The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"It's indeed worth the resources and time spent building the Blacklight Cannon. Its power justifies its cost."

With just one volley, the 'Absolutely Perfect' was almost rendered combat ineffective. From the bridge, Lucullus nodded in satisfaction. As its first practical application, the Blacklight Cannon perfectly demonstrated its value, and this combat data would serve as its best evaluation. If the Warband planned to modify or upgrade any large warships in the future, it would be a very good option.

In response, the Retribution-class battleship 'Lure' began firing its long-range lance batteries, but the Retribution-class's weak lance fire was utterly incapable of penetrating the Abyss-class's incredibly thick multi-layered shields—the Abyss-class possessed not only void shields, but also shield-weaver generators from the Hearthguard.

Realizing that his lances were ineffective, the 'Lure' and the staggering 'Absolutely Perfect' began to close the distance, using their more powerful broadside cannons to attack. This maneuver played right into the hands of Lucullus, the Abyss-class's temporary captain, who was also in charge of the secret Sa'born formation left behind on Brakato.

"Both the Retribution-class and Emperor-class are very cumbersome, especially when using their broadside cannons."

Watching the powerful cannon fire from the Retribution-class create ripples on the shields, Lucullus, clad in red and black legion-painted power armor on the magnificent bridge, nodded slightly. The wise men of Uran Huda had extensively modified the Abyss-class's structure, but they hadn't made too many changes to the bridge's structure, only simplifying it and reducing unnecessary furnishings and space. Each function had an independent workstation, protected by sturdy alloy. The front end had three oversized screens, each over a hundred square meters, and more than fifty smaller screens, each fifty or sixty square meters, displaying various information: the cosmos, enemies, and the ship's interior.

The center of the bridge was the commander's independent hub area, which was semi-open, offering a view of all the screens and observation windows. Relying on railings and columns, there were mostly various communication devices. The command throne stood on a sharply angled square platform, but that was the legion master's seat.

Above the massive bridge was a skylight covered with a layer of deck plating, which was where the astropaths were located. The higher arched space was exclusively occupied by the Navigator's sanctum, hidden in an anteroom to prevent harming others in the face of warp hazards.

Although it was the first voyage and battle, everything was in order. Lucullus then looked at the Hearthguard engineering master issuing orders at a separate console not far away.

"Let the plasma annihilators roar, Engineering Master Mikazni."

Upon receiving the order, the Aquila emblem on the Abyss-class's bow slowly and quietly spread its wings. Immediately afterward, the massive muzzle emerged, and the already-charging barrel began to emit a dazzling blue light. Realizing what was happening, the 'Lure' and the 'Absolutely Perfect' attempted to turn, but the already damaged 'Absolutely Perfect' was obviously slower.

The next moment, a beam of white light shot out from the Abyss-class's bow, surrounded by plasma arcs.

In the blink of an eye, the 'Absolutely Perfect's' bow armor evaporated, followed by the hull cracking. A second later, a massive explosion occurred, resembling a supernova. The enormous shock even shattered the 'Lure's' void shields.

Five seconds later, the warship that had participated in the legendary expedition of Zaha the Ripper turned into countless fragments drifting in the void.

Reclosing the bow, the Abyss-class's engines roared again, and the warship began to sprint towards the 'Lure.' Red, gold, and blue energy bodies and beams covered the opponent like raindrops.

While the Abyss-class was thrashing the two battleships, the Hearthguard warships also engaged the Emperor's Children cruisers. To build the Abyss-class, Soshyan had hired many Hearthguard engineers and mech-wrights. Naturally, they didn't walk over. Soshyan generously hired several warships to escort them to Uran Huda, and these warships naturally became the Abyss-class's temporary bodyguards.

The Hearthguard warships bombarded the shark-like approaching cruisers with las-cannons and railguns, mostly Carnage-class and Murder-class, but among them was a Styx-class heavy cruiser, the 'Bleeding Scimitar.' It had a clear tonnage and firepower advantage over the Hearthguard's Ranger-class and Valiant-class warships. More fatally, its massive hangars spewed out swarms of Hellblades, Hell Talons, and Doomstorm heavy bombers, pouncing on the Hearthguard warships.

In response, the Hearthguard's three Ranger-class warships also released their aircraft, but not only that. The Abyss-class, as a super-massive warship, even without deliberately strengthening its hangars, had a capacity exceeding the Emperor-class standard, and the armory Soshyan equipped it with included Hearthguard aircraft—as for why not use human aircraft, it was mainly for performance considerations. Soshyan's idea was that the Abyss-class was not a warship that could be mass-produced, and it was very likely that a second one would not be built in the future. Therefore, its armaments should be as "refined" as possible, maximizing the power of a single ship to justify its expensive cost and long working hours.

At the time, the only human aircraft Soshyan considered were the Ryza Nightshroud and the Voss Lightning, but these two aircraft currently had too low production to form a scale, and could only be configured in small quantities on Rogon-class light carriers.

". All squadrons, sortie in sequence, attack plan is being constructed."

After receiving the sortie order from the bridge, the cave-like flight decks on the Abyss-class's sides opened one after another, and then unique aircraft slid out, rotating to form squadrons and rushing towards the flank battlefield.

The most numerous of these was a blended wing-body aircraft, with the Greater Thurian League's signature blue-gray paint. Its shape was somewhat similar to the Tau Empire's Tigershark fighter, or rather, the Tau Empire got its inspiration from the Hearthguard. However, its fuselage was more rounded and smooth, with wide delta wings on both sides and a sharp rhomboid tail. Two plasma engines were installed under the wings near the fuselage, with a distinct Hearthguard style. This was the Hearthguard's main fighter, called the Heavy Dart fighter, which could be used for both void and atmospheric combat.

The aircraft's armament was very powerful, which was also what Soshyan was very satisfied with. Its main weapon was a rotary ion cannon, of the same type used by the Hekaton Land Fortress, which could be used to deal with enemy aircraft and other ground targets. In addition, two retractable high-energy laser rotary cannons were installed on the ventral side. The combination of these two weapons was already very powerful, but it also had four hidden missile bays that could carry 8 "Arbalest" missiles, which were mainly used to attack enemy aircraft, or could be replaced with 4 "Hatred" missiles. This missile was an anti-ship type, and the Hearthguard's unique plasma warhead had extremely strong armor-piercing capabilities, which could cause great damage to the inside of the ship.