Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 185: An Imperfect Victory

After a brief engine stall, the Starfire quickly sprang back into action.

Having intercepted a blow for the Endless Night, she had no intention of withdrawing from the fight just like that. Instead, she charged straight toward the Grounded.

The nearby Greenskin warships opened fire one after another, launching torpedoes and rockets at the Starfire's flight path.

But she kept moving forward.

Warheads smashed into her decks, burning through armor with clustered blobs of plasma, hurling molten metal out into the void.

But she kept moving forward.

In the intact compartments, Chapter serfs and servitors loaded new torpedoes into the launch tubes.

The first wave of counterattacks began from here. The torpedoes swiftly crossed the distance to their targets, detonating against the bows and spines of the Greenskin warships, leaving them reeling and disoriented.

At the same time, more Greenskin warships joined the interception.

Explosions shook the Starfire's already damaged outer hull.But she kept moving forward.

The small Greenskin warships began to turn, trying to escape the path of this burning battleship, but the Starfire opened fire once again.

Shields dissolved under the torrent of macrocannon shells, and in the blink of an eye, their hulls melted away, and their reactors detonated.

The Starfire burned fiercely. It was still fighting a desperate battle, swearing to keep the Grounded from escaping.

A long, blackened rift had replaced the Starfire's starboard side. Two of the main thrusters melted into slag, igniting a massive fire that swept across the entire engine deck, killing countless slaves and servitors within the engine rooms.

Yet its cannon fire had already begun pounding the Grounded's shields, trapping the behemoth on the battlefield for the time being.

"We're late!"

Finally, the Lamenters Chapter's ancient battle barge, the Mother of Tears, alongside a group of warships, tore the largest breach yet through the Greenskin blockade.

The stubborn Greenskins attempted to turn back and fight, but the result was a further fracturing of their formation, creating an opening for the Endless Night and the Fire of Punishment to exploit.

"Full-scale assault! We must sink the enemy flagship!"

Lord Magyar also abandoned his own hunting plans, leading his fleet into a relentless, headlong charge, paying no heed to casualties.

The weaknesses in the Greenskin character were quickly magnified under these circumstances.

Within mere minutes, a synchronized fleet that functioned as a singular target ceased to exist.

A portion wanted to keep fighting, another portion had no desire to die here, and yet another portion wavered in indecision. The entire fleet fractured and scattered in all directions, tossing so-called orders and commands completely aside.

Any hope of mounting a unified breakout was utterly shattered. Fleeing separately like a swarm of insects left the Greenskins disunited and enfeebled. Warships broke off from the attack line one by one, tumbling through turning maneuvers.

Their Warp engines had been activated, completely ignoring the minimum safe distances required to avoid interfering with each other's vortexes, leaving each ship isolated within its own sector.

Perhaps their numbers were still considerable for now, but they were as powerless as lambs waiting for the slaughter.

The Starfire sailed on with great difficulty, its shipboard weapons roaring incessantly, advancing parallel to the severely damaged Grounded and keeping it pinned down.

Even though the Starfire was already a powerful, monolithic warship, it was still incomparable to a Space Hulk built upon the foundations of a battleship.

The staggering Grounded aimed all of its weapons at Soshyan's flagship, ravaging the latter with barrage after barrage of fire, while facing only minimal return fire.

The Starfire continuously launched torpedoes, while a massive swarm of bombers poured out from the rear.

Soshyan's goal was not to destroy the Grounded, but to remain engaged with the opponent to drag them down.

He had to prevent the Grounded from escaping and wait for the other capital ships to arrive.

From the outside, the Starfire was burning furiously.

Her shields had failed, and her hull was densely covered with the flashes of explosions.

As the Greenskin fleet scattered and fled, the Mother of Tears spearheaded the advance, taking the lead. Simultaneously, the Imperial Navy's flagship—the battleship Fire of Punishment—also served as the fleet's vanguard, heading straight for the Grounded, ready to unleash its firepower on the heavily damaged Greenskin flagship at any moment.

Nazdreg finally realized that things were looking grim.

Before he could destroy the Starfire, there was a high probability that he would first be subjected to the focused fire of the Imperial warships and destroyed. Therefore, he immediately made a decision.

"What?"

On a bridge filled with thick smoke and sparks, with crew members running everywhere, Soshyan stared in astonishment at the scene on the shattered display screen.

The Grounded was beginning to 'disintegrate'.

Like an octopus encountering a natural predator, it began to cast off unnecessary appendages.

Massive superstructures, even entire compartments, began detaching from the Grounded. Its originally bloated form quickly slimmed down, while the discarded armor, compartments, and even weapons formed a ring of steel around it, obstructing the Starfire's firing paths.

"It's trying to run!"

Soshyan immediately grabbed the internal vox.

"Loken! What is the status of the engine repairs?"

"Chapter Master... cough, cough! It's no good! Both power reactors have sustained varying degrees of damage. One is at risk of exploding and must be shut down! We currently only have one available!"

"What about the electrical systems?"

"Restored to only thirty-six percent!"

"Damn it!"

Soshyan smashed the vox with a punch.

The Starfire had reached her limits. Although the Grounded had shed a layer of armor right in front of her, she lacked the capability to deal it a heavy blow.

Freed from a great deal of dead weight, the Grounded's speed increased sharply. It began to disengage from the Starfire, charging straight toward the safe path the Greenskin fleet had already opened, trailed only by frigates laying down harassing fire.

And the late-arriving Mother of Tears pushed itself desperately to catch up.

But ultimately, it disappeared into the ripples of the Warp.

This tragic naval battle finally came to a close.

When the roar of the guns faded to silence and the falling embers vanished into the darkness, the fleets of the three Chapters, as well as the Navy's fleet, regrouped. They restored formation, facing each other across a space strewn with wreckage.

"Let everyone speak their minds."

Malakim was practically slumped on his throne.

"How do we clean up this mess now?"

Aside from the Sanguinary Priest letting out a few faint, dry laughs, there were no expressions on anyone else's face.

Their Chapter truly was ill-fated.

"This is a humiliating disgrace."

The Fourth Company Commander, the Master of the Fleet, spoke first.

"Once again, we have caused our allies to doubt us. We... have brought shame upon the battle standard once more."

"Why would you say that?"

The sergeant of the Terminator squad disagreed.

"We brought them the victory they wanted, what more do they expect? Accidents are inevitable in war; not every war can be so perfect."

"But the Greenskin warlord managing to slip away is indeed a missed opportunity on our part."

"This genuinely deviated from the plan."

Malakim listened carefully to their statements, nodding thoughtfully from time to time.

Then, he took a deep breath and shrugged his exhausted shoulders.

"Say no more. I will personally go to the Starfire to apologize for my failure."