Chapter 88: Tactical Jump
"My Lord! We are approaching the enemy fortress! The surrounding Orks pose no threat to us at all!" the fire control officer said excitedly. Everything indicated that the Orks here were still in a relatively primitive state; this was much easier to deal with than the Freebooter Orks roaming the Expanse.
In the Expanse, Orks often possessed many massive scrap-ships. These vessels might look dilapidated, but they were no less formidable than Imperial warships.
And if one were drawn into a boarding action, it was a nightmare for mortal crewmen.
Lucan also appeared very relaxed. Air superiority was so important in this world. The Orks on the ground could only rage futilely at the sky. Lucan hadn't expected his first encounter with Greenskins to be like this.
However, the strategic objective this time was to capture the wreckage of that Golden Age warship. Ultimately, the outcome would have to be decided by a ground landing.
This fortress clearly contained a vast number of Orks.
Lucan ordered his Night Sentinels to begin organizing an assault force.
Apart from the essential crew needed to control the warship, all ten thousand soldiers on the ship could be equipped with combat suits and become combat units.
Moreover, these crewmen were also the most loyal and elite soldiers of the Dynasty. In an emergency, the Genestealer cultists on board could also be converted into a temporary fighting force.
Just as the soldiers were entering the shuttles and drop pods, Lucan, sitting on the bridge, discovered an anomaly.
An abnormal psychic fluctuation was emanating from the Ork fortress before him, and the energy detection instruments on the bridge began to blare with warnings.
"My Lord! Abnormal energy readings from the enemy fortress!"
The dilapidated metal covering on top of the Ork fortress was slowly opening. A massive cannon barrel was being pushed out by the manpower of a large group of Ork Boyz.
None of the Tech-Priests on the warship, including Lucan himself, had ever seen this style of artillery.
Various metal scraps and tangled cables were piled on top. The entire gun barrel was painted yellow, and in Ork cognition, yellow represented explosive power. However, the main body of the cannon beneath these scraps was definitely not of Ork manufacturing style.
Its exquisite craftsmanship was even better than that of current Imperial Navy naval guns.
"Don't tell me these Orks used their 'I reckon' power to fix one of this warship's main cannons?!"
This possibility instantly flashed through Lucan's mind.
"WAAAAAGH~"
Accompanied by a deafening Ork war cry, a large amount of high-energy plasma was channeled into this naval cannon.
Under the surge of massive energy, the cables and conduits on the cannon's body continuously sparked with plasma fire. The leaking energy even electrocuted some of the Orks near the cannon into charred husks. The accidentally killed Ork Boyz would even be mocked by their comrades nearby.
"Dis git's proper rubbish! Real bad luck. If he'd painted 'imself blue like me, he'd be fine!"
And among Orks, blue represented luck.
Under the control of the Big Mek, KABOOM!, the naval cannon began to traverse, aiming at the Gorgon in the sky.
Watching the cannon muzzle aim at his warship, although Lucan didn't know how powerful this thing was or if it could break through his warship's shields and armor, he had no intention of gambling.
"Concentrate fire on that position!"
The Tech-Priest, receiving the order, unhesitatingly slapped the seal that forcibly pleased the machine spirit onto the fire control console.
With the machine spirit overjoyed, all weapons except the Yamato Cannon fired towards it.
A large number of missile batteries and heavy lasers lanced out.
However, the imagined scene of the Orks being destroyed along with their cannon did not occur. A massive void shield actually enveloped the entire Ork fortress and the surrounding area for a full 10 kilometers. The size of this void shield was exactly the size of the entire warship wreckage.
All the attacks were actually blocked by this giant void shield. The massive shield continuously rippled.
"Holy Terra?! One layer… two layers… three layers… Ten layers of void shields?! Did these Greenskins find a void shield STC?! Who the hell puts this many layers of void shields on a fortress!! These guys didn't just dismantle the bridge; did they also fix this warship's void shields with their 'I reckon' power?!"
One layer. Only one layer. A single volley of concentrated conventional fire from three warships had only overloaded one layer of the void shield. But behind it, there were still a full nine layers of void shields operating normally.
Seeing the humans' attack being blocked by the shield he had made, KABOOM! wore a smug expression.
"Da stuff I make is da 'ardest and da shootiest!"
The surrounding Mekboyz looked at KABOOM! with adoration. Under the worship of this group of Mekboyz, KABOOM! felt as if he had become a little smarter again.
And now, it was his turn!
KABOOM! slammed his hand down on the big red button beside him.
"I reckon dis cannon can definitely shoot dat flyin' fing down!"
Under the combined "finking" of this Big Mek and a large group of Mekboyz, this naval cannon had reached the brink of firing. With the dual enhancement of psychic energy and raw power, this shot would be terrifying.
Realizing the danger, Lucan shouted at the Tech-Priest in charge of the jump drive.
"Quick! Initiate a tactical jump! Immediately!!"
A tactical jump, unlike a jump between star systems, could perform an instantaneous movement over a short distance.
The three warships simultaneously activated their tactical jumps. Just as the warships vanished from their original positions, the naval cannon in the Ork fortress also finished charging and fired towards the fleet's original location.
The energy beam directly struck that patch of sky, pierced through the planet's atmosphere, and the massive beam even illuminated the void. Although it didn't hit the warships, the energy shockwave radiating outwards instantly covered the entire sky.
The very earth seemed to tremble.
And Lucan, having just jumped from his original position, also watched this scene dumbfounded. If a person without psychic talent could only see the physical damage, then Lucan, with his powerful psychic senses, could perceive that this one cannon shot had even temporarily created a vacuum in the section of the Warp corresponding to that physical location.
"A Warp Cannon? Is Ork teknology this terrifying?! Or is this technology from the Golden Age Human Federation?!"
Let alone Lucan's Gorgon, if you sent a heavy cruiser to take a hit from that, it probably wouldn't fare well either!
And the Orks stared dumbly at the spot in the sky where the warships had vanished.
"Boss, Boss! Did we blow da flyin' fing up? Or did we miss? Dem flyin' fings just went 'poof' and disappeared."
A Mekboy felt his brain wasn't quite enough; that warship was just there a moment ago!
However, just as this Mekboy finished speaking, the Big Mek KABOOM! whacked him on the head with a spanner.
"Who cares if it hit or not! Was it big? Was it fun? Was it WAAAGH?! Dat's all dat matters!!"
KABOOM! looked up at the sky. He scanned the surroundings and, not far away, discovered the three warships that had just made a tactical jump.
"Dey're over dere! Boyz! Let's give 'em another, bigger one!!"
When the cannon muzzle began to rotate again, Lucan could no longer sit still. The tactical jump was on cooldown; he couldn't make another jump for a short time. If he took another hit like that, it would be game over.
Without any hesitation, Lucan began to order all warships to approach at full speed. That cannon muzzle didn't traverse fast enough; he had enough time to get close!
Void shields could block the threat of long-range firepower, but they couldn't stop slow-moving objects from entering.
Since long-range firepower isn't working, then I'll just board and capture your fortress in close combat!
Lucan left the captain's seat on the bridge and also ran towards the landing bay.
He commanded the crew and Tech-Priests to use the warship's firepower to eliminate all approaching Greenskins around the fortress, to buy time for the landing force. "If I can't do anything about your shield, do you think I can't do anything about the Orks outside your shield?"
And he himself would lead the Night Sentinels and the Raiders to directly conduct a drop assault to deal with the Greenskins hiding inside the void shield.
(End of Chapter)
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