On the port side Macro cannon Platform No. 4.
[It's time to go back to the command platform and rest. Damn it, this battle is truly exhausting, both physically and mentally.]
Horatio pinched the bridge of his nose, and wearily asked the Armed Officer beside him, "Do you have a water bottle? Just water."
"Yes, sir! Are you sure you only want water?" The Armed Officer subtly reminded him.
"Yes, I only need water."
The Armed Officer handed him a water bottle filled with purified water, and at the same time, did not forget to subtly say, "Um… Sir, it's fine if you want to drink some alcohol."
The Sailors nearby watched this officer who only drank water, and began to whisper.
It wasn't that Horatio didn't drink alcohol, but he strictly adhered to the philosophy of 'drinking spoils things', and didn't want to affect the upcoming battle.
He ignored what the Armed Officer said, directly unscrewed the water bottle, and took a big gulp.
Pfft!
The water had barely entered his mouth when he instantly spat it out.
"Cough cough! Cough cough!"
The Sailors laughed aloud, but almost immediately suppressed their voices and turned around to secretly enjoy themselves.
"Sir! Are you alright?" The Armed Officer glared fiercely at the Sailor who had laughed aloud, and stepped forward to ask with concern.
[Damn! Why does this water have such a choking chlorine smell! Is this something a person can drink?????]
Horatio looked at the silver water bottle in his hand with hesitation, thinking the officer had given him the wrong thing.
It wasn't until he poured the water out that he realized it was indeed purified water.
"Alright, do you have any light beer?" Horatio sighed, took out the handkerchief Farida had given him from his pocket, awkwardly maintaining his composure, wiping the drops of water that slid down his handsome jawline, and asked.
"Yes, sir. But according to your officer status, you should drink wine."
"Whatever, as long as it's not hard liquor."
Horatio personally understood why the Sailors didn't drink purified water directly; it was indeed because the purification process of this stuff made the water incredibly difficult to drink.
The attendant who had followed Horatio all the way took out a beautifully packaged bottle of wine from his storage bag, poured a full glass of clear, purple wine into a silver goblet, and respectfully handed it to Horatio.
He took a sip of the sweet and delicious officer-exclusive wine, which had a long aftertaste and a good mouthfeel, significantly reducing the strange chlorine taste in his mouth.
This was a slightly sweet, semi-dry wine, very suitable as a table wine.
Because the oak barrels were directly moved to the wine cellar for storage, the wine he drank was freshly drawn directly from the oak barrels, and then professional bartenders would decant the wine and bottle it in exquisitely crafted bottles for the officers to enjoy.
[Alright, it seems the Imperial Navy, like the historical Royal Navy, drinks wine like water.]
Horatio didn't drink much directly; he was worried about getting drunk, so he diluted it with some water to reduce alcohol intake, even if it would diminish the flavor.
"I hope my alcohol tolerance is good and I won't get drunk and mess things up." Horatio, unsure of his body's alcohol tolerance, rubbed his throbbing temples and muttered helplessly.
Immediately after, Horatio arranged for the Warrant Officer to clean the cabins and collect the remains of the dead.
The Imperial Navy's fallen Soldiers were wrapped in cut waterproof canvas and sewn with coarse needles, forming mummy-like corpses, awaiting a collective funeral ceremony after the battle.
As for the enemy's corpses, they were directly thrown into the Macro cannon launch bay, and with the acceleration field of the next shell, they were fired at the enemy, exploding into bloody flowers of bloodletter on their blasphemous hulls.
Horatio leaned against the railing, wiping the bloodstains from his face and hair with a clean, damp cloth.
He was covered in sweat, splattered with blood everywhere, and his hair was matted with solidified enemy blood.
He didn't want to return to the command platform and stand before Farida looking so disheveled.
It was also time for the Guards Soldiers to rest, reload ammunition, replenish explosives, and eat something.
During a rare lull, he observed the crossfire in the void through the observation window.
Even at such a great distance, the Blood Angels' battle barge, with its twelve-kilometer-long gigantic hull, was still awe-inspiring.
The roar of the three massive bombardment cannons on the ship's spine could make the Unyielding's deck tremble from far away.
Horatio liked the grand cannon fire of his own side, filled with the might of the machine god, as if he were enjoying a magnificent symphony.
Every formidable shell could tear off a large piece of armor from the enemy ship, bringing the death angel's punishment down on hundreds of thousands of people.
In the void, the Blood Angels' Avenging Blade battle barge was rushing towards the Murder-class Cruiser at full speed.
Three squadrons of Thunderhawk Gunships from the hangar, laden with plasma bombs, spewed brilliant golden-yellow flames from their tails as they charged towards the enemy ship.
"Prepare for boarding action on the starboard side! We must kill all the Blood Pact on this ship." Captain Afiel issued his final order to the captain before departure.
Then he, holding a massive bloodletter power sword, led the Sword Veteran Soldiers towards the starboard boarding platform, with some Servo-skulls following his steps, floating forward.
Made from the skulls of deceased loyal battle group servants, they would diligently serve their lord's victory, just as they had done in life.
Beep! — Beep! —
Crimson warning lights, accompanied by urgent combat readiness sounds, echoed through every corner of the massive ship.
"We are his (Sanguinius') sons."
Under the inspiring scripture of the battle group chaplain, the fully armed Blood Angels took the weapons handed to them by the little angels.
"Forging a grim mission."
Half of the Second Company's Blood Angels entered the Space Marine boarding pods, grouped in fives. The Tech-Priest blessed their weapons and equipment, and the Techmarine performed the final checks.
"Wielding raging fire."
The Blood Angels hated these traitors who dared to cause trouble on St. Giles Festival. Even before the boarding battle began, the monks felt the rage brought by the bloodletter thirst.
"With infinite fury in our hearts, we are His angels."
All boarding pods were pushed into the launch shaft by massive mechanical structures.
"Our retribution is only death!"
The Blood Angels were clearly intent on slaughtering everyone on board the enemy ship.
The crimson void giant whale unleashed the maximum power of its plasma engines.
Under the Unyielding's excellent maneuvering, the Murder-class Cruiser was forced towards the Avenging Blade battle barge by the massive power ram.
And the captain of the Avenging Blade was also a veteran who had served the Blood Angels battle group for two or three hundred years. He seized the opportunity, ordering the torpedo bay to launch six boarding torpedoes as precursors.
He then commanded the Helmsman to turn hard to port, aligning the starboard side with the Murder-class Cruiser.
"Boarding action countdown… 30, 29, 27, 26…"
This behemoth began to turn. Its operation was not as slow as Horatio had imagined, which astonished him.
"What a fine ship," Horatio couldn't help but exclaim.
"3, 2, 1, launch!!!"
Bang bang bang bang…
"Woah." Farida, in the command platform, and Horatio, on the gun deck, both couldn't help but exclaim in unison.
The young man and woman watched as hundreds of boarding pods, accompanied by decoy drones, spewed from the crimson giant ship's starboard side in an instant, smashing towards the Murder-class Cruiser.
Most of them were decoys to cover the real boarding pods, crashing into the enemy ship's hull to create confusion.
The built-in machine soul, activated with the crimson slaughter protocol by the Tech-Priest inside the pods, would control the bolt guns suspended at the top, unleashing a barrage of fire upon the waiting traitors.
Neither of them had ever witnessed such a spectacular scene. The crimson boarding pods, bearing the Blood Angels' insignia and inscriptions, were like a meteor shower streaking across the sky, trailing fire, slamming directly into the Blood God's servants' warship.
Horatio could imagine how desperate the enemies must be; he had already spent so much effort clearing these Blood Pact.
So many elite Blood Angels of the Second Company charging in…
What was even worse was that the Murder-class, after such a long engagement with the Unyielding, had its boarding side already riddled with holes, and its point-defense firepower could only maintain 30% of its design capacity.
Six boarding torpedoes first lined up neatly and plunged in at extremely high speed, none of them intercepted.
Then, the scattered sparks and dense barrages exploding in the void were reflected in Horatio's azure eyes.
The automated escort drones blocking the boarding pods flew forward, actively intercepting incoming point-defense shells.
Everything happened so fast.
Only dozens of false decoys were intercepted and destroyed; the vast majority of the landing pods slammed violently into the heretical hull of the Murder-class Cruiser.
A vengeful slaughter, filled with rage and hatred, was about to unfold within the enemy's filthy, defiled mothership.