our remaining merchant ships. We must save them!"

"The enemy may be a cruiser or battlecruiser. Our flight formation claims to have been attacked by missiles from enemy aviation units."

"This is impossible! Our radar has not detected any large enemy ships at all."

"In fact, we were attacked by Imperial aircraft. The Empire does not have many warships that can carry aviation units. The only ones that may appear here are those cruisers."

"But……"

"No buts, Commander of the Diplomatic Rebellion, I must be responsible for the safety of the entire fleet. For the sake of the Greater Good, you must obey my orders, stop the pursuit, and assemble with my fleet. Only in this way can we deal with these vicious enemies without any risk of failure."

"..." The commander of the jiaojiao operation gritted his teeth and said, "Yes, Commander."

Soon, the Tau Empire vanguard light cruiser slowed down its pace.

(End of this chapter)