Because the Blood Knight Chapter has not been replenished for many years, the fleet only has the ancient battle barge Blood Curse and two frigates that have been in disrepair. As a result, the two frigates were sunk from the beginning, and the other party did not give them any chance to explain.
Facing the menacing enemy, Santo Joel has only two choices: fight or run away.
Although he is very belligerent, he is not stupid at all. With such a disadvantage in numbers and fleet, there will be no benefit in fighting the Black Templar.
"How long until the subspace engine is ready?"
"ten minutes."
"Those black-armored madmen won't give us ten minutes."
"Okay, I'll try to do it in nine minutes."
"Anyway, take us out of here as soon as possible. The artillery deck is almost useless."
"Understood, Chapter Leader, but I suggest you send more people to control the damage. After all, before we can leave, the Black Templars will freely exert their destructive power on us."
"We're trying to figure it out."
The Blood Curse shuddered as more shells hit her vitals, the various impacts, the crackling sound of sparks hitting the hull as the wreckage scraped against the hull, and the turrets finally finished their work, and the fighters and bombers began to retreat. Back to their mothership.
At this time, the Black Templar's strike cruiser broke away from the formation and formed a high shooting angle on the Blood Curse.
The next second, the moment the main gun array of the strike cruiser fired, the two ships seemed to be connected by a burning light bridge.
Santo Joel arrived at the reactor array of the Blood Curse at this time. There are many plasma reactors in it. To start the subspace engine, the safety here must be ensured.
The reactor chamber is very huge, one kilometer long, with criss-crossing passages. There are a total of six reactors here. The cylinder of each reactor is a container filled with superheated plasma. It is locked in a continuous energy reaction and flows towards the blood. The Cursed's warp navigation array delivers energy.
At its top are spider-shaped steel pillars that support the cables and pipes that provide fuel and coolant to the reactors. Santo Joel hurried past a gantry between Reactors 1 and 2. Company Commander Sheri · Guerrero and several of his fighters are at the front console.
"Chapter Master."
When he saw Santo Joel approaching, he immediately said:
"I heard on the data network that brothers fell."
"There are only Wesley and Dawn at the moment, but the enemy is throwing all the shells at us. If we can't escape in time, I'm afraid our results will not be good."
Santo Joel then moved his communications network to the bridge.
"Frank, I'm at the reactor, they look like they're doing fine."
"That's fine, if we lose the reactor, we're screwed—"
boom!
The loud explosion confirmed Frank's death sentence. A wall was scraped off by the explosion and flew towards the cabin, throwing out a shower of metal fragments.
The shells fired by the macro cannon penetrated one side of the Blood Curse's hull. The howling wind and shrapnel tore apart the upper church, and white-hot shrapnel flew everywhere.
The shock wave threw Santo Joel off the console and into the wall.
His head was so dizzy that if he hadn't been wearing a helmet, he might have fainted on the spot, but luckily he still had enough strength to stay still, because if he fell on the deck, he might have died in the icy void.
He then punched out in reflex, punching through the reactor room wall, stabilizing him as he fell due to gravity.
The echoes of the explosion roared around the room, and the hull was completely destroyed. The maze-like damaged bulkheads and decks behind it were completely exposed to the void. Then the air was sucked out from the cracks in the hull, and a burst of flames roared into the wound.
Debris from the explosion penetrated the vessels of reactors 1 and 2, and reactor 1 even collapsed, being too heavy for its shattered foundations.
When the top of the reactor touches the plasma lake, the plasma melts through it instantly. The burning plasma forms an arc like a solar flare. It passes through the top of the reactor chamber with destructive energy, lump by lump. Ground drill through walkway and command platform.
The next second, a huge torrent spurted out from the lower part of the reactor. The hot torrent flowed through the tangled pipes and cables, covering the floor of the cabin.
Santo Joel realizes an object is falling toward him: it's his brother.
So he stretched out an arm and caught the falling warrior's shoulders. Although the weight almost pulled Santo Joel from the wall, he held on.
The red spray paint on the warrior's armor was bubbling in the heat, and Santo Joel climbed up until he was level with the severed head of the sidewalk.
Most of the walkway was torn off and thrown into the depths of the chamber, but what remained was enough to support the weight of a Space Marine. It connected to the chamber at the maintenance entrance. Santo Joel dragged the brother to the walkway. , relieved to see that he was still alive.
He then looked across the room, trying to find more survivors.
Santo Joel saw several Blood Knights clinging to an unsecured section of walkway and crawling towards a mostly intact command platform, from which they could access the passage above the chamber.
The First Company Commander himself was thrown onto the top of Reactor Three, heading towards the top of the pipes and cables connecting it to the ceiling.
"Frank!"
Santo Joel shouted, the last air in the room screaming, overheating, making a terrible sound like a firestorm that destroyed everything.
"What exactly is going on?"
Santo Joel's voice broke over the static.
"The enemy ship's macro cannon hit directly! Commander, report the loss!"
"Reactors No. 1 and No. 2 have ruptured. Plasma is being released, and No. 3 is almost there——"
"Evacuate the area and I will shut down the warp engines."
"No! It can't be closed! We will definitely die if we do this! Let's take a gamble!"
"Oh, well, as you wish, Chapter Master."
As soon as the last words Santo Joel heard reached his ears, Reactor No. 2 exploded, the pressure inside being too great for its failing structure.
A pure white plasma nova erupted, the structure of Reactor No. 2 was destroyed, and swarms of plasma rushed towards nearby reactors, cutting off more maintenance channels. The sound was simply a vibration traveling through the walls to which Santo Joel was attached, like the roar of a giant on the run.
Later, as the glare faded, Santo Joel saw the company commander huddled in the blast wave, still clinging to Reactor Three.
"Sheri, are you okay?"
"It's okay, Chapter Leader."
The voice of the company commander was so distorted by the interference that it was almost incomprehensible.
"There's just no way to get out of here."
