Imperium of Man vs. Rak'Gol

The Rak'gol fleet charged straight for the Imperium of Man's defensive lines. First to intercept them was a fleet led by Mortarion's flagship, the Indomitus. The Death Guard's heavy armor and green-glowing firepower, with the venom loaded into their Macro Cannons, tore through enemy armor after breaching it, wreaking havoc among the Rak'gol Xenos warships.

The Raven Guard's fleet, in perfect coordination with the Death Guard warships, sent all enemy vessels to hell. Korax and Mortarion's talents for warfare were pushed to their absolute limits. Under their command, every volley from their warships inflicted heavy casualties on the Rak'gol Xenos.

Every roar of nearly a hundred Nova Cannons brought significant results. Even powerful Rak'gol Battleship-class capital ships, after being hit repeatedly by thousands of tons of projectiles accelerated to near light speed, could only be shattered into pieces.

Ordinary Cruisers were like lone boats in a raging sea, liable to be torn apart by their opponents at any moment. Frigates, in this chaotic battlefield, were reduced to mere escorts, their slender hulls and weak firepower forcing them to hide behind capital ships and launch long-range Torpedoes for support.

The fleets of the Raven Guard and Death Guard, relying on the terrifying firepower of the Galatan Star Fortress, cleared Rak'gol Xenos warships piece by piece. As the largest war machines the Imperium of Man could currently build besides War Moons, the armaments on the Galatan Star Fortress could instantly vaporize an entire capital fleet.

The only drawback of this type of star fortress was that, due to the Imperium of Man's fragmented technological tree, there were no engines capable of matching its size to propel it. It could only move at a snail's pace in realspace.

However, in defensive battles, as a pure firepower platform, the terror of the Galatan Star Fortress was fully displayed. Nova Cannons, mixed with dense beams and Macro Cannons, rained down upon the Rak'gol fleet like a torrential downpour.

But the Rak'gol Xenos were not to be trifled with. Their weapon platforms, on par with the star fortress, also unleashed deadly blasphemous beams and various artillery shells upon the Imperium of Man. Furthermore, the Rak'gol Xenos' Lances were even more powerful than the Imperium's. In realspace, warships from both sides fell constantly.

Relying on the defenses painstakingly built by the Imperium of Man, Korax and Mortarion were slowly gaining the upper hand. The star fortresses within the defensive line also began to slowly move their massive bodies forward, pushing the front line. As long as they were given enough time to deploy the star fortresses on the defensive line, they could encircle the Rak'gol fleet.

"Push the star fortresses forward, Mortarion, pull the Death Guard fleet back, and have the Raven Guard take over!" Korax commanded, looking at the constantly jumping data on the statistics. If they continued like this, even if they won, the Death Guard would suffer heavy losses. Since the start of the battle, they had already destroyed nearly a third of the enemy fleet, but the Death Guard's losses were also severe. If not for the star fortresses holding the line, the Death Guard would have already lost more than half their strength.

Mortarion did not refuse Korax's order. The most taboo thing on the battlefield was conflicting orders from two commanders. The advance of the star fortresses absorbed a large amount of firepower from the Rak'gol Xenos, and the Raven Guard fleet took the opportunity to fill the gaps between the star fortresses. The front line also advanced a significant distance.

The Shadow, like a mountain range of steel, unleashed countless shells towards its target. A single volley melted a Battleship of the same class. On such a vast battlefield, even Gloriana-class Battleships could only chew through the enemy's flesh one by one.

Just then, a terrifying psychic energy fluctuation erupted from within the Rak'gol formation. The powerful psychic energy swept through, twisting an entire fleet at the forefront into a pile of scrap metal. Six capital ships were directly destroyed by the Rak'gol's psychic attack.

"Target that entity, deploy Black Hole shells!" The sudden disappearance of the ship's signal allowed Korax to keenly sense the immense threat posed by that Rak'gol unit. Korax immediately decided to use a forbidden weapon. If this unit were to act again, even the wealthy Raven Guard couldn't withstand such losses.

"Father, the psychic fluctuation is coming from enemy Star Fortress 05!" The Tech-Sergeant immediately located the enemy. Such a powerful psychic fluctuation could not be concealed.

"Concentrate all Nova Cannons for a single volley, prepare two Black Hole shells from the Ark Mechanicus, the most powerful type!" Korax decided to use two Black Hole bombs for insurance.

Black Hole weapons were merely ordinary weapons during the Imperium of Man's technological peak. However, after the Iron Rebellion, these weapons had entered the realm of forbidden weapons for the Imperium of Man.

A single volley from over a hundred Nova Cannons pierced through the Rak'gol War Moon's psychic shield. No matter how powerful the enemy's shield was, under the concentrated fire of over a hundred Nova Cannons, it was like a grand bubble, instantly popped.

Two Black Hole shells, weighing thousands of tons each, followed closely and struck the star fortress, which was no longer covered by its psychic shield. Two miniature black holes, only a hundred meters in diameter, instantly appeared at the north and south poles of the star fortress, their immense gravitational pull tearing the fortress apart.

"What in the Warp is that!" Korax cursed under his breath. Only then did the Raven Guard see that this massive star fortress was composed of countless flesh and steel. It could even be said to be a giant ball of flesh attached to steel, covered in various High Towers made of flesh, emitting waves of chaotic psychic energy.

"Completely destroy this damned thing!" Korax immediately mobilized other warships to finish off the Rak'gol star fortress. For psychic entities, Korax would not rest until they were completely destroyed. As a Primarch who had mastered psychic powers, he knew too well how insidious psychic entities could be.

As expected, although the Rak'gol psychic star fortress was heavily wounded by the Black Hole bombs after its shields were breached, in the next instant, a powerful psychic flash occurred, forcefully erasing the two small black holes created by the Black Hole bombs. The entire process took less than two seconds.

But that time was enough. The Shadow and several other Battleships had already turned their broadsides, and the two super-giant Lance systems on their spines had also completed their rotation.

Over ten dazzling beams first slammed into the Rak'gol psychic star fortress. Following that, over a hundred Macro Cannons loaded with high-temperature incendiary shells, plasma shells, or high-temperature armor-piercing shells densely struck every part of the fortress's body, thoroughly reducing the star fortress that had cost the Raven Guard dearly into a ruin of mixed flesh and steel.

"Fleet, withdraw!" Korax commanded the warships participating in the attack on the Rak'gol star fortress to retreat. Other warships immediately moved forward to fill the vacated positions.

In just this short period, the Void Shields of the entire fleet were reduced to less than 30% of their strength. If they endured one or two more volleys, the Void Shield system would be overloaded. On such a dangerous battlefield, the moment the shields broke meant imminent death.

"Fire all your standard Torpedoes! Prepare for boarding counter-assault!" Korax ordered. After such a prolonged battle, the two sides were about to engage in close-quarters combat, and boarding actions were inevitable.

Following Korax's orders, the Raven Guard fleet launched another dense wave of missiles, smashing down upon the approaching Rak'gol fleet.

The next moment, the Rak'gol Xenos' boarding assault arrived!

"Detected signals of a large number of Boarding Torpedoes." The Machine Spirit faithfully reported the detected information. The warships' external observation devices also switched the view to the screen. They saw numerous Rak'gol small boarding craft, covered in tentacles and shaped like shuttles, making their final charge.

These Boarding Torpedoes, only about 800 meters long, bypassed the warships' close-defense systems at extremely high speeds. An incredibly hot energy beam erupted from their bow, and the immense heat directly melted the heavy Ceramite armor plates of the Imperium of Man warships, burrowing deep inside.

"Deck 6, Deck 9, Deck 10 have lost contact..." A series of reports about lost contact with decks came from the broadcast of the Expeditionary Strike Cruiser, which had just moved to the forefront. It was clear that these locations had been occupied by the Rak'gol Xenos boarding parties.

"Boarding parties, proceed to these areas immediately and execute counter-boarding missions!" Sharojin, assigned to this warship, immediately ordered. After handing over command of the warship to his comrades, Sharojin also rushed to the nearest Deck 10 to clear out the invading Rak'gol Xenos.

"Jumping there is a mistake, you should have jumped onto the Expeditionary." Sharojin felt pity for these Rak'gol Xenos, because the Expeditionary was a Strike Cruiser.

Unlike the terrifying firepower of Battleships and Heavy Cruisers, Strike Cruisers did not possess as much firepower, but their shields were far more powerful than the other two. Strike Cruisers could even directly airdrop Astartes drop pods under planetary defense systems. These were not the reasons Sharojin pitied them.

The real reason was that Strike Cruisers carried a far greater number of Astartes than other warships. They could even accommodate three full companies of fully armed Astartes in a single deployment, including Dreadnoughts, Terminators, Stormbirds, and various other units. Waiting for the Rak'gol boarding parties on the Expeditionary were 300 fully equipped Astartes.

The Boarding Torpedo bay doors automatically opened, and a large number of slave soldiers were driven by the Rak'gol elite soldiers into the interior of the Expeditionary. Beams and solid projectiles flew everywhere. In an instant, the armed sailors and logistics personnel on the deck were slaughtered.