Vlahos sat in the captain's chair on the bridge.
He looked solemnly at the scene outside the window.
Without the need for auspicious or various radar readings, Vlahos could see with the naked eye the behemoth that occupied most of the bridge window's field of view through the transparent bridge window.
"Sir, there is a call request from the Gladius." said the attendant standing next to him.
"Connected."
Vlahos said without turning his head.
A half-length holographic image appeared on the instrument nearby.
It was Wo Kuotai who was wearing bone-white power armor and no helmet.
Ogedei asked: "Vlahos, what is that?"
Vlahos shook his head slightly and said:
"I don't know, I still want to ask you."
"The Gladius's subspace engine has failed. My navigator told me that the subspace energy in this star area is very active, and I'm afraid it won't be possible to jump."
Vlahos nodded: "Same goes for the Sossaran."
Wo Kuotai asked: "What do you think?"
Vlahos said: "There is no doubt that this must be another conspiracy of the traitors, but I haven't figured out how to implement their conspiracy for the time being."
Outside the porthole, a huge mechanical metal structure lay quietly in front of the Sossalan cruiser and the Gladius frigate.
Two space battleships several kilometers long, in front of this metal structure, are like two small melon seeds in front of a big ugly potato.
This structure is similar to an irregular ellipsoid, crooked and pitted. If you look carefully with a telescope, you will find that it is made up of countless wreckage of spaceships and ships of various models and styles.
On the large screens on the bridge of the Sossalan, the technical crew members have put the detailed surface drawings of the huge metal structure that they scanned for analysis by everyone on the bridge.
The only sounds in the bridge were the busy rustling of servitors and crew members. Everyone was observing these pictures, and no one spoke.
Sitting on the captain's chair, Vlahos glanced at these detailed pictures one by one with solemn eyes.
"Oh my god, that's..." A technical priest stationed on the ship excitedly pointed to a pattern symbol on the surface of the metal structure's shell and said:
"That's the symbol of the Dark Ages. I recognize that symbol. It appeared in the historical materials introducing the Iron Man Rebellion!"
The technical priest lifted the dark red hood on his head, revealing a cheek covered by a metal mask and breathing tube. He turned to Vlahos and shouted:
"Sir, that is a spaceship from the Dark Ages. It must contain Dark Age technology. We need to land on it to explore it, Sir!"
Vlahos shook his head slightly.
He is not a Tech-Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Sossaran is not a research vessel of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It is a warship belonging to the Space Marine Legion.
As the top commander here, he needs to consider factors such as the priority of tactical targets, more intelligence, the casualty tolerance of the soldiers, etc., instead of letting the madmen of the Mechanicus have their own ideas.
"Sir, I remembered. As far as I know, that is the so-called space hulk that once appeared in the Koprulu sector."
A mortal staff officer suddenly said.
"Space Hulk..." Vlahos muttered under his breath.
He had heard this term before, a mixture of subspace debris floating in subspace and elusive in the real physical universe.
This thing is erratic and extremely difficult to defend. The aliens accompanying the space hulk often bring huge disasters to the local planet.
But the thing in front of me is also too big, far exceeding the size of a "ship", it is simply an asteroid.
The ultramarines on the Sossaran suffered relatively heavy casualties on the planet Roswell 7, and the teams were not fully organized. Considering this, Vlahos was very hesitant about his attitude towards the sudden appearance of the space hulk.
"Vlahos." Ogedai's half-length holographic projection on the device flickered vaguely, and he said meaningfully:
"At our current speed, by the time we reach the solar system, the war will be over."
Ogodei's words strengthened Vlahos's belief. No matter what is on this space hulk, whether it is ancient technology, alien creations or something else, at this point in time, nothing is more important than the war on Terra. , everything prioritizes traveling to the solar system.
"I command."
Vlahos said in a deep voice.
"The bow light spear is charged and ready. Aim at this space hulk and fire three full-power salvos."
"receive."
The technical priests and artillery officers took the order, operated on the console, and accurately conveyed the firing instructions to the bow light spear group.
A pair of void-splitting light spear groups fixed on the bow of the Moon-class cruiser began to charge.
Vlahos then said:
"Turn left 45 degrees, side macro gun array, load, high explosive bomb, one shot, after loading, fire in sequence."
"receive."
The artillery officers in charge of the macro artillery array took orders again and continued their busy operations.
The engine nozzle at the rear of the battleship spurted out blazing flames, pushing the cruiser to slowly turn and move. Huge cannonballs weighing a thousand tons were stuffed into the bores of the side macrocannons. This row of lightning-strike macrocannon arrays was ready to go. .
Vlahos issued a series of orders quickly.
Although he had already followed Ogodei's advice, Vlahos decided to make a tentative attack before leaving to see what the level of this space hulk was.
Will it be shattered by a salvo of fire from the Sossaran?
There is no need to aim at all, huge targets can be hit with eyes closed.
After being ready, the thick energy beam gathered by the light spear spurted out instantly, hitting the tattered and worn-out shell of the space hulk.
All three beams penetrated the shell without any suspense, and then disappeared into the dark interior without a trace.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...
There was no sound in space, but the tremors and loud noises when the macro cannon was fired were still transmitted to the feet of everyone on the bridge.
The huge high-explosive shells exploded into clouds of flames on the outer shell of the space hulk. When the flames dissipated, only dark pits were left.
It's really useless.
The Moon-class cruiser is a conventional cruiser and is not equipped with the nova cannon that is only equipped on heavy cruisers and battleships. Otherwise, Vlahos would like to test the power of the nova cannon.
"Sublight engine, full speed ahead."
Vlahos ordered helplessly.
If you can't afford to offend me, just go around. Subspace jump can't be used. Can't I just drive away slowly?
The tails of the two battleships spurted out blazing white flames, and they turned their heads in one direction and began to move forward.
Just then, suddenly.
The huge metal structure moved.
A huge standard circular pit suddenly sunk into the middle of the space hulk.
This deep pit looks very abrupt on the irregularly shaped space hulk, making the middle of the entire metal structure narrow, changing from an ugly big potato to a twisted big potato.
An invisible ripple emitted from the deep pit and vibrated in space.
The inertial system on the cruiser failed for a moment, then immediately recovered. Everyone on the bridge was instantly shaken by the shaking hull.
Quickly stabilizing his body, the technical priest shouted loudly:
"Sir, look!"
The mechanical tentacle under the dark red robe pointed at the screen. The screen showed that the output power of the sublight speed engine was gradually increasing and had reached the maximum power.
However, the battleship's speed on the speedometer is gradually decreasing!
Until it dropped to zero, the entire battleship had completely stopped.
The engine nozzle at the rear is still outputting at full power.
But the battleship didn't move at all.
Outside the porthole, some small meteorites suspended in space were already slowly moving backwards.
"It's pulling us!" an Ultramarines sergeant said in horror.
"It's gravity siphon, sir!" the technical priest said hurriedly, "The instrument detected the sudden appearance of a huge gravity field comparable to a neutron star on this space hulk, and we are being pulled closer to it by its gravity!"
Vlahos's face instantly darkened.
The traitors who colluded with Chaos made a space hulk appear here, and they were indeed prepared.
"Turn around and find the orbit of this gravity field, or escape directly!"
Vlahos shouted an order.
After some operations, the technical crew responded anxiously:
"Report sir, the steering rudder is out of order!"
"It's useless. This is a gravitational force in a vector direction. It is different from the normal gravity field of the planet. We cannot form an orbit around it." The technical priest said.
Everyone on the bridge couldn't help but start talking. Some people suggested using full firepower again to see if the deep pit could be destroyed.
Some people objected that the rear of the battleship was facing the deep pit, and the steering had failed.
When Vlahos heard this, his eyes became deep. He took a deep breath, and his whole person calmed down. At a moment when the entire bridge was in a state of anxiety, this man said loudly:
"Space Marines, gather!"
"yes!"
The captains of the Ultramarines team on the bridge responded immediately.
They stood up and started mobilizing their teams to assemble on the boarding deck.
Vlahos suddenly stood up from the captain's chair and said:
"Since we can't escape the pull of gravity, we might as well land on it. No matter what tricks the enemy is playing, we will directly destroy their devices!"
There's nothing that can't be solved by jumping into a gang.
If so, then launch another gang-hopping.
Vlahos ordered quickly:
"The terminators from each team were selected individually to form a spearhead assault team, and the first batch boarded the ship aboard the torpedoes."
"receive!"
"All Space Marines, switch to jump shields, carry double armor-piercing grenades, and replace bolt guns with bolt pistols, plasma pistols and melta guns."
"receive!"
After a series of dizzying orders were issued, Vlahos turned to look at the Tech-Priest and asked: "At the current speed, how long will it take before the Sossaran's hull comes into contact with the space hulk?"
"Our current distance is quite far. As long as the suction force remains unchanged, it is estimated that we will be sucked together with the space hulk in forty minutes, sir." The technical priest replied.
"Forty minutes... is enough," Vlahos said.
After thinking for a while, he turned to the technical priest and said calmly:
"If the battleship and the space hulk collide and the jumping team is still unable to solve the problem, then activate the emergency plan and detonate the battleship's plasma reactor."
He blew himself up and died with the Chaos traitors.
The technical priest was stunned when he heard this, and then said slowly: "I understand, my lord."
Vlahos slowly sat back on the captain's chair and looked straight ahead.
In this battle, he will sit on the bridge and command, and he has already made up his mind to die with the enemy.
At this time, the extinguished holographic projection lit up again, and Wokuotai's figure appeared on the device.
"Vlahos, are you ready to join a gang?"
Facing the same situation on the Gladius, Ogedai had already guessed Vlahos's choice.
Vlahos nodded.
Wokuotai also nodded and said:
"I am sending four Space Marines to join your gang-hopping team. There is only one requirement. They can only obey the command of Captain Aoyama."
Vlahos said: "Okay...wait a minute, I remember Qingshan is not a sergeant, why did he become a captain?"
Wokuotai said: "Just now, I decided to promote him to captain."
Well... Vlahos has nothing to say, this is an internal matter within the White Scar, and he has no control over this military rank, Wokuotai, how he likes to do it.
When the war comes, conferring titles is still a trivial matter. The key is that with the addition of four new troops, the chance of winning is somewhat increased.
There were only seven Space Marines on board the Gladius, including Fu QH, and four of them came at once, which was considered to be the best of them all.
…………
PS: Thanks for the glasses that can draw, and for the tips from three book friends: The Silent King and Book Friend 20170217120417988. Oh my god, Xiao Mengxin received a tip on the first day he signed the contract. I’m surprised that I can’t stop it. No. Without further ado, let me perform a snow slide kneel for the three of you.
