72: Chapter 72 The Romance of Warhammer is Board Jumping

A white light suddenly descended.

On the cold metal floor of the cobra-class destroyer's hangar, Fu Haoran fell heavily.

If the Drukhari pinned beneath him hadn't been holding a dagger to his throat, Fu Haoran would have considered this operation a great success.

Laelith pulled away, breaking free from Fu Haoran's embrace.

Stepping onto the metal floor with bare feet, her fiery red hair clung messily to the side of her neck, yet a playful smile curled at the corner of her mouth.

Fu Haoran tried to push himself up from the floor, but his arms went weak, and he fell heavily again.

Laelith squatted down, the tip of her poisoned dagger lightly tracing his cheek, her sweet voice laced with an unshakeable chill: "Mon-keigh, you've abducted me to this place; have you thought about how you want to die?"

Lying on the ground, Fu Haoran suddenly split his lips into a grin.

"Before I die... can you first tell me where exactly you hid those grenades?"

"It seems your mouth is exceptionally tough; I hope you can keep that up in a moment." Laelith was about to strike when the sound of dense footsteps echoed from the hangar corridor.

Father Karen rushed in with fifty elite boarding party members, their Bolters raised. The moment they saw Laelith, every muzzle snapped toward her, safety catches off.

For a Drukhari Succubus who disliked wearing armor, facing dozens of hellguns simultaneously was a troublesome matter.

Moreover, this teleportation room was narrow and enclosed, with all exits blocked, leaving no room to maneuver.

Laelith glanced at the surrounding soldiers and then at the wolf spider sentry turrets already raising their barrels, letting out a sneer.

Just as she was about to act, her gaze swept over the moon-class cruiser's signature on the hangar screen, and a playful smile curled her lips again.

Laelith changed her mind; she wanted to see how this human intended to challenge a cruiser with a small ship.

With a light tap of her toes, Laelith turned into a red shadow and instantly vanished into the hangar's darkness.

Only a sweet voice remained, drifting through the ventilation ducts: "Want to know where the grenades are hidden? I'll tell you the next time we meet."

[The Succubus's Teasing is complete!]

[Quest rewards have been sent to the system space, please check!]

Fu Haoran breathed a sigh of relief as the sharp pain from the neurotoxins instantly surged through his body.

Gritting his teeth, he opened the system mall, closed his eyes to purchase a high-grade healing potion and a neurotoxin antidote, and stabbed them directly into his neck.

He immediately felt much better.

After another dozen seconds, Fu Haoran was able to steady himself on the floor and stand up.

...

Ten minutes later, on the destroyer's bridge.

Fu Haoran stood receiving an examination from Father Karen while listening to a report.

The ground battle had already begun, but Fu Haoran had no mind to focus on it. The greatest threat now was Valerius's moon-class cruiser in synchronous orbit.

Without seizing orbital superiority, no matter how much they won on the ground, it would all be for naught.

"Lock course onto Costa's moon-class cruiser," Fu Haoran ordered. "Attack."

Anyone who had fought a space battle knew.

A destroyer was naturally inferior when facing a cruiser.

Its small, nimble frame was merely prolonging the inevitable before a cruiser's Macro Cannon arrays.

On the bridge of the moon-class cruiser, Valerius Costa looked at the cobra-class destroyer charging on the screen and sneered, his face full of disdain.

"Prepare torpedoes..."

Valerius was only halfway through his sentence when a subordinate beside him reminded him: "My Lord, the Rogue Trader dismantled the torpedo launchers..."

Valerius's face instantly darkened.

"Then pursue! Full speed ahead! Close the distance and crush him with Macro Cannons and Lances!"

He didn't take Fu Haoran seriously at all.

The Void Shield and armor thickness of a moon-class cruiser could withstand dozens of torpedo hits. Moreover, the speed of this antiquated destroyer was far inferior to his moon-class cruiser; catching up was only a matter of time.

As for the possibility of a boarding action, that was even more of a joke.

Could a destroyer even board a cruiser-class vessel?

Unless the boarders were the Emperor's Angels!

But in the next second, a piercing alarm suddenly blared in the bridge.

"Warning! Large number of high-speed flying objects detected! Distance: 20,000 kilometers! Approaching at high speed!"

Twenty thousand kilometers?

Valerius was stunned for a moment, thinking he had misheard.

The effective range of a Macro Cannon was only 12,000 kilometers; they couldn't even reach the opponent!

Valerius looked at the waves of "torpedoes" on the screen approaching at Mach 5, not paying much attention at first.

However, when the first wave of missiles suddenly underwent a second stage of acceleration, abruptly reaching Mach 25!

Valerius bolted upright from his command chair.

"That's impossible! What kind of propulsion technology is this?!"

"Open fire with all point-defense Macro Cannons!" Valerius roared.

On the broadside of the moon-class cruiser, the point-defense Macro Cannon arrays roared instantly. Dense proximity-fused shells trailed fire into the darkness, weaving an intercepting net of fire in the void.

However, the expected hits did not occur.

Missile after missile broke through the interception, striking the Void Shield and causing ripples. The energy readings dropped by a few percentage points, but were quickly replenished.

However, before Valerius could open his mouth to mock them, the second round of attacks arrived.

This time was different. The explosions were more than a hundred times more violent. The pale purple Void Shield flickered wildly under the continuous bombardment of the "torpedoes," and the energy readings plummeted at a visible rate.

The adjutant reported with a pale face: "My Lord! Void Shield energy has dropped by 17%!"

"How is that possible? What kind of torpedoes are they using? They can't be Cyclone Torpedoes, can they?!"

Now Valerius was in a difficult position: would the Void Shield be depleted first, or would he catch up first?

"Pursue!" Valerius gritted his teeth. "I don't believe they have many of these high-yield torpedoes!"

Fu Haoran didn't have Cyclone Torpedoes, but he had more than enough missiles loaded with Mushroom Bombs.

...

In the bridge of the cobra-class destroyer, the first mate looked at the approaching moon-class cruiser on the screen, his face pale: "My Lord, the Moon's speed is faster than ours. It will catch us in twenty minutes at most!"

Fu Haoran stared at the Asteroid Belt marker on the screen, his tone calm: "Turn. Enter the Asteroid Belt ahead."

The first mate was stunned: "My Lord, the debris there is dense; it's too dangerous..."

"I know. It's dangerous for us, but it's even more dangerous for them."

Fu Haoran knew very well that the Moon's Auspex would be interfered with by the rocks in the Asteroid Belt, making it impossible to see their movements clearly.

More importantly, direct fire from Macro Cannons would be blocked by the rocks, but his missiles had semi-intelligent auxiliary navigation like j.a.r.v.i.s., allowing them to bypass obstacles and strike precisely.

But this could only buy time. The real decisive battle to defeat a larger foe would still depend on boarding.

The cobra-class destroyer's engines went to full power as it plunged into the Asteroid Belt.

Hangar.

Fu Haoran opened the system space, and two reward items landed silently.

The silver-gray shield surface was engraved with the sacred sigils of the Adeptus Mechanicus, its edges gleaming with a cold, hard metallic luster. Even lying there quietly, it exuded an indestructible sense of pressure.

Karen's mechanical eye flickered noticeably: "A Storm Shield?!"

It was no wonder Karen was surprised; this was a relic that only Veteran Champions in an Astartes Chapter were eligible to equip!

Even among Space Marines, it was an extremely rare existence.

Fu Haoran picked up the shield and tested its weight.

Heavy, but steady.

As for the second item, a Heavy Bolter Rifle, Karen wasn't too surprised.

Its rarity was far less than the Storm Shield, but in a mortal army, it was already top-tier heavy firepower, powerful enough to tear through the power armor of an ordinary Space Marine.

Taking up the weapons, Fu Haoran walked toward the hangar.

In the center of the hangar sat a single, solitary Shark Assault Craft.

The fifty-five-meter-long hull was entirely covered in thick armor. The prow featured a massive Melta Charge and Magnetic Clamps. Most of the hull space was occupied by giant engines, troop compartments, and armor, with only two defensive heavy Bolters mounted on the sides.

Calling it a flying coffin might be an exaggeration, but it wasn't much better.

This kind of Imperial Navy standard boarding craft was almost only deployed on battleship-class giants, with dozens or hundreds launching in a swarm during every operation, each carrying fifty fully armed soldiers.

But Fu Haoran didn't have a battleship, nor did he have dozens of assault craft. The solitary one before him was his entire fortune.

In the eyes of people from the 2K era, this was a massive gamble.

But in the warhammer universe, this was the only tactic to win big with small forces.

Of course, compared to those suicide squads who took one-way boarding torpedoes and relied on luck just to reach the enemy ship alive, his situation was already considered good.

Fu Haoran stepped into the assault craft and reached out to pat the bulkhead.

Inside the cabin, fifty boarding party soldiers sat crowded on the benches along both sides.

No one spoke; there was only heavy breathing and the occasional clatter of equipment colliding.

The overhead emergency lights pulsed with a dim red glow. Mechanical gauges on the bulkheads ticked with numbers, and the self-check indicator lights for the Magnetic Clamps blinked rhythmically.

Fu Haoran walked to the front, sat down, and the safety harness locked into place.

Fifty pairs of eyes snapped toward him.

He didn't speak, only nodded.

The hangar doors opened.

The cold starry sky and dense debris rushed toward them.

Father Karen's voice sounded over the comm channel: "My Lord, the decoy drones are ready. They will disperse upon launch to draw point-defense fire. May the omnissiah protect you."

Fu Haoran nodded. In the next second, the Shark Assault Craft's engines went to full power, trailing a pale blue plume as it surged out of the hangar.

Simultaneously, thirty small drones swarmed out of the launch bays on both sides of the craft, fanning out and surrounding the assault craft like a swarm of worker bees protecting a queen, actively flying toward the moon-class cruiser.

This was the only chance to take down the moon-class cruiser.

If they succeeded, the Hive City would be theirs.

If they failed, everyone would become space debris.