Thok destroys Jellicoe at Glaurung

For years Admiral Thok had stayed with his fleet at Mordecai, happy with his success over Admiral Craddock but rueing the fact that his main foe, Admiral Jellicoe, who had smashed the chaos fleet at Bastien many years before, had never given him the opportunity to exact his revenge. Jellicoe had stayed at Vastrid, protecting the Imperial spacelanes to Terra following the coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum, and Admiral Thok had to be content with raiding, and the all important work of maintaining his fleet at Mordecai docks. With the opening of the Foramen, the mad admiral once again sensed an opportunity to defeat his nemesis, but without a secure space lane and control of both Paradorn and Tarlius, any attempt at a breakout into the Zadoc subsector would be suicide. Even thok wasn't that mad.

Then, in 04.018M42 Thok was shaken out of his despondency upon recieving news of an exciting development. With Lord Tragean moving on Tarlius, Admiral Jellicoe had been forced to reinforce the Imperial fleet in the Foramen, and it came to his attention that Jellicoe was with his fleet, in person, at Paradorn. Thok now needed a plan to lure Jellicoe away from the defences at the Imperial base, and into the guns of his waiting fleet. He knew there was one bait which Jellicoe would be unable to resist. The Gotterdammerung.

Imperial intelligence recieved unwelcome news shortly after the fleet had arrived at Paradorn. The Gotterdammerung, based on Abaddon's "planet killer", had been sighted cruising around the Mordecai system, clearly fully operational. This came as somewhat of a shock to the Imperium, who hadn't counted on the Mordecai space docks being able to repair the ship so quickly after it had been reduced to a hulk at Libria, although the ship had been sighted partially repaired in 016M42, when Thok had annihilated Admiral Craddock's fleet.

Jellicoe held a counsel with his officers. He suspected a trap, but if the Gotterdammerung were to appear at Paradorn in the company of the entire chaos fleet, the entire system could be lost, and with it the only reliable route between Farport and the Imperium Nihilis. The Imperial fleet would have to take the bait, and destroy the planet killer, at any cost.

Jellicoe's fleet formed up and headed for the moon of Glaurung, close to the star of Hespidies, where the mighty chaos vessel had last been tracked. Splitting his fleet up, although risky, would maximise the chance of finding the Gotterdammerung, and Jellicoe was confident that the planet killer itself was not supported by the rest of Thok's fleet, which had been reported as at the space docks at Mordecai. Unfortunately for the imperial admiral, this was a lie, spread by Thok's agents in order to encourage Jellicoe to search for his flagship. His fleet would be waiting in the shadows ready to pounce. Aboard Skoll, an elite company of traitor marines had been deployed, ready to board the imperial flagship Iron Duke, and take prisoner of Thok's most hated foe.

At 14:20 local time on 1404.018M42 the Gotterdammerung was spotted by the cruisers Hogue and Repulse, who immediately closed on the giant vessel, hoping to take it by surprise. Unfortunately, after ineffective nova cannon and torpedo fire, the chaos flagship immediately responded with a crippling strike on Repulse. The imperial vessel's shields held against the conventional firepower of the mighty vessel, but the armageddon gun easily ripped through void shields and armour, badly damaging the imperial vessel.

Straining at maximum power, Jellicoe's flagship Iron Duke simply made for the flashes of gunfire, and arrived within range at 14:34, although the opening salvoes were hampered by the glare of Hespidies, and the initial wave of Shark Assault boats did little to reduce the effectiveness of the giant chaos behemoth. At 14:53 the second volley from its primary weapon ripped through Repulse, sending her spinning off blazing from prow to stern. The Gotterdammerung then replied with her main batteries against the Iron Duke, instantly crippling her engines and leaving her drifting slowly. This was only thought to be a minor setback however, and with the rest of his fleet heading towards the moon of Glaurung, Jellicoe was confident that although he may suffer losses, Thok and his blasphemous flagship would finally be dealt with.

At 15:05 however, Jellicoe recieved a nasty shock. Powering up almost dead astern, the slaughter class Skoll suddenly arrived, and Hogue reported that another chaos vessel, identified as the powerful Acheron class Beowulf, had been detected. The intelligence had been wrong. Thok was here with his fleet, and the trap had been sprung. Skoll closed to boarding range, with the traitor astartes teleporting across to Iron Duke. However the crew of the imperial flagship fought back valiantly, and though the fighting was heavy, the traitor legion were unable to get past the defenders and capture the admiral. As Skoll drew alongside, Iron Duke opened up with her port battery, and a lucky shot penetrated the main belt of the chaos cruiser, setting off multiple internal explosions. In one salvo Jellicoe had evened the score.

On the Gotterdammerung Thok flew into a rage at the failure of his Astartes and the loss of Skoll, but as the planet killer approached the moon, its firepower, coupled with terrifying lance salvos from Beowulf, soon reduced Hogue to a smoking wreck, as Repulse finally succumbed to internal fires and blew herself up. Cobra class escorts arrived for the Imperium, but did little damage before Beowulf contemptuously smashed them to wreckage. Iron Duke meanwhile had finally fixed her engines and was slowly getting underway. 

Thok now resolved that if he couldn't capture his enemy, he would kill him. Using the gravity of Glaurung, the Gotterdammerung swung round the moon, aiming its devastating weapon at the now badly damaged imperial flagship. He would have only one more shot of the armageddon gun before it had to be fully recharged, so this one would need to count. Powering up to maximum, the super-weapon tore into the Iron Duke, but although crippled, the imperial flagship remained operational. Fearing his quarry would once again escape, he ordered in his escorts. At 15:43 a wave of torpedoes from the Jotun squadron crashed into Jellicoe's ship, detonating her plasma reactor. Thok leapt out of his admiral's chair with glee, silhoueted against the death throes of the Iron Duke. 

Aboard Illustrious, Captain D'Oyly-Hughes was alarmed that he was no longer getting a response from the ships in action at Glaurung. After a few minutes of deliberation, he ordered the remaining Imperial vessels to cease pursuit and regroup at the warp jump point. The rest of Jellicoe's fleet duly obeyed the Mars' class commodore's orders, not wishing to suffer the same fate as the Iron Duke. Believing Jellicoe to be dead, the imperial fleet fled.

Jellicoe however was not dead, and Thok watched as escape pods from the aft half of the wrecked Iron Duke spiralled into the thin atmosphere of the Ice Moon of Glaurung. Elated, the chaos admiral realised he may have his reckoning after all. The rest of his fleet managed to recover Skoll and take the wreck of Hogue as a valuable hulk. Sending for recovery ships, the rest of his fleet now transited to Paradorn, while search teams began looking on Glaurung to recover his most precious prize. Admiral Jellicoe himself.