Chapter 1943 A Heavy Price
“Gather the fleet and order the Gray Knights not to pursue.”
Hearing Soshyan’s instructions, Mark nodded, but as soon as he turned around, in After hesitating for a moment, he returned and whispered:
"Chapter Commander, but over there is the man-eating shark."
Soshiyang shook his head.
"There is no chance. Huron would rather shake the battle line but also open a distance, which means that he does not intend to give anyone a chance to get close to his flagship. The main force of the Red Pirate Fleet is still there. Even if Huron cannot defeat it, it is still very easy to escape. What's more, it is probably difficult for the Man-Eating Shark fleet to break through the interception firepower of the large Red Pirate warships and send a message to the Man-Eating Shark. Don't pursue the enemy. I hope they will listen."
Facts have also proved it. According to Soshiyan's judgment, although the man-eating shark was coming menacingly, Huron was determined to avoid the fight, just like a real shark with brute strength and sharp teeth, but could not catch a slippery old loach at all, and this The separated fleets of the Red Pirates gradually gathered together. Due to the huge loss of fighter planes and the pressure of continuous air strikes, the Red Pirates' capital ship immediately used ferocious artillery fire to dizzy the Man-Eating Shark Fleet, and one cruiser was destroyed at that time. , damaging 2 frigates.
Realizing that it was no longer possible to carry out a surprise beheading, the shark fleet had to give up the charge and join the bombardment of the imperial fleet.
At this time, many of the Red Pirates were still evacuating, and the void was full of swaying landing craft, gunboats, and even lifeboats.
When Zhu Fu attacked, he specially arranged for people to occupy two escape areas that were not very critical. At this time, it played a huge role. Many red pirates who did not have escape tools took advantage of the escape areas controlled by Zhu Fu. Escape quickly, and because it is the escape vehicle of the Star Fortress, it is recognized as a friendly mark in the fire control system of the Imperial warship, and is not easily targeted by automatic weapons. After learning this after the war, Soshyan couldn't help but I lamented that with such a commander among the Red Pirates, the subsequent battles would probably not be easy to fight.
After that, the exchange of fire between the two sides continued for more than an hour. In the end, the Red Pirates quickly broke away from the battle after they were convinced that they could no longer recover more people.
The Second Naval Battle of Angstrom, which lasted for a full 14 hours, came to an end.
It can be said that both sides of this naval battle tried their best, but the casualties were far less disparate than the first battle.
Post-war statistics, the Red Corsairs were sunk 1 Emperor-class battleship Death Marsh, 1 battlecruiser, 3 large/heavy cruisers, 6 strike cruisers/light cruisers, and about 80 Small ships, in terms of ship losses, it was about the same as the first naval battle.
On the Empire's side, the fleet led by Soshiyan alone was sunk 1 heavy cruiser (Atonement of the Astral Knights) and 3 strike cruisers (including Endeavor and Resolute of the Astral Knights) ), 4 light cruisers, 30 small ships, and the Mechanicum's battleship Alloy Truth was also destroyed and almost sunk, and was also invaded by demons. Half of the artillery deck was destroyed, and a third of the engine was destroyed. A quarter of the crew and technical personnel were sacrificed, and it will take about 5-10 years to repair. In addition, 2 large and medium-sized ships, 11 small ships, plus 1 cruiser lost by the Shark Fleet were lost.
The Empire only took a small advantage in terms of the number of losses, but the Blessing Barrier is basically in disrepair. According to conservative estimates, it will need at least two years of mooring and repair to restore basic movement and combat capabilities. If it is to be completely repaired, it may take 10 years, which is equivalent to saying this There is a high probability that there will be no other battles behind the Star Castle. In addition, more than 10,000 fighter planes participated in the battle were lost. A considerable number of them were destroyed by subspace forces and could not even be recovered.
It can be seen that the victory of the last naval battle relied to a large extent on the defensive power of the planet Angstrom. Once it left the scope of the planet's orbital defense, even with two star forts and a large amount of air force, it still failed It is not enough to erase the huge gap between the two sides in the battleships. Once the Red Pirate Fleet forces a charge up to close range and fire, its heavy armored cannons will still have a huge advantage, and the defense of the Star Castle is deployed in all directions, in a single area. The firepower is actually very limited.
For example, the Red Corsair Retribution-class battleship Despair Invocation was able to continuously sink the Astral Knights Endeavor and Atonement with powerful main gun salvos even though one-third of its deck was destroyed. Even during the evacuation, due to the overload of the void shield, it used its strong hull and armor to withstand the firepower harassment of the empire's small battleships and rushed out. It was precisely because he saw that the Red Pirates' battleships with heavy armor and cannons were still capable of fighting that Soshyan did not intend to fight Huron to the point of death. After all, the Word Bearers were the Red Pirates' trouble now, but If there were no Red Pirates, the empire would immediately be in trouble. Occam doesn't have much information about their strength now, but as an ancient rebel army, the traitors of Galmyk should not be underestimated. Don't let both sides suffer and then be defeated. It would be ridiculous if other people took advantage.
In addition to the loss of the fleet, the loss of personnel in this battle was what really made Soshyan very heartbroken.
Only 49 soldiers died in the last battle, but this time in the brutal naval battle and star fort defense, 102 people were killed in the third, fourth, sixth and tenth companies of the Astral Knights alone!
Among them, 19 people were killed in the third company, 28 people were killed in the fourth company, 24 people were killed in the sixth company, and 31 people were killed in the tenth company.
The situation of other chapters is not good either. The Flesh Tearers lost 85 people, the Ascetics lost 134 people, the Rangers lost 48 people, the Imperial Fists also lost 17 people, and the Gray Knights had 17 people killed. 9 warriors died, for a total of 395 Imperial Space Marines killed!
You must know that there are not many Space Marines in the entire expeditionary force. Counting the losses in the previous series of battles, according to the casualties reported by various theaters and battle groups, there have been close to a thousand Space Marines since the beginning of the expedition. were killed, and the strength of the entire expeditionary force was reduced by almost one-fifth.
However, it is obvious to the naked eye that there are still many tough battles to be fought. Soshyan is not sure what the final number of casualties will be.
In addition, the Mechanicus and the State Church suffered great sacrifices. Three governing sages died in the battle, 11 data craftsmen died in the battle, and more than 200 priests who accompanied the army sacrificed their lives for the God of Machines, and more than 60 Ten thousand Skitarii and nearly 3,000 combat robots of various types were destroyed in the battle. In addition, more than 100,000 Ecclesiastical combatants and 61 battle nuns, including Skitarii and mercenaries, were martyred.
As for the number of crew sacrifices caused by the ship being sunk and gang jumping, it is a huge number. It is estimated that at least two million crew members and non-combatants were killed.
As for the Red Pirates, the number of Chaos Space Marines that can be counted is about 3,000, and the actual number is up to 5,000, which is about the same as the first naval battle of Angstrom. However, the intensity of the war cannot be compared at all. It can be seen that the first great victory was also due to the poor command of the Red Pirates commander. This time, a clever frontline commander was replaced, and the effect was immediately different.
Facts have proved that the Red Pirates are not really soft persimmons who can be pinched casually, but they have many internal problems that prevent those Chaos Space Marines from truly displaying their fierce individual strength.
So Soshyan could only pray that those internal problems would continue to trouble the Red Pirates. It was also because of this mentality that he did not really murder Huron, otherwise the desperate attack at that time would indeed have Probably take this guy down.
As for those cultists and demons, there is no way to count them, and there is no statistical significance.
In addition, the battle report also mentioned some special things.
(End of this chapter)