Travelling out of Warp had many advantages, but the most important right now was the ability to stop at every interesting place on our way, for example rich asteroid fields or Ork infested systems, where I could loot everything of value.
And since our course towards Agripinaa took us right by Forge World Voss, it was a great opportunity for more trade, the Lancefire variant. STC templates and blackstone, plus Ork ships filled with precious minerals and xeno weapons.
I even t another Rogue Trader nad 's capital ships. A veil of purple shields covered those ships in impenetrable dinsional fields, as were the Gloriannas and a dozen Chaos barges and battleships.
Very clever on their part, sohow figuring out a way to protect themselves from my cheating weapon.
Then again, Dark chanicus had no compulsion from inventing new devices, and nobody to investigate them for heresy.
We would have to slug it out with the bigger ships, not that it worried in the least.
The Black Lant unleashed the initial Nova Cannons salvo among the thousand of escort ships, and I displaced a dozen more Nova mines at key locations, exterminating nearly all Hell Talon starfighters and billions of flying demons.
"Contact above, Captain. Eldar fleet!" my daughter Pauline exclaid in surprise.
I saw them a second before, as the Necron tesseract did not need to receive gravitric sensor readings.
"Ignore them for now. All fighters and corvettes disperse in Beta pattern. Cruisers flank left and protect the planet. Battlecruisers and barges form on the right, battleships advance beside the Fortress." I ordered out loud, while sending the exact vectors to my fleet.
They were flying nearly blind now, so every course correction and decelerating maneuver would have to depend on my second sight for accuracy.
Unlike Tyranids, the Chaos traitors would have advanced Machine Spirits and auspex sensors as well, even inhabited by demons.
As expected, the capital Chaos ships kept on course, heading relentlessly towards the Forge World and firing their capital grade weaponry towards the planet. And since a planet could not change trajectory and speed on its fixed orbit, it might as well be a stationary target.
Macrocannon shells, plasma bolts and lances and torpedoes streaked across the void to impact the planet's surface, causing a thousand new craters on the already pockmarked world. Forge Agripinaa was close to the Eye of Terror, and had been attacked many tis in the past, and thus it was also known as the Orb of a Thousand Scars. Two thousands scars now, but who's counting?
Assault shuttles and heavy landers followed, filled to the brim with cultists, traitor marines and distorted tanks and corrupted Titans. A textbook planetary invasion, which might have worked except for a tiny out of context problem. .
The cruisers fired their own Nova Cannons at the invading army, and I added my own store of Nova mines and the expensive invasion force was destroyed before it could enter the polluted atmosphere.
It was likely this wasn't all their forces, but they would have that many shuttles and landers remaining now.
A planetary invasion depended on three factors for success. Orbital superiority or at least contested space in orbit. Secondly, space and air cover for the landing troops usually achieved by heavy fighter escort and orbital bombardnt of air defenses.
And thirdly, a constant stream of landers and shuttles to provide troops and logistic supplies on the ground.
Tyranids and Chaos had a distinct advantage with winged space fliers, but landers were a different issue. I must have killed three thousand Chaos marines just from this minute long engagent, and I had enough Nova Shells to fight a Tyranid Fleet.
"Carrier Icarus is being hit by so kind...and it's gone." my XO muttered in disbelief.
I narrowed my eyes in near anger. Sure, a converted mass-conveyor wasn't a real warship, and void shields were little defense against gravity lances, but that strike was too sudden. I only managed to grab the bridge crew before the entire carrier crumpled like a paper bag.
"Let's return the favor then." I muttered in a cold voice and inserted my right hand into the Blackstone Fortress's command holofield.
The Machine Spirit parsed my demand at the speed of thought, and opened the controls of the Immaterium beam.
'Target that Ark chanicus!' I urged the Spirit, and willed it to fire.
Whatever defense the Dark chanicus had on their battleship could not withstand the Blackstone Fortress for more than a few seconds, and then the death beam just sliced through, killing everything on board, from heretek techpriests to infested logis-engines and demonic cogitators.
I felt my own stomach try to explode out through my throat, and fought that impulse for a long minute.
anwhile, the battle continued without my supervision, corvettes firing torpedoes and capital ships pounding at each other with all their batteries.
Hordes of demons were being mowed and splattered by our point-defense turrets, while the Aquila interceptors and Fury starfighters engaged bombers and enemy torpedoes.
"What's wrong, Lord Pef?" I heard Amberley ask in a concerned voice to my side.
"The backlash of that weapon is very strong. I guess we won't be using that again." I grumbled as I tried to clear my head.
"... At least that heretek ship is dead in space now." the blonde Inquisitor whispered to herself, just as my Black Lant fired the Nova Cannons again.
I fired everything at the two Gloriannas, blowing out the prow of the first and the superstructure of the second. Tough old bastards, both of them.
"Torpedo impact in two seconds! One...and the Conqueror is gone too." Pauline exclaid from the augury station, sounding proud.
I sighed inward and leaned back in my chair. A hundred more capital ships to kill, plus a trillion demons. A long day ahead, and my headache was getting worse.
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