In the hall named after the saint Saratan, Captain Hornthorne of the Imperial Fist slapped his hands heavily on the table of the holographic imaging platform.
After enduring half a month of unilateral bombing on the ground, the entire army and civilians of Ophelia 7 were in urgent need of a counterattack to boost morale.
And just at this critical moment, the Astropath brought them better news:
Imperial reinforcements have arrived!
A large-scale imperial fleet is passing through the blockade of the subspace storm with an unstoppable momentum. And as soon as it returns to the real universe, it fires angry artillery fire at the enemy from Chaos!
Although all signal stations have been destroyed, the ground cannot receive relay information from space.
But from the astropath's description of the silver sword that spanned the galaxy, Hornthorne could easily deduce the identity of the person.
The enemy's retreat also supports this inference from the side - the rebel army's frontal offensive is weakening, and there is no trace of the Alphas who originally threatened the Imperial Fist's defense line.
Apart from the powerful fleet under that Lord's command, Hornthorne could hardly imagine anyone else in the nearby star region who could put such strong pressure on these slaves of Chaos.
Then, it’s time to fight back!
Hornthorne and Ultramarines Captain Stewart's eyes met, and they were determined to sound the clarion call for counterattack.
On the planet's equatorial ring centered on the City of Divine Grace, anti-ship base weapons code-named "Hunting" were activated from dormancy...
"Everyone is ready!"
On the equator line of Ophelia, on a plain on the plateau of Lockhal Province. In a rock formation silo 5 kilometers deep underground, a tower-like electromagnetic gun tube is slowly being raised by a hydraulic platform.<
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There are hundreds of similar anti-ship weapon base stations. They are secretly arranged by the galaxy defense fleet at a density of hundreds of kilometers on the planet's equator and on the two poles of the planet's rotation axis.
When the Chaos Fleet first arrived in the galaxy, they carried out targeted attacks against them.
Although the overall losses were heavy, the base where the air defense company commander Siegel was located was lucky enough to survive the macro-cannon bombardment from the battleship.
Two weeks ago, the last order they received was to stop firing and to do everything possible to stay hidden and on standby;
And two weeks later, they finally got the chance to fight back despite the painful suffering.
The order from the City of Divine Grace has arrived, and he is as angry as all his colleagues.
After the weapon base station was impatiently unhidden, this huge weapon that required a full 300 people to operate officially entered combat status.
"Countdown to 10 minutes!"
Siegel took out a data tablet from his arms. After fingerprints, voiceprints and genetic testing, the Imperial eagle emblem hanging high on the thorns appeared in front of him.
Siegel also has the same emblem on his chest. He knows that the thorny thorns at the feet of the golden imperial eagle are the symbol of their mission.
Two complex data columns are under the eagle emblem, with a large amount of data refreshed in real time.
Siegel stared at them closely. While ensuring the connection with the City of Divine Grace and the smooth completion of the timing procedure, he also controlled the various variables caused by the equatorial angle and the atmospheric environment on the shooting angle of attack.
Nearly a kilometer below him, a huge metal warhead weighing 15 tons, carried by a rail train, was being lifted from a pallet by a huge crane under the command of technicians and being operated by soldiers responsible for loading.
.
The mechanical priests paid close attention to the progress of the loading. When the warhead carrying destruction and hatred was loaded into the barrel, they used the mechanical prostheses on their backs to step forward to unlock the key of the warhead and awaken the machine soul.
Blessing ceremony...
"Preloading in place!" Seeing the warhead being put into the barrel, the crew leader in charge of loading reported to Siegel on the communicator.
"Countdown to 7 minutes!" Siegel repeated the reminder in the communicator again. In his command system at the same level, the first wave of attacks on orbit has begun.
Seeing the artillery fire projected into space by anti-ship weapons located elsewhere in the servo system, Siegel's angry mood calmed down.
There was a voice in the communicator next to my ear, which was the news that the energy battery pack and the electromagnetic orbit team had been prepared.
Seeing that there were only 3 minutes left in the countdown, Siegel turned around and took out a bottle of liquor from the storage room.
It was a gift given to him by his comrade-in-arms, and his comrade-in-arms had already died in the battle with the Alphas.
Countdown to 2 minutes;
Countdown to 1 minute;
Countdown to 30 seconds;
Countdown to 10 seconds:
Seeing the number on the screen return to zero, Siegel pressed the trigger of the heavy cannon on time.
Amid the huge electromagnetic roar, Siegel watched the warhead go away. He smashed the neck of the wine bottle on the corner of the table, then raised his head and drank regardless of the sharp glass:
"Go ahead and say hello to you bunch of bastards for me!"
——
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The naval battle in space is still going on. Killing machines built for humans and consuming planet-level resources are still projecting hatred towards each other in space at a slow but fast pace.
The Chaos Fleet did not wait to withstand the comprehensive encirclement and suppression by Calvin's side. Soon after the battle line was formed, it waited for a targeted attack from the direction of Ophelia.
Anti-ship weapons based on the planet itself naturally have a thicker caliber and longer barrel diameter than battleship macro guns.
Except for the narrow range of fire caused by the rotation of the planet, its power exceeds the macro cannon of a battleship in all aspects.
But now, the Chaos Fleet, which has just escaped the shackles of gravity, is still gathering to fight the Imperial Fleet;
In the eyes of ground weapons, these are simply targets fixed above the orbit, which is exactly the best environment for these base weapons to function.
Dozens of warheads the size of a locomotive were fired upward along the planet's equator, creating new chaos in the Chaos fleet that had just completed the battle line.
The dense orbital fire passed through the atmosphere and went straight to the target, exploding in the belly of the fleet flagship "Lost Truth" and other battleships, rapidly depleting their shields.
The latter had to adjust its position awkwardly before facing the imperial fleet, so as not to continue to withstand the continuous attacks of these anti-aircraft weapons.
However, the battleship's turn was so slow. Before the fleet's evasive action was completed, Alpha's commander was horrified to realize that after withstanding the fire from the ground, the battleship's shield energy had been significantly depleted.
What to do? Alpha’s commander is in a dilemma.
Faced with a sudden attack from the ground, he would either choose to make an emergency evasion with the entire fleet, and the newly formed battle line would disintegrate;
Either he chooses to withstand all the attacks from Ophelia Star 7, but he can face the strong attack of the empire with the shield being greatly consumed, which is also the end of a narrow escape...
The precious window of time flew by in his calculations, and his indecision about the war caused him to commit the biggest mistake of a commander.
In his helpless and desperate eyes, the artillery fire in the direction of Ophia had just subsided, and on the textbook battle line of the imperial fleet in the distance, the second round of salvos had just begun...