Chapter 458 06.0457: ‘Moving Towards a New Killing Ground’

"I wish Major Horatio Cochrane of the Imperial Navy a triumphant and successful expedition!"

Under the unanimous cheers of a phalanx of officers and soldiers, the first attack squadron sailed out of the temporary port.

Horatio, neatly dressed, stood in front of the bridge, watching the explosions and flames that came from the surface of the planet Basor from time to time.

There is no doubt that the battle on the ground is still going on, but in the face of the Empire's continuous flow of troops to the ground, it is only a matter of time before the remaining Tau resistance forces, cut off from the rear, fail.

But if we look at the entire sub-sector or even the sector level, the situation of the war is still unclear.

The latest intelligence received from Lina yesterday showed that more battle fleets belonging to the sector have been involved in this war.

He and his squadron are just a drop in the ocean of deployments for the entire war. Hundreds of millions of troops are being ordered from Macragge.

A steady stream of them were sent to the Xinghai universe, and fierce and cruel fighting was carried out.

The general environmental background at this time is that the Tau Empire has suffered a setback from the Orc Great Waaaaaagh for the third time in its history, and the fourth expansion of the sky is imminent.

(Note: The third expansion of the Tau Empire in the history of the Empire is written as 997.M41-999.M41 because in 997, the main force of the green-skinned Waaaaagh went to plan the third Armageddon of 998.M41. At the Battle of Dun, the Tau Empire defeated the green-skinned Waaaaagh that attacked their home world, and continued to advance the third expansion of the Sky.)

The Tau Empire was at loggerheads with the greenskins. Taking advantage of the opportunity to kill him while he was sick, Ultramar and the Ultramarines seized the opportunity and launched the second Damocles campaign with the main purpose of regaining the lost territory. The Siwan expedition was to wash away the shame with blood.

"Now that we have entered the route watch state, the officers on duty must be on high alert." The young captain issued his order.

About half of the officers were on duty on the bridge. This was because the number of officers on the attack boats was relatively sparse, and the eight-hour limit was even more unrealistic. Even with surgical enhancement, a person's energy and concentration will still slacken in the last hour.

For an attack ship with extremely low fault tolerance, this is absolutely not allowed.

Therefore, while ensuring the necessary eight hours of sleep, the other 12 hours of duty time will be split into multiple three-hour slots.

Alternate duty shifts to ensure a balance between officers' on-duty attention and rest time.

"Captain, the route has been determined. Our ship will set sail in direction 343. The attack ships of the squadron will maintain a distance of 5 Terra hours." Henry Harvey, who serves as the chief officer of the navigation department, reported.

"Well, strengthen monitoring and don't let go of any suspicious movements."

"The 'Balcony' void water monitoring has been activated." The monitoring officers of the Communications Department were concentrating on the monitoring earphones and paying attention to the movements of various radiation sources.

The void is huge. If you want to find enemy ships, you must rely on intelligence as well as detection by technological equipment.

The side of the E-type attack ship is equipped with a passive echo bird's-eye radar, and more than twenty long strip-shaped slightly convex metal structures are arranged on both sides of the hull.

There are relatively few front, rear and spine, so if you want to achieve maximum listening efficiency, the sides are the best.

This is equipment that works with Void Water Listening.

Although the name is hydrophone, the detection method does not rely on sound waves that do not exist in a vacuum.

Battleships whose lengths are often measured in kilometers will emit various vibration waves in the void, and the technology to detect the sources of these waves is in Chapter 41.

It has not been lost for thousands of years. The recovered STC allowed the Human Empire to successfully inherit these golden age human technologies and put them into practical use on shipboard equipment.

This is why enemy ships are displayed as a highlighted and flashing red ball on the battle table.

Although it is impossible to tell what kind of ship it is, she may be a cargo ship, a destroyer, a cruiser, or even a battleship, or it may be an unfortunate piece of space debris with some of the equipment still functioning on it being operated by dedicated personnel. The machine spirit continued to send out signals.

Experienced officers and technical priests can use some clues to roughly judge its identity, which can be used as a reference for the captain to make next decisions.

However, the officers and soldiers on the Epic still need to be tempered, and they have not yet mastered such abilities as they are just starting out.

However, Horatio will use the abilities given to him by the Iron Hand to make up for the shortcomings of the novice crew, and gradually hone the skills of the crew.

"Miss Intelligence Officer, have the imperial spies reported any information related to the activities of Tau Empire merchant ships on this route?"

Horatio looked at the girl sitting next to the array of thinkers. Next to her was the new cipher machine.

She was wearing headphones, and while scanning the decryption runes that popped up on the screen of the tube, she was writing something on the brown paper.

"In the AK74 area, according to intelligence, there is a trade fleet sailing from the Tau Alliance world Sesila to the Leozus war zone.

At present, the Tau Empire has not yet heard the news that the new attack ships of the Imperial Navy have been put into the battlefield. Their fleet is still conducting single-ship cruises in relatively safe areas.

but...

The girl paused for a moment, frowning,

"If we want to sneak behind enemy lines, we need to get past the T'au Empire's Leozus-Sisela blockade."

"What is the Leozus-Sixera blockade?" A strange term entered Horatio's ears.

"This is a patrol blockade composed of small reconnaissance ships sent by the Tau Empire in order to monitor the movements of the Imperial fleet. Its main ships are Nicassar comb ships derived from the technology of the Tau Empire's servant army, as well as some such as the Guard-class destroyers. The small ship is a surveillance line.

If they encounter a small Imperial ship, they will attack in groups; if they encounter a large Imperial fleet, they will not rush forward to engage in a firefight, but will always follow and report to the main fleet of the Tau Empire. "

"That is to say, before we enter the kitchen to get French fries, we have to pass the gatekeeper first?" Horatio raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, Captain. But as we know, the void is huge. Even the Empire does not have that many fleets to fill the entire combat airspace, let alone the Tau Empire."

"Maybe we can find a loophole in the patrol line."

"I hope so."

"Navigation office, adjust course and sail towards the AK74 area.!

"Yes, Captain.

The Epic glided carefully in the void, trying hard to control its huge body so as not to cause alarming disturbances on the sky background, so as to avoid any Tau Empire patrol ships that might be patrolling nearby.

In a small storage hangar.

The Tech-Priest is unfolding the folded Fury Interceptor.

Anya Fasha, who was wearing a full set of void flight jackets, held her helmet between her hands and turned to look at Veronica, who had just walked out of the toilet with a look of despair on her face.

"How's it going? Are you okay?"

"It hurts so much in the back." The short-haired girl muttered listlessly.

"You are so greedy that when you see something delicious, you eat it hard and can't stop. This is a good time. It tastes good on the top and hurts the mouth on the back.

Let's go, get on the plane, and the aviation compressed toilet, you can handle it yourself when you get back. "Fasha handed Veronica a bottle of pure water.

A tall, dark-skinned beauty with rosy blood and contentment wearing flying boots, and a plump girl who was so tired that she collapsed and had her back hunched over boarded the 40-meter-long fighter plane.

As the heavy tractor servitor pulled the fighter into the ejection trajectory.

Pilot Faxia gave a thumbs up, the ejection rail slowly rose, and the top closed hatch slowly opened to the side.

When the slide rail base completely overlaps the top hatch, there is a muffled "click" sound, the slide rail turns horizontally, the Skyhawk 1 engine spurts out blue plasma fire, and the slide rail also lights up and flashes frequently. Ion electrophoresis.

Egg! With a burst of cathartic discharge of electricity, the fighter jet rushed into the dark void.