Infinite Metaverse

"What are the results of the planetary scan?"

Fu Qinghai asked impatiently as soon as he returned to the bridge of the cruiser.

"Khan, this is the topographic map of the feudal world of Marzan before the great rebellion."

Eugene Eleanor displayed a spherical holographic projection on the table.

"After scanning with the auspicious array, we marked the changed terrain in red."

As Eugene's fingers slid, the holographic projection rotated and magnified, and a place marked in red appeared, which were several hemispherical "bubbles" embedded on the surface.

"You see, this is the castle of a local warlord. It was built in a valley. It is estimated to have a large underground area. In addition, the castle and several affiliated bastions have void shields, which isolates the auspicious device from further scanning."

There is a void shield, which means that the interior of the castle cannot be probed through the augury.

There is a void shield, which means orbital bombardment with light spears and macrocannons is not possible.

Many people will wonder why the human empire's naval fleet still has to send ground troops to land and fight after occupying space orbit, just like fighting World War I, and let the Imperial Guard use human lives to fill it.

First of all, the empire regards the places where the Star Torch can shine as its traditional sphere of influence. It wants to occupy and rule the places. It cannot issue extermination orders at every turn. The cost of interstellar war is very high. War is a continuation of politics. If it is for Victory after victory, what are you doing in this dead world?

Secondly, if you do not use the cyclone torpedoes and virus bombs of the Extinction Order, there are many limitations to relying solely on macro cannons and light spears. Ground-based void shields can often be built larger than ship-based void shields and are difficult to penetrate. Special terrain such as the seabed or Canyons can all offset the power of orbital bombing.

"Intelligence provided by Mars shows that the STC is hiding under the castle of this local warlord named 'Bancroft Kellogg'."

Master Quinto interrupted and reminded.

"These are not the main point. The main point is that we found the body of the Iron Warrior on the space station. The traitors also came to Malzan. They cannot come on foot. Start the sublight engine, search around the space orbit, and find the iron first. Brave battleship!"

Fu Qinghai waved his hand and ordered directly.

The Liema set sail again and flew around Malzan, but the auspicious device still did not detect any sign of the aircraft.

Even Fu Qinghai, Joestar and Camille piloted Stormbird to search carefully in the meteorite belt far away from the planet, but still did not find any spacecraft.

In the bridge, everyone gathered.

"What's going on, Khan."

Camille asked.

Fu Qinghai recalled the battle on Planet Roswell 7, pondered for a moment, and said:

"If it is not some kind of stealth technology, then there is only one possibility left. The enemy ships are hidden on the surface."

"That means that the tonnage of the opponent's warship is very small and basically does not have the ability to compete with a cruiser."

Qiao Shida said calmly.

"How about trying diplomatic means to contact the warlord on the surface and ask him to voluntarily surrender and hand over the STC."

Eugene made suggestions from the sidelines.

Fu Qinghai shook his head:

"If the bodies of those Iron Warriors are not found, I would also prefer diplomatic negotiations to resolve the issue. The other party has a void shield, and it must also have an auspicious device. We have already circled the planet, and there is still no information from the surface actively contacting us. , the other party’s attitude is self-evident.”

"We can simply smash the drop pod directly in from overhead, or we can drive Thunderhawk gunships to penetrate the defense at low altitude."

Joestar came up with a standard Space Marine solution.

Fu Qinghai stared thoughtfully, pursed his lips, and was noncommittal.

He actually didn't want to fight with the enemy on the surface. The battle on Roswell 7 always reminded him that he couldn't make the same mistake as Vlahos, occupying orbital air superiority and then fighting the enemy on the ground. , which is equivalent to the Russian army with heavy artillery firepower marching into the ruins of Grozny to engage in street fighting.

Fu Qinghai put his hands on the broad table, stared closely at the fortress shrouded in the void shield, and said:

"There is actually a solution."

"What?"

Qiao Shida asked curiously.

Fu Qinghai said calmly:

"Install thrusters on that abandoned space station, throw it from orbit, and kill those traitors and warlords."

"Wonderful."

Qiao Shida's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Master Quinto immediately stopped him and said:

"Little Locke, our primary target is the STC below the castle, not the Iron Warriors or the rebel warlords."

The implication is that if the castle is dented, a big hole is created on the ground, and the STC below is destroyed, then their efforts will be in vain.

"There are two termite-class Tyrant-type assault drill vehicles on the scientific research ship. We may be able to start from the ground."

Master Quinto reminded.

Fu Qinghai pinched his chin and said:

"No matter what, let's go down and see the actual situation before making a decision."

Fu Qinghai turned around and ordered:

"Jostar, choose a landing site."

Joestar already had an idea of ​​this. He reached out and flicked the holographic projection of the planet to enlarge the land area. He pointed at a valley not far or near from the warlord's fortress and said:

"Here, Khan."

"Fifty kilometers away from the castle, the curvature of the planet can interfere with the auspicious detection to a certain extent."

"Surrounded by virgin forests, there are no signs of human activity, and the probability of being discovered by locals is low."

"I observed that the structure of the valley facility is very similar to an abandoned mine. Mines are generally accompanied by strong magnetic fields, which can also interfere with the enemy's detection methods to a certain extent."

Joestar listed three reasons in one breath.

This caused Camille next to him to look at him differently.

"Very good, check the teleportation beacon, pack up the weapons and equipment, and we'll go down on the Thunderhawk gunboat."

Fu Qinghai ordered with satisfaction.

…

The Void Shield is a shield system unique to the Human Empire.

A very advanced and clever design.

The shield systems of other sci-fi IPs are nothing more than two types: deflection shield and energy shield. Unlike the "hard interception" method of energy shield, which mainly intercepts attacks through energy neutralization, deflection shield deflects attacks. The method of non-interception is also different. The principle of void shield is to transfer the attack to the subspace.

Sometimes I can imagine the feelings of the Four Vendors - sitting at home with water pouring on their heads. When the Human Empire was at war, all kinds of laser cannons and other garbage were being thrown into the subspace.

The void shield consumes a lot of energy, but its energy consumption is mainly used to maintain this subspace entrance, rather than to neutralize incoming attacks.

At the same time, like the Holtzmann shield in the Dune universe, the void shield will only defend against high-speed live ammunition weapons and directed energy weapons, such as macro cannons, light spears and nova cannons, but will not intercept the penetration of low-speed objects. Such as torpedoes, missiles and assault boats.

This statement is somewhat absolute. After all, speed is a relative concept. In fact, if you insist on subdividing it, the ship-based void shield, the ground-based void shield and the titan void shield are all different. By adjusting the frequency of the void shield, the harmonious Waves can also intercept torpedoes and missiles.

But tanks and infantry are 100% certain to be able to pass through the void shield, which is one of the reasons why the Imperial Guard still implements rigid World War I tactics.

Therefore, Fu Qinghai proposed a plan to use the space station to smash the castle. Due to the influence of air resistance in the atmosphere, the falling speed of the space station will most likely not reach the interception speed of the void shield.

In addition, the void shield will also isolate a variety of psychic technologies based on subspace principles, such as teleportation technology and auspicious scanning.

Therefore, Fu Qinghai had to personally lead the team down to the surface to observe the actual situation of the castle's defense.

…

Veteran driver Fu Qinghai operated the Thunder Eagle gunboat and landed steadily in the valley.

Three Space Marines stepped out of the front door of the fallen gunship.

Black slag and rusty iron frames were scattered around. Fu Qinghai glanced at the handheld auger in his hand, which showed that there was indeed a strong magnetic field here. He said on the communication channel:

"Set off."

Half an hour later, the three of them stood on a higher hill, observing the fortress in the distance.

The main color of gray and yellow covers the entire land. The surrounding scenery is very desolate, shrouded in haze, soil is lifted up, and trenches are crisscrossed.

The activated void shield creates a circle of transparent bubble-like membrane around the castle. This bubble causes an optical blurring effect because it can refract visible light passing through it.

The energy consumption of maintaining the void shield is huge.

The standard doctrine of the Imperial Navy is to maintain the void shield at fifty percent of its maximum power at all times. However, few captains follow this rule strictly, given its huge energy requirements and the resulting increased maintenance of the ship. Most people will keep their void shields at minimum power in "safe" situations, such as in a naval port above the orbit of an Imperial world.

Considering that the enemy is a technological barbarian warlord, it is obviously not possible to keep the void shield fully open under normal circumstances.

The scene above the castle showed that the enemy was aware of the fleet's arrival and had raised the void shield in advance, maintaining it at a relatively high power level.

Fu Qinghai rubbed his teeth together and looked a little worried.

Through the twisted light film, Fu Qinghai could vaguely see the huge and solid fort on the protruding bastion of the warlord's castle, with its black and thick muzzle reaching straight into the sky.

Skyhawk type macro cannon.

The enemy moved all the macro cannons to the ground. This is a heavy ground-based macro cannon specially used for ground defense.

Ironically, there was even the Empire's double-headed eagle logo on the macro cannon that had not had time to be erased.

Trench-style defensive platforms and semi-buried fortifications were spread out along the edge of the castle, with a large number of dead bones, abandoned weapons, ammunition boxes, shovels, metal rivets and shooting holes.

"Before we arrived, they had already fought more than one war. It was not necessarily the void shield that was raised because of us."

Joestar concluded.

Fu Qinghai nodded:

"Look, they are still reinforcing the crenellations and city walls. Those densely packed gun barrels, flat-firing cannons combined with curved-firing mortars and howitzers, heavy explosive shells and cross-firing holes for logging guns... are very much in the style of the Iron Warriors."

Numerous artillery forts fortified the warlord's castle into an iron hedgehog.

Joestar also put away the idea of ​​low-altitude penetration of the Thunderhawk gunship and the blooming of the center of the airborne pod.

"Drill into the ground."

Joestar said.

"That's all."

Fu Qinghai whispered.

There is no other way.

Fu Qinghai secretly calculated in his heart:

The assault drilling vehicle will make a lot of noise, and the enemy cannot be unaware of it, so simply drilling into the ground is not enough. It must also cooperate with the frontal attack of ground troops and the air and space strikes of orbital warships to achieve the real tactical goal-underground assault. cover.

The skitarii and armed servitors were all fearless of death. They were allowed to rush forward under the gunfire of the castle defense system, and they were sacrificed under the city wall as bait and abandoned sons. Master Quinto would not say a word "no".

But Fu Qinghai feels that this is not how battles are fought. Iron Warriors may fight this way, but White Scars will not.

Maybe I can smash the space station next to the castle, change the terrain, and use the cover of the wreckage to shoot at the enemy?

Fu Qinghai recalled several classic battles between White Scar and the Orcs, but the same problem remained. The STC was the primary target of this operation. Fu Qinghai had no way to predict the destructive effects of the space station's fall, and it was difficult to accurately micromanage it to the expected outcome.

Fu Qinghai wanted to make this battle more beautiful.

Fu Qinghai is brainstorming...

Suddenly, Fu Qinghai, Qiao Shida and Camille looked to the side as they felt something in their hearts.

A ragged mortal climbed to the foot of the mountain.

His hair was as messy as a chicken coop, his complexion was sallow, his dirty hands and feet were covered with mud, his eyes timidly stared at the three Space Marines on the hill, and he spoke cautiously:

"Three... three adults, our adults would like to invite you to come over and talk."

"Your family?"

Joestar frowned.

"He, he is an Astartes too."

The man explained stammeringly.

The three of them looked at each other.

"This could be a trap, Khan."

Joestar whispered in the communication channel.

Fu Qinghai frowned and said nothing.

At this time, the man suddenly rolled his eyes, his face began to twist, and cobalt blue blood vessel stripes appeared around his cheeks. A ferocious little head of cobalt blue gel came out from his back, and his evil white eyes were straight. He looked at Fu Qinghai, grinned his sharp-toothed mouth, and said in a hoarse voice:

"He said if you don't want to, you will do it if you see me."

"What the hell is this!?"

Qiao Shida was horrified and subconsciously grasped the weapon at his waist.

"A mortal controlled by an alien parasite."

Joestar drew his power sword and came to a conclusion.

"No."

Fu Qinghai reached out and held Qiao Shida down.

"Come over and have a chat."

…………

Thanks, the European admiral took a stab at me, and if I don’t like it, I will stay away silently. King Marquez, three book friends gave me a reward.