Admiral Hughes fails to break through chaos blockade

With the threat of the chaos "planet killer" and the obvious risk to the safety of the under construction docks at Mordecai Tersius, admiral Stark agreed with admiral Hughes to set up a series of standing patrols to ensure that no roving chaos battlegroup was able to slip past the net again and threaten the vital installation project. Stark would attempt to hunt down the dangerous chaos capital vessel while Hughes, with his fleet of nova cannon dominators, gothic class cruisers and the powerful Emperor class Centurion, would be the second line of defence. A key concern for Hughes was to avoid a catastrophic defeat, given the current imbalance of logistics at Mordecai. The chaos fleet could apparently repair and refit even heavily damaged ships within weeks, and any hulks were being used to create new vessels at the rate of one per solar year. Given the estimates of fleet strength were now suggesting the traitor forces may have as many as thirty capital vessels within the Perseus Deeps, any sudden loss of ships by the Imperium could potentially lead to a blockade of Mordecai Secundus and the collapse of the campaign there.

 

Aware of this fact, when Hughes' battlegroup encountered a force of Emerald Serpent vessels on 0504.020M42, the key word was caution. The dominator class Repulse and Implacable were kept at a distance, firing their nova cannons, while the Centurion and her escorts closed carefully with the enemy fleet while Hughes identified his enemies. The imperial fleet soon identified their opponents, with some trepidation. The Emerald Serpent fleet was made up of a Despoiler class battleship, an Acheron class heavy cruiser, supported by two devastations and two carnage class vessels. Hughes knew this was a powerful array of vessels and took precautions.

 

Planning to reduce the impact of the now closing fleet the nova cannon equipped ships were ordered to open fire, while the Centurion and her gothic class escorts attempted to get into a flanking position, before launching a devastating combined attack craft and torpedo attack. Unfortunately for the imperial admiral, the nova cannons of the dominators and mars class vessels were generally ineffective, being wildly inaccurate and generally when they did hit a target, failing to hit anything vital. The chaos fleet engaged at maximum range and the imperial fleet soon found their gunfire to be accurate and punishing. One by one the imperial cruisers were forced to disengage as they came under heavy fire, and during the course of the battle four imperial cruisers were heavily damaged. As his firepower diminished, Hughes could not deal an effective counter strike against the chaos vessels, and after a prolonged engagement at range, although the imperial fleet had caused significant damage to two chaos ships, both of those successfully disengaged following a failed bombing wave from the imperial carriers.

 

The imperial fleet disengaged, although the damage to the chaos fleet was enough for them to return to port. The imperium had suffered the greater damage however, and this was an attritional exchange they could not afford. Hughes was praised for ensuring the survival of his ships, but admiral Stark was unimpressed at the lack of boldness shown by his fellow admiral and requested overall command of the imperial fleets. Lord Sector admiral Bova Magnus however was not willing to put the entire fleet under a Novgorod admiral, and so the shared command system remained.