The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Clearly, Huron intends to disengage from the battlefield here and rendezvous with the forces in the Caracalla System currently engaged with the Salamanders Chapter fleet, as that is the weakest point in our defenses. If Huron can concentrate his forces and break through the Salamanders and other Chapters' blockade, they will be able to attack the Dark Angels from the rear, allowing him to extricate his forces trapped in the Battle for the Cursed Moon."

On the bridge of the Eternal Crusader, Solzhenitsyn, who had just returned from the space hulk, had no time to rest and immediately began deployment for the pursuit. The Chapter command staff surrounded him, while his image and voice were transmitted to the bridges of most of the capital ships after communications were restored.

"If that's the case, then Huron is not completely defeated. Even if we destroy New Badab in the future, he may still have the chance to make a comeback. After all, he practically escaped Badab alone. We must not underestimate his abilities."

He now needed to explain to everyone in the shortest and most concise way why he wasn't pursuing Huron's flagship but another cruiser. After all, the matter of Occam couldn't be exposed. If he turned around silently, others would inevitably become suspicious.

"Currently, Huron's flagship, the 'Destroyer of Souls,' and most of the capital ships are turning towards the battlefield where Corsaro Khan is blocking Zhu Fu. This is extremely abnormal. Zhu Fu is a member of the Black Legion, and he only poses a threat to Huron at the moment. Huron has no reason to go in that direction. Therefore, we can conclude that Huron has already left the flagship to escape, and he is now on this marked Murder-class cruiser!"

After reaching this conclusion, Solzhenitsyn immediately made deployments, forming a pursuit fleet with the Unbound Soul, Eternal Crusader, and Soulbringer as the core, as they were closest to the target. At the same time, he ordered the Minotaurs fleet to intercept the enemy from the side.

The Mantis Warriors and Flesh Tearers were too far away pursuing the Destroyer of Souls to carry out this task. Although Solzhenitsyn was actually willing to give the credit for killing Huron to others, he had no choice but to abandon the idea, and he also ordered the ships pursuing the Destroyer of Souls not to chase too far, otherwise, they might be caught in a counterattack if they strayed too far from the main force.

Anyway, as long as Huron is killed, the war will be over, and a few escaped fish won't be able to cause any trouble.

As if to confirm Solzhenitsyn's judgment, many Red Corsairs ships began to approach Huron's real "flagship." What was originally a small detachment had now become a large squadron of more than a dozen ships.

However, there were no capital ships among them, so Solzhenitsyn was not worried.

Soon, the three ships formed an assault formation and swept past the edge of the decomposing space hulk, their engines burning at maximum efficiency. The Eternal Crusader occupied the central command position, and the other two formed a loose triangular formation on the combat plane, adjusting their angles to expand the main firing arcs to the widest.

Since they had not suffered any damage before, the three ships were in optimal condition. With the engines running at full power, the gap between the fleets narrowed, while the fleeing Red Corsairs formation remained unchanged. They were not as chaotic as before, but maintained a stable speed, united in a classic lattice formation.

This made Solzhenitsyn even more convinced that Huron was in command.

In the Imperium, the first lesson that every student entering the Naval Academy learns from the teachers is always—in void warfare, formation is everything. In the open void, a fleet's defense relies entirely on its overlapping formations, and a fleet's offense relies entirely on the coordination of firepower between ships. And in the process of a fleet transferring, or rather, retreating, a formation that can cover each other is also the most important.

The Red Corsairs' escape formation clearly implemented the characteristic of "mutual cover."

Although it looked like they were fleeing in panic, each warship protected the flanks of the other warships, leaving no opportunity for attackers.

But unfortunately, after a long period of fighting, the Red Corsairs' ships were in poor condition, both in terms of quantity and status. And due to the Minotaurs fleet's extremely threatening attack direction, the fleeing fleet had to spend more time maneuvering.

Thus, what remained was a contest of speed and close-range tactics.

At the same time, many destroyers and frigates were also slowing down the Red Corsairs fleet. They bravely dodged incoming fire and continued to maintain the chain formation, constantly attacking the tail and flanks of the Red Corsairs ships with their less powerful weapons.

After chasing for more than ten minutes, the three capital ships of the Astral Knights began to engage Huron's fleeing fleet.

The three fierce capital ships were unstoppable among a group of raiders and light cruisers, as if fierce tigers had entered a flock of sheep. But Solzhenitsyn ordered that those small ships not be paid special attention. The three capital ships fired their ship cannons all the way, clearing narrow tunnels, and then launched another volley of torpedoes, followed by a dense barrage of macro cannons and lance strikes from the broadsides.

Such fierce firepower shattered void shields and bent adamantium armor. Two speeding Red Corsairs destroyers disappeared in catastrophic explosions, and several more ships were paralyzed or destroyed in the flames, including a Slaughter-class cruiser.

But this was not the main target of the assault.

As the three pursuing capital ships approached the target, the hangar doors of each warship hissed open, releasing wisps of oxygen into the void.

Immediately afterward, wave after wave of boarding torpedoes shot out of the launch tubes, sometimes gathering and sometimes dispersing, until they locked onto the attack target.

At the same time, even though the warships were still at attack speed, the gunboat squadrons, as the second wave of attack, launched and ascended into the battlefield full of wreckage and laser fire according to pre-planned attack vectors. These small attack boats aimed at the behemoth ahead and roared towards the target. All the warriors inside were excited because they would witness the victory of this expedition with their own eyes.

Boarding torpedoes and other similar vessels passed through the combat ball zone, spinning through explosion clouds. The cogitators inside quickly performed trillions of calculations, striving to deliver them to the target.

Solzhenitsyn also boarded a Stormbird. Huron was, after all, a tyrant of the Maelstrom, and his final desperate struggle should not be underestimated. Similarly, that ship probably carried his most elite forces. He had to resolve this battle himself, otherwise, the casualties could be very high.

After approaching the target, the Stormbird launched a series of bombardments and, amid the sound of armor plates cracking, plunged into the hull of the ship. The buffers shrieked like banshees and then stopped creaking in the tangle of molten iron.

The next second, amid the servitors' warnings, steam billowed, clamps burst, and the hatch slammed open.