Warhammer, from Gothic Fleet to Azur Lane

The knight slammed his black fist on the table.

"Do it now."

"Yes... As you command, sir. Please wait a moment."

The human officers under Saren all showed worried expressions. Grimaldus didn't notice any of this. The tense seconds passed by little by little, making people feel so nervous that they wanted to vomit.

"The Everlasting Crusade is preparing to engage the enemy fleet," the officer responded. "I can send a message, but their two-way communications are locked without the correct command code. Do you... do you have the communication code, my lord?" Grimaldus did have the code. He looked at the frightened human, then at the worried expressions of the command staff sitting at the table.

I was such a fool, my anger made me neglect my sworn duty. What did he really expect? That Helbrecht would send out the Thunderhawks, that he would join the honorable orbital defense? No, he was consigned here, to Helsreich, and there would be no other fate for him.

I will die in this world, he thought again.

"I have the password," the knight replied, "but this is not an emergency. Just send the following message to their incoming log, no reply required:

"Good luck to you, brothers."

"Sent, my Lord."

Grimaldus nodded. "Thank you." He turned to the assembled officers and leaned over the holodisplay, his gloved knuckles resting on the table.

"Please forgive my impatience. We have a war to plan," the knight said, saying the words that were most difficult for him to say, "and a city to defend."

------------The dividing line of Salmin-----------

A shrill alarm rang out in the bridge of the battleship Ascetic. This battleship, temporarily named after the Astartes regiment that was stationed there, was temporarily serving as the flagship of the 13th Battle Group of the Daylight Fleet.

In the battle with the orcs, the flagship is a very dangerous type of warship. The orcs always focus more than half of their firepower and almost two-thirds of their boarding forces on the opponent's flagship. When he intended to choose one of the six battleships as the flagship, the Ascetics and the Flesh Tearers, two chapters that have a high worship of glorious death, responded first, but in the end he still did not dare to go to the Flesh Tearers.

Therefore, Salmin did not choose Richelieu or Jean Bart. After giving them seven extinction machines and 1000 DA each, he took 200 old centurions and two extinction machines to the battleship Ascetic. It was not that he did not want to give more people, but his carrying capacity was only Stormbirds, so he let the two of them build the mortal troops themselves.

There were a full half company of Ascetics on the bridge of the Ascetic battleship. As the favorite boarding place for the Orcs, the bridge naturally received the most Astartes combat power. Standing not far from him was Artemis, the first captain of the Ascetic Chapter.

As he switched the eight battleships to lock mode in the system map, the battleships had undergone unknown changes without anyone noticing. In layman's terms, the range of standard large weapons and lances increased by 4500 units, the accuracy increased by 20, and the chance of critical damage increased by 100%.

At this time, the range of the eight battleships' lances had reached an astonishing 4,712,400 kilometers. For Warhammer series, which generally had a combat distance of less than 5000 kilometers, a range difference of nearly a thousand times was already a completely epoch-making beyond-visual-range strike.

"The 3rd Air Fleet Reconnaissance Wing has engaged the enemy!" The voice, which had been transmitted many times, rang out again and again in the bridge.

The war has begun!

Chapter 3 K tactics shock people

Soon, the image of the Orc Vanguard Fleet transmitted through the data link was displayed on his auspicious instrument. However, unexpectedly, the first ones to rush out of the asteroid belt were not the traditional bunch of greenskins colliding and pushing each other.

Instead, there were huge boulders and large boulders that rushed out in a scattered array. These two types of warships were often used by the orcs and not often used. They were often used because every large warboss would manufacture a large number of these cheap warships.

These cheap warships, which correspond to the light cruisers and cruisers of the human empire, are completely orc-style. Just like their names, they are actually asteroids with a few thick pipes added to the back. I think you can run, I think you can run very fast when you press the red button.

They don't have any subspace devices and can only navigate within the stars. They don't even have any decent weapons, let alone aiming, communication, etc. But their dense numbers and the strong defense of the small stars allow these cannon fodder ships to pass through the firepower net of other races in large numbers and hit them hard.

After that, it didn't matter whether these warships had weapons or not. The greenskins and boys swarming out of them could cause them a lot of trouble even if they couldn't sink the enemy ships.

At this time, the Orcs' conventional warships would not care whether or not there were already orcs boarding the ship. Their cannons, long cannons, heavy cannons, and squeaking cannons would mercilessly smash into those warships that were damaged by boarding the ship.

In contrast, since these cheap warships cannot perform warp jumps, common Orc pirates will hardly equip them. This also means that every time the human empire sees these warships, it means that this will be a huge Waaaaaaagh!!

In short, when seeing densely packed yet scattered boulders and large boulders emerging from the asteroid belt, as if the entire asteroid belt was moving forward, all human commanders knew one thing, that unlike other war bosses, the Bone Crusher could even constrain orcs from other tribes to obey his orders, this was bound to be a fierce battle.

For others, the war was still far away, but for him, the war had already begun the moment the orc vanguard fleet was discovered.

The Grand Marshal's holographic image appeared on the secondary screen: "Admiral Salmin, show your loyalty to the Emperor!"

"Of course, my lord." Salmin gave the Sky Eagle Salute and began his first micro-manipulation.

"This is the flagship of the 13th Battle Group of the Sunlight Fleet, the Ascetic. The First Light Spear Fleet and the Second Light Spear Fleet have entered the first-level combat readiness state and are implementing lighting control."

At this time, the Ascetic became the only ship in the two fleets with lights on. Next, Salmin's orders will be conveyed by flag signals and lights at the same time. "All ships in the 70th battle group will ignite the deceleration rockets. The first fleet will deflect 70 degrees to the left and form a single vertical formation. The second fleet will deflect degrees to the right and form a single vertical formation. Pre-charge the light spears."

The data link previously constructed by the Iron Men worked. Instead of using astropaths or communication runes, the data from the front lines was transmitted in real time to every battleship in the 13th Battle Group of the Sunlight Fleet.

Accurate real-time data, plus beyond-visual-range strike capability. Starting today, Salmin will open a new chapter for naval warfare in Warhammer 40k. 40k tactics are too advanced, let's return to the ancient and sacred tactics of 3k. This will be an asymmetric war!

The battleship's machine soul was like a well-behaved kitten in front of the Iron Man. It was not happy at all, but it played the role of a happy machine soul. The Iron Man imported the processed data into the Chen Si array of each battleship one by one. These were the paths of the orc battleships predicted in a dozen seconds based on the current battlefield situation.

"The entire fleet fires salvos of lances! Fire three shots rapidly and report where they landed." The purpose of a salvo is not to hit the target, but to determine whether the prediction is accurate.

Hundreds of light spears more than ten meters thick passed through the silent fleet, crossing three billion kilometers, and dozens of orc warships collided directly with the light spears.

The hull covered with a layer of metal plates on the asteroid was completely powerless to block the light. The armor was directly melted without any resistance, and the orcs inside were instantly turned into ashes. In the end, the entire warship exploded in the hot explosion and turned into a ball of fireworks in the void. The first round of salvos alone directly blew up 27 orc warships, and more than a dozen warships suffered varying degrees of damage. Almost all of the first round of salvos hit.

A minute later, the sights on the battleship captured this scene. Then the close observation report from the front line came in, and the Iron Men calculated the next round of data based on the new intelligence. At this time, only 1/7 of the light spear's energy had been charged.

Even the Grand Marshal was so shocked that he couldn't speak. He was an expert in naval warfare, so he was terrified by the terrifying range and damage. Just like the modern aircraft carriers that appeared on the battlefields of World War I, even if the aircraft carriers were motionless, the old warships would not be able to survive if they wanted to cross hundreds of miles.

It will change the entire naval warfare, turning it from a bombardment and boarding war into an intelligence war, where whoever finds the other side first wins. Fortunately, the flexible hyperspace means that this will not become a crushing defeat where the discovery means destruction, but it is still a great change.

What are the orcs doing?

They are excited!

"This is so weird. How many big ships are there in front of us to attack us?"

"Ninety!"

"What happened to our little boats that were hit?"

"Just pass away!"

"Then I think we have to press this red button hard to make us run faster."

"That's right!"

The big green orcs, after some discussion, decided that when they saw the main fleet of the opposite side was right in front of them, they should simply use these 1145 pathfinder cannon fodder fleets as the vanguard fleet. The 14 big fleets that were ready to be teleported should not be teleported blindly, but just rush forward together!

Speedy hit yo, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!"

With strange alien roars that seemed to be heard in space, the elite Orc warships in the shape of battleships, wrapped in void shields and heavy armor, finally rushed out of the asteroid belt.

The Grand Marshal who saw this also smiled. Hee, he believed it.

Originally, the Grand Marshal had not expected that the Light Spear Fleet's lethality was so strong. He just wanted to use ultra-long-range sniping to make the Orc fleet mistakenly believe that the main fleet was right in front of them, thus causing the main force of the Orc fleet to rush into the minefield.

This minefield has always been the main defense node deployed in the Armageddon sector. In addition to a large number of mines, a number of automatic turrets disguised as asteroids are also deployed.

In addition, the six torpedo fleets on both sides are not just for show. These silent fleets have already positioned themselves at the previously vacant torpedo positions. The crossfire of these specific torpedo positions allows the torpedoes to cover the entire minefield without hitting the asteroid.

After the Orc fleet rushed out after suffering heavy casualties, they will face a main fleet led by a Glorious Queen-class battleship.

Chapter 24: Battle of Armageddon (I)

In the dark and cold universe, this moment seemed to be a one-man show of the 13th Battle Group of the Sunlight Fleet. This did not seem to be a fateful naval battle between humans and orcs, but rather a stormtrooper shooting at a fixed target in the Zhongzi Academy.

In the silence, there were only the flashes of the lance turrets and the fireworks of the orc warships exploding. The greenskins' charge seemed to be a charge towards hell. In front of them was the endless void and the flashes of light. The only thing that supported their morale and kept them going forward was the vaguely visible Third Air Fleet.

I thought if I rushed forward a little more, I would be able to kill him. If I didn't rush forward now, wouldn't all my previous rushes have been in vain? I'm not stupid.

What does the Bonebreaker himself think? The answer is, he doesn't care.

As the most powerful, domineering, greenest and biggest warboss of the orcs! He possesses overwhelming strength and amazing wisdom. In his opinion, the opponent's stupid shrimp commander has completely fallen into his trap.

The more than 1000 cannon fodder ships in the front were all built by him in this asteroid belt. The factory behind is still in operation, and in a few months, there will be hundreds more ships. The greenskins don't care about machine souls, chaos corruption, etc.

The 14 boss fleets at the back are, to put it bluntly, high-level cannon fodder fleets, fleets put together by green-skinned bosses who don't obey the Bone Crusher himself.

At first, in the Bone Crusher's plan, the more than 1000 cannon fodder ships in front were used to attack the front line, trying to catch the opponent's main fleet. If the opponent chose to passively avoid the battle and the main fleet was still not exposed, the 14 big fleets would be teleported blindly.

As long as half of these fleets survive the dangerous galaxy gravity well subspace transmission, the enemy will have to split up or directly expose the position of the main fleet. They can't just not defend the planet, right?

After the enemy's main fleet was exposed, he only needed to teleport a little further away from them, so as to avoid being hunted by the enemy without a void shield when he just finished teleporting. At that time, their huge firepower and six times the number of the enemy would completely crush the cowardly shrimp in close combat!

(The success rate of warp teleportation to the galaxy gravity well is over 30%, while the success rate of warp jumps to the gravitational range of the planet is less than 20%. Even the orcs would not choose to lose nearly % of their troops on warp jumps. The survival rate of non-chaos parties directly crossing the warp storm is equivalent to that of Genshin Impact's single draw of gold. Only ⑨ would do such a thing.)

"Boss, boss! The fight has started, and we finally beat the shit!" The shouts of the bosses and the boys made the throne room noisier than the engine room.

The Bone Crusher looked carefully. Although the display in front of him, which was composed of the brains of five psychic boys, had a poor picture and a display delay, it was the only way for them to understand the situation more than ten light seconds away.

After nearly two hours of death charge, and with the loss of nearly 300 warships, the cannon fodder finally approached the shrimp fleet. Although it was far out of range, the orcs kept firing and boarding. However, due to the distance, they did not cause much damage. Finally, the distance between the two sides was enough to nail a whole torpedo boat firmly on the hull of the opponent's aircraft carrier cruiser.

Although the Imperial Navy's heroic naval aviation tried to intercept enemy planes that outnumbered them by dozens of times, they were soon overwhelmed by the angry greenskin pilots who were being beaten and unable to fight back.

These orcs, who were already driven crazy by anxiety, drove their fighter planes or torpedo boats straight towards the six Defiant-class light cruisers. Everything in their way was swallowed up by the green tide, and soon, these light cruisers began to emit various sparks and malfunctions, and tens of thousands of orcs were enjoying the carnival on them.

But they soon stopped laughing. The warships behind them didn't care whether there were any of their own people on board. Various shells and beams rained down on them. Finally, the screaming orcs slapped the big red button frantically. The warships rushed over at an incredible speed, turning the wounded Imperial light cruiser and the orcs on it into a pile of scrap metal.

As for how many of their own boats were smashed and how many orcs were killed during the collision, it was not within their consideration. This hearty battle quickly restored the morale of the orcs, and they continued to rush towards the only surviving Dictator-class cruiser in front.

Twenty-four minutes later, the last plane of the Third Air Fleet was also shot down.

Seventeen minutes later, as the communication rune transmitted "For the God-Emperor, Armageddon lasts forever!", the Dictator-class cruiser that collided with the Ork warship detonated its own reactor, making its final contribution to the battle.

Twenty-two hours and fifty-three minutes into the Battle of Armageddon, 427 Ork warships were sunk, and the Third Air Fleet of the Armageddon Fleet fought to the last man, with seven ships completely wiped out.

"Lose vision! Request the 1st and 2nd Reconnaissance Fleets to move forward for reconnaissance." After the rd Air Fleet was completely wiped out, Salmin coldly put forward his request. After all, he had nothing to do with the Empire.

But if Guilliman could give him a vague title of Jiedushi, grant him the Nine Gifts, fake the Yellow Axe, praise him without using a name, allow him to enter the palace with a sword and shoes, and allow him to be the chief of the three divisions, and command all military forces at home and abroad, then it would not be impossible for him to get along with the Empire.

Although the Grand Marshal felt a little uncomfortable, he immediately agreed to the proposal. From both a tactical and strategic perspective, they should continue to use their superior long-range firepower to consume enemy forces and maintain a high exchange ratio.

"This is the flagship of the First Combined Fleet, the Eternal Expedition, a Queen of Glory-class battleship. Order the First and Second Scouting Fleets to advance and engage the enemy, conduct roundabout reconnaissance, and avoid battle. Lead the Orc fleet to the direction of the minefield. The throne is with you."

"No man died in His service that died in vain." The vice admiral of the reconnaissance fleet expressed his determination with this motto.

If these four light cruisers and 21 frigates can be used to exchange for the remaining 1100 warships of the Orc advance fleet, then everyone's death will be glorious and worthwhile. This is the best destination for them as the Emperor's currency!

Seeing that two more shrimp reconnaissance fleets had entangled the cannon fodder fleet and were trying to lure them in one direction, Bone Crusher laughed again and even crushed the barrel in his hand. "I laugh at the old one-eyed man's recklessness and the big shrimp's lack of wisdom."

He casually drew a circle on the screen. "According to the range of their light spears, their main fleet should be here. Even if it's not, it's where the long-range fleet is." He drew the retreat route of the reconnaissance fleet and arrived just before the first circle. "This is a minefield!" Bone Crusher was very confident in his judgment. He knocked hard on the screen and then naturally knocked it through.

Chapter 25: Battle of Armageddon (Part 2)

"Bonecrusher, since you know the location of the enemy's main fleet, why don't you teleport directly behind them and surround those shrimps and kill them all? The teleportation device I improved personally has a success rate of over 80% even within the galaxy."

An orc behind him, covered with dense metal parts, spoke up. Even from the orcs' perspective, there were too many metal plates. This was the orcs' chief master mechanic, Beastkimed, an ally of the Bonebreaker.

Now, the Bone Crusher was using his prestige to suppress the warlike orcs. As soon as Beastkimed spoke, the orc bosses in the throne room could no longer sit still and suddenly exploded.

"Are you afraid—"

Before he could finish, the four-meter-tall orc boss was crushed in the head by the Bone Crusher. "I am the Bone Crusher, I am the boss! I have the final say, wait until the cannon fodder has finished exploring the road. I am the strongest, most domineering, most powerful and biggest Bone Crusher, whoever refuses to obey me can come up and fight me in a one-on-one duel."

In fact, Bonebreaker's caution saved his life. If he had really been teleported, he would have enjoyed the full massage of the Eternal Expedition without the Void Shield.

But now Salmin encountered a problem he had never encountered before, nor had he ever thought he would encounter. At the fourth hour and nineteen minutes, he had to temporarily suspend the fire support to the front line. Before that, his Sunlight Fleet's Light Spear volleys had never stopped. Every six or seven minutes, he fired a full thirty-eight volleys, sinking eight hundred and forty-one enemy ships, causing a 42% reduction in the enemy's personnel before engaging the enemy.

The coolant in his lance was no longer enough to quickly cool it down. He had even used up all the coolant on the battleship and the spare coolant an hour ago. Now he was using the coolant from other battleships.

That's right, the weapons of space battleships need to be cooled. This is actually a bit counterintuitive. Some people may say that the temperature in the universe is more than minus 200 degrees. Why do we need to use coolant to cool them? In fact, since the universe is almost a vacuum, it is very difficult to cool them by the heat radiation from the muzzle.

Two hours ago, the battleship's cathedral-shaped fins could no longer dissipate heat effectively, so it had to discharge coolant directly into space and throw it away as a working fluid to quickly cool down. Or maybe it was because he fired too fast. If he fired every 20 minutes, he wouldn't have to throw it away.

According to the current situation, it will take at least half an hour for the heat sink to cool down to normal working state. To survive these five rounds of bombardment, at least 6,000 tons of coolant must be discarded. The fact is that even if all the coolant is used up, it can only withstand three rounds.

Therefore, Salmin decided that if he couldn't do it, he shouldn't do it. If he rashly used all his strength, the other party would find out that he didn't use all his strength at all. It would be better to save the coolant and throw it away in an emergency to quickly cool down the working fluid and fire three rounds of salvos within five minutes.

As for the reconnaissance fleet on the front line that had launched an attack on the orcs at his request with the determination to die? What about the children he didn't know?

The Grand Marshal readily agreed to this. His long-range sniping had already killed nearly half of the orcs' troops, and the rest could be eliminated by detonating the minefield. The tactical mission had been successfully completed, so it was okay for him to slack off now. As for the strategic task of guiding the orcs to misjudge the position of the main fleet, it was a complete success from the moment he opened fire.

"Hahahaha, for the Emperor!" The bridge of the Steadfast light cruiser had turned into a battlefield. Vice Admiral Johnson was only halfway through his gorgeous navy coat, and his entire carapace was covered in scars and burns. He and his guards had just used a melta bomb to kill an orc boss.

From the moment the firepower of the fleet behind him weakened, he knew that sacrifice was their best fate. And now they have completed the mission entrusted to them by the Emperor. Although there is only one light cruiser and three escort ships left in the reconnaissance fleet, the orcs have all entered the minefield!

He looked at the two orc bosses who rushed in from the hatch. This dead end for mortals only brought him wild laughter. Finally, he sent a last message to the command tower: "The reconnaissance fleet has fulfilled its mission. The main force of the orcs has entered the minefield. Armageddon will last forever. For the God-Emperor, detonate the minefield!"

The Grand Marshal remained silent and waved his hand heavily.

The orcs' supreme commander was more cautious than he had imagined. The orcs did not rashly teleport until the end, and the induction plan could be said to have failed. However, the strategic mistake of one's own side does not mean that the other side has won. It can only be said that the other side made a wrong strategic judgment, causing the Empire to miss the opportunity to completely annihilate the other side at a very small cost.

With a brilliant explosion that could be seen with the naked eye from the surface of Armageddon, the remaining Ork fleet and the remaining reconnaissance fleet were forever buried in the void, and the few remaining battleships were also killed by torpedoes in the distance. The huge radiation waves generated by the subsequent explosion temporarily made the outposts lose their reconnaissance effect.

The auspicious instruments on the warships were even more powerless to resist this huge amount of radiation waves. For at least two hours, the warships would lose their long-range reconnaissance capabilities. Even the powerful auspicious instrument arrays at the outposts would not be able to recover their reconnaissance capabilities until forty minutes later. But this was already within the Grand Marshal's expectations.

"This is the flagship of the First Combined Fleet, the Eternal Expedition, a Queen of Glory-class battleship. The First and Second Air Fleets must immediately launch three conventional attack waves of carrier-based aircraft to conduct reconnaissance in the minefield." This order had been issued to the First and Second Air Fleets three minutes in advance.

Fighter reconnaissance will be their only reconnaissance capability at present. Considering the cautiousness of the orc supreme commander, the Grand Marshal is 90% sure that the opponent will choose to jump into the minefield now, but attacking this area rashly will only expose their position. They must first find the opponent's approximate position before launching an attack.

This minefield in the Armageddon sector, which has been cultivated for decades, is so vast that even using nova cannons to bombard it is like playing a 64×64 minesweeper. However, if more than 60 squadrons with nearly 500 fighter planes conduct a dragnet search, I believe the fleet stretching for thousands of kilometers will be discovered soon.

Now will be the moment that determines the fate of both sides. The sooner the specific location of the orc troops is discovered, the more the Empire will be able to balance the difference in warships between the two sides as much as possible before the orcs launch an attack.