Warhammer: I am the Hammer of the Empire.

Chapter 81 Welcome to Damocles Bay

The sequelae of witnessing the subspace may be rhinitis, or it may be that the abnormal movement of the large-scale space makes Alan Baier feel uncomfortable breathing, but as the head of the fourth infantry regiment of Skadi, he still needs to carry out his own work .

The star map in the vicinity was crudely expressed in the communication information. This area is called the Bay of Damocles, and it is so huge that even if an imperial cruiser wants to use the warp to cross this area, it will take a full six months.

They don't have so many supplies, because it is estimated 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 you encounter it, 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, they still couldn't support them to leave the battlefield. The good news is that the tentacles of the Tyranids have not yet arrived in this star area. The bad news here is basically all titanium.

There is no doubt that although they have "tai" in their names, titanium is actually pronounced "tau" and the strength of titanium is a little bit weaker than that of Tai, and the armor is not so exaggerated. It can even be said that Alan Bayer's military career is the beginning The life of canning is not too much.

"Staff, how is the condition of our soldiers?"

The staff chattered on the communicator to spread the emperor's honor, but Alan Baier stopped him, and he answered naturally. "Obviously the subspace pollution on the bridge is more serious, probably because the armor inside the ship is thicker. Except for a few hallucinations and brawls, only a few unlucky guys accidentally knocked over their lunch."

Alan Baier replied. "Ask the logistics and cooking team to get something for them. We haven't reached the point where we need to depress supplies. We will travel at sub-light speed for a long time."

"But the void shield was damaged due to the previous subspace storm, and now it cannot be opened for a long time, and we do not have the help of technical sages who can repair the shield. In general, if we are attacked, we have to be attacked first by others. Open the shield."

"Pray to the emperor, everything is really not going well."

Alan Bayer looked out at the brilliant sea of ​​stars through the window. The light of the stars flickered on those things. They were not reflections, but the shining light of the suns in countless star systems in the Milky Way that spanned countless light-years and turned into stars, covering There are countless stars that cover the sky like gravel in the void.

What a bustling universe, what a dark world, the battleship has turned off most of its electronic equipment and is only heading towards Quadra Vidya through the beacon. Now that they have lost the astropaths, they are completely unable to travel in subspace, and they are expected to reach Quadra Vidya Vidya, a world not even a light-year away, takes two months.

But this is already blessed by the emperor. If the Mandeville point they came out of was a little farther away, maybe this little path in the void would starve them to death in the universe.

But this is also inevitable, because Quadra Vidia is the largest commercial center in the Damocles Bay, and three stable subspace flows wrap the ships here to form the core traffic linking the Damocles Bay star area. In a gentle and fast ocean current, and they drifted through the warp and finally came here.

Life is not easy, but they are still alive, the emperor blesses, Alan Baier gave a mobilization speech in the communicator, but basically told the soldiers that the destination has changed, but for the soldiers of the emperor, where to go It doesn't matter, as long as it kills the alien.

The second lieutenant is in the armory at the moment, listening to the conversation on the communicator, and chatting with the mechanical priest girl. He caresses the sentry mech in the armory. He is lucky to be chosen as the driver of this loyal machine, because he As for the proficiency in machinery, because the driver also naturally got to know the logistics members of the Mechanics, they quickly became acquainted, although the priest will not take the initiative to speak and will not answer too many questions, of course, the premise is that the second lieutenant does not do maintenance, otherwise He may see the most extreme content of Mechanicum.

He listened to the communicator. "The subspace thing is really scary."

"I saw my mother just arrived. She died during the last famine in the hive capital. I ate part of her to survive. I almost went crazy just now..." The second lieutenant looked at the tactical dagger on his arm. He was glad he didn't carry his own bolter pistol clips with him.

The Mechanicist girl doesn't say a word, she has always been like this, in fact, the second lieutenant only chatted with her because she was more or less alive, you must know that there are three pilots in the Sentinel mecha, and the other two often play around in their company, But the second lieutenant found this often silent guy.

But the problem is not that she is silent, but that her database shows that the level of the Star Militia in front of her is too low, which is almost equivalent to the accessories of the sentinel mech. If your computer can speak, you may answer, but how can you talk to the computer cpu? chat?

Research with data craftsmen has made her humanity weaker and weaker. Her body has already been highly modified. A large amount of knowledge and newly stored stc have made her unable to do too many tedious things. Only prayer, faith, wisdom, and knowledge Can make her feel stimulated and excited.

Fortunately, the second lieutenant is a chatterbox, he doesn't care if she listens or not, he just chatters endlessly. "Do you know our leader, Alan Bayer, the guy talking in this communicator, he always finds fault with 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 really should taste what the bathroom smells like..."

The mechanical priest girl replied lightly. "No, he doesn't need it, he's a hero." Then he turned to continue maintenance, the second lieutenant was stunned, and it turned out that the changes brought about by data artisans were never thorough enough.

It’s just that the commanders on the bridge probably can’t hear the people below. The navigation 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 Bordeaux If there is a problem with the shield, it can counterattack when encountering small warships, but the existence of the same order of magnitude will definitely suffer.

The slowness of the sub-light speed engine made Alan Bayer feel that he was drifting on the endless ocean instead of moving. As one of the commanders, he could see the data of the battleship, as well as the electromagnetic waves detected by the nearby bird-augury instrument. Signal.

He drank coffee to relieve the tiredness caused by the voyage without knowing the sun and the moon. The damn retro panel of the empire made his eyes hurt. It was basically a transistor or something. There is.

But the monitoring range of this thing has actually reached the size of the moon or even more outrageous, but it looks narrow in the vast void. If the battleship is in planetary orbit, it only takes a few seconds for the commander of the star army to see the perfect star. Maps and enemy deployments.

The premise is that you can get close to low earth orbit.

And 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. Almost in short supply.

After all, commanders can't get drunk, but they still need to maintain a more vigilant mind than soldiers to judge the direction of war anytime and anywhere. Before he became a lieutenant colonel, Alan Bayer only thought that this thing was just a pot of water, but now he has left Not open.

Alan Baier looked at the screen, and then asked the captain. "Why is there a small dot approaching at the bottom right of the screen."

the captain replied. "The things found by the bird divination instrument are generally asteroids or something, bound by the gravity of the planet and flying towards the nearby world. The real enemy troops will emit the energy spectrum of the shield. After all, there are no shields in the universe. Traveling at sub-light speed is a terrible thing, although the void is huge and the asteroids are not so dense, the chance of impact is not without."

"However, the probability of hitting an asteroid or rubble in a complete void without gravity is equivalent to that of a citizen of the Empire without seeing the Emperor's statue in a lifetime."

Alan Baier asked again. "Aren't we traveling at sub-light speed? Why has this "asteroid" been shown for so long?"

The captain smiled. "It's just the delay of the auspicious instrument, and asteroids also have speed, and the speed of gravity pulling them will not be too slow, and it will disappear on the screen later."

"Ok?"

The captain couldn't help laughing, he refreshed the frequency of the auspicious instrument but still detected it, and the moment just now definitely sent out a new detection pulse, even if it hadn't been discovered before, it must be discovered now... and this thing hasn't disappeared, It's the enemy!

"Contact the enemy! Activate the void shield!"

"Damn it, we didn't find out in the first place!"

the sailor shouted. "Enemy shooting was detected, it seems to be plasma emitted by electromagnetic weapons!"

The captain has rich experience and shouted at the first time. "It's titanium, damn it!"

"The efficiency of the sublight speed engine is fully activated, the right rudder is full, dodge!"

the sailor answered. "Full speed ahead!"

After a few messy seconds, the battleship started up in an orderly manner, and avoided a salvo without a void shield. However, titanium weapons are not only plasma, but also rail gun arrays. Compared with plasma, they It is equipped with a small amount of self-navigation capability, and can maneuver autonomously in the void. After a while, a violent light curtain erupts in a left-hand rotation.

cried the captain. "Turn on the camera and project an image of the enemy!"

After a burst of fluctuations, the main screen of the battleship appeared on the main screen of the enemy battleship. It was a light yellow battleship marked with the symbol of the Supreme Good Way. It was shaped like a fish, or similar to a manta ray. It was flat and had obvious " Tail", countless blue propellers generate propulsion on its rear wings. Compared with the left and right flanks of ancient battleships similar to imperial battleships, titanium battleships are more similar to space X-wing fighters in Star Wars.

The captain said something. The word "Emissary" is standard High Gothic, meaning ambassador, and the ambassador class was originally designed for high-ranking members of the Water clan, Tau commanders and ether clans, and secondarily designed for combat.

They are also used as large merchant ships, and despite their size, she is well armed enough to defend herself in battle against all but the most powerful enemy capital ships.

These ships are now very common in Tau starfields, and as this class of ships is the first of the new type to be developed and modified, they may be added to the Defender fleet as new additions.

And the captain made an almost instant judgment. "Use a light spear, the enemy's shield is not thick, and directly perform fixed-point overload!"

the sailor shouted. "Captain! Only one tenth of the light spear array on the left is intact, and the electromagnetic gun just now made our weapons useless!"

asked the captain. "How long will the void shield be activated?"

the sailor answered. "3 minutes!"

the captain cursed. "It's too slow! Three minutes is enough for the enemy to shoot again. No matter how strong the armor of the Bordello is, it can't be ruined like this! Turn right and maneuver!"

cried the sailor. "Full! Pull the right full!"

About half a minute later, the Tau Empire battleship on the screen was finally invisible. Obviously, the enemy did not expect that the Bordello would not launch a counterattack, but instead fully provided energy for the sub-light speed engine. At this moment, everyone in the fleet relaxed. tone.

"My God, the auspicious bird didn't respond, we succeeded!" The sailors cheered, but the captain was still vigilant. "Remove the damage tube, the light spear cannot fail!"

"Yes!" The sailors immediately issued an order and ordered the Imperial Navy to carry out the repair work in an orderly manner.

But the Tau will not let go of the humans in front of them. They did not fail, but blocked their own signals. The wailing and trembling of the body made Alan Baier almost fall.

A moment later, a communication invitation appeared on the big screen. The captain looked at the loss on the right side of the battleship, and turned on the communicator with a painful expression on his face.

On the screen appeared that kind of alien blue leather thing without a nose, wearing a white cloak, very old, judging from the logo on the chest, it should be a diplomat of the Shui clan.

"Human beings, we only carry out cultural exchanges for the sake of the highest good. I, "I" Lianuo. The destiny of the descendants of Danliten has been mentioned, and I ask you whether to join the Tau Empire." The old thing stumbled The Gothic language makes people's ears hurt. If his name is directly translated in Gothic, it probably means calm sea, only annoying enough...

The captain was almost swearing, cursing the damn alien with the low goth of his hometown, but Alan Baier walked over slowly, speaking with a standard imperial accent.

"Dear Ti, a diplomat of the Water Clan, I have admired the Highest Good Way 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. In fact, we just left the world of the Empire just to survive."

"We have gone through countless wars and sought all kinds of miracles, but in the Gulf of Damocles, no one is greater than the idea of ​​​​the ether."

"Can you accept my invitation? We will send a diplomatic corps to meet and express our loyalty on your battleship."

Shui clan diplomats rarely saw such an attitude in front of humans, he was a little surprised, but still nodded. "Extremely happy, for the best way."

Alan Baier replied. "For the sake of the higher good."

The alien turned off the communicator line, and the captain began to draw his gun with an expression of seeing a ghost. "heresy!"

The staff officer also looked at his regiment leader in disbelief...

Alan Baier held down the captain's arm. "What's the hurry, prepare a transport ship, the one with a drill bit, I will choose the most elite people in the regiment, put on the spacesuit, and we will join the gang."

"Activate the Void Shield during this period, and if the jump is successful, immediately distance yourself. If I sacrifice, then leave immediately. If the emperor blesses us, we succeed, and my soldiers and I will use the Tau spaceship to approach the Empire World Find support, and our departure will also reduce the loss of food and energy for the battleship."

The captain and staff fell silent, and then the staff raised their hands. "Take me."

"Your soldiers need morale."

Alan Bair just said. "Come here if you are not afraid of death. You haven't tasted the plasma of the Titan heresy yet, have you? You must taste the local specialties when you come here."

The staff officer replied. "certainly!"

After a while, three hundred of the most elite non-commissioned officers, second lieutenants, were wearing carapace, holding deflagration guns, as well as the spacesuits of the jump team and several melta and plasma grenades. The luxurious equipment is amazing.

After they loaded the bullets, Alan Bayer turned on the communicator on the transport plane and spoke naturally. "We are ready to go to the shelter of the Greater Good, my lord."

Then turn off the communicator and speak to other soldiers. "Show them the Emperor's iron fist."

The veterans of Skadi's [-]th Infantry raised their deflagration guns, melta guns, and plasma guns, chanting. "For the Emperor!"

Feeling the acceleration force, the transport ship slowly left the battleship, drawing a death arc in the starry sky.

　For the sake of the best way! (crazy)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)