Chapter 306 05.0305: "Lightning Strike"

When the Indefatigable's air wing returned to port, Horatio appeared in front of the pilots again, already wearing a power armor. With a height of 1 meters, he was only slightly shorter than the Space Marines, tall and mighty.

He was wearing the Conqueror (Imperado) type officer power armor, but compared to before, there was an extra small component on the power backpack on his back.

It was a semicircular iron halo, a gift from the state religion and a symbol of the empire's saints.

The female captain was stunned for a moment when she saw the commander who had completely changed his style and the iron halo of the saint behind him.

In the silence, some devout Anglican pilots knelt on one knee, took out their rosaries or double-headed eagle badges and prayed in a low voice. Gradually, the crowd fell down like wheat waves and bowed their heads to him.

Even if someone could get an officer position through connections and bloodline, the status of a saint could never be obtained easily.

And what's up with this power armor?

She didn't remember the officer ever mentioning that he had such a treasure.

Captain Fasha was genuinely surprised by his chief's new look.

Horatio raised his hand and motioned for the pilots to stand up.

"Thank you for saving my men's lives, Commander." The female captain saluted with the Sky Eagle salute respectfully and said, "I didn't expect you to be a saint. You've never mentioned this before."

"Relax, Captain Fasha. The medals and ribbons on my chest are enough to show the weight of my achievements. It would be too distant and arrogant to bring up my sainthood."

"I see, Commander, are you planning to board the ship?"

“That’s right. Before you came, I was not only the fleet liaison officer of the Communications Department, but also had a mission that was very important to the entire fleet.

Next, I have arranged your combat missions in the Aviation Department. The three lieutenants in the Aviation Department will be responsible for the specific take-off and landing arrangements for the next period of time. If there is any emergency, you can always connect to my communication channel, and I will respond if conditions permit. "

"Yes, Commander."

As they were chatting, a tall female candidate officer with short dark blue hair and purple eyes came over, also fully armed.

He is a Cadian. Fasha looked at the pair of purple pupils that were famous in the imperial army and thought secretly.

She saluted herself.

Fasha returned her greeting.

She looked at her commander and said, "The Hell's Vanguard is ready, Centurion, lead us to victory."

Hell's Soldier? ...Centurion?

The unfamiliar nouns and the huge amount of unknown information made the female captain stand there blinking, feeling a little overwhelmed.

The story of my superior seemed to be more than mysterious, it was simply unfathomable. How many stories were there behind him? And...how many departments had he led? -
The aftermath of the nova cannon and minefield explosion damaged part of the star fortress, causing damage to the enemy's void shield force field generator.

The Imperial Navy warships that entered the inner orbit fired a salvo of cannons, overloading the remaining void shield field of the star fortress in just one round. The powerful energy overload produced an electromagnetic pulse short circuit inside it, and some cabin areas of the star fortress turned visibly from bright to pitch black.

Inside the Indefatigable.

This is a secret room located next to the stern warp engine. The intricate and messy ducts on the wall are connected to the warp engine and can be regarded as part of its body.

The task force members who were carrying out the lightning strike mission stood on the transmission matrix. The Monsignor of the State Church led the believers to spray holy water on the warriors wearing power armor continuously, and used consecrated incense to soak every part of their bodies.

Such a tedious and lengthy consecration prayer is necessary.

For these warriors are about to journey through the Warp in their physical bodies.

Without loyal faith in the Emperor and the blessing of the holy rituals of the State Religion, even this imperceptible moment of warp travel could corrupt a person.

Fortunately, by the 41st millennium, the Empire had mastered the subspace micro-jump technology of lightning strikes.

Instead of worrying about being corrupted and mutated during the jump, it is better to worry about whether you will get stuck in the wall the moment you are teleported to the other side. The flesh and blood cells and the iron-carbon alloy fuse together at the molecular level to become a true "body of steel" in the physical sense.

Several mechanical priests were making final adjustments before the lightning strike.

They retrieved the design drawings of the star fortress and chose the open space closest to the mission target.

After all the priests had gone through complicated calculations and obtained the most consistent and precise coordinates, they entered the teleportation coordinates into the Thinker Array. The matrix under the warriors' feet began to glow slightly and emit a strange humming sound.

In theory, as long as no one builds anything at the target location, teleportation will not cause these fighters to get stuck in the wall.

But only in theory.

These teleportation devices inevitably have the same error characteristics as subspace turbulence.

"Lightning strike is ready, energy transmission is in progress, estimated error individual radius ±50 cm. Lightning strike countdown 30, 29, 28..."

This error is estimated with Horatio as the center point. These mechanical priests can only guarantee that he will be sent to the target safely, while others can only leave their fate to fate according to the error.

Horatio heard Louise's slightly nervous breathing on the three-person officer channel.

Behind the sealed helmet, she was meditating with her eyes closed, her heart pounding, and silently reciting the consecration prayer.

Being stuck in a teleportation wall and dying is an extremely humiliating way to die. As a loyal warrior of the God-Emperor, no one wants to end up like this.

So she begged the Emperor to guide her to a safe landing and to fight bravely against His enemies. Horatio regulated his breathing, and when the countdown reached the last three seconds, he closed his blue eyes.

In the void, a blue strip-shaped beam of light was transmitted from the Lord Daros and the Indefatigable, landing on the top of the star fortress.

"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!" The moment he completely lost his senses, Horatio regained his senses and felt dizzy and almost lost his balance.

His vision went dark and he subconsciously reached out to the wall beside him, but what he touched was a cold ceramic helmet.

When he regained his vision, he turned his head and saw a Hell Soldier leaping forward and blending into the wall with a Hell Carbine in his arms.

His entire body from the chest down was sunk into the steel wall, and the connection between the body and the wall was smooth and natural, as if he was supposed to be there, like a finely carved wall statue.

The helmet visor was dim, which meant he was dead. There were no signs of struggle, which meant he died quickly and peacefully.

Just a transmission error of ±50 centimeters can cause an elite soldier who has undergone rigorous selection and training to die meaninglessly without firing a single shot.

"Each killing team, report your numbers." Louise, the leading officer, conveyed routine inquiries to the squad leaders.

"The first team lost one member."

"The second team has arrived in full."

"One member of the third team broke his leg and lost the ability to move," the team leader reported.

Behind him, two Hell Sentinels used power swords to cut off the ankle of their companion whose left foot had melted into the wall, and then took out a first aid kit to stop the bleeding.

Although he was not dead, the scout had lost his ability to move. He could only sit against the wall, relying on his still intact upper body, holding a gun and keeping watch on the surroundings.

Given their current location, the chances of him surviving until the boarding Imperial Navy forces arrived were slim.

It was more likely that a rebel search party would find him first.

Therefore, he was mentally prepared to die in battle and only wanted to drag a few more traitors with him. His comrades left him two extra high-explosive fragmentation grenades.

Bang bang bang!
A series of dull impact sounds came from the shallow deck outside the star fortress.

That was the Imperial Navy's first boarding force.

Hundreds of shark assault boats rushed past the ships, cut through the void, and with the help of magnetic suction equipment, they randomly stuck on the star fortress. Then the plasma cutters and hot-melt barrier-breaking components were started, and the assault boats penetrated deeper and deeper until they were submerged in it, leaving only black deflation holes on the surface of the star fortress.

Led by the armed commanders of each ship, the Imperial Navy's armed forces emerged in the gangways like a surging tide and pounced on the rebels.

Their firefight with the rebellious Star Fortress defense forces was extremely fierce.

The Hell's Vanguards have their own tasks. Horatio thought about it and projected the star fortress design drawing into his helmet, which once again confirmed the locations of the combat intelligence command center, the artillery control station, and the observation and aiming post.

In the chaos, the rebel forces had no time to pay attention to the small group of troops that had infiltrated.

After using the servo skull configured for him by Latti and the secret waste code, he hacked the closed-circuit television in this section of the Star Fortress into a black screen.

Horatio and Louise skillfully assumed fighting stances. He patted her shoulder armor, and the female candidate officer understood and led the team forward, and the team began to move forward.

Even though the rebels had already activated the backup power supply and were urgently repairing the power supply system.

However, minor equipment in the corridor, such as lighting, is not within the limited power supply range of the backup power supply, and they must give priority to allocating energy to the shuttle apron and the combat command center.

Groups of heretic support troops ran past the fork in the road ahead of them, but no one noticed the silent Hell Vanguards blending into the darkness. However, the Vanguards could use the night vision equipment on their helmets to see them clearly in advance.

Horatio used his command hand, combined with the detection auspicious instruments of the squadron scouts and the reconnaissance vision opened up by the CAT servo robot, to lead the squad to move forward slowly and stealthily, avoiding all unnecessary exchanges of fire along the way.

At this time, a squad of rebels was guarding the elevator. They set up heavy bolters behind simple shelters and blocked the passages on both sides.

It is a necessary path and there is no way to avoid it.

Horatio immediately raised his hand and made a fist, signaling the kill team to stop advancing.

Then, he used his commanding hand to mark red arrows on the heads of the exposed enemies one by one, and the shooting sequence for each person was planned on the arrows.

"Ten seconds, each of you aim at your target."

Louise half-knelt on the ground, aiming her shot directly at the head of the heavy bomb operator through the advanced thermal imaging optical sight.

"Fire!"

Jiong! Jiong! Jiong!
Dozens of lasers fired at the same time, and all the members of the guard squad staggered to the ground in an instant.

"Keep pushing!"

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(End of this chapter)