Half an hour later, looking at the scanned information that was finally clear, Zhu Fu was so shocked that he almost jumped up from his throne, and his eyes were so wide that they almost flew out of their sockets.
He originally thought that he should stay behind the Corsaro center fleet, but he actually rushed all the way along the route of the vanguard fleet at the fastest speed that exceeded his own limit!
More than twenty capital ships, headed by the huge Emperor-class battleship, looked like heavy cavalry armed with spears and covered with armor, rushing towards the gangsters holding battle axes and machetes with a devastating momentum. Their original speed
It should be very slow, but the Minotaur-class tugboats in front of them changed everything. These dozens of the strongest gravity tugboats currently in service in the empire are equivalent to adding 2-3 additional engines to each ship, making their straight-line speed sudden.
promote!
But before, they had been hiding near the battleships and could not be discovered by the scanning array at all.
At this time, Zhu Fu's immediate thought was to retreat. However, when the order was issued, the empire's forward fleet had already blocked his main fleet from the flanks, and the two wings sent out were still stupefied to attack the fleet that was no longer in the rear.
The "Imperial Core Fleet" immediately turned the situation into a duel between the main fleet led by Corsaro + the vanguard fleet and the main fleet led by Zhu Fu.
However, the strength at Zhu Fu's hands was not enough to support his victory. He only had 2 battle barges, 2 large cruisers, 11 light and heavy cruisers of different types, and 45 small battleships.
The number seems okay, but those small warships can barely make up the numbers, and they really want to fight.
He realized that although he was cautious, he was still fooled. He had always thought that the vanguard fleet sent by the empire was only to interfere with the firing of the battleships. After all, this was a common tactic. He did not expect that its real purpose was to cover the assault of the central fleet.
So Zhu Fu ordered to spread out the formation and concentrate firepower to attack the enemy's capital ships.
Running at this time means being massacred. He still knows this, so the best response is to delay. He still has hope of victory. The main thing is that the outflanking fleets cross the gap between the imperial fleets on both wings from behind.
Attacking Corsaro's central fleet from behind, the outcome is still uncertain.
Moreover, after leaving the tugboat, the speed of those capital ships will quickly decrease, and they will definitely choose to bombard at an appropriate distance, and they will eventually return to the original situation.
Just as Zhu Fu was trying to adjust his formation to cope with the coming bombardment, something even more unexpected happened.
Those capital ships did not conduct bombardments at an "appropriate distance". After the forward fleet restrained the Zhu Fu fleet and reduced its speed, they actually rammed directly towards Zhu Fu's main formation without even turning around, although the tugboats had already
The gravitational drag is lifted, but the inertia still exists.
A Murder-class cruiser that was too late to maneuver stood in the unstoppable charge route of the Hymn of Courage. Although the plasma macrocannon on its side was firing continuously, it could not destroy the void shield of this giant ship. Occasionally, some
The cannonballs that passed through only scratched some scratches on the thick alloy bow.
The Hymn of Courage is different from other Emperor-class ships. It once experienced a bloody battle, resulting in severe damage to the bow of the ship. Therefore, the Navy changed its traditional sensor probe to the spine of the ship and installed a thickened
Armored bow.
The distance between the two sides disappeared in an instant. Everyone on the ship, including the Chaos Space Marines, could only watch in horrified silence as the huge Aquila emblem crashed into them. This seemed to be a slow motion. The void shields of both sides interacted and dissolved. When the Emperor
When the bow of the Emperor-class battleship collided with the outer shell of the Murder-class cruiser, the armored surface immediately curved and was eventually completely crushed until the Emperor-class bow was almost completely buried inside. A series of subsequent explosions started from the inside.
Igniting this bizarre scene, the murder class split into two, and the wreckage flipped and disintegrated in the void, throwing all the crew members into the void.
All this may seem slow, but in fact it only takes the blink of an eye.
And the Hymn of Courage continued to move forward, its bow was only slightly deformed, and at the same time the macroguns on both sides began to fire in unison.
A storm of destruction set off in Zhufu's fleet, and was later joined by six Vengeance-class ships. They all added temporary armored bows before the war, just like the retinue following the knight, plowing around the Emperor-class.
Choosing a path of destruction, some small boats were unable to dodge and were directly smashed into pieces, and their macro-cannons roared non-stop. At such a close distance, even cruiser-level void shields were unable to match their sharpness.
A Hellbringer-class light cruiser quickly overloaded its shields, and was then covered in dense artillery. It was instantly torn apart from the bridge to the gun deck, and then exploded into several pieces.
At the same time, the communication channels between the two parties became active.
"Giuffre, or Balzac, we will save you from eternal pain, that corrupt body that has lived long enough."
Hearing the voice of his former brother echoing on the bridge, Zhu Fu only responded with a contemptuous laugh and tightened his grip on his battle ax.
"Then I'll wait for you, good brothers."
"Commander-in-Chief, there is a message from the Moon of Destruction that the enemy has sent a second wave of landing troops. Captain Azrael is executing the plan according to the plan, but he believes that the enemy's space hulk may be larger than expected.
To be robust, planned launch times may need to be adjusted."
On the bridge of the Eternal Loyalty, a massive amount of information was gathered here. Soshyan stood in front of the imager, observing the macro-map of the battlefield.
After listening to Ustad's report, Soshyan nodded and said:
"Reply to Chapter Leader Azrael, he will decide everything on the fly."
"yes."
Then Lysander came up again.
"Message just came from Kosaro Khan. They have engaged Zhu Fu and their prey has fallen into a trap."
"Well, reply to Kosaro Khan, don't underestimate the enemy. Just because half of the prey's body falls in does not mean that there is no chance to break away and resist. Well, send two more frigate squadrons and one destroyer squadron to support and try our best to contain this enemy.
We are a group of enemies, and we will defeat them all in one battle."
After saying that, Soshyan put his hands on the railing of the imager and stared in the direction of the Kara Galaxy.
"At this time, Huron should also appear."
"Commander in Chief! A strong signal came from the subspace probe!"
Dietrian, who was personally in charge of the detection array, suddenly made a monotonous but high-pitched voice, and then a huge red dot appeared on the imager.
"An enemy fleet is leaving subspace and approaching the Kara galaxy!"
Soshyan's eyes widened slightly, he straightened up and smiled at Talos beside him:
"He's finally here."
Then he said to Dietrian:
"Send a message to Chapter Commander Tu'shan that the main Huron force has arrived. Please be sure to keep them away."
About twenty minutes after the signal was sent out, the fleet commanded by Tu'shan arrived at the edge of the Kara galaxy. What they had to face was the main force led by Huron himself, which was also the most elite force of the Red Pirates.
There were more than 26 cruisers, as well as several battleships, but what really surprised Tu'shan was not the swarming of battleships, but something else.
The second space hulk besides the Savage Crucible!
Even in terms of volume, it is larger than the Crucible of Savagery, and it also has the ability to move autonomously and various weapons and facilities, almost the same as the hulk that appeared near the Moon of Destruction.
Under this situation, Tu'shan did not back down. He took advantage of the large number of gunboats in the fleet - especially the natural disaster-class battleships - to conduct long-distance attacks on the enemy's hulks, and arranged the entire fleet into a single column, intending to
Attack while maneuvering, and try to prevent the opponent from having the opportunity to engage in close combat.
But it is obvious that they alone cannot withstand such an offensive.