Chapter 306: Shadow-type Stormbird

The flagship of the Seventh Legion, the Relic-class warship Void Hunter.

Sanchez's communication bead buzzed; he pressed it, and the voice of Navigator Wisher came through.

"Lord Reaper," the female navigator's elegant voice held a hint of fatigue, "we have reached the anchor point and can proceed to the real-space Auten System, awaiting your authorization."

"Authorization to begin warp jump." After issuing the order, the Lord Reaper walked toward the Simulacrum Sanctum.

The Gene-Father had entrusted him with three Relic-class warships, making the Seventh Legion the only Chapter to possess more than one Relic-class warship.

His warship was even the flagship used by the Black Emperor after returning to the Legion; he considered this a greater honor than Howard Fender receiving a Gloriana-class battleship.

Sanchez had intended to prove himself at Osiris and show he was worthy of this honor, but by the time his fleet arrived, the outcome of the void battle had already been decided.

However, this also granted him more time; this ancient warship of several millennia had undergone an essential transformation due to brand-new technology.

"Lord Reaper, please allow me to offer my assistance; with my support, we can maximize the range advantage of the four warships."

Gabriel spoke up; he had drawn inspiration from the Iron Hands, and the final stop in establishing heavy fire support companies across the Chapters was Catachan.

After completing his duties as Master of Ordnance, two new Relic-class warships happened to arrive at Catachan from Nocturne.

He guided the two ships through technical retrofits, including the Punishment-class reactor, then arrived at Osiris with the ships, and performed technical retrofits on the former Legion flagship as well.

After a moment of contemplation, Sanchez decided this would not diminish the honor he had received, and he also needed the assistance of the Master of Ordnance to achieve the perfect hunt.

"Master of Ordnance, welcome to the hunt."

The two walked side-by-side across the ancient bridge deck and into the Simulacrum Sanctum, which was as large as a transfer deck.

Data niches composed of data equipment lit up with runes, and the captain and other officers were already in position.

Sanchez and Gabriel sat in chairs surrounded by cables; amidst the blue glow of flickering electronic equipment, the data interfaces connected to their spines merged into the ocean of data.

Sanchez and Gabriel focused on the omnidirectional data acquired by the fleet's Auspex system, while their cyber-cat found a comfortable spot and lay down at their feet.

Artillery deck, Artillery Supervisor Jacob Gordon.

His features were stiff, his skin pale, and his feet had deformed into hooves.

Jacob wore a smile, intoxicated by the information flow within his implants.

【It feels so good not to have to communicate with the "intruders" from outside anymore.】

The Gordon family were Children of the Void; they had lived on this ancient warship since before the Imperium was established.

They were traditional and conservative, unwilling to accept any change.

But Jacob wholeheartedly welcomed this new change; after becoming part of the Simulacrum Sanctum, he no longer had to struggle to communicate with outside officers.

He was familiar with every subtle marking on every ancient artillery piece, but like his predecessors, he could not understand the outsiders, nor could they understand him.

Every time he communicated with other officers, he had to rack his brains to understand what the other party wanted to express, and trying to make others understand him was even more difficult.

Jacob had once thought he would soon be replaced.

At this moment, a turning point arrived.

As part of the extended "tentacles" of the Simulacrum Sanctum, he did not need to spend a lot of time and brainpower to understand.

With the influx of the information stream, he understood the orders, and even understood the Lord Reaper's tactical intent for the first time.

The hunting target of the Void Hunter was a Cruiser-class enemy ship marked A-1; that warship was identified as the flagship of the enemy fleet.

To attack a Relic-class warship, the enemy had to make a thrust to even have a chance of reaching this ship, and his dance partners could then destroy those prey.

Jacob called his artillery pieces his dance partners; every time he commanded them to fire, it was like dancing together, which was more interesting than the boring social dances of those outside officers.

With a thought, Jacob assigned tasks to the members of the Gordon family managing each battery.

【Battery One, Two, Three, and Four, lock onto Rune D, fire.

...】

His orders were transmitted to the end of the artillery system's command chain—the gunnery chiefs—within a single breath; they were also the end of the Simulacrum Sanctum's artillery system.

Jacob watched with enjoyment as his four "dance partners" took their "steps" simultaneously, the shells striking the target deck of the enemy ship at the same time.

【A perfect dance step, landing on the same beat.

To achieve such perfect coordination at a distance of over one hundred thousand kilometers, precise to the second, used to rely on luck in the past, but now it can become the norm.】

Awe welled up in Jacob's thoughts, awe at the rhythmic dance steps of the artillery.

He knew that those officers on the bridge could not understand the beauty within it.

In the past, they would not have cared about the second-level discrepancies in the long void battles.

It is different now; the application of the Simulacrum Sanctum and the leap in computing power have allowed second-level differences to begin entering the officers' field of view.

Even if the importance level of such differences is extremely low, the lowest level of concern.

As Jacob pondered, his consciousness surged, generating a feedback report.

While Jacob enjoyed the rebirth brought by the Simulacrum Sanctum, the Shadow of Sovereignty jumped from the Warp into the Auten System.

Ninglu walked over to examine the holographic projection presented before him by Arsena Dunn; he first focused on the four Relic-class warships.

On the square tactical plane perpendicular to the stellar ring, the four Relic-class warships were located at the centers of the four quadrants, respectively.

The artillery of the four warships poured a dense barrage of shells toward the heretic lord's fleet.

The heretic lord's fleet, in order to attack the Relic-class warships, pushed forward at full speed, their formation loose due to differences in speed.

After the Relic-class warships hunted down the fastest escort ships, they performed tactical maneuvers simultaneously before entering the range of the enemy's capital ships.

The tactical plane shifted as if moving in parallel, displacing along the direction perpendicular to the ring plane.

The enemy fleet had no focus of attack and was forced to launch an attack on the Relic-class warships again, only to suffer simultaneous fire from the four warships once more.

"The Lord Reaper has perfectly utilized the range advantage of the Relic-class warships," the Primarch Attendant said with admiration.

"The Seventh Legion has not lost a single ship."

"The Lord Reaper has won the void battle," Ninglu looked at the planets within the system, "Activate the Auger Matrix to maximum power and scan the planets in the system."

As the Seventh Legion ended the void battle and the Eleventh Legion arrived, the Primarch Attendant received a report from the Auger Matrix Master.

"My Lord, there are five planets in the Auten System, among which planets I, III, and IV are identified as habitable planets, and life signals have been discovered."

After pondering for a moment, Ninglu issued his orders.

"Honor Guard and the Lucifer Blacks, First Regiment of the Vostonia Auxiliary Army, attack Planet I."

"Seventh Legion and the Catachan Auxiliary, attack Planet III."

"Eleventh Legion and the Second and Eleventh Regiments of the Vostonia Auxiliary Army, attack Planet IV."

After issuing the orders, Ninglu spread his consciousness, extending it to the W-36 weapon deck, and sent a Mind Pulse to Maria Kurnikova.

"Assassins, deploy. Target: Planet Auten I, Fortress V."

Because they had accidentally discovered the psychic network of the Osiris Mind-Control Seed, Maria and her team had not been assigned tasks; now was the beginning of them fighting alongside the Legion.

"Thy will be done, my Lord," Maria responded in her mind.

"'Assassins', deploy."

Maria's blue eyes flashed with sharpness as she walked toward the infiltration-type Stormbird first.

After the Legion's Techmarines studied the complete data on Stormbirds left behind by the complete technology warlord Tang, they successfully developed a model with greater mobility and equipped with a Quantum Domain Repeller, naming it the Shadow-type.

After the orbital bombardment ended, three Shadow-type Stormbirds flew toward the surface of Auten I.

The black super-heavy landing craft wove through the surface like ghost birds, unrecognized by any scanning system, and landed in the valley outside Fortress V.

(End of chapter)