Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!

Chapter 487 06.0486: ‘‘The ocean is a casino’’

For the navy, ‘the ocean is a casino’.

The void is also a bigger casino.

There are naturally multiple considerations for Horatio to choose this gamble.

First, he now has a golden finger, and his wolf pack is still roaming around.

Although he ordered the wolf pack to retreat, this retreat does not mean that the friendly forces will scatter and never return, but that the warships will leave the scene in stages in concentric circles that intersect with each other.

Under this tactical plan, E-99 and E-47 will patrol 1500-2000 kilometers away from him and provide evacuation support for the Epic.

Three sheepdogs who are unaware of the situation rushed over, that is, rushed into the encirclement of the wolf pack before dawn.

He has a greater probability of escaping from it.

Secondly, these cargo ships meant a lot of military merits for him, and the more military merits he could get in the rapid promotion plan he had set for himself, the better. After all, it was not far from Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade.

If he didn't go all in, how could he get merits to support his promotion at an exceptional speed and gain more command of the imperial army?

What if he only came out in the last ten years and went to Cadia as a mere naval captain? Wouldn't that just add 1 to Abaddon's head count in Cadia?

In any case, he would at least be a general officer by then, and he would have a fleet battle group of his own, so that things could develop with room for other changes.

Because of this, Horatio was unwilling to let any opportunity to gain military merits slip away when he was sure of it.

"Captain, the enemy ships are not far from our ship, and they are lining up to search for our ship's position."

"They will rescue those escape pods soon. These aliens always act in this way." Collingwood said.

Horatio did not speak. He was carefully examining the enemy situation and watching the enemy ships slowly passing by from the upper plane.

At this time, the Epic had already shut down the towed "diviner" and was completely hidden in the gas cloud.

Perhaps under normal circumstances, the Tau warships would have gone to rescue the escape pods.

But this light cruiser that came rashly and the escort ships it carried seemed to be different from the past.

It ignored any escape pods, but used all the detection equipment on the ship to detect the surroundings.

"You can't run away, hostile people. I will make you pay the price and crush you bit by bit. Increase the detection wave frequency!"

The huge detection wave signal was transmitted into the headset sound array of the monitoring officer.

"Captain! The enemy ship has increased the detection wave frequency!" Harvey shouted: "Unless we always keep the bow facing its direction, we will most likely be discovered."

"But then we can't get away, and we can only sail towards the enemy next." Collingwood reminded.

"Stop the ship! When they pass over our heads, aim at them first. Wait for them to pass, allow the maximum speed of five void knots, and sail away in the opposite direction. Slowly follow the gas cloud and slowly drill into the asteroid belt."

In this way, the bow of the Epic faced the light cruiser, like a suspended thin needle, hanging in the void.

At this moment, there was only one forward torpedo in the tail cabin, and one rear torpedo in the stern silo and the rear bomb bay in her cabin, unable to attack the target in front of her.

"Now enter silent sailing, turn on the blue lighting, all crew members rest in place."

Beep!

The lights all over the ship changed from incandescent to dark blue.

The half-cat girl Yoyo looked at the changing lights curiously, and her pupils changed from vertical pupils to round pupils as the lights changed.

She climbed up to the ceiling in two or three steps, stretched out her soft limbs, and curiously scratched a lamp that had just changed color.

During the silent sailing posture, in order to reduce the probability of being discovered, the torpedo transport equipment on the ship and any unnecessary devices will stop running to maximize the silent stealth effect of the Epic.

After the enemy ship passed over its head, the Epic slowly started its engine and sailed in the opposite direction.

However, Horatio still did not put his mind at ease, because the Tau Empire warship could carry two destroyers, and the destroyer's high-resolution radar was likely to sweep from the side of the light cruiser to the side of the Epic, thus exposing itself.

Therefore, the Epic had to sail with extra caution.

On the 'Envoy' class commerce-breaking light cruiser.

"Almost done, let the destroyers turn on the detection wave alternately."

Beep!

The detection wave swept around and passed through the gas cloud.

The Epic used the shadow field to cooperate with the cover of the gas cloud to hide in it. In order to achieve the best concealment efficiency, even the stern flame was switched to the no-stern flame boost mode at low speed.

"Enemy active detection wave!" David Beatty whispered.

"I don't think they have discovered us." In the tense atmosphere, Collingwood's face, pale from long battles, was covered with sweat beads, just like pearls that had broken off the string, constantly falling.

"Keep sailing away." Horatio, sitting on the command throne, stabilized the state of the machine spirit and calmly issued orders.

The Tau Empire's commerce-breaking commander standing on the bridge of the Envoy-class light cruiser was not satisfied with the results of the first scan.

He saw the gas cloud layer below. As a commerce-breaking commander, this was also a good helper he relied on in previous ambush operations.

Although it is reasonable to say that the radar of the Tau Empire warship can completely scan the opponent below the gas cloud layer, due to the unknown performance of the Empire's latest ship model, the Tau Empire's commerce commander stopped the alternating radar scan that the second destroyer was about to carry out.

"Descend the plane and dive into the gas cloud to scan."

"Yes, commander." The captain of the Air Caste in the projection was a little confused, but still reported without discount.

Soon, the second destroyer descended the plane and dived into the gas cloud.

The lookout officer on the Epic could not see the position of the enemy ship, and Horatio lost sight of her on the void sand table in the command field of view.

An enemy ship disappeared in front of them, and the unknown that could not be grasped made everyone on the command bridge uneasy. Even if the omen fragments were activated, the specific location could not be known in the gas cloud layer without reference.

"Hold steady and drive away from the nearby asteroid belt."

As soon as he finished speaking, a detection wave chased from behind.

The captain of the destroyer who dived into the gas cloud discovered the abnormality in the gas cloud.

Although there was no clear eyewitness confirmation, the radar did scan a slender ship.

But compared to the generally huge Imperial warships, this "thin needle" was a bit too small and did not fit the style of Imperial warships.

However, the captain reported the situation to the commander of the commerce raider for safety reasons.

The Fire Tribe commander pinched his beard with four indigo fingers and narrowed his eyes.

"Open the heavy seeker missile silo."

The Epic was still moving forward.

Suddenly, the augury on the ship's sphere showed two high-speed targets flying out of the enemy ship.

"Enemy missiles!" Harvey jumped up from his seat, took off his headphones abruptly, and shouted at the captain's position at the top of his voice.

This sudden news made everyone recover from the fatigue of the battle. They looked at each other and finally looked at the captain.

"Descend to the plane! Keep diving! Turn left 270 degrees, don't let the engine be hit by shrapnel!" Horatio was also shocked and stood up, forcing himself to stay calm, and shouted to the helmsman below.

Although there was no visual lock, the Tau light cruiser still fired two seeker missiles with tracking capabilities according to the final location of the target.

The missile, which was no less than the Helios torpedo, drilled into the gas cloud and rushed towards the position of the Epic 30 seconds ago.

This scene reminded Horatio of the era he lived in, when the anti-submarine frigate used the sea anti-submarine helicopter to find the target with the underwater airdrop sonar and then fired anti-submarine torpedoes underwater.

Now, the hunter and the prey have exchanged identities.

The Epic made a sharp turn, and the speed was increased from the original 5 knots to 8 knots.

Although the speed of 8 knots will have a slight impact on the shadow field, compared with the interference of several uninvited guests in the gas cloud on the signal wave, this cost is better than nothing.

Under Horatio's guidance, the Epic's engine used the electric rudder and the lateral thruster to assist in turning very quickly.

And before the two heavy Seeker torpedoes exploded, it sailed 12 kilometers away from the locked final position.

"All sailors put away their bayonets! Crew members find a stable position to protect themselves! All ships are ready to be hit!" Horatio's eyes were red, and he roared and issued the order to prepare for the attack.

Boom!

Two heavy Seeker torpedoes flew to the preset position and exploded in the air.

The thrust generated by the huge charge equivalent in the gas cloud made the Epic shake back and forth like being grabbed by a big hand, and the ionization field attached to the adamantine shell made a buzzing sound.

Snap! The blue light in front of the half-cat girl exploded in the violent shaking.

The flying debris frightened the half-cat girl so much that her hair stood on end. She covered her arm that was scratched by the glass fragments, jumped up, and hid behind the railing. Her pupils changed from cute round eyes to scary vertical slits.

She curled up behind a corner, her whole body tense, licking her wounds, and watching the shaking around her in fear.

"Wow!"

The sudden shaking shook everything that was not fixed on the lower deck. The sailors who were lying on the bed and resting on the deck were shaken to the ground. Some of them even fell directly from the hammock and hit the torpedo, bleeding and groaning.

Old man Qiao and his two sons curled up in the crowded deck layer on the lower level. They could clearly hear the terrible creaking sound of the cabin board under the pressure of the huge shock wave.

Some fragile thin iron sheets even broke and collapsed due to the terrible vibration.

The violent explosion also caused the people on the command bridge to fall to the ground.

"Ah!"

Louise was shocked and rushed forward from the observation platform. Before she completely fell from the platform more than 20 meters high, she quickly grabbed the railing in time and hung on the outside of the platform.

"God Emperor." She pursed her lips that were frozen to crack and peel, and looked at the empty feet with lingering fear. This place was still dozens of meters above the ground. She kept breathing cold air and her feet were dangling in the air.

——

Today's small popular science!

(Before, a reader asked what is a Romanesque church bridge. The structure is shown in the picture.)

(The Pisa Cathedral in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a Romanesque church, also called Romanesque)