Even with her active noise-canceling device on, Farida still covered her ears tightly.
As the acceleration field within the Macro cannon began to charge, a terrifying hum, growing louder and louder, spread throughout the entire gun emplacement.
Buzz—!!!!
The entire armored command platform of the gun emplacement shook. Even though she was holding onto Horatio and the railing, her lighter body felt as if she were in an earthquake, almost falling. Horatio, quick to react, pulled her into his embrace, allowing her to maintain her balance.
The Macro cannon's breech was incredibly thick, but the roaring sound of the acceleration field at work still rapidly spread throughout the vast, empty compartment due to solid conduction.
Unlike artillery battles on Earth, air resistance in Void solid-projectile engagements is almost negligible. If in low-Earth orbit, the influence of celestial gravity would need to be considered.
However, the current engagement between the Unyielding and the Murder-class Cruiser was far from any celestial body. Under a set of Void formulas, it was simply a matter of inputting phase into azimuth and approach rate.
The massive cannonball shot out of the barrel, heading straight for its target.
In the first volley, 3 out of 4 shots hit, with all the gun emplacements commanded by Horatio striking the midship section of the enemy vessel.
The colossal cannonball had astonishing initial velocity, completely disproportionate to its size, and crashed heavily into the Void Shield, splashing up a golden-red ripple.
High-speed conventional rounds, as high-explosive ammunition, generated surging energy upon explosion, making them one of the most efficient ammunitions for overloading a Void Shield.
"Well done, Second Macro cannon Array. For the next round, I hope both arrays hit with all rounds," came the praise from the female Macro cannon officer over the loudspeaker.
No sooner had she spoken than four dazzling light spears illuminated the Void, shooting towards the enemy ship.
"High-speed conventional rounds, load them, quickly!!" Farida, having recovered, shouted into the audio input device. This was the duty Horatio had assigned her; she was responsible for monitoring the loading of the two Macro cannons and promptly reporting any issues.
Crew members pulled the crane over the cannonball, clamped it, then hand-cranked the tensioner to secure the cannonball before signaling.
"Pull! Faster! Pull hard!" The half-naked overseer cracked his whip, shouting sternly.
Long lines of indentured laborers, drenched in sweat and gritting their teeth, dragged chains, pulling the cannonballs grabbed by the crane from the ready ammunition room towards the loading machine.
Then the loading machine repeated the previous action.
In typical combat, purely manual cannonball dragging was the main reason the Imperial Navy's rate of fire couldn't be improved.
Moreover, as the bombardment continued, indentured laborers would die from exhaustion, get injured, or lose strength. All these reasons would further reduce the rate of fire.
Although there were automatic cranes, they were old models, troublesome to maintain once activated, and could only be used for short periods, usually only activated when engaging in close-range rapid-fire duels.
Horatio recalled that the Adeptus Mechanicus seemed to have more advanced integrated ammunition loading machines, but they were unwilling to share the technology or help the Imperial Navy fully equip them.
The Ecclesiarchy also strongly advocated manual loading, believing that only cannonballs fired in this manner were blessed rounds imbued with the False Emperor's great power.
The enemy had opened fire, and dense cannonballs flew towards the ship's hull.
Farida held her breath until the cannonballs struck the Void Shield, creating ripples.
The Murder-class Cruiser gladly accepted the challenge, but its gunnery was not precise; only 5 out of 16 shots hit in the first round at long range.
Soon, as the firing indicator lights illuminated one by one, the Macro cannon officer issued the command for the second volley.
As the distance closed and the first round's parameters were calibrated, the Unyielding still hit 3 out of 4, while the opponent hit 7 out of 16.
In the third round, the Unyielding's first two cannonballs depleted the enemy's first Void Shield, and the latter two struck the second Void Shield.
"Feeling better?" Horatio asked Farida softly.
"Mm, I've adapted," she replied. "Let me help you calculate."
"I'll also give you the trajectory display console. Calculate the parameters and report them to me for comparison," Horatio assigned her a task that wasn't too difficult.
"Yes."
While diligently fulfilling his duties, Horatio meticulously taught Farida how to use the Macro cannon display console in front of her.
As the two ships closed to within 1/8 of a Void chain (approximately 962 kilometers), the Unyielding reduced its speed to maintain pace with the enemy.
This was a signal challenging the enemy ship, meaning, 'I'm ready to duel you like a boxer.'
The Murder-class Cruiser gladly accepted; it no longer continued to flee but instead moved closer to the Unyielding.
The purpose of this was clear: she wanted to initiate a boarding action, but the Unyielding had no intention of letting her succeed.
"If these traitors choose to fight to the death with us here, then any ambush would be here. Send an electrical message to all frigates and destroyers, telling them not to participate in the Void battle, to double their cruising warning radius, remain vigilant, and keep their eyes peeled," Commodore Peru ordered.
The shattered fragments of the Ecclesiarchy world, Savaven, destroyed by a planet killer during the Gothic War, had drifted here.
Under the influence of gravity and ionization, these meteorite fragments formed hundreds of dense small asteroid belts. The ion gas clouds, which caused mutual attraction between the meteorites, would interfere with the augur array's detection, significantly reducing the effective search radius and making it difficult to accurately distinguish whether a large meteorite or an enemy cruiser was within the gas cloud.
Since the opponent was no longer accelerating away, it was fine to send out the destroyers and frigates, which were not the main output force, to guard the surroundings in this situation.
"Come on, the solo fight has begun. Lieutenant Stirling, I am resuming command of the warship."
"Yes, Captain."
The Unyielding began to adjust its course; Commodore Peru had no intention of giving the enemy a chance to get close.
As both sides continuously adjusted their maneuvering courses and speeds, the Macro cannon data updated frequently.
Horatio meticulously performed manual calculations, while Farida reported updated parameter data to him in real-time and used the thinker array to input data for his parameter adjustments and data comparison.
Sweat dripped from the young girl's face; she had become Horatio's capable assistant. She and the portside Second Macro cannon Array, which Horatio commanded, were always the first to light up their ready indicator lights.
"The hit rate so far is 100%," Lieutenant Stirling reported to the Captain.
"For someone commanding a gun emplacement for the first time, it's excellent, and he also possesses the good luck a good gunner needs."
Captain Peru nodded, "But the challenge has just begun."
Boom!!!!—A massive siren sound came from the distant Void.
"Enemy Void Shield overloaded!" shouted the Lieutenant from the observation department, who had been dispatched to the command bridge. He had received the latest message from the observation Captain.
"Let these Chaos whelps take our first punch hard!" Commodore Peru gritted his teeth.
Inside the Second Gun Emplacement Command Platform.
Horatio also heard the siren and looked at the message sent by the Macro cannon officer.
Thanks to the Unyielding's fierce firepower, when the Murder-class's second Void Shield was dispersed, its first Void Shield was not yet ready.
"The enemy's Void Shield has dissipated! They are now unprotected! Switch to semi-armor-piercing rounds! Let our fists smash hard into their nose!" Horatio shouted into the audio array.
"Hoo-ha!" The crew cheered excitedly.
As the indentured laborers below became exhausted, a second batch of indentured laborers, shackled, took over the former's task.
While replacing the firing capacitors, four light spears shot towards the Murder-class's crimson wedge-shaped hull.
"Wow." Farida's eyes reflected the dazzling light.
She saw the light spears pierce the traitor's hull, and surging energy scorched, melted, and twisted the upper armor.
Inside the enemy ship.
Khorne Space Marine crew members, their faces scarred with various textures and patterns, ran densely through the compartments.
In an instant, multiple steel decks were torn open by a massive energy beam. Evil Cultists crew members hit directly by the light spear were vaporized instantly, unable to even utter a sound.
The rapid heating caused some Evil Cultists, even several compartments away, to be roasted alive by temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees.
Their flesh melted, blood evaporated, facial features collapsed, and heart-wrenching screams were Incessant. Even a single breath of the scorching air could cook their respiratory tracts.
Steel turned into molten iron, dripping continuously. Many crew members in the compartments below, who were not directly hit, were directly roasted into charred black coals by a basin of molten iron.
They screamed, their flesh blackened, and their bodies caught fire.
Even the Khorne Space Marine could not escape; their ceramite power armor became human ovens, roasting the traitors inside into roasted meat emitting a savory aroma.
The smell of cooked meat caused some uncontrollable crew members to dismember and eat it.
The Unyielding's two keel-mounted light spears used a lower-power, long-illumination mode, wantonly targeting the surface painted with the 'Death's Smile,' a unique naval art form that both declared superb marksmanship and spread death, capable of causing widespread damage to shallow compartments and inflicting casualties.
To preserve elite combat power, the Khorne Space Marine contracted to the core of the hull. But this did not mean that the light spears would not find them.
The broadside heavy light spear turrets began to use a high-power pulse mode to focus on a single point for deep scorching, drilling towards the ship's core area, aiming to destroy important components, and using the secondary shockwaves and fragments stirred up by the beam to kill the Blood Pact Army and Khorne Space Marine hiding inside.
The attack method of the light spear cannon destined it to be a high-penetration, medium-damage weapon.
Although the Macro cannon's penetration depth was not as good as the light spear, the structural damage and personnel casualties caused by the massive-payload cannonballs after penetrating the hull were far incomparable to the light spear cannon.
"Adjust the muzzle angle, Macro cannon No. 4, elevation +6 degrees, azimuth -16 degrees! That's their bridge."
"Loading complete!"
"Adjustment complete!"
"Fire!!!" Horatio and Farida shouted in unison.
The Macro cannon roared.
Four massive cannonballs flew towards the enemy ship in sequence.
A corner of the mid-side of the enemy ship's gigantic bridge.
"Brace for impact! The False Emperor's cannonball is coming!"
No sooner had the bald, burly man, whose face was covered in unholy markings, finished speaking.
Bang!
A massive cannonball pierced through the steel plate outside the bridge and rushed in, smashing all the Evil Cultists crew members in its path into bloody pulp amidst a cacophony of screeching metal.
The sturdy semi-armor-piercing round, cast from adamantium alloy, continued to fly deeper into the bridge. This cannonball, with a large payload and medium penetration, pierced through several shallow decks. The metal at the head of the projectile gradually melted in the high temperature, and the machine soul of the fuse faithfully counted down the enemy's last moments of life.
Boom!!!
A massive explosion resounded inside the ship.
Several decks were directly blown into a cavity. Everything within the blast point was instantly shattered into fragments. Many people didn't even know what happened before they instantly disappeared.
The mighty scorching hot air wave directly stirred up a firestorm. Everything in its path was incinerated, bursting into flames.
The Evil Cultists crew members inside the compartment ran to escape, but their two legs were no match for the speed of the air wave, and they were instantly blown to the ground.
"Ah!! Ah ya!! Ah!!!"
Their backs were scorched to a bloody mess, their blood baked dry into black scabs, and their flesh appeared charred like American barbecue.
Those who hadn't died completely screamed and fell to the ground, clutching their bloody backs and wailing.
But the nightmare was not over. The massive explosion's flames surged like a flood within the compartment. The firestorm had already prevented many Evil Cultists crew members from closing the isolation compartments, and the ensuing raging fire quickly purified all filth in these compartments, baking the bulkheads and doors red-hot. No life could survive in such temperatures.
Note:
Hello everyone!
First of all, I want to send my warmest wishes to you and your families. May your Lunar New Year be filled with warmth, reunion, and joy. I hope you all stay healthy and have a wonderful year ahead!
I have a small announcement: I will be taking a Lunar New Year holiday starting on February 15th, 2026, and will return on February 23rd, 2026. During this time, I want to rest, spend time with my family, and enjoy the traditional New Year atmosphere.
Don't worry! During this break, I will prepare new chapters so I can post them regularly when I return. So please be patient and wait, the upcoming story will be even better!
Thank you so much for your support. Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!