Fleet action at Mordecai throttles Kutuzov

As Kutuzov struggled to keep the forces of chaos at bay on the ground, the imperial fleets at Mordecai had been in a tense standoff with the battlegroups of the Emerald Serpent for some time. Only limited supplies were getting through, as the Mordecai space docks prevented the imperium from asserting any kind of control over the inner system. With the arrival of the daemon world Astralis, this became all the more difficult.

 

In early 08.020M42 Admiral Gorshkov decided to run the blockade, hoping that a small battlegroup would be able to draw off the Emerald Serpent's fleet long enough for a significant convoy to get through. As his battlegroup travelled towards the inner system, an enemy force came out to meet him from the protection of the docks. Gorshkov attacked agressively, but his carriers and cruisers mistimed their launches, and instead of a combined wave of coordinated torpedoes and bombers, the imperial ordnance went in piecemeal. The bombers were subject to heavy turret fire, and many of the torpedoes were shot down before impact. Having failed to land a decisive blow, the imperial cruisers were now subject to a withering hail of return fire from the heavy guns and lance batteries of the Emerald Serpent vessels. Using an asteroid field, Gorshkov was able to escape the vice he now found himself in, but three capital ships recieved heavy damage.

 

On the chaos side, their was only light damage. Realising this battlegroup now threatened the convoy, Gorshkov abandoned the operation. Kutuzov's forces on Mordecais Secundus would remain desperately short of food, fuel and ammunition, just as the chaos pact of the Emerald Serpent and Death Guard prepared to launch another major offensive.