75: Chapter 75 My Little Hands Are a Little Dirty

People must learn to compromise with themselves.

At the very least, Fu Haoran was not someone prone to mental exhaustion.

Originally, he had prepared two plans.

Plan A was naturally the traditional approach: assault the bridge and decapitate Valerius. Once the target was dead, the crew, who were only in a cooperative relationship, would surely scatter to wherever it was cool.

If the person paying the wages was gone, who would still fight?

The entire ship would then logically fall into his possession.

Plan B was to blow up the Void Shield generator. A cruiser without a Void Shield was like a big chicken leg, just waiting to be taken.

The core of both plans was to seize this moon-class cruiser.

But the current reality was that both plans were wishful thinking.

The original blueprints and the modified ship structure were worlds apart. If he kept wandering around, let alone seizing the ship, he wouldn't even be able to find anyone.

Fu Haoran adjusted his mindset quickly.

"The system mission only requires killing Valerius; it doesn't specify how."

"As long as he's dead, that's all that matters."

"As for who kills him or how he dies, is that important?"

After compromising, Fu Haoran's train of thought became instantly clear.

He looked at the dazzling array of equipment in the hangar, then glanced at the nuke he had brought back from Marvel in his tactical pouch, and suddenly understood why the Blood Ravens were so fond of "borrowing things."

Borrow one, get one free?

That doesn't exist.

Borrowing and not returning is the fine tradition of the Empire.

As the saying goes, a thief... pfft, I mean, one doesn't leave empty-handed. Since I'm already here, it would be unreasonable not to take something with me.

Getting things for free is truly the best.

"I can't take this ship, but I have to take something else."

"Hawk, take your men and weld all the doors shut, and destroy all the surveillance cameras."

"Yes."

After confirming that no outsiders would ruin things, Fu Haoran began to get down to business.

He first went to a stasis field and opened it to take a look.

Good heavens, there was actually a Baneblade super-heavy tank parked there!

This was the largest ground vehicle available to mortal armies and the oldest super-heavy tank of the Empire.

It had 11 various guns and cannons all over its body, and it was difficult for an entire armored company or infantry company to rival it.

Its firepower was even greater than some Knight Titans (or Knight Mechs), and it was the face of the Astra Militarum.

This thing was a rarity even on Mars; only a few Forge Worlds could produce authentic ones, and each had a unique production serial number and service record.

Fu Haoran fell in love with this big guy at first sight.

Clearly, this was a precious collection of the Rogue Trader; the family crest was even printed on the hull armor.

And this was just an appetizer.

In the parking bay next to it were four Swordfish interceptors, a type of fighter that could fly both in space and in the atmosphere.

Because their flight speed was too fast, ordinary pilots could not fly them, and they were usually used by Space Marines.

And in the exclusive parking bay at the innermost part of the hangar, a pitch-black behemoth was parked.

At first glance, Fu Haoran thought it was a Thunderhawk Gunship.

But when he walked closer, he discovered...

"No, a Thunderhawk Gunship isn't this big!"

Fu Haoran couldn't help but spend 100 General Points to check the information.

[Name: stormbird transport]

[Equipment: 4 turret-mounted twin Laser Cannons, 3 twin heavy bolters, 6 missiles, Void Shield generator]

[Maximum capacity: 50 Space Marines (or 5 Dreadnoughts/Leviathan Dreadnoughts/Rapier weapon batteries/Rhino armored personnel carriers)]

"A stormbird..." Fu Haoran walked over, his eyes lighting up.

This was a transport even more awesome than a Thunderhawk Gunship! It was the standard equipment for Astartes Legions during the Great Crusade.

"It would be a sin not to take this; it's an antique from the 30K world!"

The common sense of Warhammer is that the older the technology, the more awesome it is.

Fu Haoran tried to put the Baneblade tank into the system space, and the system immediately popped up a prompt.

[System Prompt: Non-mission reward item, non-native world bound item, cannot be stored in system space.]

[Consume General Points for cross-world teleportation?]

[PS: The Heavens are not lawless lands; please stop this immoral behavior!]

Fu Haoran's face darkened. This broken system was criticizing him while providing a solution.

Although he was annoyed, no one would turn away treasures.

Since he couldn't put them in the system space, he would just throw them to the 2K Blue Star.

It wasn't like he hadn't done this before.

Thus, the Baneblade tank, the Swordfish interceptors, and the entire set of stasis field generators disappeared from the hangar one by one.

In less than five minutes, the entire hangar had been cleaned out by him. Even the fixing bolts on the floor were pried off, and the Servo-skull responsible for maintenance was caught and packed up as well.

Finally, only the stormbird transport remained.

Fu Haoran pulled open the hatch of the stormbird and climbed in.

As the low-spec version of j.a.r.v.i.s. connected its underlying code to the flight control system, the stormbird was successfully started.

Although the semi-intelligent AI couldn't perform complex tactical operations, it was capable of taking over basic flight and weapon systems to assist Fu Haoran in piloting.

Everything was ready, and everyone boarded the craft.

Fu Haoran casually put the nuke into a narrow elevator.

According to the blueprints given by Lucifer, this elevator led directly to the bridge.

Unfortunately, Fu Haoran had no authorization, and he couldn't hack it in the short term.

Fu Haoran had to place the "gift" on top of the elevator, hoping that those upstairs would feel his enthusiasm in a moment.

...

As the stormbird engines started, a low humming sound instantly filled the hangar.

"Hangar door, open for me!"

Fu Haoran pressed the weapon fire button, and the twin Macro Cannons at the nose of the stormbird roared.

Armor-piercing shells slammed hard into the lock core of the hangar door; amid a huge explosion, the heavy alloy door was blown right off.

The stormbird, trailing a pale blue exhaust flame, charged out of the moon-class cruiser and stuck firmly in the blind spot on the ventral side of the ship's hull.

Inside the bridge of the moon-class cruiser, Valerius was staring at the Cobra-class destroyer on the screen with an annoyed expression.

In his eyes, Fu Haoran and his 50 grunts were insignificant.

Even if they were lucky enough to survive a little longer in the corridors, they still wouldn't be able to escape.

But just then, the adjutant rushed over, his face pale, his voice trembling: "My Lord! The hangar! Something happened in the hangar!"

Valerius frowned: "What are you panicking about? Isn't it just a few boarding scum who broke in?"

"My Lord, the crew reported that the hangar... the hangar has been emptied!"

"The Baneblade tank, the Swordfish interceptors, and that stormbird! They're all gone! Even the stasis field generators were pried away!"

Valerius froze in place.

The owner of that stormbird was a great noble of Holy Terra, a true elite among elites.

As for buying this collection, the Rogue Trader was only responsible for transporting it.

If it weren't for the short lease period this time and the difficulty of moving it, it would never have been parked here.

Now it was stolen?!

His eyes instantly turned red; he grabbed the adjutant by the collar and roared: "Where is the stormbird?! Where?! Bring it back to me!"

Losing something belonging to a great noble of Terra had consequences a hundred times more serious than losing this space battle.

"My Lord! It is stuck to the ventral side of the hull, in a blind spot! The point-defense cannons can't lock onto it at all!"

Valerius pushed the adjutant away and was about to give an order when a shrill alarm sounded, followed by a violent explosion from below.

Before Valerius could figure out the situation, the shockwave of the explosion traveled up the corridor and slammed hard into the bottom armor of the bridge.

The entire bridge was turned upside down; the control screens shattered instantly, and the console burst into flames.

Valerius was violently thrown by the shockwave and slammed into the armor wall behind him, spitting blood. His entire right leg was pierced by broken metal, and he completely lost the ability to move.

The adjutant slammed into the console, his neck twisted at an eerie angle.

The operator's chair was blown away, and he was stuck in the rubble, blood foaming from his mouth.

The entire bridge was in shambles.

"Alarm! Ship-wide power failure! Void Shield disabled!"

"Alarm! Hull structure damaged by 37%! Massive depressurization in airtight compartments!"

"Void Shield generator offline! Main engines shut down!"

Amid the shrill alarms, Valerius struggled to lift his head, watching the stormbird slowly rising outside the porthole, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins and resentment.

In the cockpit of the stormbird, Fu Haoran watched the fire of the explosion, not feeling happy.

The [Boarding Decapitation] mission was still lit, which meant Valerius was not dead yet.

"I hate rework and after-sales service the most!"

Fu Haoran pulled the joystick, the stormbird pulled up rapidly, and all weapons locked onto the bridge.

Valerius looked at the Macro Cannon muzzles aimed at him and roared like a madman: "You lowly Underhive rat! You will never win..."

Fu Haoran couldn't hear him at all, and after confirming that Valerius was inside, he pulled the trigger directly.

The thick bulletproof glass shattered instantly, and the bolter shells exploded inside the bridge.

The fire swallowed Valerius's final roar.

[System Prompt: Boarding decapitation completed!]

[Mission rewards issued: moon-class cruiser technical blueprints x1, free attribute points +3, complete control of the Hive City world!]

[PS: Your boarding was neither authentic nor standard.]

Fu Haoran breathed a sigh of relief; the ground battle was not over yet, and he had to go back to finish things up.