Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 487 06.0486: "'The ocean is a casino'"

For the Navy, 'the ocean is a casino'.

The void is also a bigger casino.

Horatio naturally had multiple considerations for choosing this gamble.

First, he now has a golden finger, and his own wolf pack is roaming around.

Although he ordered the wolf pack to retreat, this retreat did not mean that the friendly forces would scatter and never return. Instead, it meant that the warships would form concentric circles that staggered each other and leave the scene in stages.

Under this tactical plan, the E-99 and E-47 will patrol 1500-2000 kilometers away from him and provide evacuation support for the Epic.

Three sheepdogs, unaware of the situation, rushed over and broke into the wolf pack's encirclement before dawn.

He has a greater chance of getting out of it.

Secondly, these cargo ships meant great military merit for him, and the more military merit he gained in the rapid promotion plan he had set for himself, the better. After all, Abaddon's Thirteenth Black Crusade was not far away.

If he didn't go all in and take a gamble, how could he have the merits to support his promotion at an exceptional rate and gain more command authority over the imperial army?
What if I only come to the fore in the last ten years and go to Cadia as a mere naval captain? Wouldn't that simply add 1 to Abaddon's kill tally in Cadia?

In any case, he would at least be a general by then, with a fleet battle group of his own, so that there would be room for other changes in the development of the situation.

Because of this, Horatio would never let any opportunity to gain military merit slip away unless he was sure of it.

"Captain, the enemy ships are not far from our ship and are lining up in a line to search for our position."

"It won't be long before they're rescuing the pods. That's the way these aliens always act," Collingwood said.

Horatio did not speak. He was carefully examining the enemy situation and watching the enemy ships slowly passing by from the plane above.

At this time, the Epic had shut down the towed 'Fortune Teller' and was completely hidden in the gas cloud.

Perhaps under normal circumstances, the Tau warships would have gone to rescue the escape pods.

But this light cruiser that came rashly and its escort ships seemed to have a different style from the past.

It ignored any escape pods and instead used all the detection equipment on the ship to survey the surroundings.

"You can't escape, hostile ones. I will make you pay the price and crush you bit by bit. Increase the detection frequency!"

A huge detection wave signal was transmitted into the earphone array of the monitoring officer.

"Captain! The enemy ship has increased its detection frequency!" Harvey shouted, "Unless we keep our bow pointed at it, we will most likely be discovered."

"But then we won't be able to get away, and then we can only drive towards the enemy," Collingwood reminded.

"Stop the ship! Aim at it when it passes over our heads. Wait for it to pass, allow a maximum speed of five void knots, and sail away in the opposite direction. Slowly follow the gas cloud and slowly drill into the asteroid belt."

In this way, the bow of the Epic was facing the light cruiser, hanging in the void like a hanging needle.

At this moment, there was only one forward-firing torpedo in the tail compartment, and one rear-firing torpedo each in the stern silo and the rear bomb bay in her cabin, making it impossible to attack the target in front of her.

"Now enter silent navigation, turn on the blue lights, and all crew members rest in place."

beep!
The lights all over the ship changed from incandescent to faint blue.

The half-cat girl Yoyo looked at the changing lights curiously, and her pupils changed from vertical to round as the light changed.

She climbed up to the ceiling in two or three steps, stretched out her soft limbs, and curiously scratched a lamp that had just finished changing color.

During the silent sailing posture, in order to reduce the probability of being discovered, the ship's torpedo transport equipment and any unnecessary devices will stop operating, thereby maximizing the Epic's silent stealth effect.

After the enemy ship passed overhead, the Epic slowly started its engine and headed in the opposite direction.

However, Horatio still did not feel relieved, because the Tau Empire battleship could carry two destroyers, and the destroyer's high-resolution radar would likely scan the side of the Epic from the side of the light cruiser, thus exposing itself.

Therefore the epic had to sail with extreme caution.

On the Envoy-class commerce-breaking light cruiser.

"Almost done. Let the destroyers turn on the detection waves alternately."

Diddoo!

The detection wave sweeps across the surroundings and passes through the gas cloud.

The Epic used the shadow field and the cover of the gas cloud to hide in it. In order to achieve the best concealment efficiency, even the stern flame was switched to a no-stern flame boost mode at low speed.

"Enemy active detection wave!" David Betty whispered.

"I don't think they have discovered us." In the tense atmosphere, Collingwood's face, pale from long-term fighting, was covered with beads of sweat, like pearls that had broken off the string and kept falling.

"Keep moving." Horatio, sitting on the command throne, stabilized the state of the machine soul and calmly issued orders.

The Tau Empire's liaison commander, standing on the bridge of the Envoy-class light cruiser, was not satisfied with the results of the initial scan.

He saw the gas cloud below. As a commerce-breaking commander, this was a good helper that he had relied on in previous stealth operations. Although in theory, the radar of the Tau Empire warships could completely scan the opponents below the gas cloud, but out of consideration for the unknown performance of the Empire's latest ship models, the Tau Empire commerce-breaking commander stopped the alternating radar scan that the second destroyer was about to carry out.

"Descend to the plane and dive into the gas cloud to scan."

"Yes, Commander." The Air Caste captain in the projection seemed a little confused, but still reported without any compromise.

Soon, the second destroyer descended and dived into the gas cloud.

The lookout officer on the Epic could not see the location of the enemy ship, and Horatio lost sight of her on the void sandbox of the command field of view.

An enemy ship disappeared right before their eyes, and the unknown that could not be grasped made everyone on the command bridge uneasy. Even if the omen fragments were activated, the exact location could not be known in the gas cloud layer without a reference point.

"Hold steady and drive away from the nearby asteroid belt."

As soon as he finished speaking, a detection wave came from behind.

The captain of the destroyer who dived into the gas cloud discovered something abnormal in the gas cloud.

Although there was no clear eyewitness confirmation, the radar did scan a slender hull.

But compared to the generally huge Imperial battleships, this "thin needle" is a bit too small and does not fit the style of Imperial battleships.

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However, to be on the safe side, the captain reported the situation to the commerce-breaking commander.

The Fire Tribe commander pinched his chin beard with four indigo fingers and narrowed his eyes.

"Open the Heavy Seeker missile silo."

The Epic is still moving forward.

Suddenly, the augury on the ship's spherical surface showed two high-speed targets flying out from the enemy ship.

"Enemy missiles!" Harvey jumped up from his seat, took off his headphones, and shouted at the captain's direction at the top of his lungs.

This sudden news made everyone recover from the fatigue of the battle. They looked at each other and finally looked at the captain.

"Descend to the surface! Keep diving! Turn left 270 degrees, don't let the engine be hit by shrapnel!" Horatio was so shocked that he stood up, trying to remain calm, and shouted to the helmsman below.

Although there was no visual lock, the Tau corvette fired two Seeker missiles with tracking capability based on the target's final location.

The missile, no smaller than a Helios torpedo, penetrated the gas cloud and sped towards the position where the Epic had been 30 seconds ago.

This scene reminded Horatio of the era he lived in, when anti-submarine frigates used marine anti-submarine helicopters to drop sonar underwater to detect targets and then launched anti-submarine torpedoes underwater.

Now, the hunter and the prey have switched roles.

The Epic made a sharp turn and its speed increased from 5 knots to 8 knots.

Although a speed of 8 knots will have a slight impact on the shadow field, this cost is better than nothing compared to the interference caused to the signal waves by a few uninvited guests in the gas cloud.

Under Horatio's guidance, the Epic engine used the electric rudder and the auxiliary thrusters to complete the turn very quickly.

It sailed 12 kilometers from its final locked position before two heavy Seeker torpedoes exploded.

"All sailors put away their bayonets! Crew members find a stable position to protect themselves! The entire ship is ready to be hit!" Horatio's eyes were red, and he roared and issued the order to prepare to be hit.

Boom boom!

Two heavy Seeker torpedoes flew to the preset position and exploded in the air.

The thrust generated by the huge explosive equivalent in the gas cloud caused the Epic to sway back and forth as if it was grabbed by a giant hand, and the ionized field attached to the adamantine shell, making a buzzing electric sound.

Bang! The blue light in front of the half-cat girl exploded as it swung violently.

The flying debris scared the half-cat girl so much that her fur stood on end. She covered her arm that was scratched by the glass fragments, jumped up, and hid behind the railing. Her pupils changed from cute big round eyes to scary vertical slits.

She curled up behind a corner, her whole body tense, licking her wounds, and watching the earth shaking around her in fear.

"Wow!"

The sudden earthquake caused all unsecured objects on the lower deck to fly up. The sailors who were lying in beds and resting on the deck were shaken to the ground. Some of them even fell directly from their hammocks and hit the torpedoes, their faces covered in blood and groaning.

Old man Joe and his two sons were huddled on the crowded lower deck. They could clearly hear the terrible creaking sound of the cabin panels under the pressure of the huge shock wave.

Some fragile thin iron sheets were even squeezed, fractured and collapsed, and were broken by the terrible vibration.

The violent explosion also caused the people on the command bridge to fall to the ground.

"what!"

Louise was shaken forward from the observation platform. Before she completely fell from the platform more than 20 meters high, she was quick-eyed and quick-handed and grabbed the fence railing in time, and her whole body was dangling on the outside of the platform.

"God Emperor." She pursed her lips that were cracked from the cold, and looked at the empty ground below with lingering fear. This place was dozens of meters above the ground. She kept breathing cold air, and her feet were dangling in the air.
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A little science for today!
(A reader previously asked what a Romanesque church bridge is. The structure is shown in the picture.)
(The Pisa Cathedral in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a Romanesque church, also called Romanesque)

(End of this chapter)