Chapter 34 — Bismarck

The Bismarck was the flagship of the Third Reich. Its size was even larger than a Dreadnought and it belonged in a class of its own. When sailing in the clouds, it blotted out the Sun and struck fear in all its enemies with its cannons who were on another level. The battleship cannons were so comically large that they were almost impractical. Their ammunition was huge and hard to load, its power was so great that the barrel had to be replaced after every battle, the gun would overheat quickly and the shockwaves would injure or even kill the crew.

While monstrously powerful, it had similarly come with a hefty price tag. It had taken huge amounts of resources and many source points were consumed. Right now, it was sailing alone towards the capital of the Elsass Empire. Well, technically you couldn't call it alone, as a continuous stream of supply and logistics ships were following after it, keeping the coal-devouring monster fed.

Along its advance, any resisting army was wiped out in a single barrage with no resistance. There had been a few weak magic attacks, but they could not even dent the thick steel armour of the Bismarck and were all promptly out in one shot. However, the upcoming battle would be different.

Deep inside a small city of the Elsass Empire, a small elite army was getting ready. Hidden under a large canopy, enchanted catapults were being set up. Waiting nearby were hundreds of Spectre Knights, each equipped with a fragment of a Sunstone.

This was the full force of the Elsass Empire's Spectre Knights, and they planned to launch a surprise attack on the lone Bismarck. The Bismarck had been travelling in a straight line since its departure, so it wasn't too hard to predict its route. Even though the Elsass Empire was declining, it was by no means incompetent. They planned to quickly close the gap and negate the effectiveness of the battleship's cannon. As for close-range combat, the Emperor was hoping that the Spectre Knights would dominate that battlefield. After all, their intelligence showed that apart from weapons, the Third Reich had no high-powered individuals.

As for the mortal soldiers, in the absence of battleship cannons, while small arms are powerful, they still need to be aimed. The Spectre Knights had won every single battle they had been in as their bright light blinds and disorientates their enemy. In addition, they now had the legendary Sunstones.

Spectre Knights stepped into the Catapults as the soldiers rapidly removed the canopy. Determined eyes shined through their helmets as they braced for the acceleration.

The atmosphere was silent. There was no cheering or crying, just the seriousness of well-trained soldiers and high discipline. Wordlessly, the catapults fired all at once under the aim of experienced catapult operators. The heavily enchanted wood creaked and shuddered as they flung the heavy Knights high into the sky, directly into the Bismarck.

The surprise attack was simply so fast and gave no time for the Bismarck to react. By the time the commander got an emergency notification through the magic detection system, the Spectre Knights had already reached the hull.

Closing in at high velocities, the Spectre Knights glowed brightly as they slashed the steel armour with their swords, explosively cutting apart the thick armour. The high pressure of their sword attacks directly caused explosions, blasting big entry holes into the Bismarck.

[Enemy attack! The enemy had boarded the ship! All combat personnel to Quadrant F! Quadrant F-17, F-19, F-25, F-27 and F-31 has been breached! I repeat, all combat personnel to Quadrant F! Repel the enemies at all costs!]

Soldiers poured into the rooms exposing the thin rushing air of the atmosphere outside. They felt nauseous due to the low air pressure, but they nervously pointed their guns at the cloud of dust caused by the explosion. The cloud started slowly dispersing, but there was no sign of the enemy.

[Hey… Is that a light?]

Everyone looked over to where an observant soldier pointed and saw a faint light in the dust, slowly getting brighter. Without even confirming what it was, they opened fire. They were absolutely terrified of whatever boarded the ship. After all, if it was a human, then how powerful would they have to be!

The hail of bullets passed through the dust but didn't seem to impact anything. Suddenly, the faint glow burst out with brightness and became a scorching ball of light. It became a miniature sun, giving off so much blinding light that it could be seen from hundreds of kilometres away.

The eyes of the soldiers burned and exploded as they could not handle the brightness. It was as if they were standing right next to the sun, staring straight into it! Every soldier was blinded, nothing could protect them from the light. Even if they looked in the opposite direction or were in different rooms, the light still seeped through the walls and turned everything a blinding white.

In an instant, the soldiers completely lost their combat effectiveness. Spectre Knights sped forward, massacring the helpless soldiers and easily dodging their blind fire. After all, they weren't special forces, who could locate and shoot a target based on hearing alone. They were just regular soldiers.

The Spectre Knights, each looking like miniature suns, tore through the rooms and started rampaging through the internals of the ship. Nothing could stop them.

While speeding down a corridor, a Spectre Knight noticed a strange statue standing in the middle of the hallway. It looked like a suit of extremely big and thick armour, holding an oversized gun. Just in case, the Spectre Knight used an investigation spell, but he didn't detect any magic fluctuations from it so he simply ignored it as he ran down the hallway.

This so-called statue was a Space Marine. In his ear, an A.I. voice was sounding.

[Warning! Brightness has crossed the danger threshold of the user! Sealing helmet from all outside light!]

[Switching to computer simulation of the environment!]

The Space Marine's view flickered from pitch black into a virtual reality projection of his surroundings using the floorplan and schematics of the Bismarck.

[Using auxiliary systems to generate surroundings! Thermal vision, radar and sound detection activated!]

A blurry sphere was overlaid into his view, symbolising the estimated location of the Spectre Knight based on its heat signature, the suit's radar and sound detectors. After all, the technology in the power armour was not the hyper-advanced matured technology of the 41st millennium, but the comparatively backwards technology of the 21st century.

[Changing bullet type: Premature detonation fragmentary round. Completed]

However, it was advanced enough.