With Kutuzov's army once again on the offensive, the strain on the logistics train from the jump point outside the orbit of Mordecai Tersius, now in Imperial hands, to the warzone on Mordecai Secundus, was becoming extreme. The Imperial war machine devoured equipment, food and lives at an insatiable rate, and the convoys to the inner worlds were always fraught with danger. Having to pass the chaos fleet installation with the baleful glow of the daemon world Astralis forever hanging above them, many crews simply went mad. In addition to this, there was always the constant danger of the chaos fleet making a sortie, scattering or destroying convoys and starving Kutuzov's men.
The imperial fleet made sure they adequately protected the convoys, but in early 01.021M42 the clamour for offensive action against the chaos fleet rose to a crescendo, and while the admirals of the imperial navy were unable to do anything meaningful that wouldn't result in a suicide mission against the heavily protected chaos base, the Hammers of the Emperor chapter came up with their own plan. Knowing that their fleet would be too tempting a target, and too much of a threat to go unchallenged, fully half the chapter's fleet strength arrived in the system as 021M42 began. They began their operations by hunting down and destroying raiders in the innermost parts of the Mordecai system, where the enemy would hide amongst the solar flares and radiation belts around the system's star.
Eventually the chaos fleet could no longer sit idle at their base, and moved in strength towards the radiation zone near to the star itself. Initially the Hammers' fleet appeared to be unaware of the threat, and the initial action saw a lucky salvo cripple a strike cruiser due to uncontrolled internal fires. The astartes fleet reacted quickly however, seizing upon the difficult conditions of the flare zone and managing to coordinate their efforts on a pair of carnage class cruisers that had wandered out of their assigned fleet position. Between them, three of the Hammers' strike cruisers managed to board and capture one cruiser, and set the other ablaze. The fires ran out of control on the chaos cruiser, eventually leading it to death spiral into the Mordecai star itself.
Meanwhile the astartes battle barge managed to weather a hail of fire from the rest of the chaos fleet, but the action itself was marked by poor accuracy and uncoordinated fire, exacerbated by the intra fleet communications difficulties caused by the close proximity of the star. Eventually the chaos acheron class vessel was heavily damaged, and as the three strike cruisers formed up with the fleet flagship, the chaos fleet, led by their own battleship, declined any further action. The chaos fleet melted away into the confusion of solar activity, and the Space Marines claimed a minor victory.
Minor as the success was, the defeat of the chaos fleet in the inner system allowed the armies on the ground at Mordecai Secundus to be supplied with much less danger to the supply vessels. This allowed Kutuzov and his allies to plan in earnest the next offensive. The chaos warlords on the ground however had other plans.
Fleet action losses:
Imperium: 2 strike cruisers destroyed plus escorts
Chaos: 1 carnage class cruiser destroyed, one captured, 1 Acheron class crippled
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