Federacy arrives at Libria

With events moving apace on Libria the Federacy decided to act in late 04.014M42. In a close vote the Federal council decided to send the Tallaxian fleet, consisting of four cruisers and one battleshio, to the Libria system. Intelligence suggested only Admiral Pendragon's forces were present in the system, and Beattie's forces would not be arriving for a month or so. The fleet set sail and arrived some weeks later, immediately encountering the similarly sized Pendragon battlegroup in the Deep Space region of the Libria system.

Confident in his fleet's abilities the Federal Admiral, Cassin Kinkaid, immediately attacked. At first his fleet's shooting was unimpressive, but gradually the federal fleet found its range and was able to out-manouevre the imperial force, enveloping the enemy in a murderous crossfire. During the battle the federal losses were light, although the cruiser Liberator was badly damaged by the imperial battleship, who singled the mars class vessel out for specific punishment.

The FSS Haskell was less than impressive in her shooting, but the battleship's laxity was made up for by the brave gunners and pilots of the rest of the fleet, although the last bombing run carried out by the federacy force was conducted by cadets, their run failing to achieve any hits on the enemy at all and allowing a heavily damaged imperial cruiser to escape.

The final losses in ships were small, but the damage was extremely unequal. The federacy lost one escort along with damage to the Liberator but the imperial fleet suffered far worse and were forced to disengage. Pendragon lost a lunar class, Sir Gareth, while four other vessels were badly damaged. Pendragon withdrew his battered fleet to Libria V, while Kinkaid now controlled the system jump point. Taking the hulk of Sir Gareth in tow, he sent Liberator and his prize back to Hartak. Now he waited for reinforcement following the initial victory.