Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 879, 08.878: "Level the anti-aircraft guns, fire! (Seeking monthly votes!)"

On the bridge of the Swifthawk, littered with corpses, Horatio, surrounded by a new batch of security soldiers, sat on the command throne as he watched the newly added warships join the command sequence, including a combat barge named Frostfang.

The ship's silhouette is imbued with the savage and utilitarian aesthetics of the Astartes, a stark contrast to the Gothic cathedral-like design of the Imperial Navy.

It is the only warship in the entire arena, apart from the Holy Grail-class high-speed battleship 'Eastern', that can confront the Black Ark head-on.

In addition, the Space Wolf's Blackmane Dalian also brought three strike cruisers and several Dagger-class escort ships.

The sheer size of their fleet is enough to prove that they indeed possess a far greater organization than the conventional Holy Scripture Chapters.

With the addition of two battleships, seven cruisers (including light cruisers), and more escort ships, the situation on the battlefield was instantly reversed.

Horatio's most immediate feeling was that the suffocating, enormous shadow cast by the black ark overhead was rapidly receding.

The stars shone once more on the battered command bridge, casting a golden glow of hope over the wreckage.

Black Ark abandoned its impending successful boarding maneuver.

Its damaged engine spewed out desperate flames as it staggered toward trying to leave the battlefield.

The slave ship on the starboard side, unable to complete the docking, also began to escape, staging a classic, despicable tactic of the Dark Eldar—seizing credit when outnumbered and deserting when outnumbered.

Only on the port side, the slave ship was unable to break free because its connecting machinery was firmly wedged into the side armor of the "Swift Eagle".

It did achieve its objective of boarding action, but the tide has now turned.

The mortise and tenon joints firmly locked the docking platform of the pirate ship, like a giant beast biting its prey's flesh.

Even if it tries to forcibly sever the connection, the Swift Skyhawk will not let it go.

The Swift Skyhawk's massive gun array was almost pressed against its hull, blasting house-sized shells into it at extremely close range.

Within this distance of less than one kilometer, every round of firing hit its mark, striking the enemy ship's midsection with deadly force.

The violent explosion tore apart its dazzling, glass-like armor, and a series of secondary explosions came from inside, setting countless compartments ablaze.

Eight hundred kilometers away from the "Swift Eagle," the Grail-class high-speed battleship "Vostok" was far ahead.

The officers of the Gothic fleet stared in disbelief as they watched the magnificent sight of the high-speed warship charging forward through the tactical projection—it had a hull similar to the "Nemesis"-class battleships, with its sides covered with menacing heavy cannons.

As a gunnery battleship that adhered to fundamentalism, it surprisingly possessed an astonishing speed comparable to that of a light cruiser.

Based on proximity data from the sensors, Horatio estimated that its maximum speed was a staggering 15 void knots. This was truly astonishing.

However, Horatio could vaguely guess that the Grail-class's high speed was achieved through special design. This high-speed battleship not only required more powerful and higher-powered engines, but also had to make sacrifices in terms of hull armor and total tonnage.

This will undoubtedly increase the risk to the warship when it is under fire.

But setting aside these possibilities that have not yet occurred, the 'Eastern' was the battleship that approached the battlefield the fastest and headed towards the 'Swift Eagle' to provide support.

Her heavy cannons opened fire on the Dark Eldar detachments that were attacking merchant ships along the way.

With just two salvos, the magnificent flames caused dazzling flowers of death to explode in the void—an attack ship was directly hit by five shells that combined to be almost as long as the ship itself, and disintegrated in mid-air.

Each salvo from one side of the 'Eastern' could fire twelve shells, accompanied by three heavy light spear beams that cleaved through the void, shot from the ship's spine.

Despite their superior mobility, the Dark Eldar ships were like mice caught in the crossfire of a weasel when they encountered this high-speed battleship, which was specially designed by the Calithis fleet for common enemies and combat needs in the sector. They fled in panic.

They were successively and severely damaged, and then completely destroyed by the artillery fire of other Imperial warships that caught up with them, or by the anti-ship missiles of the Imperial Naval Air Force bomber squadron.

This brought a glimmer of hope to the officers and men aboard the "Swift Eagle," who were mired in a vicious cycle of danger, but this hope was accompanied by the ever-increasing peril within the ship.
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Inside the USS Swifthawk, a brutal, bloody battle was raging in every compartment and corridor. More than 40% of the ship's compartments had fallen, and the estimated death toll had exceeded 23,000, while the remaining compartments were falling at an alarming rate.

The boarding pods launched from the Black Ark, along with the stubbornly boarding slave ship, swarmed countless members of the Dark Eldar conspiracy and their vicious mercenaries into the ship.

According to the Imperial Navy's Anti-Boarding Manual, when faced with such elite alien boarding forces, the captain should deploy three to five times the number of civilian armed sailors to intercept them.

At this time, according to the Armed Forces Tactical System Array's estimate, approximately 20,000 enemies, including lowly combat slaves, mercenaries seeking profit, alien creations, and members of the conspiracy group itself, have invaded this light cruiser—the number of high-quality full-time enemy soldiers invading is almost equal to the entire armed force of the "Swift Skyhawk"!

Among the crew members who fought back, about 75% were just ordinary sailors who had received basic training in light weapons.

In the corridor, where the crimson emergency lights flickered, the air was filled with a mixture of smells of gunpowder, blood, and leaked gases.

The injured crew members were evacuated from the gradually falling forward compartments by the ship's medical assistants and medical nuns.

Old Joe's two sons were kneeling on the ground, desperately repairing a pipeline that had been punctured by a stray bullet and was leaking high-pressure steam.

Their laser guns were carried on their backs, ready to be deployed at any time.

The youngest son's gaze kept drifting to a group of soldiers in special uniforms beside him.

Each of these soldiers wore a skull-shaped gas mask, making it impossible to tell their age or gender. To his surprise, none of them had removed their gas masks since the start of the battle.

If it weren't for work requirements, I wouldn't be able to wear that stuffy mask on my face for so long. That's truly admirable.

What's even more impressive is that they managed to set up a solid defensive position in a very short time.

What's frightening is that they actually laid a massive earth-shaking cannon flat inside the warship, with its barrel, several meters long, pointing directly at the entrance to the cabin where gunfire was raging and people were constantly retreating.

The youngest son had only heard that these people were Kriegs, and that they came from a dead planet filled with nuclear radiation.

Their mission, as the training brigade, was to assist the captain in quickly establishing a landing force whose combat capabilities were comparable to those of the elite forces of the Astrail Forces.

However, before they could even begin training, they were already deployed as the final reserve force to the bloody battle to defend the warship, thus beginning the first battle for the Krieg Training Corps.

"Load high-explosive fragmentation shells."

A Krieg officer stood proudly behind the terracotta breastwork, his face obscured by his binoculars, coldly watching the entrance to the compartment 800 meters away where the crew was scrambling to retreat. He then gave orders to the artilleryman operating the ground-shaking gun beside him.

The crowd huddled together, firing wildly behind them in a panic. Disturbing, menacing shadows flashed past in the corridor under the red emergency lights. Piercing screams and shrieks echoed through the cabin.

"Monster! Monster! Aaaaaaah!"

A sailor with a severed arm, clutching his bleeding limb, staggered past old Joe and his two sons, and past the officer Krieg. The younger son's heart pounded with fear at the horrific scream.

"Get to work, don't let your mind wander. If we're going to die, so many people will die with us. The road to the underworld will be quite lively." Old Man Qiao, with a cigarette butt dangling from his lips, continued patching up the leaks without looking up, while reminding his two sons to focus on the work at hand.

The youngest son lowered his head again, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a squad of Krieg grenadiers running past in formation, quickly reinforcing the forward training ground that served as a temporary barracks.

Ugh!
A terrifying roar came from the cabin entrance. Immediately afterwards, a twisted and hideous giant hand swung violently, instantly turning several fleeing crew members into a shower of severed limbs, raining blood down from the sky.

Warm blood rained down on the wall, flowing slowly, but this bloody scene did not make Officer Krieg's hand holding the binoculars tremble in the slightest.

"Artillery." His deep voice came through the breathing apparatus of his gas mask, sounding even more muffled and emotionless. "Fire!"

Boom!

(End of this chapter)