An ork boarding party seizes control of a plasma generator aboard the Decora Mining Station.

“Mayday! Mayday! Decora Mining Base reporting ork ships attacking. Main gun battery is inactive, and boarding torpedoes are approaching. Assistance is needed immediately.”—distress signal received by Imperial authorities

Sculptor System
Imperial Voxcast (3 121 743.M41)

One week after an ork boarding party seized the Decora Mining Base in the Great Asteroid Belt, the Knights of Altair defeated the defending xeno naval force, stormed the 2-kilometer-in-diameter space station,  and restored Imperial authority.

“Although active in fighting the God-Emperor’s enemies on both Hegira and Dar Sai, all warriors of the 4th Company of the Knights of Altair Space Marine Chapter were withdrawn from the battlefield and redeployed to their strike cruiser,” said Captain Marcus Speakeman, senior intelligence officer for Fleet Corvus.

“Once assembled, the company rushed to the Decora Mining Base to deal with the greenskin menance.”

Orks seize control

The ork attack began on 3 121 743.M41 when a xeno naval force, consisting of one cruiser-class and two escort-class warships, appeared only 5,000 kilometers from the mining base.

“It is believed that the orks took the reckless chance of maneuvering through the denser regions of the asteroid belt, screening themselves from the space station’s sensors until they were right upon the mining base,” Speakeman said.

The larger ork ship, tentatively identified as a “Kill “Kroozer,” was struck twice by the space station’s weapons batteries before a blast of the xeno warship’s weapons batteries destroyed the station’s main guns.

Without these weapons , the station was defenseless as the ork ships approached and fired more than a dozen boarding torpedoes in its direction.

The torpedoes struck at several locations on the station and, although its crew and mining staff attempted to stem the ork assault, the greenskins slaughtered their way across the mining base and seized control within an hour.

The warships of the Knights of Altair use a cloud of asteroids to outflank ork warships near the Decora Mining Station.

Astartes Respond

The Imperial Navy in the Sculptor System, Fleet Corvus, was unable to respond to the attack for reasons that are classified, Speakeman says.

“It was decided that repelling the orks from the station was an immense challenge for navy breacher teams, and the presence of a company of the Knights of Altair nearby made it obvious that the Astartes could respond more rapidly and successfully to this xeno attack.”

As it happened, the naval assets of the Knights—a strike cruiser and two Gladius-class destroyers—were orbiting above the desert moon of Hegira., where Captain Navarre and elements of the Knights’ 4th Company were regrouping after 173 days of non-stop fighting.

Leaving orbit, the Knights’ warships hurried to Dar Sai, where they picked up the rest of the company that had been fighting the moon’s Tau invaders, and then accelerated toward the space station. They arrived on 3 127 743.M41.

Naval Fight

The battle with the ork warships was brief and bloody for the xenos. As the strike cruiser, Imperial Creed, and two destroyers approached the mining base, the ork ships—as expected—rushed to meet the Astartes head-on.

“Captain Navarre was not interested in a battle of attrition,” Speakeman said. “As the orks approached, he suddenly veered to starboard and raced behind a small body of asteroids, screening his command from ork fire.”

As the orks swung around to follow, Navarre’s command accelerated in a tight turn to come around the other side of the asteroids—and close behind the orks.

“A torpedo spread from the destroyers quickly eliminated the threat of the ork escorts,” Speakeman noted.

The ork Kill Kroozer attempted to turn to confront the approaching Astartes ships, but in an exchange of fire with the three Space Marine warships, the Kill Kroozer was doomed. After an hour of exchanging fire, the ork ship was a dead hulk. The Imperial Creed was undamaged, its mighty shields protecting it from harm.

Click here to read the conclusion of this battle.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhamemr 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.