Anomalous astropathic traffic warranted an investigation. An Imperial battlegroup consisting of Mars, Lunar, and Overlord cruisers, with Cobra and Sword escorts, discovered a renegade fleet orbiting a mining world on the sector fringes, holding position near an asteroid belt. Having been discovered, the renegade fleet consisting of Styx, Carnage, Archeron cruisers, along with Idolator and Infidel escorts, sought to engage in a classical 'cross' pattern, but the Imperials chose to form up alongside. The renegade admiral let the Imperial lapdogs take the opening move.
The Cobras bravely (or foolishly) charged ahead, launching a wave of torpedoes, and a nova cannon burst nearby to no effect. Shortly after a wave of bombers and two fighter squadrons launched from the Charon's Touch. A withering fusilade of fire devastates the Cobras. The lone Cobra abruptly changed course to exit the primary biosphere.
The Imperials return fire, sending nova cannon and torpedoes into the Archeron, the Perturbator, doing much less damage than expected. The renegade escorts take some losses as they make for the cover of the asteroids. The renegade squadron commander somehow neglects to fire torpedoes, despite the advantageous position.
Broadsides and lances lit the heavens, with superficial damage to the cruisers on both sides.
Feeling the vice closing in, the renegades sweep around the asteroids- the Perturbator, seeking to avoid Imperial attention, moved ahead on full, while the renegade escorts pulled an unexpected maneuver and piloted through the asteroids putting themselves behind the Imperial formation.
The Styx barely managed to remove the Swords with bomber waves, and would thereafter fail to reload the spacecraft, leaving a single squadron of fighters to roam.
The renegades now found themselves at the advantage, with a flurry of broadsides and lances crippling the Mars, the Lit by Flame. With the escorts in the rear and three healthy chaos cruisers wheeling around, the Imperials began to use the debris and asteroids as cover to disengage.
The Mars cruiser was unable to hide however, and the renegades began to fire at range, sending fighters in to harry the Lit by Flame.
The Imperials, desperate, engaged the Gellar field and made an emergency jump into the warp, leaving the fighters perplexed and reluctant to face the wrath of the renegade admiral.
Later, the Admiral Barbado Drax, feeling the favor of the Powers of Chaos, ritually sacrificed the Master of Ordnance of the Charon's Touch along with the swiftdeath pilots. The result was certainly going to be a 'disciplined crew'.
Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet made its way back to Ophatran Secundus to alert the governor, where the Mars would seek repairs and the Lunar would be scheduled for a refit to the thrusters. While the onset of the Cicatrix Meladictum had thrown the Gothic Sector into devastation, the Ophatran sub-sector had been lucky... until now.
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