V3 Chapter 44: The Necrons' Cross-System Extreme Long-Range Strike
Duvette stood on the command bridge of the Macragge's Honour once more, this time as the overall ground commander of the crusade expeditionary force.
The bridge was properly the domain of Guilliman, Admiral Villent, and the naval officers. Fleet engagement was not Duvette's area of expertise, but whether the landing operations could proceed at all depended on whether this fleet could open the way.
The entire crusade fleet was on the verge of breaking from the Warp and entering the outer reaches of the target system.
On the bridge, officers and Tech-Priests issued commands in steady sequence. Augur arrays, Navigator panels, and Gellar Field readings updated continuously. Mechanicus attendants moved between stations, and a vast hololithic star chart hung at the centre of the bridge.
"Prepare to exit the Warp."
Admiral Villent's voice carried across the bridge.
In the next moment, the Macragge's Honour punched through the boundary between reality and unreality with a sharp lurch.
Duvette felt the deck drop underfoot, and then all instrument readings began recalibrating. Through the massive viewport at the front of the bridge, the churning colours of the Warp withdrew and the starlight of realspace returned.
They had arrived.
Guilliman stood at the centre of the bridge, his attention on the hololithic star chart.
"Deploy reconnaissance vessels."
"Assess the orbital condition of Vulcantia, Cereris, and their surrounding space."
"Main fleet holds at slow advance. Maintain extended formation. No vessel is to approach inner orbital space without authorisation."
The orders were relayed immediately.
Several reconnaissance vessels broke from the main formation and accelerated toward the inner system.
Guilliman did not push the fleet to full speed. Without confirmation of whether the enemy held void assets, and without confirmation of whether the crusade fleet had been detected, holding at distance and waiting for the reconnaissance vessels to report was the soundest option.
Duvette studied the hololithic star chart.
This was a substantial fleet.
The Macragge's Honour led at the core, with five primary capital ships forming the centre mass. Eight battlecruisers were arrayed on either flank, and close to a hundred cruisers, light cruisers, and escort warships formed the outer perimeter screen.
Beyond those, the fleet included strike cruisers and battle barges from multiple Chapters, large Mechanicus vessels, and a considerably larger number of troop transports, landing craft, supply ships, resource recovery vessels, and repair ships.
On the tactical hololithic display, the identification markers for those support vessels nearly filled the space between the main warship formations.
In a direct engagement, it was virtually impossible for a conventional enemy to break this fleet.
Guilliman had still not pushed forward.
Duvette looked at the Primarch's back and found this unsurprising. Guilliman's approach was never to lead with his advantages and simply bet that the enemy would collapse under the weight.
At that moment, a Tech-Priest at one of the bridge stations raised her head sharply.
"Detecting anomalous energy surge from the inner system."
Another augur officer followed immediately. "Multiple targeting returns, origin unconfirmed, bearing toward the fleet's outer formation."
Guilliman's gaze snapped up.
"Void shields to combat status."
"All ships, change heading immediately."
The orders went out almost simultaneously.
But before they had reached the full extent of the crusade fleet, the first salvo arrived.
Across the hololithic display, a dense spread of energy tracks extending from deep inside the system suddenly blazed to life. Those tracks moved at speeds that were nearly impossible to assess using standard void combat doctrine. They crossed vast distances and fell on the Imperial fleet's outer elements.
A moment later, the identification markers for a dozen-odd small support vessels vanished from the star chart.
Lightning-fast green energy arcs split across the fleet's outer shell, tracking between targets, tearing open transport hulls, burning through the flanks of escort craft, and spreading across several small vessels that had not yet completed their evasive manoeuvres.
What made it genuinely dangerous was the gauss flux arc beams mixed into the barrage.
These did not behave like ordinary lances, detonating against void shield perimeters.
Several gauss flux beams drove directly through the localised void shield boundary of a Mars-class battlecruiser, as though the void shield had failed to correctly identify the attack in that moment. In the next instant, the battlecruiser's mid-section was cut open, its power spine damaged, and several decks simultaneously lost atmospheric containment.
"The Ironsworn is struck!"
"Ironsworn reports localised void failure, port primary battery deck non-responsive!"
"Ironsworn power readings dropping, structural damage is severe!"
A rapid sequence of emergency reports broke across the bridge.
Guilliman's expression hardened.
This was only the enemy's first salvo.
Duvette stared at the hololithic display and let a thought run through his head that he did not say aloud.
That density of gauss flux arcs and lightning arcs?
That could not be right.
There could not possibly be a Cairn-class tomb ship out here.
A doomsday-tier vessel appearing in a system this far out on the fringe made no sense.
He kept that to himself.
The void engagement was not his to command. All he could do was watch Guilliman work. But regardless of everything else, Duvette had become considerably more resolved about one thing.
He needed a genuinely powerful naval fleet under his command.
Standing on the sidelines in an engagement like this was an unpleasant sensation.
Guilliman did not waste any time.
"Status of the damaged vessel."
"Direction of attack."
"Can we achieve a firing solution on the enemy?"
"Do our weapons have the range to return fire?"
"Position of the reconnaissance vessels."
"Confirm whether a targeting source exists."
His commands fell in sequence.
Naval officers, Tech-Priests, and augur operators began responding almost simultaneously.
"Ironsworn can maintain minimum speed. She has withdrawn from the line."
"Enemy fire originated from the inner system, direction consistent with Vulcantia's orbital zone."
"All reconnaissance vessels have lost contact."
"We captured a brief energy spike at the moment of enemy fire, consistent with three to four large vessel-scale signatures."
"Target hull shielding is suppressing internal energy signatures. Standard observation cannot maintain continuous tracking."
"Projected targeting intercept is possible based on attack trajectory, but range is too great to guarantee accuracy."
One of the naval gunnery officers raised her head.
"Our nova cannons can engage with area fire."
"But we cannot confirm whether the enemy vessels have remained in their firing positions."
Guilliman looked at the attack tracks on the star chart.
Those tracks extended from deep inside the system like lances thrown from range, penetrating the crusade fleet's outer formation. The enemy had not entered the engagement distances Imperial fleet doctrine was built around, and had already inflicted damage on a capital ship.
Guilliman reached his assessment quickly.
"All support vessels disperse."
"Transports, landing craft, and supply vessels withdraw into the main warship protective envelope."
"Five capital ships advance to the front of the formation and maintain overlapping void shield coverage."
"Battlecruisers and cruiser groups spread their formation. Do not allow the fleet to continue in close order."
The orders were relayed.
The hololithic display began changing.
The crusade fleet, which had been advancing slowly as a mass, rapidly opened its spacing. Small support vessels moved out through the gaps between the main warships. The transport groups contracted rearward. The five primary capital ships began adjusting heading, pressing toward the inner system.
"All capital ships equipped with nova cannons, stand by," Guilliman continued.
"Area fire based on the enemy's attack trajectory."
"Do not pursue current coordinates. Strike the zones those vessels are likely to pass through on their next vector change."
"Astartes fast strike fleet, advance and search for any potential targeting vessels."
Duvette heard that last command and something shifted in his thinking.
Guilliman had identified it.
The enemy's firing range was extreme. Without some form of targeting system, even Necrons should not have achieved that level of accuracy against a fleet reforming its position.
The problem was probably not confined to the void alone.
Blackstone nodes in the subsurface of Vulcantia and Cereris had almost certainly contributed to this long-range engagement.
Admiral Villent asked steadily: "My lord, do we maintain extended range and hold position?"
"No."
Guilliman's answer was immediate.
"Extended-range exchange is not to our advantage."
He looked at the enemy vessel signatures briefly appearing and disappearing on the star chart.
"The enemy's advantage is concealment, targeting, and extreme-range fire."
"Then we close the distance until they are inside a range where the Imperial fleet can maintain a stable fire solution."
Guilliman raised his hand and pointed toward the inner system.
"Main fleet to maximum combat speed."
"Change vector and close range."
"All ships, prepare for mid-range fire engagement."
Everyone on the bridge understood what he meant.
The Imperial fleet could not sustain a reliable exchange at this distance. The enemy revealed itself when it fired, but the exposure windows were too brief and the range too great, and blackstone interference was continuously degrading targeting resolution.
If that was the situation, the answer was to pull the engagement back into the range the Imperium was built to fight at.
Macro-cannon barrages. Lance exchanges. Capital ships anchoring the line. And perhaps boarding actions before the end.
Guilliman was going to use the full mass of the crusade fleet to drag the enemy out of their ghost-like extreme-range killing operation.
Duvette watched the fleet formation shifting on the hololithic display and let out a quiet breath.
The first battle had begun.
And the Necrons had given Guilliman a greeting considerably more severe than Duvette had expected.
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces