Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 820, 08.819: 'Prey and Hunter'

"Commander, 'Starfire' has arrived at its scanning position and is activating the scanning array."

A female voice that Horatio was familiar with came from the encrypted fleet command channel; the voice was calm and capable.

He nodded slightly, but his gaze never left the deep darkness on the main display screen on the bridge.

Starfire, a Cobra-Widowmaker destroyer now quite famous in the Imperial Navy's 42nd Escort Squadron.

Three years ago, during the fierce pursuit in the Celestial Cathedral system, it was this very warship that was attacked by a Dreadnought and was about to be torn apart when it received assistance from the battlecruiser Undeterred, thus escaping certain death.

Today, this ship, which survived the war, has not only been fully restored, but has also undergone a significant upgrade.

A new type of detector is housed in the towering detection tower on its stern.

This sacred object is guarded day and night by a dedicated team of technical priests. Its activation ceremony is elaborate and sacred, requiring the application of holy oil and the recitation of binary hymns.

However, its performance is also unparalleled, with a detection range far exceeding that of the Imperial Navy's standard equipment. It has an unprecedented ability to observe ships like the Aeldari, which are built with advanced technology and can distort light and energy signals.

Its captain, a dutiful female lieutenant commander, continues to serve the Imperial Navy and the Emperor with the utmost diligence.

Horatio was very pleased with this.

Loyalty and competence were the cornerstones upon which the empire survived in endless darkness.

On the bridge of the Starfire, the towering arched dome was now hidden in the artificial twilight above, with only a few focused beams of light piercing through the pervasive incense smoke, illuminating the several deep-set crew battle stations below.

The air was filled with the chilling scent of engine oil, ozone, and cold metal.

In the background, there is a never-ending symphony: the low hum of the calculators processing massive amounts of tactical data, the intermittent commands leaking from the massive communication network and mixed with static noise, and the slight vibration of the propellers as the servo skull glides through the air.

Beep beep!

A crisp scanning electronic tone rang out from the sound array system on the bridge, indicating that the detection beam from the "Starfire" had been activated and locked onto the target sector.

In an instant, the shadow hidden in the endless darkness was forcibly outlined on the main tactical display screen of the "Swift Eagle". It was a ship with a dark luster all over its body. If it weren't for the ancient technology detector outlining its shape with a brutal energy pulse, it would have almost blended into the background of the void.

It appeared. A stain, a wound that distorts reality, was forcibly peeled from nothingness.

Once scanned and stripped of its shadow field disguise, the attacker's form became long and deadly, resembling a narrow obsidian hairpin. Its hull was smooth as a mirror, yet four broad, long blades pointing in different directions extended from its key positions.

They are not decorations, but part of the ship's structure, gleaming with a deadly cold light, ready to tear open the throat of their prey at any moment.

Horatio's tactical intuition immediately gave him the answer: a Dark Eldar raider.

It exudes a cold and vicious aura, just like its creator, a purely ruthless tool of plunder that revels in reaping the despair of the living.

"Target spotted! Enemy ship confirmed, Dark Eldar 'Torture'-class raider!" Lieutenant Louise, the operations director, rang out in the bridge. At her battle station, the data streams on several screens instantly accelerated.

"Charge the macro gun array and begin calculating firing parameters!" Horatio coldly ordered.

"Torpedo compartment preheating! Helios torpedoes fully loaded, awaiting launch command!"

Commands flowed like mercury between the various battle stations on the bridge, the crew's movements precise and swift, without a single wasted moment. The attacker in the darkness seemed to have also sensed its exposure; it immediately activated its shadowfield, further distorting the light around the ship and making it visually blurred.

Then, in a way that defies explanation in physics, it suddenly sank downwards and then leaped forward as if in a flash.

The next second, it appeared in the void about 700 kilometers away, and its astonishing acceleration, which was like teleportation, made the crew of the Imperial Navy gasp in surprise.

"Swift Eagle, give chase!" Horatio's command was deep and powerful, transmitted directly to the helmsman's position via the communicator built into his command throne.

The giant ship's engines emitted a low growl, and the hull trembled slightly under the powerful thrust.

"Torpedo course locked! Target: Enemy ship's current course!"

"Block its escape route! Spine gun crews, maintain lock-on! Engine room, activate high-energy afterburner, we must keep it on!"

Horatio's instructions came one after another, his fingers moving rapidly across the tactical projection on the armrest of the throne, planning a meticulously crafted hunt.

"The rest of the escorting warships, maintain formation and be vigilant about the surrounding space! This guy might be trying to lure us into a trap! No matter what the situation is, we must be fully prepared!"

"Torpedo tube slide cover open! Operational parameters are being dynamically adjusted in real time according to the target!" Captain Fideo of the Weapons Department shouted.

The two warrant officers in front of him rapidly tapped their fingers on the rune keys of the Thinker's Array, countless lines of binary code flowing like a waterfall on the screen, each tap accompanied by a heavy, ritualistic mechanical feedback sound.

"emission!"

laugh! ——

Six Helios torpedoes, in groups of two, were detached from the ship in three batches.

They don't point directly at the target, but rather draw three arcs with a cold, geometric beauty.

The first two torpedoes hurtled at high speed toward the enemy ship's predicted evasive maneuver zone on its left; the second two torpedoes blocked its right side; and finally, the two most lethal torpedoes headed straight for the attacking ship's escape route. This was a classic "sheepdog" tactic, using the threat of torpedoes to drive the agile enemy into a pre-set slaughterhouse.

The Dark Eldar raiding ships were frantically fleeing through the void.

Its incredible short jumps seem to have a cooldown period, and at this moment it can only rely on the conventional engine for propulsion.

The left and right channels were blocked by the whistling torpedoes. The threat of explosion was like two invisible walls, forcing it to stop and rush straight forward along the only way out.

This was exactly what Horatio wanted.

What he wanted was not a lucky hit, but a certain, unavoidable, devastating blow.

The last two torpedoes, like messengers of death, came straight at it from behind, completely extinguishing its last chance of survival.

The enemy ship's commander was clearly aware that a desperate situation was looming.

With both sides of the vessel covered by torpedoes' deadly paths, its only option was to maneuver in the vertical plane.

It suddenly raised its head, attempting to bypass the torpedoes from above.

(End of this chapter)