Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!

Chapter 149 03.0148: ‘The Beginning of Naval Warfare’

At the same time, inside the Indefatigable.

Horatio led his guards to the nearest ship’s hospital cabin. Who knows how long this battle will last.

He needed to find the Navy doctor to get some refreshing medicine and treat the minor injuries on his body.

As he walked, he looked through the porthole and saw that the huge Space Marine Thunderhawk bombing squadron had set sail again.

These huge red fighters were first deployed at the end of the Great Crusade as a replacement for the No. 6 Warhawk "Stormbird" gunboat.

The various weapons carried on the Thunderhawk can make this super bird that traverses the void and the atmosphere armed to the teeth.

When Horatio read the settings before, the text recorded that many Space Marines who took a ride for the first time would feel uncomfortable. They found that compared with the reliable Stormbird, it was lighter and more fragile.

But Horatio didn’t think so after riding it last time, because no matter how fragile the Space Marine’s vehicle is, it is stronger than the vehicles of mortals.

Under the same attack, the Starhawk may directly lose control and fall into a pile of scrap metal.

However, if the Thunderhawk has a broken engine, it can often hold on. Even if it cannot break through the atmosphere and fly back to the battleship, it can still fly to the ground airport.

Even if it is unfortunate enough to become a 40K prisoner and crash, the excellent impact-resistant suspension and armor plate can probably save the lives of the two Space Marine pilots.

Therefore, the Thunderhawk has become more and more widely equipped with its cheap, powerful and versatile characteristics. At the end of the 41st millennium, it has become the iconic vehicle of the Space Marine aviation force.

Moreover, the huge Thunderhawk cannon is electrically driven by advanced machine souls, which is smooth to operate and has a very fast rotation speed.

The Blood Angels used the Thunderhawk to send Horatio back last time.

The enthusiastic Blood Angel gunners also let Horatio ride on it to experience it. They took him to the airspace where the wreckage of the wreckage was densely floating. There, under the guidance of the Blood Angel gunners, Horatio destroyed many wreckages with the powerful Thunderhawk cannon like shooting.

Some of the wreckage even hid one or two Death Guard Plague Warriors. After the wreckage was blown apart by the Thunderhawk Cannon, the observers saw their fat bodies floating in the void.

Although the systems carried by the Thunderhawks are complex, they are sturdy and reliable, and all controlled by the M33 "Cygnus" class machine soul.

Using aetheric, phlogiston feeder coils, purification shields and pseudo-synaptic relays, the "Cygnus" can have a cognitive speed of 40,000 co/s and the maximum thinking ability of 10,000 brains, which can even be compared with the powerful Predator Titan Machine Soul.

Three Thunderhawk squadrons dived down from a higher void plane. With the assistance of the machine soul and the extraordinary exquisite control of the two Astartes pilots, the Blood Angels' Thunderhawks were like hell divers falling from the sky, deftly avoiding the incoming close-range lasers and shells.

The Thunderhawk cannons above roared and bombarded the gun deck of the Murder-class cruiser. The salvo of 18 Thunderhawk guns instantly destroyed three side cannons, and blew the cultist crew inside into foam in the void.

When these falcons flying in the sky approached the ridge and bridge at a very fast speed, the Astartes bomber operator pressed the bombing switch.

Six plasma bombs under the wings whizzed out, tearing and melting a long line of armor on the ridge.

The driver immediately raised the nose and rushed towards the enemy bridge.

They were not afraid of the intercepting gunfire on the bridge. Unfortunately, a Thunderhawk of the first squadron was shot down and hit the lower bridge, igniting a raging fire.

But the members inside did not die under the protection of thick armor. Only some slightly injured Blood Angel crews jumped out of the Thunderhawk gunboat that hit the lower bridge, raised the chainsaw swords and grenade guns in their hands, and directly transformed into a strike team to start bloody killing and revenge.

The sudden appearance of the Astartes inexplicably stunned the mutinous officers on the bridge, who were chopped into pieces by the crew members before they could call for reinforcements.

The other crews were still continuing their combat missions.

‘Lock: Middle of the bridge’

‘Lock complete’

‘Hymn of Fury activated’

The melta missiles mounted on the wingtips on both sides rushed forward, and 30 melta missiles drew dense wakes in the void and hit the bridge directly.

Boom boom boom!

The successive explosions made the outer structure of the top of the bridge full of skulls shaky, and the huge bones and fangs of countless alien monsters shattered, collapsed from above, and hit the hull below, causing another round of collapse, crushing many damage control crew members who went to the bridge to put out the fire, and blocking the subsequent roads.

After firing all anti-ship weapons, the three Thunderhawk squadrons left in style, with the combat guns on top turned backwards, continuously causing blasting damage to the enemy's hulls as they left.

[A perfect void bombing.] Horatio couldn't help but applaud the Blood Angels' bombing squadron.

A budding idea emerged in his mind: the Imperial Navy doesn't pay much attention to the use of aircraft carriers, mainly because aircraft carriers will affect the artillery combat strength of warships.

But if a large number of cheap small warships are used as escort aircraft carriers and incorporated into the rear guard fleet, wouldn't it be possible to use the vanguard, main force, and rear guard fleets together?

After all, the naval battles in the 40K universe look like a fierce game between sailing warships in any aspect and dimension.

But as long as there are a certain number of aircraft carriers, they can still perform well and even play a key role in the entire naval battle.

However, Horatio sighed quickly because the resistance to proving this tactical idea was too great.

Although the Imperial Navy is a relatively tolerant military branch in the Empire, it is notoriously conservative and old-fashioned in tactical innovation.

The reason given by the senior officials of the Navy Department is simple and straightforward: we don’t have enough production capacity, there is a shortage of warships everywhere, and there are more reserve personnel than ships. How can we have so many resources left for aircraft carriers? It is better to build a few more classic, easy-to-use, tough and thick Moon-class cruisers.

Moreover, the use of carrier-based aircraft is generally considered to be an unusable and dishonorable act of warfare among the senior officials of the Imperial Navy.

It is precisely because of this prejudice that the pilots of the Imperial Navy are generally not taken seriously, the use of aircraft is lacking in research, the fleet lacks aircraft carriers, fighters cannot be used in a centralized manner, and a single aviation squadron has become a disposable bomb self-destructing soldier... and so on and so forth.

Due to various circumstances, the lives of naval pilots in battle are almost calculated by the hour, just like the Void IG (Star Army), whose average life is only 15 hours.

Horatio can understand the ideas of the navy's top brass. Caliber is the sword that determines the victory of naval battles, and large ships and cannons are the cornerstones of the Imperial Navy.

Most naval generals do not agree that the main battleship should be made into a battleship like the Oberon-class battleship that wants everything but is not good at anything.

They believe that battleships should complete the main duty of fighting in the battle line. If they can't do it, then she is not a good battleship.

Although Horatio does not completely agree, it is indeed a good choice to release carrier-based aircraft to seize air superiority and let dedicated light aircraft carriers do it, and liberate the aviation deck of the battleship.

Moreover, the Empire's star sea is vast, and the deterrence range that a light escort aircraft carrier can cover is wider than that of a carrier-based weapon warship. Its range can even be doubled, effectively curbing pirates and protecting transportation routes.

The seed of an experimental concept was planted in Horatio's mind.

But if we want to explore a suitable route, there is still a long way to go.

From the selection of hulls, construction difficulty, squadron size, tactics and methods, and changes in existing cruising modes, there are many areas that need to be further improved.

Many details still need to be polished through the actual situation of each star region of the empire and the practice of future void wars.

Asking for monthly tickets ~ Asking for recommended tickets ~ (●｀●) Thank you! Big guys, please give it a little! This month, the child wants to experience the feeling of 1000 last time!