Chapter 81 Welcome to the Bay of Damocles
The sequelae of witnessing subspace may be rhinitis, or it may be the abnormal movement of large-scale space that makes Alan Bayer feel uncomfortable breathing, but as the commander of the Skadi Fourth Infantry Regiment, he still needs to carry out his own work. .
The star map nearby was crudely expressed in the communication message. This area is called the Gulf of Damocles. It is so huge that even if an Imperial cruiser wants to use subspace to cross this area, it will take a full six months.
They don't have that much supplies, because it is expected that it will only take about a month to return to Skadi. Although the subspace is unstable, it is basically impossible for large-scale time dislocation to occur in such a small area. If it happens, It doesn't matter how much supplies you bring.
Apparently they encountered a subspace "shipwreck". Although the supplies on the battleship were enough for them to sail for two or three months, it still could not support them from leaving the transformed battlefield. The good news is that the Tyranids' tentacles have not yet arrived in this sector. The bad news here is that it's basically all titanium.
There is no doubt that although they both have "tai" in their names, titanium is actually pronounced as "tau" and titanium's strength is a little bit weaker than Tai's, and its armor is not that exaggerated. It can even be said that Alan Bair's military career is the beginning of A career in canning is no exaggeration either.
"Staff officer, how are our soldiers doing?"
The staff officer was chattering endlessly on the communicator about spreading the emperor's honor when he was stopped by Alan Bair, and he answered naturally. "Obviously the subspace pollution on the bridge is more serious, probably because the armor inside the ship is thicker. Apart from a few hallucinations and fights, there were only a few unlucky guys who accidentally knocked over their lunch."
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Alan Beyer replied. "Ask the logistics and cooking teams to get them something. It's not yet necessary to suppress supplies. We will be traveling at sublight speed for a long time."
"But the void shield was damaged by the previous subspace storm, and now it cannot be turned on for a long time. We do not have the help of technical sages who can repair the shield. Generally speaking, if we are attacked, others will have to take the lead. Open the shield.”
"Pray to the Emperor, everything is really going wrong."
Alan Bayer looked at the brilliant sea of stars outside through the window. The light of stars flickered on those things. They were not reflections, but the shining light of the suns in countless star systems in the Milky Way. They spanned countless light years and turned into stars, covering up There are countless stars in the sky that cover the sun like gravel.
What a bustling universe, what a dark world. The battleship has turned off most of its electronic equipment and is only heading towards Quadra Vidia through beacons. Now that they have lost their astropaths, they are completely unable to navigate the subspace. They are expected to reach Quadra. Vidia, a world not even one light-year away, takes two months.
But this is already the blessing of the emperor. If the Mandeville point they come out of is further away, they may starve to death in the universe just by the slightest path in the void.
But this is inevitable, because Quadra Vidia is the largest commercial center in the Gulf of Damocles. Three stable subspace flows rolling ships here form the core traffic linking the Gulf of Damocles star sector, which is quite large. Due to a gentle and fast ocean current, they drifted with the current in the subspace and finally arrived here.
Life was not easy, but they were still alive, blessed by the Emperor. Alan Bair gave a mobilization speech in the communicator, but basically he still told the soldiers that the destination had changed, but for the Emperor's soldiers, where to go? It doesn't matter, as long as it kills the alien.
The second lieutenant was in the armory at the moment, listening to the words on the communicator, and chatting with the mechanical priest girl. He was stroking the Sentinel mecha in the armory. He was very lucky to be chosen as the pilot of this loyal machine, because he As for the proficiency in machinery, because he is the driver, he naturally gets to know the members of the Mechanicus in the logistics department, and they quickly become familiar with each other. Although the priest will not take the initiative to speak or answer too many questions, of course, the premise is that the second lieutenant does not do maintenance, otherwise He may have seen the most extreme aspects of the Mechanicum.
He listened to the communicator. "This thing about subspace is really scary."
"I saw that my mother just arrived. She died during the last famine in the hive city. I ate part of her to survive. I almost went crazy just now..." The second lieutenant looked at the marks on his arm with a tactical dagger. wound, and he was glad he didn't have his bolt pistol clip with him.
The Mechanicus girl said nothing. She had always been like this. In fact, the second lieutenant only chatted with her because she was still more or less alive. You must know that there are three pilots in the Sentinel Mecha, and the other two are often playing around in their own company. But the second lieutenant discovered this guy who was often silent.
But the problem is not that she is silent, but that her database shows that the level of the Astra Militarum in front of her is too low, almost equivalent to the accessories of the Sentinel mecha. If your computer can speak, you may answer, but how can you talk to the computer CPU? chat?
The research with the data craftsman has made her humanity weaker and weaker. Her body has been highly modified. The large amount of knowledge and the newly stored stc have made her unable to do too many tedious things. She can only pray, faith, wisdom, and knowledge. It can make her feel stimulated and excited.
Fortunately, the second lieutenant was a chatterbox, he didn't care whether she listened or not, he just kept chattering. "Do you know our leader, Alan Bayer, the guy talking in this communicator, always makes trouble for me. Although I am very grateful to him for giving me the driver's seat, I have been cleaning the toilet for half a year."
"He should really taste what the bathroom smells like..."
The mechanical priest girl answered calmly. "No, he doesn't need to, he is a hero." Then he turned around to continue maintenance. The second lieutenant was stunned, and it turned out that the changes brought by the data craftsmen were never thorough enough.
It's just that the commanders on the bridge probably can't hear what the people below are doing. Navigating in the physical universe is not much more comfortable than space. On the contrary, any information sent by the battleship may be discovered by pirates or aliens. Now the guards of the Bordero If there is a problem with the shield, you can still fight back when encountering a small warship, but an existence of the same magnitude will definitely suffer.
The slowness of the sublight engine made Alan Bayer feel like he was drifting on the endless ocean, rather than moving. As one of the commanders, he could see the data of the battleship, as well as the electromagnetic waves detected by the nearby auspicious device. Signal.
He drank coffee to relieve the fatigue caused by the endless voyage. The damn retro panel of the empire made his eyes hurt. It was basically a transistor or something. The second world-level war fought by ancient humans on Ancient Terra was Yes.
But the monitoring range of this thing has actually reached the size of the moon or even more outrageous. It just looks small in the vast void. If it is in the orbit of the planet, it only takes a few seconds for the battleship to let the commander of the Astra Militarum see the perfect star. Figure and enemy deployment.
The premise is that you can get close to low Earth orbit.
Coffee is actually not coffee, but artificially extracted caffeine. Regardless of whether this thing is harmful to the body, it is actually the mildest stimulant in the Empire. The commanders of the Astra Militarum are under great pressure. Coffee Demand almost exceeds supply.
After all, a commander cannot be drunk, but he still needs to maintain a more vigilant mind than a soldier to judge the direction of the war anytime and anywhere. Before Alan Beyer became a lieutenant colonel, he only thought that this thing was just water in the pot, but now he has left it. It won't open.
Alan Bair looked at the screen and then asked the captain. "Why is there a small dot near the bottom right of the screen."
the captain replied. "The things discovered by the auspicious omen are generally asteroids and the like, which are bound by the gravity of the planet and fly towards nearby worlds. The real enemy troops will emit the energy spectrum of the shield. After all, there is no shield in the universe. Traveling at sublight speed is very scary. Although the void is very large and the asteroids are not so dense, the probability of impact is not impossible.”
"However, the probability of hitting an asteroid or rubble in the complete void without gravity is equivalent to the Imperial citizens not being able to see the Emperor's statue in their lifetime."
Alan Bayer asked again. "Aren't we traveling at sub-light speed? Why did this "asteroid" continue to appear for so long?"
The captain smiled. "It's just the delay of the auspicious omen, and asteroids also have speed. The speed of gravity pulling them will not be too slow. It will disappear on the screen after a while."
"Huh?"
The captain couldn't laugh anymore. He refreshed the frequency of the auspicious device but still detected it. And that moment just now definitely sent out a new detection pulse. Even if it was not discovered before, it must be discovered now... and this thing has not disappeared. It's the enemy!
"Act the enemy! Activate the void shield!"
"Damn it, we didn't find out right away!"
shouted the sailor. "An enemy shot was detected. It seems to be plasma emitted by an electromagnetic weapon!"
The captain was experienced and shouted immediately. "It's titanium, damn it!"
"Sublight engine efficiency is fully activated, right rudder is fully engaged, get out of the way!"
replied the seaman. "Full speed ahead!"
After a few chaotic seconds, the battleship started in an orderly manner, dodging a salvo without a void shield. However, Titanium's weapons were not only plasma, but also railgun arrays. Compared to plasma, they It is equipped with a small amount of self-navigation capabilities and can maneuver autonomously in the void. After a moment, a violent light curtain erupted in a left rotation.
shouted the captain. "Turn on the camera and project enemy images!"
After a wave of fluctuations, the appearance of an enemy warship appeared on the main screen of the warship. It was a light yellow warship marked with the symbol of Shangshan Dao. It was shaped like a fish, or similar to a manta ray, flat and with obvious " "Tail", countless blue propellers generate propulsion on its rear wings. Compared with the left and right wings of the Imperial battleship that resemble ancient battleships, the Titanium battleship is more similar to the space X-wing fighter in Star Wars.
The captain said something. The phrase "Emissary" is standard High Gothic, meaning ambassador. The Ambassador class was originally designed for high-ranking members of the Water Caste, Tau commanders and Ether clan, and was secondarily designed for combat.
They are also used as large merchant ships, and despite their size, they are well armed and capable of defending themselves in any battle against all but the most powerful enemy capital ships.
These ships are now very common in the Tau Empire's star domain, as this class of ships is the first new type to be developed and modified, and they may be added to the Defender fleet as a new addition.
The captain also made an almost instant decision. "Use the light spear. The enemy's shield is not thick, so you can directly carry out fixed-point overload!"
shouted the sailor. "Captain! Only one-tenth of the light spear array on the left is intact. The electromagnetic gun just now disabled our weapons!"
the captain asked. "How long until the void shield activates?"
replied the seaman. "Three minutes!"
The captain cursed. "Too slow! Three minutes is enough for the enemy to shoot again. No matter how strong the armor of the Bordeaux is, it can't be ruined like this! Turn to the right and maneuver!"
cried the sailor. "Quanman! Pull right full!"
About half a minute later, the Tau Empire warships on the screen were finally no longer clear. Obviously the enemy did not expect that the Bordero would not counterattack, but instead used all its strength to provide energy for the sublight engine. At this moment, everyone in the fleet relaxed. tone.
"Your Majesty the God Emperor, the auspicious device has no response, we succeeded!" The sailors cheered, but the captain remained vigilant. "Destroy the damage control, the light spear cannot fail!"
"Yes!" The sailors immediately issued orders and directed the Imperial Navy to carry out repair work in an orderly manner.
But the Tau would not let go of the humans in front of them. They did not fail, but blocked their own signals. When a few sudden gravitational beams hit the Bordero's right cannon, the hull's machine soul The wailing and trembling of the body made Alan Bayer almost fall.
A moment later, a communication invitation appeared on the big screen. The captain looked at the damage on the right side of the battleship and turned on the communicator with a painful expression.
An alien blue-skinned thing with no nose appeared on the screen. He was wearing a white cloak and was very old. Judging from the logo on his chest, he should be a diplomat of the Water Clan.
"Humans, we only conduct cultural exchanges for the sake of the Greater Good. I, "I" Li Arno Danilit's descendant, have already mentioned his destiny. I would like to ask you whether to join the Tau Empire." The old man stumbled. Gothic makes people's ears hurt. If his name is directly translated in Gothic, it probably means calm sea, only annoying enough...
The captain almost yelled at the damn alien in the low Gothic language of his hometown, but Alan Bair walked over unhurriedly and spoke in a standard imperial accent.
"Dear Tau, diplomat of the Water Clan, I have admired the Greater Good for a long time. We didn't even fight back just now. The tyranny and pressure of the empire made us physically and mentally exhausted. We actually just left the world of the empire, just to survive."
"We have gone through countless wars and searched for all kinds of miracles, but no one in the Gulf of Damocles has greater ideas than the ether."
"Can you accept my invitation? We will send a diplomatic mission to meet on your battleship to express our loyalty."
The Water Clan diplomat rarely saw such an attitude in front of humans. He was a little surprised, but he still nodded. "Extremely willing, for the greater good."
Alan Beyer replied. "For the Greater Good."
The alien closed the communicator line, and the captain began to draw his gun with a ghostly expression. "Heresy!"
The staff officer also looked at his captain in disbelief...
Alan Bair held down the captain's arm. "What's the hurry? Prepare a transport ship, the kind with a drill. I'll select the most elite people in the group, put on space suits, and we'll join the gang."
"Activate the void shield during this period. If you successfully jump, you will immediately distance yourself. If I die, then leave immediately. If the Emperor bless us and we succeed, my soldiers and I will use the Tau spacecraft to approach the imperial world. Find support, and our departure will also reduce the battleship's food and energy losses."
The captain and staff were silent, and then the staff raised his hand. "Take me with you."
"Your soldiers need morale."
Alan Beyer just said. "Come here if you are not afraid of death. You haven't tasted the plasma of Titanium Heresy yet, have you? You must taste the local specialties when you come here."
The staff officer replied. "Of course!"
After a while, three hundred of the most elite non-commissioned officers, second lieutenants, were wearing carapace armor, holding deflagration guns, as well as the space suits of the gang jumping team and several melta and plasma grenades. The luxurious equipment was amazing.
They loaded the bullets, and Alan Bayer turned on the communicator on the transport plane and spoke naturally. "We are ready to go to the refuge of the Greater Good, my lord."
Then turn off the communicator and speak to other soldiers. "Show them what the Emperor's Iron Fist looks like."
The veterans of the 4th Skadi Infantry Regiment raised their deflagration guns, melta guns, and plasma guns and shouted. "For the Emperor!"
Feeling the acceleration force, the transport ship slowly left the battleship, drawing a death arc in the starry sky. For the Greater Good! (Crazy)
(End of chapter)