Besides the Incessant, several other light cruisers also launched all their Shark Assault Boats.
Since most of the Blood Angels needed a purification ritual from a battle group chaplain after emerging from the hellish bridge, the Blood Angels could only dispatch a small number of Space Marines aboard a less-damaged Thunderhawk Gunship for support.
This Thunderhawk would escort Horatio and Farida safely to the Sacred Will's docking bay.
Captain Afiel also needed to undergo a purification ritual.
However, he still showed respect and, out of caution, sent a Lieutenant Deputy Company Commander with some veteran soldiers.
Roman Roland was not originally in the sequence, but after hearing about the matter, he insisted on participating.
Since he hadn't boarded a Chaos warship and thus hadn't suffered contamination, and given his persistent request, the Company Commander allowed him to come.
Half of these Astartes Monks were tasked with escorting Horatio and Farida, while the other half were to shut down the Sacred Will's engines.
This was to prevent the mutineers from seizing the bridge and then taking the entire rare Retribution-class Battleship away, making the situation irreversible.
At this moment, the entire Gothic Fleet high command was already aware of the mutiny on the Sacred Will.
In addition to the Incessant Squadron, four interception squadrons had set sail from Abyss Port and were rushing to intercept.
If even a battlecruiser could betray and defect to the God Emperor's enemies, then it went without saying that the entire fleet high command would be scrutinized by the Inquisition, likely losing half their positions and then being executed.
The Incessant was the closest squadron to the Sacred Will, but from the sea chart, it was not considered close.
However, it was at least within the Shark Assault Boat's maximum range.
Commodore Peru's idea was that as long as troops could support the Sacred Will and suppress the mutiny, the entire battlecruiser would be preserved with minimal losses.
He did not want the situation to escalate into an engagement.
The Retribution-class Battleship's entire row of fierce Macro cannons could tear the Unyielding (Bùjuàn) Battlecruiser into pieces of void debris.
After all, the former was a proper battlecruiser, while the Imperial Navy's battlecruisers were ultimately still cruiser-level hulls.
Fortunately, Vice Admiral Alexander Hood's guard suppressed the bridge, and not all armed forces participated in the mutiny.
At least some units were still diligently performing their duties. Vice Admiral Alexander Hood ordered the armed forces loyal to him to affix military police insignia and engage the rebels.
What Vice Admiral Alexander Hood found utterly baffling was that this time, the Sailors had not caused trouble.
As a Navy Lieutenant General who had risen through the ranks step by step, he clearly understood what preparations his subordinates would make for a rebellion and under what circumstances a mutiny would occur.
If they wanted to plan a large-scale armed forces mutiny, they would usually collude with extremely disgruntled Sailors.
Because when the armed forces could no longer tolerate it and wanted to mutiny, the Sailors would have already found life even more unbearable.
Yet this time, not only did the Sailors not participate in the mutiny, but under the armed summons of some officers, the Sailors took up arms and began to suppress the rebellious Sailor units.
There were too many suspicious points in all of this.
In any case, they first needed to block these mutineers who wanted to rush to the bridge.
They wanted to control the Macro cannons to fire on the escorting ships around them.
This action terrified the captains escorting the Retribution-class Battleship.
Fortunately, Vice Admiral Alexander Hood had locked down the Macro cannon's firing authority using a neural plug connected to the base of his skull.
Only the manually operated point-defense cannons on the Retribution-class Battleship could fire.
Torpedoes, Macro cannons, and Lance Cannons all failed to respond.
Moreover, the Sailors at the gun turrets refused to cooperate with the mutineers and bravely launched a counterattack.
The captains of the escorting ships learned the situation from the Navy Lieutenant General and reported it to the Gothic Fleet headquarters.
However, the armed forces they could send to the Sacred Will were pitifully few, at best a drop in the bucket, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
They could only hope that the large-tonnage interception fleet would arrive as soon as possible.
In the void, rows of Shark Assault Boats, in formations of 8 vessels per team, surged forward.
Hundreds of thousands of exhaust plumes illuminated the dim void.
The Fury Squadron's naval aviators flew alongside them, maintaining vigilance on the outer perimeter.
They also helped the assault boats destroy any asteroids in their path.
Horatio remained uneasy, anxious about how he could safely and securely bring back such a large package of top-secret documents.
When the distance closed a bit, reaching a range where fragments might be produced, he activated a Precognition Shard for a scan, wanting to see the current situation on the Sacred Will.
He didn't want to arrive at the docking bay with the Blood Angels only to find enemies everywhere.
However, perhaps the distance was still too great, as he couldn't see the situation on the Sacred Will.
But he did see a giant black serpent in the void, like Jörmungandr.
This monster, resembling a giant leech, was attracted by the scattered tail flames of the assault boats.
It was slithering in the darkness.
He suddenly opened his eyes and shouted to the Blood Angels pilot and Thunderhawk gunner: "Stay alert! There seems to be something nearby!"
The pilot immediately began to monitor the augur's movements, and the gunner also unlocked the Thunderhawk's safety, rotating the turret and beginning to scan the surroundings.
Nearby Fury Squadron.
"Gale Squadron, the Thunderhawk Gunship has transmitted a coordinate of interest. There's an unknown signal on the augur, be alert and investigate," the Imperial Navy's squadron leader told his pilots.
"Gale received. Gale 4, Gale 5, go see what that is."
"Received."
Two Fury Interceptors from the Imperial Navy's flight squadron broke away from the squadron and headed towards the signal in the asteroid belt to investigate.
Just as they were approaching, suddenly, a large snake-like void creature burst out from the asteroids.
"Holy crab! What the hell is that?!" The two pilots quickly performed evasive maneuvers, dodging the monster that burst out from the asteroid belt, with its slender, leech-like body, no eyes, and a gaping maw.
In the perilous void, some strange void aliens were born.
They were diverse and mysteriously able to survive in the void.
This made the already dangerous void even more treacherous and was also why the Empire rarely built small aircraft.
These monsters would avoid warships and large vessels that they deemed too big to prey upon.
This void predator charged towards the nearest Shark Assault Boat.
The assault boat had almost no turning capability at such high speed.
That hideous, ugly maw swallowed three of them in one gulp.
"God Emperor! Monster!" Farida watched in horror as the void leech devoured its way towards the Thunderhawk.
The Thunderhawk Gunship opened fire, all its armaments unleashed.
A shell exploded on the leech's body, causing this enormous, ugly monster to emit a piercing, ethereal, unrealistic void roar.
Just as the gunner was about to fire again, this Blood Angels discovered that the Thunderhawk's focusing copper wire had melted.
It had fired too many times in the previous battle and had been hastily dispatched on this long-range raid mission without proper maintenance.
The gunner retreated from the compartment.
The Thunderhawk pilot fired missiles at the void leech.
"What's wrong?!" Horatio asked anxiously, the leech was about to charge over.
"The focusing copper wire is broken, I need to find a spare."
"Can you force fire?"
"Yes, but only a Techmarine can disable the automatic safety lock."
"Can I get on? I have a way."
"If you do, you can try. I'll go find a replacement," the Blood Angels replied, then ran to the reserve compartment to search for a replacement.
Horatio sat in the gunner's seat; this seat, built for an Astartes, was overly spacious for a mere mortal like him.
'Activate: machine soul Favor'
Neural dendrites extended from his bionic limb, piercing into the Thunderhawk's Cygnus operating platform.
This advanced machine soul was highly spiritual.
Horatio even felt as if he heard it communicating with him.
He didn't understand binary language, nor did he know the Adeptus Mechanicus's power circuits.
But in his mind, he pleaded for the machine soul to show mercy; he didn't want to see his offspring annihilated again on St. Giles Festival.
The machine soul seemed to understand Horatio's thoughts.
'Ready Indicator'
'Warning: Focusing shield damaged, forced firing may cause barrel to burst'
The automatic safety unlocked, and a warning popped up.
But at a moment of life and death, who could care if the barrel burst?
'Target Locked'
'Fire!'