In Santo Joel's eyes, his fate seemed to have reached its end.
The artillery fire of the Blood Curse is roaring, shells spurting out from the huge broadside cannon, and columns of fire hovering in the void.
A portion of the enemy's torpedoes were hit by the shells, and the surrounding atomic flames erupted in the dark void and tore apart everything within its range, leaving only silvery wreckage.
The Lord of the Blood Knights, Santo Joel, looked at them on the screen, which was connected to the sensors of the cannon itself.
At this distance, the enemy cruisers can be seen like silver darts illuminated by the light reflected from the surrounding nebula, and some of the smaller ships are scattered points of light around them.
In the first few minutes, the smaller frigate was hit by cannonballs and reduced to burning cinders.
He could also see below the gun deck, more than twenty cannons roaring in unison, most of them self-loading, and the rest manned by tech-priests.
The loading crane began to work, and the servitors began to load the cannon. Slaves in red robes scrambled to climb over the cannon casing, opened the rear hatch, and dragged more cannon shells to the corresponding positions.
Santo Joel was about to go to the deck, when he saw a fighter formation on the screen approaching quickly, circling towards them.
"It's a bomber!"
he shouted immediately.
"Air defense fire covers the m12 area!"
However, the missiles had already fallen from the weapons racks of the approaching bombers, and then the battleship's guard cannons were activated. They were installed on the Blood Curse's shell, and countless beams trapped the bombers in a network of laser fire.
Many bombers were destroyed, sliced in half by beams of white-hot light, but that was before they released their missiles, and with most ships they would need to get closer to maneuver out of the way.
The next moment, the missile directly hit the fort.
Santo Joel jumped down from the turret. He tensed his legs and hit a wall in the distance. His hands found a point of strength on the metal.
When the first missile hit the target, he clung to the wall, the missile spraying white flames at the end of the gun deck, shattering the huge structure of the side guns.
Soon, the shock wave hit him, and all the veteran warrior could do now was to cling to the wall while other warriors were also thrown below the deck.
Although the flames were sucked away by the vacuum before causing more damage, the situation was still grim, with air screaming through the breach in the hull.
Fortunately, the power armor is sealed and can ensure the supply of oxygen in the vacuum.
But the servants were not so lucky, and many of them died with only a slight scream.
As the air whizzed past him, Santo Joel's hands gripped the wall harder. Some of the Blood Knights below were dragged by the whistling air flow, and they could only hold on to the loading machine or the floor.
grille to avoid being sucked out by the gap.
As the air ran out, silence fell, replaced by the vibrations of the cannons and spacecraft engines that passed through the metal walls and reached the hands of each warrior.
Santo Joel dropped to the floor and tried to run to the relative safety of the inner deck, when another missile managed to hit near him, knocking out another cannon.
The huge gun barrel somersaulted and passed through the wall. The sound of destruction rumbled on the floor, and the sound was out of reach in the vacuum.
The alarm system on the Blood Curse was re-controlled and made a shrill sound.
The situation on the battleship was very bad at this time. Narrow walkways and corridors hung in the steel gaps between the projectile funnels. The huge conveyor belts and cranes of the loading system clanked overhead and below, delivering ammunition to the still-working cannons.
.
"Capac!" Gu De
Santo Joel shouted into the communicator:
"Report! Are there any casualties?"
"Brother Wesley is hurt."
The only pharmacist in the Chapter quickly answered.
"Brother Dawn died in the battle. His body was sucked into the void and cannot be recovered."
In Capac's voice, Santo Joel could hear more crashing rumbles, scattered among the vibrations of the Blood Curse's cannon.
"Where are you?"
"Still on deck three, we are regrouping and trying to repair some facilities."
"Get out of there."
"Okay, we'll head to the cargo hold and put a few layers of hull between us and the gap."
Santo Joel switches to Tech Sergeant Frank's voice channel.
"Frank, the gun deck section has been hit."
"I'm tracking an incoming bomber."
Santo Joel could hear the whir of the cogitator behind the Techmarine's voice.
"They're on top of us."
"Can we destroy them?"
"Of course, but they are not the danger. They are just diverting our target so that the cruiser's cannon can hit us."
"How much damage can it do?"
"Generally speaking, it is impossible for a cruiser to leave too many scars on a battle barge like the Blood Curse, but this obviously cannot trouble the Inquisition and those bastards from the Black Templar."
Santo Joel knew that the technical sergeant was telling the truth. After all, they had been living like this for a long time.
The Blood Knights Chapter is a recognized sub-group of the Blood Angels. The founding time of the army is unknown. It is a new sub-group but there are major flaws in its gene seeds.
The Chapter was declared traitors to the Imperium by the High Lords of Terra in the name of the Emperor at the beginning of the 41st Millennium, and most of the Chapter's data was erased, mainly due to their inability to control the Red Thirst, during the battle.
Often killing indiscriminately, resulting in large numbers of friendly casualties, this aroused the hostility and dissatisfaction of many Imperial commanders and other Astartes colleagues.
However, after the decree of excommunication was issued, the Blood Knights still intervened in several battles when the empire was in trouble. Although they came uninvited, they still brought great help to the empire.
It's just that most imperial commanders are unwilling to accept the support of the Blood Knights. Only the most desperate worlds will officially accept the help of the Blood Knights. However, apart from the risk of being injured by a large number of accidental injuries afterwards, the act of accepting the help of these "renegade" Space Marines
It will also be subject to investigation by the Tribunal.
Santo Joel knew very well that their loyalty to the Empire had not changed at all, and everyone still insisted on fighting against the enemies of mankind.
Not everyone sees it that way, at least the Inquisition is keen on hunting them down, as are some fanatical Astartes Chapters.
Usually they are lucky enough to avoid the gaze of most people, but not long ago, they had just finished an attack on the greenskin tribe in the Jericho sector and were preparing to go to a secret stronghold for repairs when they suddenly...
They killed a Black Templar expedition fleet, and also brought a small fleet from the Tribunal, giving them a head-on blow.