"Arm yourselves! Arm yourselves!!" All the crew and Sailors who heard the command immediately shouted, relaying Horatio's order to their companions.
The drummer beat a rapid rhythm for the call to arms. A portion of personnel from each gun emplacement was dispatched to the armory to collect weapons, while the rest held their positions, continuing to engage the enemy vessel.
Horatio inserted the golden key into the lock on the thinker array.
The armories in the port side's second gun emplacement slowly opened their blast doors. The Sailors lined up to receive weapons under the watchful eyes of the Commissariat's Judge Advocates. Not far away, the Voidsmen-at-Arms were in fierce combat with the invaders.
As a battlecruiser, the Unyielding possessed enough weapon reserves to wage a war. Every ordinary Sailor could receive a gun and a melee weapon.
They were also allowed to receive a bulletproof chest plate and helmet, a significant upgrade from the Q-ship's armament at the time.
Although Sailors were only permitted to use light individual weapons, there was a variety of models. Firearms included Navy Lasguns, shotguns, Laspistols, and hand cannons.
Melee weapons included man-high naval spears, wide-bladed slightly curved naval cutlasses, single-handed boarding axes, or two-handed breaching axes.
"Armed forces, fall in!" Horatio, wearing his bicorne hat, one hand on his sword, and the other holding the imposing Holy Blood Chainsword, roared with magnificent volume.
Under normal circumstances, a gun deck would have hundreds of Voidsmen-at-Arms, like crew members, serving in three shifts.
Once a Level One combat alert was issued, all three shifts of Soldiers would arm themselves. The total number of armed forces within each gun emplacement would surge to over a thousand. While this seemed like a lot, it was tiny within a ship's interior, which was measured in kilometers. Given the critical situation, if crew members were not conscripted, the losses would only be greater.
A warship is not a castle; its internal compartment structure is not designed for defense.
Except for the Command Platform and the bridge, which are specifically designed with defense in mind, most compartments are not conducive to organizing a defense. Overall, the layout even favors the invaders.
With a defensive area of nearly one square kilometer in the gun emplacement, the internal combat space is simply too vast. Each deck is interspersed with narrow indoor close-quarters battle environments and relatively open large spaces and corridors, making it as chaotic as the Lower Hive.
Naval internal combat typically involves no tanks, no mechs, relying entirely on flesh and blood, cover, firearms, and melee weapons for primitive and brutal slaughter.
A complete, continuous defensive line is almost impossible to organize; usually, there are only 'defensive nodes.'
Heavy weapon turrets are high-end items found only near the Command Platform and the bridge.
A movable breastwork is the entirety of most Voidsmen-at-Arms squads' defensive fortifications, but these thick steel plates, even if they block from the front, cannot prevent enemies from circling around from behind.
This is because the combat environment is harsh, complex, and varied.
Officers' assignments to armed forces are often issued only in the form of 'capture and hold XX deck' or 'capture and hold XX compartment,' with specific details left to the Voidsmen-at-Arms Officers to decide based on the terrain of their assigned deck.
The Voidsmen-at-Arms Officers would divide their subordinates into tactical squads like a swarm of bees and send them out to clear enemy forces from various compartments.
This was a desperate measure, but also the most effective tactic. The complex internal structure of the compartments did not allow for more elaborate strategies.
Soldiers from both sides often ran past each other with only a bulkhead separating them. Mutual infiltration, outflanking, and annihilation between squads were the default tactics for everyone; the concept of a 'front line' simply did not exist.
Even for the Voidsmen-at-Arms, for most compartments, they did not necessarily know the way better than the invaders. It was common for both sides to get lost during combat.
Amidst the winding passages, defenders and invaders alike engaged in immediate combat upon meeting. The duration of sudden, close-quarters combat was usually very short.
They would kill the enemy squad and then continue to charge forward, fighting any enemies they encountered and merging with friendly forces until the enemy was eliminated or their own side was wiped out.
The communication channels of both sides were also noisy and chaotic; no one could make sense of the situation in each compartment from the sudden influx of jumbled reports. And in close-quarters combat indoors, Soldiers were often killed very quickly, with reports of encountering the enemy often not even sent before the person fell.
The Voidsmen-at-Arms Officers also lacked Horatio's Hand of Command and could not get a bird's-eye view from above, making it difficult to know in time where the enemy had breached a bulkhead or surged out of a multi-directional door.
Which compartments and decks had the enemy captured? Which of our squads had been annihilated? Should I continue forward or retreat and wait for reinforcements? Everything was almost shrouded in a fog of war constructed by metal bulkheads.
And the confusing twists and turns of the compartment corridors and the layered obstructions of the fire doors would limit the Voidsmen-at-Arms' mobility, making the path to reinforcement and aid long and dangerous.
These factors made boarding and anti-boarding combat extremely bloody and primitive, which was Farida's main concern for Horatio's safety.
Because even if he sent his Soldiers out to advance, there was no telling if his own compartment might be unexpectedly encountered by an enemy squad wandering through the ship's compartments.
Even the Blood Angels, who were Space Marines, once paid an extremely heavy price to clear Tyranidss from a derelict space hulk, an event considered a disgrace in the Chapter's history.
Intense gunfire and heart-wrenching screams echoed through the countless compartment corridors of the No. 4 Macro cannon launch platform.
"Blood for the Blood God! Cut off their heads!" The traitor Soldiers, who had abandoned the Empire, charged fiercely towards the No. 4 Macro cannon's ammunition bay under the roar of a renegade Voidsmen-at-Arms Officer.
Even though reinforcements for the port side's No. 4 Macro cannon's decks were continuously en route, the current situation for the fighting Voidsmen-at-Arms was precarious.
These warriors, clad in deep red armor, were once members of the Imperial Army, the sacred currency of the God-Emperor. But now, to please their evil masters and satisfy the desires of traitor Space Marines, they did not hesitate to wield slaughtering blades against their compatriots, even if it meant sacrificing their lives.
The Voidsmen-at-Arms could not stop these madmen.
The Blood Pact Soldiers charged forward and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Voidsmen-at-Arms behind the breastwork. The Voidsmen-at-Arms, outnumbered by the invaders, killed a few with bayonets and naval knives, but were quickly scattered by the tide.
Several Voidsmen-at-Arms who fell to the ground were instantly disemboweled by the swarming Blood Pact Army with their sharp and brutal weapons.
"Orderly retreat! Retreat to the next defensive position!!" a Voidsmen-at-Arms Sergeant shouted, holding a Laspistol.
He led the remaining Voidsmen-at-Arms, fighting as they retreated, trying to slow the enemy's pursuit.
Just as he ran past an intersection, a battle-axe swept across his chest from the side, smashing through his chest plate, and blood flowed continuously.
The Voidsmen-at-Arms Sergeant fell to the ground and saw Blood Pact Axemen wearing grotesque iron masks. They had cut through a nearby bulkhead, outflanking the Voidsmen-at-Arms' retreat route.
The retreating Voidsmen-at-Arms were suddenly struck on their flank by the unexpected enemy, and many fell. These mad butchers swung their broad battle-axes, executing the wounded.
The severely wounded Voidsmen-at-Arms Sergeant tried to raise his pistol to kill the axeman in front of him, but his arm was instantly severed by an axe blow.
He let out a scream, and the axeman mercilessly swung his brutal battle-axe, striking his chest and head repeatedly, hacking him to pieces with extreme brutality.
—
A reserve unit, intended for the struggle over the ammunition bay, quickly assembled to the sound of war drums.
Horatio walked past the fully armed Navy Soldiers.
Standing at the front were the Navy Breachers. These tall and burly professional Soldiers numbered 200. In addition, there were 500 Voidsmen-at-Arms who had arrived from nearby barracks, and hundreds of armed Sailors who also participated in the struggle.
These were just the first wave; a second wave of 800 Voidsmen-at-Arms, allocated from the Command Bridge, was on its way to provide support.
Horatio knew very well that he had to control the situation before it became irreversible, not only for Captain Peru's trust but also for his and Farida's lives.
And Captain Peru also showed Horatio great respect; upon receiving his distress signal, he had a Lieutenant from the Operations Department squeeze out several hundred Voidsmen-at-Arms from the lower bridge to go and support, and began to assemble a third reserve unit.
"I know many of you were born and raised here. You already understand the situation. We will rush to Macro cannon No. 4 from multiple nearby corridors. If we fail, the entire port side's second gun emplacement will be blasted into debris in the void."
Horatio's left hand rested on the saber at his waist, his iron hand gripping the Chainsword bearing the Blood Angels Chapter's insignia, as he rallied them with a booming voice.
"Today, you fight for your home, for your honor. Now, divide into three routes according to the predetermined plan and advance! In the name of the God-Emperor, we must thwart the enemy's conspiracy!"
The Soldiers roared in unison with a savage battle cry, and to the beat of the drums, they divided into four groups and ran towards the corridors.
In Horatio's plan, the first unit would depart from the Officer's Fast Corridor, a relatively wide and straight passage. 100 Voidsmen-at-Arms and 50 Navy Breachers could reach the periphery of the ammunition bay from here, controlling the main routes. They would clear the enemy infiltration forces from the outside in.
The second unit would descend to the middle deck. They would rely on the main structural bulkheads to impede enemy forces continuing towards the ammunition bay and support the defenders on the mid-level gun deck.
The third unit was the annihilation force, led personally by Horatio. This team included one hundred Navy Breachers, 350 Voidsmen-at-Arms, and hundreds of reserve Voidsmen-at-Arms and armed Sailors who would immediately fill any fallen positions, ensuring Horatio could eliminate all enemies along the way.
Dividing the forces was a consideration for the narrow corridor spaces, where the combat width would not allow so many people to spread out and attack at once, leading to significant wasted firepower. Dividing the forces and advancing, with multi-line interdiction to ensure continuous reinforcement, was the most suitable choice.
In his mind, he would use the Hand of Command for as much micromanagement as possible, leveraging the unique super advantage of a bird's-eye view to help him complete the mission and save his and Farida's lives.
Horatio raised his iron hand.
'Activate: Hand of Command'