Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 735 Enemy ships falsify friendly ship readings

Stormy Starfield, Steel Ring, Horaj.

On the bridge of the Supreme Varia's fleet flagship, the Blanchett, around the Sage Fabrhuhen-25, a large number of binary numbers suddenly began to roll.

He stared at the scrolling numbers of 0 and 1: [Subspace energy readings have climbed by thirty-six percent.]

...]

As Fabrhuhen-25 gazed at the runes of the warships on the holographic interface, his mechanical tentacles extended, quickly retrieving log records from the thinking machine in front of him.

He quickly reviewed all the documents and records to confirm that his memory was accurate: no warships had arrived within the past sixteen days.

The next support fleet is expected to arrive in Khoraj after 25:36 on the 16th.

Fibruhen-25 did not issue the order immediately, and the standard transition time is not fixed, with errors of several months or even years often occurring.

He awaited the scan results from the ornithometer array.

A series of pale green numbers scrolled rapidly.

[Reading 12 returned, keel label recognition in progress.]

The result has been confirmed; it pertains to our fleet.

Identify one battleship, four cruisers, and thirteen frigates.

[Identifying and confirming the warship's identity...]

"Send a communication request," Fibruhen-25 ordered, then turned its attention to the holographic screen to monitor the execution of the orbital bombardment command.

His fleet formed an attack formation in high-level synchronous orbit, raining down torpedoes on the artillery array below, while a dense barrage of bombardment shells slammed into the missile platforms.

The automatic cannon shells and guided warheads fired by the orbital defense system detonated the dim yellow clouds, revealing a deep red glow.

Horaj is still putting up a fight.

The early arrival of the support fleet will greatly accelerate the process.

Just as F. ...

Countless crimson runes filled the surrounding video screens.

Felbruhen-25 hurriedly examined the numerous warning runes that suddenly appeared, and beams of blinding ice-blue light pierced his mechanical eyes.

Light spear attack, originating from friendly warships.

Friendly warships that arrived ahead of schedule.

The Ferbruhen-25 logic link was interrupted for fifteen seconds after a series of error rune warnings before returning to normal.

"Send a message to remind them that the attack target is wrong."

While issuing the order, the Fybruhen-25 checked the communications log and found that there was no response to the previously sent communications requests.

A series of yellow-green lights flashed in his mechanical eyes as he examined the surrounding timeline screens.

one second.

two seconds.

……

Twenty-five seconds.

……

The friendly warships did not respond, and a second beam of light hurtled towards them.

Outside the fleet, one green rune after another rose with red light.

[The escort ship Eastbourne has been lost.]

The battleship Hastings suffered hull damage and caught fire on the thirty-sixth deck.

...]

The mechanical tentacles of the Fabruhen-25 swayed, and the sensor array showed no abnormal communication interference within the Horaj system. The friendly fleet should have received the message, yet it still launched a wrong attack.

The third and fourth rounds of attacks followed closely, relentlessly striking.
Layer upon layer of incinerating fireballs spread outwards from the fleet like a monstrous wave, filling the void.

Fibruhen-25 stared at the crumbling hull amidst the pulsating orange and bright yellow light, unable to allow the support fleet's miscalculation to continue. He roared, his sonic generator trembling incessantly: "Evade!"

[I will definitely report this to the Council of Sages, and I will make you pay for your mistakes!]
The bombing fleet of the High Varia, staggering, turned around, searching for a way out in the craters of the wrecked swamp, enduring wave after wave of attacks.

The communication array sent out round after round of communication messages, but received no response from the support fleet.

The devastating explosion destroyed thirty-eight warships.

The Blanchett escaped the deadly orbit of Horage Prime amidst violent tremors, while the mechanical tentacles of Fabrhuhen-25 thrashed angrily like octopuses.

The hundreds of screens around were completely black, crackling and sparking with electricity.

Ninety-four point seven percent of the fleet's warships have lost contact, and the remaining five warships have suffered varying degrees of severe damage.

The losses inflicted by the support fleet were more than ten times the losses in the previous Void War.

The Fabrhuhen-25 mechanical eyes stared bloodshot at the screen of the contemplative machine, the only one that could reliably provide the flagship with information.

The damage level of the stern thruster array is 47.05%.

The starboard thruster array is 26.19 percent damaged.

The ship lacks power to turn left, and the turning angle is less than 60% of the warning line.

...]

"Turn two-five-eight!" Fibruhun-25 roared, ignoring the rising series of warning runes, and forced Blanchett to turn.

He wanted to make the support fleet, which had lost its ability to distinguish logic, realize the blasphemy he had committed.

A deep red rune suddenly flashed across the screen.

Boom!

The explosion-proof hatch on the bridge burst open, and a whistling blast of air followed.

The fire engine operator raised its mechanical arm and sprayed out foam extinguishing solvent.

As flames spread rapidly along the cracks in the deck, the Sage of Fabrhuhen-25 stared intently at the image that suddenly rose into the sky.

The black Gothic warship pierced his mechanical eyes.

It is not a warship of the High Varia.

Enemy ships.

The Thinker Array of the Fabrhuhen-25 brain malfunctioned, and countless contradictory sequences rolled.

Why would an enemy ship display the same readings as our own in the reading recognition?

After twelve iterations of the logic of the Thinker array of Fabrhuhen-25, the contradictory sequences rolled out a smooth loop:

Enemy ships can distort the readings of friendly ships.

With the conclusion reached by Fabrhuchen-25, all the accumulated, inexplicable fallacies were also resolved:
It was not a foolish attack by the support fleet, but a deliberate attack by the enemy ships;
The enemy ships did not reply; they could not provide the digital key.
……

Fibruhen-25 became aware of the terrifying reality of the Black Fleet, and at the same time formed his erroneous report:

If he can identify the enemy ships in time during the second round of fire, about one-third of the warships will be able to launch a counterattack before they are destroyed.

Although this could not change the outcome of the fleet's destruction, it would provide ample time to report to the parliament.

boom!
The Felbruhen-25 was thrown off by a sudden, powerful gust of air and crashed into the metal deck, which was twisted and deformed by the molten impact. It then lost all signal.

On the bridge of the Tenth Chapter's flagship, the Stinger Rose, Chapter Lord Ramsay stared at the holographic tactical table as two red runes, one large and one small, crumbled.

He annihilated the fleet of the High Varia without losing a single warship.

Ramsay had the exact same face as Nimrod, and the corners of his mouth were twitching.

"The illusion device perfectly lured the enemy ship."

The falsified reading device, based on the research of the Randan ship, is called the Phantom Device inside the "Shadow of Order," visually reflecting its function.

　PS: Five chapters tomorrow, please vote and subscribe.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)