The Dominion Fleet began clearing out the last remnants of ordinary chaos warships, as their main battleships were completely annihilated, the chaos Fleet had lost its primary combat capability.
Since the enemy had a greater number of ships, and the battleship's main cannon took too long to charge each time, destroyers and cruisers also began to advance.
The distance between the two sides began to shrink, and soon the Nurgle Fleet also discovered the Terran Dominion's main fleet approaching them.
Although the Dominion Fleet only dispatched an auxiliary fleet composed mainly of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, the Terran Dominion's cruisers were still somewhat too large.
The Avalon-class cruiser measured 7.6 kilometers in length and approximately 3.2 kilometers in width, appearing almost identical in size to the Imperium's Retribution-class battleship.
The Imperium's Retribution-class battleship was only 8 kilometers long and 2.1 kilometers wide.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Nurgle Fleet, what was approaching them were not cruisers and destroyers.
Instead, these things were a main fleet of the Imperium of Man.
What was unclear, however, was why the opposing side wasn't using the Imperium of Man's double-headed Aquila, but rather a red single-headed Aquila.
However, these minor changes held no meaning for the chaos forces; the battle that needed to be fought still had to be fought.
As the distance between the two sides closed, cyclone missiles and phase disintegration cannons on the cruisers began to fire.
Such a scene naturally provoked a counterattack from the chaos forces; they, too, began to fire.
The difference was that while the Terran Dominion's weapons directly struck their hulls, all of their weapons were intercepted by the psionic shields.
Their warships began to suffer heavy losses in the mutual bombardment; each time a cruiser hit a destroyer, it could almost shatter it directly.
On the chaos side, even if their cruisers concentrated fire on a single destroyer, it would be intercepted by the enemy's terrifying energy shields, making it difficult even to hit the smaller frigates.
Dominion frigates were also 1.4 kilometers long, a length that, in their eyes, was already comparable to an Imperial destroyer.
A fleet battle was destined to be lost, so only loyal boarding actions remained!
"Prepare for boarding operations!" the Nurgle Fleet's remaining commander, Plague Lord Grolt, roared, issuing his final command, "Let these arrogant humans taste the paternity/father (nurgle's title)'s blessings!"
Dozens of Nurgle assault craft burst from the shattered warships, trailing green exhaust flames as they surged towards the Dominion Fleet. These modified landing craft were covered in pustules and spikes, their interiors packed with rotting Plague Marines.
The enemy suddenly changed their combat method in the middle of a fleet battle, deploying a large number of assault craft, an action that left the Dominion Fleet somewhat bewildered.
???
What are they doing?
Seeing the enemy directly abandon their large warships and instead sally forth in small assault craft undoubtedly left the Dominion commander unsure of what was happening.
The Dominion had destroyed countless interstellar civilizations, and in their encounters with these myriad interstellar and xeno civilizations, they had never encountered anything so bizarre.
If they were trying to escape, shouldn't they be running in the opposite direction?
Why weren't they fleeing in the opposite direction; instead, they were charging directly towards them?
Confusion rose in the hearts of every Dominion soldier; they couldn't understand what these idiots on the other side were thinking.
They wouldn't actually be thinking of using these assault craft to attack the Dominion Fleet, would they?
What a crazy idea! Did they really think the Dominion's warship null-material armor and close-in weapons were a joke?
Even their large ships couldn't gain any advantage in a fleet engagement, so what good did they think their small ships would be?
And they wouldn't actually think their small ships could catch up to the Dominion Fleet, would they?
It was this deep confusion that led the Dominion Fleet commander not to order the fleet to distance itself from the enemy immediately.
Instead, the Dominion Fleet prepared to stop moving and wait in place; he wanted to see what these xenos intended to do.
This was very important.
They had to assess the combat effectiveness of these enemies to gather intelligence and information in advance for the Emperor, should he launch a Great Crusade later on.
"All units maintain vigilance," the Dominion Fleet commander ordered via ship-wide broadcast, "Record enemy combat patterns, analyze their tactical intent."
Dominion science officers quickly sprang into action, aiming various scanning instruments at the rapidly approaching assault craft. The tactical AI began building mathematical models, attempting to understand the strategic logic behind this seemingly suicidal behavior.
"Enemy assault craft speed: sub-light, estimated contact time: 3 minutes 42 seconds," the AI reported the data precisely, "Life signs detected within the craft... suspected biological weapons."
"Theoretically, the enemy cannot penetrate our psionic shields. Should we lower the shields to observe the enemy's actions at close range?"
"No," Fleet Commander Dot Pixis rejected the AI's suggestion.
While he wanted to see what the enemy was up to, that didn't mean he was willing to risk his fleet. Who knew what kind of combat power these guys possessed?
This fleet was here to support the Emperor; they didn't even know if their fleet would be useful to the Emperor, so how could they allow their fleet to suffer losses before supporting him?
Just keep the psionic shields up and see what the enemy is doing; there's no need to take any other risks.
Plague Lord Grolt stood at the hatch of the lead assault craft, his rotting face twisted with excitement.
He was certain these arrogant humans were terrified—after all, in chaos's combat experience, few fleets could withstand a Death Guard boarding action.
"Prepare to receive the father's blessings!" He raised his plague staff, and yellowish-green pus dripped onto the deck, "Let the plague spread within these steel coffins!"
The distance between the two sides grew shorter and shorter. The Terran Dominion's fleet made no move, instead remaining stationary and watching what the enemy would do, allowing these Nurgle assault craft to approach rapidly.
To fully ascertain what the enemy intended, even the close-in weapons on the warships were not activated; instead, they simply waited for the enemy's advance.
However, just in case, the mechanoid legions within the warships had already begun to mobilize, preparing to deal with any crisis at a moment's notice.
Just as the Terran Dominion officers were preparing to wait for the Nurgle legions to approach, ready to see what trick they were up to, something utterly astonishing happened.
These rapidly charging assault craft ultimately crashed head-first into the psionic shields, and then, with a spray of sparks, they vanished...????
Immediately following, the other assault craft fired attack beams, attempting to affect the psionic shields, but the final result was still useless; one after another, they all crashed and died on the shields.
The officers of the Dominion Fleet were all dumbfounded; they couldn't comprehend any of this.
What had happened?
If they remembered correctly, they were apparently here to study the enemy's tactics. So, what were the enemy's tactics?
Charging in and committing suicide?