Chapter 63: Orkish WAAAGH! (3)
Red Queen warned, as the Ork ships attempted to intercept their maneuver. The Obscurus's shields flared under the barrage, but the ship pressed on, weaving through the chaos with practiced precision.
"Target those ships in the northeastern way..."
Arcturus commanded.
"Fire at will!"
The Obscurus's main batteries unleashed a devastating volley, striking the Orkish Fleet with a tremendously powerful barrage, though it was quickly eclipsed by the volley launched by the Imperial Fleet under the leadership of the Vice Admiral Pyriel Cade.
One by one, the enemy vessels erupted in flames, their crude construction no match for the Imperial firepower. The effect was immediate.
The Orkish Fleet began to lose cohesion, their formations breaking apart as the opportunity that they had waited for finally appeared when one weak point in the Orkish formation appeared like a thunder from the clear sky.
<We've disrupted their coordination.>
The Red Queen Alice stated when she analyzed that the formation of the Greenskins was disrupted, which was a mission that he was given from the Bashar-General Varathar Medes.
<Their movements are becoming erratic, activating the Stealth Systems and setting course for the command ship of the Greenskins, determined as the Space Hulk.>
Arcturus allowed himself a brief smile.
The Imperial Fleet surged forward, exploiting the chaos within the Ork ranks. The once overwhelming wave of Greenskin ships began to falter, their disorganized attacks proving far less effective against the disciplined Imperial forces.
Explosions rippled through the enemy fleet as ship after ship was torn apart by concentrated fire. Yet, despite the seeming success, Arcturus's instincts told him that the battle was far from over. The Orks were nothing if not resilient, and their sheer numbers meant that victory would not come easily.
The Red Queen used this as an opportunity to take the Obscurus as close as possible to the enormous Space Hulk that acted as one of their command ships; though it wasn't the place where the Warboss resided, it was clear that it was the place where a large part of their stratagem was located.
The battle raged on, with both sides suffering heavy losses.
The void was filled with the wreckage of countless ships, a testament to the ferocity of the conflict. Arcturus stood on the command deck of the Obscurus, his expression grim as he surveyed the outcome of the most recent maneuver.
"Status report."
He stated calmly, observing the exchange going on between the Orkish WAAAGH! and the Imperial Defense Fleet and the Starfort Lycurgos that had already become the battlefield when several of the Orkish Battleships managed to get close enough to start literarily shooting the Orks onto the Starfort.
The ground battle was going on...
<Shields at 40%... Ammunition reserves at 50%, recovery in the process. Primary Engines are working at over 110% of their capacity; Secondary Engines are on overdrive. Activating the cooling system on the Secondary Engines.
Stealth Systems are working, consumption of the Energy is increasing with each minute, and the estimated top of the consumption and collapse of the Primary Energy Generators is to be eta: 4 minutes and 32 seconds.>
The Red Queen made a comprehensive report on the state of the Obscurus, as Arcturus looked a bit grimmer than before because the information that he got from it was far from good.
Like, really, really far from good.
With the current energy consumption and state of the Engines, it would be a small miracle if they managed to safely approach the Space Hulk, where one of the main command centers of the Orkish WAAAGH! was stationed.
Not to mention, they needed a lot of energy to initiate the teleportation beams and then, some energy to restart the energy consumption to power up the Void Shield into overdrive, because once the Stealth Systems were off, then it was most probable that the Obscurus would be ferociously attacked by the Space Hulk of the Greenskins.
The Space Hulks that the Greenskins were using as their portable command stations were enormous spaceships, probably a few millennia old. The one that Arcturus was eyeing from the command deck of the Obscurus was longer than twenty-five kilometers, which was even bigger than the rest of the Imperial Starships.
The sheer amount of weapons and other things that were installed on the Space Hulk was something to behold. If the Obscurus was hit by the weaponry of the Space Hulk controlled by the Greenskins, it would be destroyed faster than anyone could decide on what to do.
Even though the Orkish weapons were not the most advanced, they were still exceedingly good at causing unprecedented degrees of destruction and carnage, something that even some of the best weapons of Imperial science and engineering couldn't really compete against.
That was a rather simplistic view, but it was also the truth because the Greenskins were rather adept at creating and building weapons of mass destruction. Even though their ships looked like a total scrap of metal floating in space, they packed a really strong punch.
"When we are close enough, initiate the Teleportation Beam and transport me to the pre-designed location within the Space Hulk so I can commence the operation."
Arcturus stated as he looked at the Space Hulk, while pondering over the inevitable attack of the Mind Flayer's Mind Fleet Leviathan that was just coming for them. If he had to guess, then he would say that this entire mess was most probably engineered by the space squids themselves so that they could harvest the benefits.
Obviously, the Mind Flayers were scheming something, and it was a very well-executed scheme... as he observed how the Imperial Defense Fleet was destroying the Orkish WAAAGH! Fleet, he pondered how they would handle the Mind Fleet Leviathan when they arrived.
However, he was also aware that the Imperial Fleet was using only part of its true capabilities, as they were saving their true power for the Mind Fleet Leviathan when they arrived, because the Mind Flayers represented a true threat, not the hastily created Orkish WAAAGH!
Not even one of the powerful Imperial Psionics or Psykers participated in the fight, and certainly, none of the Beyonders floated in the emptiness of the space and fought against the enemy.
It seemed that every single hitter of the Imperial Forces was waiting for the moment when the Mind Flayers arrived. Only when the Mind Fleet Leviathan arrived at the Rylon Star System, one could say that the true battle would begin.
<At your command.>
When Red Queen accepted the command, she controlled the Obscurus to start slowly approaching the Space Hulk of the Greenskins under the Stealth Systems, still activated as they soon enough were in the range of the Teleportation Beams.
It didn't take long for them to reach the Space Hulk of the Greenskins with the Stealth Systems activated. When the Obscurus was close enough, it initiated the Teleportation Beams and transported him into the predesigned location within the Space Hulk.
Interestingly enough, the Greenskins were not using any kind of protection against the unwanted teleportation to their Starships. Obviously, they were considering employing such methods as cowardly; in fact, they even rarely used the Void Shields actively in their flying scraps of metal.