Decisive fleet action at Mordecai

In early 09.020M42 the Imperial Navy knew they had to force a favourable action with the fleets of chaos in order to increase the amount of supplies reaching Kutuzov's troops on the ground at Mordecai Secundus. If they could not break the blockade, Kutuzov's situation on the planet would become untentable, and the war lost. Astralis was still effectively unassailable, and an attack on the fleet base would be suicide. However, Admiral Gorshkov decided to bait the enemy into an equal fight, by sending in a large convoy with his battlegroup lying in wait behind.

 

Seeing a large Imperial convoy trying to break the blockade, the chaos fleet moved in for the kill. As soon as they did, the Imperial fleet assessed the threat. The battlegroup was not the entire chaos fleet, but a sizeable force centred around a Despolier class battleship escorted by several cruisers, moving in close formation towards the Imperial convoy. Assessing the odds as somewhat even, Gorshkov closed aggressively with the chaos fleet.

 

The Emerald Serpent fleet was surprised by the appearance of Gorshkov's battlegroup, and the Imperial admiral focussed his fire on the Despoiler. The chaos flagship took heavy fire, impairing the enemy admiral's ability to control his fleet. Orders were sent but ignored, and the natural inclination for the chaos captain's to squabble with each other was exposed, as the chaos battlefleet became less of a coherent force with its flagship under heavy fire.

 

By the time the two fleets had closed with each other to exchange real fire, the Despoiler was already limping. This was followed by a catastrophic detonation of a carnage class cruiser, the destruction of which crippled the chaos fleet's second largest warship, an Acheron class heavy cruiser. Seizing his chance, Gorshkov manouevered his fleet even closer, launching a devastating set of teleport attacks against the crippled vessel. The chaos ship was reduced to a drifting hulk, and the chaos fleet, now having lost two of their capital ships with only one of their enemy more suffering any serious damage, attempted to flee. Gorshkov managed to launch a wave of attack craft to put the Despoiler out of action before the remaining chaos ships were scattered. The battle had been a decisive Imperial victory. A battleship and two cruisers had been taken out of action, while the Imperium had suffered significant damage to only one of Gorshkov's dominators. The convoy reached its destination unscathed, and while the odds were still favourable to the traitors, an entire battlegroup had been neutralised, effectively giving the Imperial navy a 3-2 advantage in ships in the Mordecai system.