The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Standard Terra Calendar 41, Brakato System, Uran Huda

Visiting Uran Huda again after ten years, Soshjan was amazed by the development of this forge world.

Uran Huda fixed itself in the satellite orbit of Rogon, the former home world of the Crimson Sabres Chapter, utilizing the star's energy on one hand, and directly extracting metal raw materials from the destroyed crust of the planet on the other. Without the need for constant relocation, Uran Huda also unfolded all of its internal docks in orbit, giving it the ability to build and repair large warships.

The current Uran Huda is no longer a solitary world. Huge orbital facilities have appeared at its equator and poles, shaped like a forming beehive, and the cargo ships constantly shuttling back and forth are like diligent bees.

In the docks, there are even more warships. In the past, Uran Huda itself was a huge mobile fortress, so it didn't have a strong demand for fleets, maintaining only a small exploration fleet. Now that it's stable, the demand for fleets has risen sharply. The docks are building almost non-stop, even omitting some 'useless rituals' to speed up the process.

However, in addition to Uran Huda's own fleet, the docks also have to fulfill orders from the Astral Knights.

Soshjan's first stop here was to inspect the completed warships.

"Chapter Master, by last year, all nine Nova-class frigates had completed system testing, mooring trials, void navigation, and warp navigation experiments, reaching full operational status."

Standing inside the shuttle, Soshjan, wearing ceremonial armor, overlooked the warships docked side by side in the dock through the huge semi-circular observation window. They were like soldiers waiting for inspection, with all the lights on their hulls lit.

Building Nova-class frigates was Soshjan's request. After so many years of combat, he deeply realized that the traditional Gladius-class frigates or other frigates were not suitable for the current Astral Knights, because these frigates were primarily intended for 'transport' and 'assault,' and their own combat capabilities were weak.

But now the Astral Knights are still in a state of having more ships than people. It is impossible for those small ships to have Space Marines stationed for defense, so they must have sufficient self-defense capabilities when facing the enemy.

And the Nova-class frigate fits this requirement very well.

This type of frigate is a small lance ship, and its role is very similar to that of the Firestorm-class frigate in the Imperial Navy fleet. It is a purebred combat ship. It is equipped with a lance turret on its dorsal ridge, which can fire forward and to both sides. Two sets of weapon array turrets are also installed on the bow, and the engine is more powerful than that of the Firestorm-class, allowing the Nova-class frigate to reach twice the speed of an Imperial cruiser in real space.

This high speed and maneuverability also allow the Nova-class to quickly reach favorable firing positions and attack with lances, and then quickly retreat before the enemy can react and counterattack. It can adopt wolf pack tactics to hunt and kill enemy isolated large and medium-sized warships.

However, the disadvantage is that it cannot transport ground troops for landing or transport ground troops to other ships. Therefore, this type of ship is quite controversial within the Imperium, because its existence does not meet the tactical requirements of the Codex Astartes, erodes the responsibilities of the Imperial Navy, and disrupts the balance of power within the Imperium. The Imperial Navy and the Inquisition have had fierce debates about the existence of this class of ship for a long time, and once wanted to prohibit the Astartes Chapters from building and owning this type of frigate.

Although this ban ultimately came to nothing, most Chapters chose the more 'Codex-compliant' Gladius-class in order to avoid trouble, so in the 41st millennium, the Nova-class is a relatively rare existence in Space Marine fleets.

But Soshjan felt that this type of warship was very suitable for the current Astral Knights, or rather, the Unbowed. This is because the small ships of the past Chapter suffered very heavy losses in naval battles due to their poor self-defense capabilities, and there were no Space Marines on board. They could not launch close-range boarding tactics against the enemy, and had to avoid being boarded by the enemy.

So, instead of that, it's better to arm them to the teeth.

"According to your requirements, we have further armed these Nova-class ships, adjusted the distribution of the superstructure, and added an extra plasma bombardment cannon to the front of the dorsal ridge, giving it stronger firepower at close range. The ship's power distribution system has also been improved, which can fully supply the energy of the plasma bombardment cannon."

As the shuttle descended, Soshjan saw the huge plasma turrets on the front of the dorsal ridge of these frigates, which were very 'flat' compared to most Imperial ships. This was a technology he 'introduced' from Ryza, and it was also an extra reward for Uran Huda.

"Very good upper deck design, reducing many unnecessary buildings, only retaining the bridge and the chapel, allowing both dorsal ridge main guns to have excellent firing angles."

"In addition, we have also adjusted the point defense system of the dockyard."

"Oh, what adjustments?"

"In the past, the point defense system of Imperial warships always adopted an independent calculation and firing mode, which led to slow reaction, increased errors, and serious waste of firepower, especially when facing small and fast targets. This time, we tried the Black Iron Core technology obtained from Zhao-Akad, which was originally used for fighter pilots, allowing fighter pilots to have better reaction speed and a certain degree of independent combat capability. At the same time, different Black Iron Cores can also be integrated into a larger unified network. These characteristics are applied to the shipborne point defense system, which has produced unexpected effects. Each point defense turret can independently calculate parameters, and can also be coordinated in a fire control cogitator system to form a concentrated firepower advantage. Also, you see, the 36 point defense automatic weapons of the Nova-class are mainly distributed on the sides and bottom of the hull, which are the areas most often attacked by enemy fighters and boarding craft, while the past Imperial point defense firepower was mainly distributed on the bow and stern, which is not a reasonable arrangement, so we also made adjustments."

"Uran Huda's exquisite craftsmanship is impressive."

Soshjan made an appropriate compliment, and Banguli, who looked much 'smaller' beside him, showed a smile on his gloomy face.

"In the future, we will need more Uran Huda-type Nova frigates. The dockyard will have many orders. The dockyard can continue to expand."

Saying that, Soshjan turned to look at Arash, the Chapter Master of the White Templars, beside him.

"The White Templars' frigates will also be gradually replaced with Nova-class. Five of this batch of nine ships will be transferred to the Astral Knights, and four will remain with the White Templars."