Battle of Valitane Run

While war raged far to the trailing arm of the Aleph Sector at Lysis and the Hadron Expanse, the forces of chaos took the opportunity to probe Imperial defences elsewhere. In the wider strategic picture, the warlords of the dark gods reasoned that if the Imperium was embattled from the Foramen Interdictum all the way to the Expanse, they may find a weakness elsewhere. Admiral Thok, keen to once again be a thorn in the Imperial Navy's side, had intelligence that the Valitane subsector was undefended, and began moving a sizeable cruiser force to the subsector. If he could break through and perhaps bombard Praesul, the only Imperial world in the Reach - then he could cause panic in Valitane which would force Admiral Hughes to redirect his forces Rimward.

What Thok did not know, was that he had already reinforced Admiral Cardale at Valitane with a division of ships led by Admiral Hector, a veteran of campaigns in the Perseus Deeps. Present at the battle of Calliden, Hector was no stranger to Thok, and when the mad admiral's cruisers arrived at Valitane Reach, Hector's force was there to meet him.

The battle that followed was a cagey affair, as neither side was willing to recklessly throw away their forces in an all out engagement. Thok's fleet, having better range than Hector's. formed up into a crescent, keeping the imperial fleet at a distance, realising that only one of his opponent's fleets was equipped with a nova cannon. This paid off initially, as long range firepower took its toll on Hector's ships, especially the light dauntless class. These vessels were unsuited to such fleet engagements and were more of a hindrance than an aid, and the imperium lost the Medusa and had three other light cruisers badly damaged.

However, Hector was not only equipped with dauntlesses. His flaghsip Apollo, and Oberon class battleship, and his two Exorcist class grand cruisers were far more suited to long range engagements, and eventually, with help from the Dominator Morpheus, Hector's remaining vessels started to chip away at Thok's battlegroup. As the Imperial fleet edged around the chaos fleet's rear, the slaughter class Skoll was destroyed, while Mimir and Sigurd took heavy damage. Realising the battle was no longer going in his favour, the chaos admiral withdrew.

The battle of Valitane Run had been a long engagement with little in the way of decisive results. Both sides lost a capital ship and sustained heavy damage on other vessels, but neither fleet was dealt a fatal blow. The engagement can only be described as a draw, but importantly Hector had not lost, ensuring that Praesul and beyond it Valitane were kept safe from the predations of the chaos armies in the Enceladus subsector for the time being.

Imperial Losses:

 - 1 dauntless (Medusa) destroyed

 - Grand cruiser and 3 dauntlesses crippled

Chaos Losses:

 - Skoll

 - Mimir and Sigurd crippled