In the void, the Oberon-class battleship Fallen Star was leading the fleet through a stardust field on the edge of the extreme star field, but unexpectedly ran into a strange battleship.
They are an exploration fleet from the forge world Reza, which has just left their home planet not long ago.
As a capital ship, although the Fallen Star is not as good as some ancient and powerful battleships in the empire, it is still a highly maneuverable and well-equipped battleship. The weapons made by Reza make its power impossible to measure simply by tonnage. measure.
Her sister ship, the Quadrant III, was slower and less maneuverable, but more powerful, armed with a massive Ryza-type plasma nova on the bow that could blow a cruiser in half - the nova cannon fired a A highly unstable plasma macrocannon shell replaces the explosive shell used by the Mars-type Nova Cannon, making it far more powerful than the latter. However, weaponizing such a large plasma comes with its own consequences Risk, as overheating systems could cause damage to weapons and the ship itself.
All battleships are painted in the dark red of Mars, and decorated with the Ryza logo made of plastic steel as a proud crest.
Several escort exploration ships of the exploration fleet are on guard around the two capital ships. They are smaller battleships, but they can endure the most extreme cold in deep space and are used to explore harsh areas and withstand the worst stellar radiation and meteorite impacts. They are also powerful frigates, capable of withstanding enemy fire, yet agile enough to defeat the slower hunks.
The light cruiser Tornado was converted into a mobile experimental vessel, with its macrogun array removed and replaced with an alien research laboratory and material analysis device to study anything the fleet might find.
The entire deck is tightly sealed, and it is used to study alien relics. A sage is in charge of commanding the ship.
The reason why Reza dares to study alien creations so boldly is related to its long history of struggle with Mars. Due to Reza's in-depth research on plasma technology, it has been in constant conflict with the orthodox Mars. The conflict between the two sides has been going on since the Great Rebellion era. has never stopped, so for the sages of Reza, the commandments of Mars are just something more advanced than waste paper - of course, the Crimson Protocol is the bottom line that all mechanical cultists cannot touch. Reza has always been Well done, Mars didn't catch anything.
The Tornado is usually protected by the huge Volcano.
The Volcano is a hulking armed foundry ship, carrying a huge foundry and storage factory. When it converts the cargo and chemicals loaded into fuel or components for use by the rest of the fleet's warships, it emits dazzling plumes of plasma flames. The flow passed through the vents and sprayed out along its hull.
The ship's commander, Tammy Poulsen Sage, is as much a part of the ship as its chemical tanks and plasma fusion engines.
The final component of this fleet, and the largest, is a collection of small expedition ships, armed merchant ships, technical guard transports, cargo ships, and small aircraft carriers, known as the "Ring Group."
They fly around large battleships in the nebula, serving as mobile laboratories, reconnaissance ships, and cargo ships.
If the frigate's crew is massacred, the ships can attempt to recapture it and their crews can replace the dead.
In naval battles, ring fleets can deflect enemy ships, flank enemy formations, and disperse enemy firepower. These agile ships are also essential in missions like exploring hidden areas.
The master who controls the entire fleet is Reza's famous exploration sage, Deejay Katona.
Now he is faced with a decision.
The nebula gathered around the fleet, extending outward into overlapping regions of deadly radiation, throwing out the flares of infant stars.
However, one advantage the fleet has is that it has gathered thousands of years of knowledge of the void, allowing them to travel through outer space at a faster rate.
It approaches the edge of the target ship's hidden area, and hundreds of sensor arrays scan to collect images of the ship and the energy signatures flickering within it.
All information is filtered into the Thought Array, a cave-like appendix room opposite the bridge library, filled with all kinds of information that are not books or data pads: stone tablets stacked against the walls, symbolic statues and drawings, all of which are read using the senses, mostly automated quills spitting parchment over jagged signal wires and screens displaying torrents of data.
Deejay Katona looked over the shoulder of a tech-priest, watching the data being compiled into the first images of their prey.
The convoy's sensors pictured one ship, a strike cruiser, so much so that they checked over and over to make sure it was accurate.
The closest the fleet had come to an image of it was a composite holographic image, and the sensor that contributed such a sharp image was fragmented by stardust - the sensor dome picked up contact with the strike cruiser some distance ahead of the fleet. The silhouette is shrouded in blurry shadows of stellar dust.
Suddenly, a technical priest spoke:
"This is an Astartes strike cruiser."
He parsed the torrent of data and then said in surprise:
"It seems that the damage is quite serious, but it does not produce abnormal subspace fluctuations. It is not a ruined ship."
"There's too much interference to provide more data."
Deejay Katona examined the blurry image rotating on the holographic unit, and then a hoarse mechanical voice said:
"If this was an Imperial ship, he should have responded to us instead of trying to escape."
He pointed to a long section of the ship's hull, located in the upper part of the hull, where there should have been a logo, but it had been erased.
"Only traitors would erase the Mark, especially those rebel Astartes."
Deejay Katona spat out the last word as if he were commenting on a disgusting meal.
"Prepare to input all data into the turret and restore it to its atomic state."
"As you command, great sage."
Deejay Katona strode through the data lair, his mechanical feet clicking on the marble floor. From a distance, his highly modified body looked like a multi-armed ostrich. He will feel "excited" when fighting.
Although his sensors told him that his internal body temperature was even far higher than the maximum temperature of an ordinary human, but now that he had given up most of his body's weaknesses, these no longer mattered to him.
His heart is synthetic, as are his legs and most of his organs, his face was reconstructed with synthetic muscles, the eyes are a triangular slit, the nose is flat and a simple rectangle above the ferocious mouth , there seems to be a green luminous body on the forehead, like a third eye, and a nest of metal lines and probes hanging on the back of the head.
Only his mind was intact, which was irreplaceable, but the rest of his body was almost completely abandoned, after all—
Flesh and flesh are weak, but steel will last forever.
