Chapter 1774 The Battle of Angstrom (Twelve)
The Warmaster-class Titan is one of the largest categories of Battle Titans, second only to the Emperor-class. Before the Horus Heresy, the Warmaster-class Her existence has been kept strictly secret, and even the highest-ranking members of the Adeptus Mechanicus cannot discuss her publicly. These mysterious war machines are secretly placed on specific forge worlds, remaining dormant in the shadows until the death of their home planet. Danger, and the first public use of this model was during the Martian Schism of the Great Heresy. The renegade Deathskull Legion revealed their hidden Warmaster-class Titans, causing big trouble to the loyal side.
The biggest feature of the Warmaster class is its firepower, especially long-range firepower. However, strong firepower also increases energy consumption. Therefore, the Warmaster class adopts a dual-reactor design, with a secondary reactor to provide most of the power. Weapon system power supply, including two Suzerain-class incineration cannons as main weapons, as well as four twin-linked Adkers close-in automatic cannons, missile launchers, and twin-linked laser cannons used to deal with light and air units. A variety of weapons can also be installed on the shoulders, and the defense provided by 7 sets of void shield generators is unparalleled.
Reza's Warmaster Legion only had 2 Warmasters that appeared during the Horus Heresy, but in fact there were far more than this number, and Reza's Warmasters were inferior in power and firepower. There are quite a few differences from the Mars Warmaster. The biggest difference is that the Ryza Warmaster uses two Sunfury Plasma Destruction Cannons. This Ryza's unique Titan weapon allows the Warmaster to carry out The sustained and powerful firepower output surprised other legions.
Although it is a microgravity environment, Titan's movements are not affected at all. The air around the huge war machine flashes in the energy of the void shield, and is slowly surrounded by dense skitarii and praetorian guards. Slowly moving forward, 2 Predators and 6 Warhounds appeared together with the Skullbreaker.
Then, the Apocalypse missile launcher on the huge shoulders of the Skullbreaker roared and fired out the first batch of missiles. A wall of flames suddenly rose up on the Red Pirates' front, and the shock wave filled the surrounding kilometers with screaming shrapnel. .
In the violent bombardment, the broken bodies of the Chaos Space Marines were thrown into the air and the daemons were torn to pieces, but these were nothing compared to the shocking destruction that was to come.
Soon, ultra-high temperature plasma was injected into the ion destruction cannons on the arms of the steel behemoth. The vacuum environment absorbed the powerful roar, making this scene appear silent and slow. At the same time, the Titan shoulder At the same time, the deadly Vulcan barrel also began to rotate, raising strong winds with constant acceleration, tearing apart the Red Pirates' front line, strafing from one end to the other, easily penetrating any armor.
When the final judgment came, the Red Pirates had actually collapsed. When they turned around and ran away in despair, the two plasma destruction cannons emitted dazzling light like stars, and white-hot energy roared out from the muzzles. , covering the location where the Chaos Wizard was before, creating an inconspicuous "small crater" on the surface of the planet.
Although there were less than ten Titans, the destruction they brought was inspiring and completely defeated the last hope of the red pirates on the satellite. Anyway, Okot was the first to see the Titans appear. It’s time to tell people to run away.
But his wit was as if he did not run around like a headless fly. Instead, he led the remaining war gang members towards a hangar bunker that was getting into a melee, because staying on the satellite was destined to be a dead end, and the only way to survive was to grab a Set up a fighter plane and run away.
In fact, there are many Chaos Space Marines who have the same idea as him. The defeated Red Pirate landing force quickly dispersed, which caused a lot of trouble for the defenders of Liuli 3. Many underground hangars were invaded, and the cramped environment was clearly conducive to the individual strength of the Chaos Space Marines. In some hangars, the entire flight deck was even occupied.
Faced with this sudden factor, Soshyan arranged for flesh tearers and ascetics to drop troops on Liuli No. 3 to assist the defenders in clearing out the scattered remaining enemies. However, the enemy's influence had already been caused, and the fighter formations were The attack capability began to decline rapidly. At the same time, in order to drop the landing troops, the two battle barges had to change directions. This gave the Red Pirate Fleet an opportunity. They quickly left the battlefield with a perfect collective right turn. Only then did Soshyan understand that the other party's real purpose was not to destroy the Star Fortress, or that destroying the Star Fortress was just a gamble. The real goal was to drop a small number of troops on the surface of the satellite and use them to interfere with the Empire and create chaos. This creates an opportunity for the main fleet to break away. It is obvious that the fleet commander of the Red Pirates has a very clear understanding of psychology. He knows that in desperate situations, those Chaos Space Marines will definitely find ways to invade the empire's hangar. This is far better than asking them to go Attacking a star fort is much easier.
There is no suspense in the subsequent battle. The Red Pirates' main fleet retreated in a very orderly manner. They did not just run away. They occasionally fired blocking shots at the Imperial fleet and broke away from the satellite. After being harassed by the fighter formation, their range advantage came into play, and Soshyan did not dare to pursue them deeply. He could only let the opponent leave the system after destroying some small warships.
With the defeat of the Red Pirate Fleet, the first large-scale naval battle of the Badab Expedition came to an end.
In this naval battle of Angstrom, both sides invested more than 20 capital ships and hundreds of small and medium-sized warships. The entire battle lasted for 16 hours.
After the final post-war statistics, the Empire lost 2 heavy cruisers, 3 strike cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 26 destroyers and frigates.
The Red Pirates lost 2 large cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser, 5 massacre-class cruisers, 6 light cruisers, and 39 destroyers and frigates.
Not long after the war, Soshyan received secret information. After leaving the Angstrom system, the Red Pirate Fleet was unexpectedly attacked by the Third Theater Fleet led by Kosaro Khan. After a brief battle, the Red Corsairs lost another Carnage-class cruiser and four destroyers and frigates. The Conqueror-class battleship Pathetique that participated in the battle was severely damaged. In the subsequent battle with the Third Theater Fleet, its engine was severely damaged again. Unable to keep up with the fleet, it was eventually abandoned by the Red Corsairs after evacuating its crew and destroyed with torpedoes.
As for personnel, if only the Space Marines are counted, then the Empire has almost no losses. Only 49 battle monks from various chapters died in anti-jump gang operations and naval battles, while the Red Corsairs side only recovered from the battlefield. A relatively complete corpse estimate shows that the Red Corsairs lost 2,541 Space Marines, but considering that many were directly wiped out in naval battles or only some fragments remained, the number is likely to exceed 5,000!
Therefore, the Battle of Angstrom is likely to be the largest number of Heretic Astartes annihilated in a single battle by the Empire since the Great Heresy.
(End of this chapter)