Chapter 2103 Opening Battle (Part 2)
“Route to 270, release the first and second bomber squadrons, attack the designated target!”
“Phil 1, Phil 2, head to The enemy's Dauntless class launches torpedoes!"
After receiving the order, the flight decks on both sides of the Crossbow opened, and the Starhawk bombers slid out of orbit and quickly formed a formation and flew towards the enemy fleet.
At this time, the Red Pirate fleet discovered the incoming aviation formation, and immediately maintained the course of 270, and increased speed again, trying to go around to the other side of the Imperial formation, and the two Scimitar-class frigates of the Empire also turned 170, to occupy a favorable torpedo launching position in the bow direction of the ship.
Then they launched torpedoes, and the target was the enemy's Dreadnought. The enemy commander made a mistake in judgment, thinking that the torpedoes and fighters were coming towards him, and immediately attracted two predator ships to try to intercept these attacks, causing another cruiser to Temporarily isolated.
When the Starhawk bomber formation suddenly turned and rushed into the fire range of the light cruiser, it hurriedly activated its defensive weapons. However, as a small ship that had undergone extensive rough modifications and was in extremely poor combat readiness, it It was impossible to independently resist the attacks of the two bomber squadrons. Various explosions, missile trails, and lasers made the scene look lively, but not a single bomber was shot down until they broke through the void shield.
Dozens of plasma missiles trailed out of the bomber's magazine, most of them blasting huge holes in the light cruiser's hull, and two missiles directly hit the bridge. The location caused the superstructure to turn into a sea of fire.
The missiles were all plasma magnetic bombs and melta missiles. The small ship trembled like a dying beast during the bombing. The bombs that penetrated the decks were in the cabin, the dark temple and the slaves. An explosion occurred on the deck, and its main guns, engines, fuel depots and cargo holds were all blown to pieces.
Countless flaming metal fragments spurted into the air from its broken internal structure, and plasma flames spurted out from its wounds like blood.
As a bomber dropped the last bomb into the exploded inner structure of the fighter plane, the ship's engine also suffered a catastrophic explosion. The Starhawks quickly left the ship and broke into two halves, turning into countless dirty pieces. Steel target.
At this time, the enemy's Dauntless class and two Faithless class predators were still avoiding the 12 torpedoes launched by Phil 1 and Phil 2. This kind of weapon could not be used by any of them. In confrontation, they can only use firepower to intercept as far away as possible, which also makes them flawless to take into account friendly ships besieged by bombers.
As a result, when the cruiser was broken into two parts in a catastrophic explosion, something unexpected happened to the Red Pirates' fleet immediately.
A plundering ship broke away from the formation and accelerated in the other direction.
“Oh, this is a heresy. Running away in the face of battle is really in line with their status.”
With just one glance, Chinedu knew that the ship was planning to abandon its friendly forces and run away. This situation was not uncommon in battles with red pirates. The word "pirate" determined their combat style and Will to fight.
"Ignore it, concentrate your fire on the Dreadnought-class ship. The first and second bomber squadrons land in sequence from the left deck, and the third bomber squadron takes off from the right deck."
"Change the course to 160, the enemy ship is heading 090, bearing 188, horizontal 20 degrees."
3 minutes later, the Crossbow fired again, hitting the enemy's Dreadnought-class void shield.
Similarly, the enemy's main gun fire also hit the Crossbow's void shield, causing ripples.
"The shield is reduced by about 24%!"
"The reactor power is increased by 10%!"
"The engine output is reduced by 17%!" Chinedu was unmoved because he knew this was just In the enemy's death struggle, even in a perfect state, the speed of the Dreadnought-class is almost the same as that of the Provocative-class. What's more, with such a low-readiness level of Dreadnought, it has no possibility of escaping pursuit.
At the same time, Phil No. 3 and No. 4 also broke away from the formation and sailed to the port side of the Crossbow. They focused fire on the enemy cruiser at the extreme range, but stopped after 5 minutes because At this distance, their artillery cannot effectively threaten the enemy's void shield.
Chinedu ordered the frigate -
"Close and attack the enemy with torpedoes!"
But when the order arrived, the enemy cruiser suddenly changed its course sharply and rushed towards the Crossbow instead, seemingly They planned to die together, but Chinedu had been fighting the Red Pirates for so long, and he knew very well that the other party was going to join the gang-hopping operation, which meant that the ship was probably carrying Chaos Space Marines.
These guys are very dangerous. Once they jump onto the ship, even if there are only a dozen of them, the guards on the ship cannot resist.
However, it is not that easy to jump into gangs in a naval battle, not to mention that they are using a light cruiser that is not designed for close combat.
Chinedu then ordered all ships to change course to 215, and put the frigates into a line of formation. Then the enemy cruiser and the only remaining predator ship also turned to 215, intending to maneuver to the side of the Crossbow.
After that, the frigates fired at maximum range for several minutes. The enemy pillager changed course to port, trying to cover the cruiser's approach to the Ballista and block the bomber squadron that had flown into attack distance, but it was actually The target of the bombers.
Phil 1 and Phil 3 used continuous firepower to weaken the void shield, and then the Starhawk bombers passed through the weak defensive firepower of the enemy ships and launched a large number of plasma missiles and melta missiles.
Most predator ships emphasize speed and carrying capacity, and their defense capabilities are usually poor, so just a squadron of bombers can cause their entire superstructure to fall apart and turn into a large amount of burning metal ejected, and in After a minute it exploded into three pieces.
The last wing ship was destroyed, and the enemy's Dreadnought began a desperate charge. Its artillery fire turned back to the Crossbow at position 210, firing desperately in an attempt to weaken the void shield.
However, it has to face an entire frigate formation, and at this time, its distance cannot guarantee the hit of the jumping torpedo.
When the sortie bomber formation returned, the Lightning fighter formation was released, along with another bomber formation.
"Phil 3, Phil 4, give priority to their own safety, launch torpedoes at the enemy Dreadnought-class at the extreme distance!"
12 torpedoes were launched, but the Dreadnought-class single ship The firepower is completely unable to intercept it. It can only change direction, try to maneuver, and launch interference beacons. It is not easy for a torpedo to hit a small or medium-sized warship at the extreme distance.
Six torpedoes missed the target, 2 were deceived by decoys, and 2 were shot down, but 2 still passed through the void shield and hit the target.
The Red Corsair's Dreadnought-class stopped. A torpedo hit the left side of its stern, which may have damaged the power system and paralyzed the power system. The turret and steering mechanism were stopped, and all the lights were turned off. Another hit the bow of the ship, causing its light spear array to be completely annihilated in a huge explosion.
(End of this chapter)