Just as the battle inside the Star Castle was in full swing, the battle outside the Star Castle was also becoming increasingly fierce.
The Red Pirate Fleet, which had experienced the first wave of serious blows, finally began to take action. The remaining cruisers detached themselves from the orbit and joined other small battleships to form a defensive fleet to fight against the Tribulation Alliance fleet besieging the Star Fortress.
Their purpose is not to defeat this powerful fleet alone, but to slow down the fleet's attack.
They did this quite well, and Malakin had to devote half of his strength to expel them.
At this time, the violent disturbances deep in the subspace were captured by the auspices of each battle line. This undoubtedly only represents one possibility——
The tyrant Huron, the master of New Badab, is back!
The first thing to jump out of the space was a behemoth, which was also Huron's flagship 'Ghost of Destruction'.
The Doomwraith, like most Chaos warships, looks like
A huge mass composed of looted guns, densely covered with bloated armor plates and artillery of various calibers and sizes, as well as a large number of marks of worship of the Chaos Gods.
Since its entry into service, it has been known to be nearly indestructible.
In all the battles Huron fought, he always emerged from the battlefield intact - even if he was scarred and devastated.
And now, in addition to itself, there is also a fleet it leads, full of anger and hatred.
"A little faster than expected."
Malakin, who was commanding the Mother of Tears, had already anticipated the threat, so he did not dare to be surprised and would not panic.
"Scramble all interceptors, every squadron, I expect them to be done within the next five minutes."
The departments around him were a microcosm of the chaos in the rest of the deck, with communications shafts blasting warnings and providing new headings for approaching ships, engineering reporting that the main drive energy had been recharged to recharge the lance array, and the gunnery officer working hard. Locking the target and determining the scope, the meditator's machine soul is also restless.
The overseers whipped hundreds of prisoners to load the macrocannons on the side of the Mother of Tears.
Amid the chaos, Malakin stood alone at the edge of the command platform, as still and alert as a gargoyle.
Except for the fact that the brass railings beside the platform were deformed by his grip, he showed no signs of discomfort - he thought that he would face Huron, his old friend, again in many forms, but he never thought that it would be like this. In this form, command a fleet to confront the opponent head-on.
His eyes calmly scanned the readings of the monitoring station and the foreshadowing array, paying attention to the changes in each target.
"Chapter Master."
The Second Captain of the Lamenters came up the spiral staircase from the command platform and made a clever salute.
"Bloodwing and Baal's Light squadrons have already set off. Only the Golden Spear Squadron has not cleared the flight deck. It seems that there is some problem with the fuel pipeline. The flight commander assured me that before the enemy fleet is in position, all squadrons will Set off."
Malakin nodded immediately.
Speaking of which, these Lightning fighter formations were transferred to the Mother of Tears at Soshiyan's request, because the Mother of Tears, an ancient battle barge, is very special. It was a rare aircraft carrier type in the imperial battleship sequence during the Great Crusade era. Although it has undergone many modifications, its large flight deck and advanced flight control system have been retained.
Soshyan believes that these fighter formations can better exert their advantages when placed on the Mother of Tears.
Malakin is also grateful for Soshyan's trust.
"Give my regards to the flight commander,"
After Malakin finished speaking, he turned his attention to the next person, his fourth company commander.
"Chapter Commander, the Unbound Soul has sent a message. She is accepting our recommended course and maintaining the same firing direction posture. She is still waiting for news from other ships in the fleet."
"Contact Chapter Commander Soshyan again."
Malakin said, his eyes turning to the thick stack of enemy and friendly fleet logos on the monitoring platform.
"And tell him, please try to be quick."
After everyone left, Malakin stood motionless on the edge of the command platform, back straight, hands behind his back, looking down at the bridge.
The other bridge staff, crew and officers were also silently concentrating on their work.
On the tactical display screen, Huron's fleet has left the subspace one after another and is forming a suppression formation.
The contact signal on the wall flashed eagerly across the surveillance station, and Rowwald had calculated the odds and drawn definite conclusions.
He was very aware of his own combat capabilities and the opponent's combat capabilities. He also knew what kind of naval warfare expert Huron was - in terms of tactics, he was far from Huron's opponent.
Although the Unbound Soul has powerful firepower, it is far from enough to offset the opponent's offensive.
Not to mention that the Red Pirate Fleet also includes heavy artillery battleships such as the Eagle Hook battlecruiser.
But he must delay the opponent. This is the trust Soshyan gave him and the trust given to him by other fighters.
He never wanted that scene on the Storm Lady to happen again.
On the tactical screen, the warships on the right marked with green symbols began to line up in accordance with the instructions. All warships responded to Malakin's request and tried to maintain the blockade.
"Report to Chapter Leader!"
The Master of Guns called from the gunnery station.
"Flank batteries No. 2 to No. 8 have been fully prepared and loaded. The vanguard of the enemy fleet has entered the range and requested to fire."
Malakin took a deep breath and looked around the bridge one last time. It was an honor to command such a battle.
How he wanted to stay in this moment.
For a moment, a faint smile appeared on his gloomy and pale face.
"Send priority message, permission to fire."
Seconds later, the first salvo struck the Doomwraith hard.
The shields trembled due to the shelling, the bow of the ship flashed with green light, and the nearby small ships with weaker shields sank under successive attacks.
On the bridge of the Doomwraith, Huron turned to his Tech-Priest and pointed at the grainy, flickering holographic display.
"Notify every ship."
He snorted.
"Keep your course and head towards the target I set at full speed. It doesn't matter if you hit it."
"Understand, implement."
The thick metal bulkheads throughout the ship began to shudder and groan, and the engines began to rev into overdrive as the techno-heretic turned to the main communications array and blasted out a stream of commands from a rusty microphone.
In the Red Pirate's fleet channel, sirens roared and thousands of beasts roared as the Ghost of Destruction rolled forward.
At the same time, the roar of the artillery reached a whole new level.
The Mother of Tears' battery flashed.
Three volleys of light spears overloaded the bow shields of the Executor-class large cruiser Nightmare Dawn in a stunning light.
Seconds later, flames bloomed across the ship's jagged hull as a macrogun round struck head-on on the thick armor plating of the bow.
More Imperial warships opened fire on the battery lines, causing massive damage.
Finally, a volley of light spears from the Unbound Soul penetrated the warped bow deck and detonated inside.
The explosion penetrated the surrounding warehouse walls, exposing part of the ship to the void. The Mother of Tears' gunnery command center immediately targeted the exposed weakness and fired continuous salvos to expand it.
While the barrage continued, the Red Pirates' fleet also approached and counterattacked. Their concentrated barrage destroyed the Astral Knights' strike cruiser 'Alien Killer' and tore apart two frigates.
The surrounding space was soon filled with slowly rotating wreckage, and the huge ship fragments were exploded and blown away by the ruthless blows of the artillery fire.
But the wreckage isn't the only thing floating around the ship like a cloud.
From the hangars and silo hatches, fighter jets of various shapes formed a ragged formation outside the Red Pirate Fleet.
The Mother of Tears responded quickly. Lightning fighters scrambled from the flight deck and exchanged fire with the Chaos fighters rushing towards the mothership.
The void between the two was soon torn apart by the flashes of lasers and missiles as hundreds of fighter jets exchanged fire.
Malakin watched all this in silence.
