Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 860, page 08.859: 'Sacrifice Tactics'

Accompanied by the rapid and heavy metallic footsteps, They strode up to the command deck.

Her well-tailored black hunting suit was stained with several glaring oil stains, and there was a black mark on her fair face. She exuded the chilling aura of the void that she had just brought out of the Skyhawk One cabin, an aura that could freeze the soul.

"They're here." Her voice was clear, yet tinged with an ominous gravity.

Yes, they've come.

Horatio took a deep breath, as if trying to inhale all the tense, stagnant air in the bridge.

He manipulated the command throne and slowly turned it around behind him, his gaze falling on the travel-worn female judge. He asked, "I am glad to see you have returned safely. God Emperor, please bless us."

We have issued an armed call, and based on this intelligence, we anticipate that the upcoming battle will be an extremely brutal boarding and meat grinder.

You have a good understanding of the Dark Eldar alien force composition. Which of their units are worth noting? What do we need to be wary of?

Although Horatio was a time traveler who knew many inside stories, he dared not say that he necessarily knew more about the enemy than an Inquisitor of the Exile Order who had survived countless battles with the aliens.

Only when the information and knowledge in their minds corroborate each other can they piece together the whole picture that is closest to the truth.

They's gaze swept quickly across the newly drafted battle strategy on the holographic sand table. After a brief silence, she spoke: "Your strategy is sound, Captain. The 'Swift Eagle' will serve as a mobile steel fortress, absorbing and holding off the enemy's main boarding forces."

"If this fortress falls, the entire campaign will be lost." She took a deep breath, her voice tinged with barely concealed worry. "Hopefully, our allies will receive the news soon; the time we can buy to buy them... is very limited."

"This place isn't far from Juno, where we're supposed to meet."

According to the patrol route plan prepared by Admiral Samuel Hood before his departure, Colonel Sterling's patrol would arrive in the Juno system within approximately two standard Terra days.

Once they receive our signal, they will surely come to our aid. Based on their speed, the estimated journey will take three days.

Of course, this is our last resort; without stronger fleet support, we still won't be able to win.

“Our fleet probably won’t last five days,” They said bluntly. “The enemy on that black ark is no ordinary force; it’s the most powerful standing army that the conspiracy group can muster.”

Unlike their cousins, the Eldar, many of the members of the Ducale's conspiracy are warriors artificially created in twisted flesh factories.

This means that the equipment and training they receive are far inferior to those of the normally bred 'true offspring', but their numbers are as numerous as locust swarms, enough to exert a terrifying advantage of sheer numbers.

Moreover, the Dark Eldar are adept at using mercenaries, and many powerful alien races in the galaxy are used by them for their own benefit.

It is said that they can even exchange the suffering of their victims for resurrection services, therefore they are completely indifferent to casualties compared to their cousins, the Eldar.

Eldar and human wave tactics.

These two words, which seem completely unrelated to ordinary people, were now linked together by Thee, creating a chilling pressure.

"I have already read the combat reports of the Hellslingers and the Ministry of Justice bailiffs on the 'Sword of Akali'."

That was already the most elite civilian force we had, but when facing Ducalli, the casualty ratio was still as high as four to one.

Given the sheer number of troops that black ark could unleash, and considering the current casualty ratio, they would be enough to turn every ship in our fleet into a drifting, abandoned vessel.

“You seem to have something on your mind.” Thee keenly caught the subtext in his words.

"To catch the thief, first catch the king. If we can find a way to severely damage that black ark..."

"impossible."

They immediately shook his head and said, "With so many escort ships around it, the 'Swift Skyhawk,' as a light cruiser, would be destroyed by concentrated fire during the charge, or be boarded and turned into a powerless abandoned ship."

But...we seem to have no other effective way to stop them; the disparity in strength between the two sides is too great.

“Of course I won’t commit suicide.” A sly glint flashed in Horatio’s eyes. “My plan is this…”
-
"Hold steady, maintain silent navigation," a lieutenant colonel whispered to his men on the bridge.

Outside the massive fleet, all the Imperial Navy's escort warships had entered a state of absolute silence.

By setting the engine power to the minimum and implementing strict signal control, they are like cold rocks in the void, difficult for the enemy to detect outside a certain range.

Horatio stared at the fleet command sand table before him; his fleet was already in battle formation.
Flagship: Dreadnought-class light cruiser HMS Swifthawk.

One Cobra-Widowmaker-class reconnaissance destroyer, the USS Starfire.

Three Scimitar-class large escort ships, HMS Hound, HMS Salokhan Lion, and HMS Akali Sword, which had just escaped danger.

One Sword-class escort ship, the USS Tuscany. Two long-range attack ships, E-99 and E-103.

On the bridge of the attack ship E-99, Lieutenant Commander Kretschmer stared indifferently at the red dots on the radar that were approaching, representing the enemy fleet, with his sharp, hawk-like eyes.

He turned his head to look in the direction of the E-103 attack ship.

"Telegram to Lieutenant Commander Pierre Dumanault-le-Pelli: Our ship has reached its designated assault position."

"Yes, sir! Received reply from Strike Ship E-103. Strike Ship E-103 has reached its crossfire position!"

"All torpedo tubes, begin preheating."

"Yes!"

"Torpedo No. 1 warm-up complete!"

"Torpedo No. 2 warm-up complete!"

……

On the right side of the E-99 attack ship, directly in the center between the E-99 and E-103 attack ships, three Scimitar-class escort ships were sailing side by side.

Lacking the advanced shadow field stealth capabilities of attack ships, they could only position themselves in the very center of their formation, pointing their sword-like bows directly at the enemy, ready for a desperate torpedo volley.

The Sword-class escort ships were positioned above them, facing the enemy sideways, with all their close-in weapon turrets pointed in the direction of the incoming enemy attack, ready to provide the most comprehensive close-in fire support for the three Scimitar-class escort ships below that were about to launch a thunderous attack.

Meanwhile, the Cobra-Widowmaker-class reconnaissance destroyer lurked in a salient at a lower plane. She would be responsible for activating advanced oracles to continuously detect and reconnoiter the battlefield and prevent enemy attack ships from launching surprise attacks from below.

The remaining cargo ships continued to speed towards Mandeville in the distance.

The Imperial Navy, on the other hand, was prepared for a decisive battle where they would perish together with the enemy.

According to Horatio's operational plan, the three Scimitar-class escort ships and two attack ships would launch a devastating torpedo salvo at the enemy fleet simultaneously.

The eighteen powerful plasma torpedoes will surely cause considerable chaos and commotion in the enemy's seemingly tight fleet formation.

When the enemy is forced to disperse to avoid torpedoes, the "Swift Skyhawk," which has been sailing silently and has been quietly approaching the enemy fleet, will instantly turn on all its engines and launch a desperate counterattack at full speed towards the enemy group.

Her only objective was that massive, mountain-like enemy black ark. If the plan went smoothly, the enemy battle group, scattered by the eighteen torpedoes, would be forced to expose their vulnerable flagship, thus reducing resistance along the way for the "Swift Skyhawk's" assault.

After maneuvering close, the Swift Skyhawk will unleash a salvo of all six of its Helios-class plasma torpedoes at the black ark.

These six torpedoes also posed a significant threat to that void warship.

Although its power may not be enough to completely destroy it, if multiple shots hit, it will greatly slow down its advance, buying precious time for the Charter fleet behind it to evacuate.

It might even force them to withdraw from the battle—the "Son of Thorns," expelled from the Comoros, absolutely cannot afford the devastating loss of a top-tier flagship suffering severe damage.

If Horatio himself were the leader of that conspiracy, he would definitely give up on trying to crack this tough nut.

Meanwhile, the attack ships E-99 and E-103 would use this precious time to load their most dangerous nuclear incendiary torpedoes.

This powerful yet highly unstable forbidden weapon has not yet been approved for installation on the Empire's precious capital ships, and is therefore only equipped on these attack ships where lethality takes precedence over survivability, or rather, survivability depends on lethality.

Next, the remaining escort battle group will draw the fire of the other alien warships at all costs and engage them in fierce aerial combat to buy time for the two attack ships that are loading their "final weapons".

If the Black Ark has already retreated, leaving only the light cruiser-sized slave ships still fighting, then these two attack ships are responsible for destroying at least two of them, forcing the enemy to retreat completely at great cost.

But if... if that black ark hadn't withdrawn from the battlefield, then the nuclear-incendiary torpedoes carried by those two attack ships would have been the final... and sharpest shadow blades to end this void behemoth.

Of course, the ideal is very lofty.

Although the plan was feasible to some extent, their opponents were the Eldar—the true experts who had been manipulating shadow fields for tens of thousands of years.

Previously, they had easily repelled the Dark Eldar's probing attacks using warships with shadow force fields.

Although the escort fleet successfully repelled the raiding ships' encirclement, it also exposed its true strength.

Will this desperate tactic, which requires every step to be executed smoothly, really work this time?

(End of this chapter)