While the battle raged on the ground, a space battle had also erupted in orbit.
The naval cruiser, modified by Zeke, was now facing off against Khorne's fleet.
Two Hellfire-class cruisers, four Hellbringer-class light cruisers, sixteen Faithless-class raiders, and sixteen Blindfaith-class raiders appeared in the star system's cosmos and immediately engaged the strike cruisers Zeke had deployed in orbit.
Zeke's strike cruisers first unleashed a salvo of lance beams. Thick lance beams directly struck a Faithless-class raider, and combined with the synchronized cyclone missiles, it was instantly blown to smithereens.
The combat power of the strike cruisers, enhanced with Stellaris technology, was not comparable to that of the original cruisers.
After unleashing their firepower, it was no problem for a single round of attacks to destroy a small destroyer.
Immediately after, the lance beams, which had just fired a salvo, once again shifted their targets, locking onto a chaos cruiser.
Disintegrator cannons also fired continuously, one energy shell after another flying towards the chaos fleet.
The chaos forces, of course, wouldn't passively endure the assault; their lance beams and macro cannons also fired incessantly, though they had almost no effect against the void shields.
Undoubtedly, Zeke had underestimated his modified cruisers; their firepower far exceeded that of standard Imperial cruisers.
The fully improved energy core provided these cruisers with immense firepower and powerful defensive capabilities.
The battle started smoothly, but this was only the beginning.
The chaos fleet immediately began to increase the distance from the strike cruisers, and the range of engagement between the two sides widened.
Due to the lack of combat AI assistance, Zeke's strike cruisers could no longer concentrate a round of firepower to destroy an enemy warship as they did at the start.
At the same time, the chaos warship fleet quickly dispersed; they no longer remained concentrated.
Instead, they spread out and began to continuously pour fire onto Zeke's strike cruiser, causing its energy shield to rapidly deplete.
The space battle descended into a very dangerous situation.
However, things didn't seem to be that bad. As a hive world belonging to a knight House, it still possessed a hive fleet.
Although the planetary Governor was a worm, he dared not be negligent in the face of Zeke's safety, and instead quickly dispatched the hive fleet to support Zeke.
The hive fleet might be lost, but as long as the knight House was willing to protect him, he could still remain planetary Governor, and so could his descendants.
But if Zeke died on his planet, then he wouldn't be planetary Governor anymore.
One shouldn't question whether a knight House that had been passed down for 20,000 years, and even had its own representative in the High Lords of Terra, had the ability to kill a small planetary Governor like him.
The gap between him and the Yaeger knight House was simply too vast, so vast that he dared not even think about it.
Therefore, he could die, and even the entire hive world could fall, but Zeke absolutely could not die on his planet.
Although the combat power of the Imperial Navy was not impressive, there was no expectation that they could successfully shoot down those chaos warships.
However, their appearance did indeed buy Zeke's strike cruisers some breathing room and time.
The energy shields rapidly recovered as the enemy's attacks began to weaken.
The recovery of the energy shields meant that the strike cruisers could continue fighting, with the other Imperial Navy fleets acting as bait or as allies for containment.
Then, the strike cruisers would serve as the primary damage dealers. Although their numbers were fewer than the chaos fleet, they were not incapable of fighting.
The chaos invasion had originally been well-planned.
They intended to exploit the arrogance of the knight house, using the orks they regularly purged each year to open a Warp gate and release a massive chaos army to attack the Yaeger knight house.
Abaddon sought to destroy this knight House, which had been passed down since the Golden Age, in one fell swoop, clearing away the greatest threat to his upcoming 13th Black Crusade.
Among all the planets near the Yaeger family, the hive world naturally had the weakest defenses.
He could be said to have been very cautious.
However, despite his caution, he encountered Zeke, who was bored and came out to fight orks.
Due to Ping'an's appearance, the chaos invasion did not seem to be going as smoothly as he had imagined.
On the ground, the chaos forces, who were supposed to attack the entire planet and conduct sacrifices, were directly blocked at their spawn points by Zeke's Space Marines.
The chaos fleet, which was supposed to easily crush the hive fleet, was surprisingly fighting a back-and-forth battle with the help of the strike cruisers brought by Zeke.
The almost dramatic change in the situation left Abaddon somewhat stunned when he received the battle report from the hive world.
"Is this truly a knight house that has been passed down since the Golden Age? They indeed have some tricks up their sleeves."
Abaddon stood on the bridge of the 'Vengeful Spirit', his single eye gazing at the constantly changing battle situation on the tactical holographic display.
A trace of surprise flashed across his scarred face—the battle on planet Gorpia had completely deviated from expectations.
He had thought he had given enough importance to this knight house, which had been passed down for over 20,000 years, and he himself had even personally overseen this assault operation.
For this operation, he had even mobilized his Khorne legions to launch the attack, which was enough to show his Pay attention to of this knight House, but the situation seemed to be far from what he had imagined.
"Warmaster, the Third Assault Group reports encountering tenacious resistance." A chaos Lord knelt on one knee. "The Yaeger family's knight suits are slaughtering our ground forces."
Abaddon's bionic fingers tapped the armrest of his throne, emitting dull metallic sounds. He brought up another set of data.
In the orbital battlefield, the chaos fleet, which should have easily crushed the hive fleet, was currently locked in a fierce battle with a peculiarly designed Imperial cruiser.
"What type of cruiser is that?" Abaddon narrowed his single eye. "Since when did the Imperial Navy have such equipment?"
"According to the analysis from the Librarium, it appears to be a Diligent-class cruiser.
However, if our database is correct, the Diligent-class should be a light cruiser.
Their combat power should not be as strong as it appears; this is illogical."
Everything seemed to be shrouded in a mist; this chaos Warmaster, who had always been confident and held all the cards, now felt a hint of confusion.
Indeed, any major power that could endure for such a long time in the galaxy should not be underestimated. Although he had made sufficient preparations and calculations, he still hadn't anticipated the Yaeger family to be so powerful.
However, there was nothing more to say now; the battle had begun, and the chaos invasion had started. Since the operation had commenced, this knight house must be eliminated, otherwise it would pose a huge threat to his subsequent plans.
His attack had already probed the foundation and strength of this knight house. Since the enemy was so powerful, it was even more imperative to eliminate them.