Imperial Flotilla Dozaria Relief One (DR-1) was led by the Retribution-class battleship Covenant of Hope (center). Overall commander was Commodore Gadea Hennard.

“Attention all crew! Enemy ships to our front. Prepare for battle. Show no mercy. Kill the heretic. Kill the traitor. Kill them all.“—Commodore Gadea Hennard, commander of Battle Flotilla Dozaria Relief 1 (DR-1)

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IMPERIAL VOXCAST (6 097 746.M41)—A traitor fleet commanded by the Death Guard repelled an attack by the Imperial Navy to relieve the war-torn world of Dozaria, currently blockaded by warships that oppose the rule of the God-Emperor.

The Death Guard fleet blockading Dozaria was led by the dreaded Terminus Est, a long-abandoned design known as a Despoiler-class battleship. Naval records suggest the warship is unusually powerful, fueled by dangerous and heretical warp-tainted technology.

Flotilla DR-1, commanded by Commodore Gadea Hennard, entered the Dozarian System aboard the Retribution-class battleship Covenant of Hope and was accompanied by six cruisers and numerous escort ships.

The flotilla entered the outer edge of the Dozarian System on 6 085 746, and a Death Guard fleet of equivalent size left orbit above the industrial world of Dozaria to intercept the Imperial arrivals.

The two fleets engaged approximately 39 hours later at a position only 20 million kilometers from Dozaria. As the two opponents raced directly at each other, Imperial warships launched a volley of missiles when the range between the fleets had closed to 60,000 kilometers.

In the early stages of the battle, Flotilla DR-1 launched a massive torpedo attack at the traitor fleet. Some torpedoes hit, but the torpedoes did exactly what Commodore Hennard wanted: It broke up the traitor formation, as enemy warships drastically changed courses to avoid destruction.

“While it could be argued that Commodore Hennard should have waited to fire his torpedoes once the enemy was closer, casualties were not his intention,” reported Captain Jamol Wythe, public liaison officer for the Imperial Navy. ”

The enemy, to avoid destruction from the torpedo spread, was forced to make evasive maneuvers. Two traitor vessels, identified as The Fleshbane and the Withered Soul, turned abruptly to port and were separated from the rest of the traitor fleet.”

Commodore Hennard responded immediately by ordering his ships to redirect their courses directly at the two isolated ships. Two of his cruisers quickly came into weapons range and opened fire.

The rest of the traitor fleet turned hard to starboard, taking minor damage from Imperial torpedoes, but found itself in a poor position to open fire on Imperial ships. The enemy fired up its maneuver thrusters to turn toward the Imperial flotilla, but it took time to make this turn, and Hennard didn’t waste his advantage, Wythe said.

“Four cruisers, along with the Covenant of Hope, brought their port weapons batteries to bear, and unleashed a powerful bombardment upon the enemy,” he said.

One Infernal-class cruiser, identified as the Fleshbane, saw the collapse of its shields and was pummeled savagely by Imperial fire. Within 15 minutes, the traitor ship was a lifeless hulk.

Its sister ship, the Withered Soul, fared even worse. The enemy cruiser was hit by broadside after broadside and, once its thrusters went dead, it was powerless to defend itself as the Imperial flotilla continued to pound the vessel with battery fire and lance strikes.

A final volley of torpedoes, launched from the Covenant of Hope, struck the traitor ship’s prime reactor, and the vessel disappeared in an immense explosion.

Scores of torpedoes race toward the traitor fleet as Imperial Flotilla DR-1 advances on the enemy.

Chaos enacts vengeance

Although Hennard had struck a powerful first blow against the enemy, Imperial sensors warned that the larger force of traitor ships were approaching the flotilla’s flank. The commodore ordered the flotilla to accelerate at maximum velocity.

The flotilla’s response  was tragically uneven, Wythe said. Two Imperial destroyers and two cruisers failed to accelerate in time and found themselves just within weapons range of the enemy.

“At first, it appeared that the flotilla would escape,” Wythe said. “The initial round of enemy fire at extreme range failed to do any damage to our ships.”

The Imperial’s luck eventually failed. Two Cobra-class destroyers were put out of action, and the cruiser Primarch’s Memory was lost. What’s more, a lance strike from a traitor heavy cruiser, identified as the Blightlord, damaged the engines of the Imperial warship, Iron Resolve.

Crippled, the Iron Resolve began to fall behind the rest of the flotilla. Given the enemy was maneuvering to get into his rear, Hennard could not afford to turn and support the stricken vessel.

Instead, Wythe said, Hennard could only watch with frustration as traitor ships launched a half dozen Dreadclaw assault boats at the Imperial cruiser.

Imperial warships turn to bring their starboard weapons batteries to bear on two traitor ships, the Fleshbane and Withered Soul. Isolated from the rest of the traitor fleet (upper top), the two enemy ships (right) were put out of action by the combined fire of seven Imperial capital ships.

One assault boat was destroyed by defensive weapons turrets on the Iron Resolve, but the remainder struck home. Reports from the cruiser described enemy troops—cultists and even traitor Astartes—boarding the vessel in an effort to seize control.

What followed was a bloody close-combat battle in the narrow passageways and cathedral-sized main chambers of the Imperial ship.

In the end, the ship’s contingent of naval breachers managed to prevail, killing the cultists in brutal point-blank-range firefights and eventually overcoming the Death Guard warriors only because of the vast number of naval personnel thrown at the traitors.

Although a notable victory, particularly when confronted by enemy Space Marines, the Iron Resolve could not escape. With its boarding party destroyed, the traitor fleet opened fire upon the Imperial cruiser and destroyed it.

Click here to read the conclusion of this fight.

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