Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 304 Shadow Stormbird
The flagship of the Seventh Chapter, the Void Hunter, a relic-class warship.

Sanchez's communication bead beeped, and after he pressed it, the voice of navigator Melanie Wiescher came through.

“Reaper Lord,” the female navigator’s elegant voice betrayed a hint of weariness, “we have reached the anchor point and are ready to proceed to the real-world Otten system. We await your permission.”

"Permission granted to initiate the jump." After issuing the order, the Reaper Lord walked toward the simulated sanctuary.

The Father of Genes entrusted him with three Relic-class warships, making the Seventh Chapter the only chapter to possess more than one Relic-class warship.

His warship was the flagship of the Black Emperor after his return to the Legion, and he believed that this was a greater honor than Howard Finder obtaining the Glory Queen-class battleship.

Sanchez wanted to prove himself in Osiris and deserve the honor, but by the time his fleet arrived, the outcome of the Void battle was already decided.

However, this also gave him more time, and the ancient warship, which is thousands of years old, has undergone a fundamental transformation due to new technologies.

"Reaper Lord, please allow me to assist you. With my help, we can maximize the range advantage of our four warships."

Gabriel began by saying that his final step in establishing heavy firepower companies in each battle group, drawing inspiration from "The Iron Hand," was in Katachon.

Having completed its duties as the master of armaments, two new Relic-class warships arrived in Katachon from Nocturne.

After overseeing the technical modifications to the two ships, including the Punishment-class reactor, he arrived in Osiris with them and carried out further technical modifications on the former Legion flagship.

After a moment's thought, Sanchez concluded that this would not diminish the honor he had gained, and that he needed the Armory Master's assistance to achieve a perfect hunt.

"Master of Armory, welcome to the hunt."

The two walked side by side across the ancient bridge deck and into a simulated sanctuary as large as the transfer deck.

Runes lit up the data niches made of data devices, and the captain and other officers were already in position.

Sanchez and Gabriel settled into a chair surrounded by cables, electronic devices flashing blue light, their spines connected to data interfaces, merging into a sea of ​​data.

Sanchez and Gabriel focused on the comprehensive data acquired by the fleet's oracle system, while their powerful cat found a comfortable spot and lay down at their feet.

Gun deck, artillery commander Jacob Gordon.

His facial features were dull, his skin was pale, and his feet were deformed into hooves.

Jacob smiled, basking in the flow of information from the implant.

It feels so good to no longer have to communicate with these "intruders."
The Gordon family is the Sons of the Void, and they lived on this ancient warship before the Empire was even established.

They are traditional and conservative, unwilling to accept any change.

But Jacob wholeheartedly welcomed the new changes; after becoming part of the sacral sanctuary, he no longer had to painstakingly communicate with foreign officers.

He was familiar with every minute detail of every ancient cannon, but like his predecessors, he could not understand outsiders.

Every time he communicated with other officers, he had to rack his brains to understand what they were trying to say, and it was even more difficult to get others to understand him.

Jacob had thought he would soon be replaced.

At this point, things took a turn for the better.

As part of the extended "tentacles" of the simulated sanctuary, he does not need to spend a lot of time and brainpower to understand it.

As the information flowed in, he understood the orders and even, for the first time, the Reaper Lord's tactical intentions.

The Void Hunter's hunting target was an enemy cruiser-class ship marked A-1, which was identified as the flagship of the enemy fleet.

In order to attack the Relic-class warship, the enemy must make a breakthrough to even reach the ship, where his dance partner can then destroy the prey.

Jacob called his artillery pieces his dance partners, and each time he commanded them to fire, it was like dancing together, which was much more interesting than the boring social dances of the foreign officers.

Jacob had an idea and assigned tasks to the Gordon family members who managed the various artillery groups.

[Cannon groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, lock onto rune D, fire.]

...]

His orders were transmitted within a breath to the end of the artillery system command—the gunners, who were also the end of the simulated sanctuary's artillery system. Jacob watched with delight as his four "dance partners" simultaneously took their "steps," and the shells struck the enemy ship's target deck at the same time.

[Perfect dance steps, stepping to the same beat.]

Achieving such perfect coordination, accurate to the second, over a distance of over 100,000 kilometers, used to rely solely on luck, but now it can become the norm.
Jacob was filled with amazement at the artillery's synchronized movements.

He knew that the officers on the bridge couldn't comprehend its beauty.

In the past, they wouldn't have cared about the minute differences in the long void battles.

Things are different now. The application of the simulated sanctuary and the leap in computing power have brought second-level differences into the officers' view.

Even if the importance level of this difference is extremely low, it is the lowest level of concern.

As Jacob pondered, his consciousness surged, generating a feedback report.

As Jacob enjoyed the new life brought by the simulacrum, the Shadow of Reign jumped from subspace to the Otten system.

Ninglu walked over to examine the holographic image of Arsène Dunn presented to him, focusing first on the four Relic-class warships.

On a square tactical plane perpendicular to the star's ring, four Relic-class warships are located at the center of each of the four quadrants.

The cannons of the four warships rained down a dense barrage of bullets on the heretic lord's fleet.

The heretic lord's fleet, advancing at full speed to attack the Relic-class warships, had a loose formation due to the difference in speed.

After hunting down the fastest escort ships, the Relic-class warships will simultaneously make tactical movements before entering the firing range of the enemy's capital ships.

The tactical plane moves in a direction perpendicular to the annular plane, much like a parallel movement.

With no clear target, the enemy fleet was forced to attack the Relic-class warships again, only to be subjected to simultaneous fire from four warships once more.

"The Reaper Lord has perfectly utilized the range advantage of the Relic-class warships," the Primarch's attendant exclaimed in admiration.

"The Seventh Fleet did not lose a single ship."

“The Reaper Lord has won the Void War,” Nimrod said, looking at the planets within the galaxy. “Activate the Auger Matrix to maximum power and scan the planets within the galaxy.”

When the Seventh Warband ended the Void War and the Eleventh Warband arrived, the Primarch's Squire received a report from the Lord of the Auger Matrix.

"My Lord, there are five planets in the Oteng system. Planets I, III, and IV have been identified as habitable and have been found to contain signs of life."

After a moment's thought, Ninglu issued the order.

"Honor Guard and 'Lucifer Blackguard,' First Regiment of the Vostronian Auxiliary Force, attack Planet I."

"The 7th Warband and the Katachon Auxiliary Forces are attacking Planet III."

"The 11th Battle Group and the 2nd and 11th Regiments of the Volstonian Auxiliary Forces will attack Planet IV."

After Ninglu gave the order, his consciousness spread out, reaching the W-36 armed deck and sending a thought pulse to Maria Kournikova.

"Assassins are on the move, targeting Planet Otten I and Fortress V."

Because of the accidental discovery of the mind network of the Osiris Mind Controlling Seeds, Maria and her companions were not assigned any missions; now, they are beginning to fight alongside the Legion.

“Follow Your will, my Lord,” Mary responded in her heart.

"Assassins, move out."

Maria's blue eyes flashed with a sharp light as she took the lead and approached the penetrating Stormbird.

After studying the complete Stormbird data left behind by the tech warlord Tang, the Legion's technical sergeants successfully developed a more mobile model equipped with a quantum domain repulsion device, which they named the Shadow Type.

After the orbital bombardment ended, three Shadow Stormbirds flew toward the surface of Otten I.

The black, super-heavy landing craft darted across the surface like a ghost bird, undetected by any scanning system, and landed in the valley outside Fort V.

(End of this chapter)