First Battle of Kopt Dara

This article is about a battle in the /tg/ Heresy project, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40k universe.

First Battle of Kopt Dara
Date	094/811.M30
Scale	planetary system
Theatre	Kopt Dara, Destoona System
Status	Imperial Victory
Belligerents
Imperium of Mankind	Osroene Empire
Commanders and Leaders
Hektor Cincinnatus Orion Mucius	unknown
Strength
3rd Expedition Fleet 3 Grand Cruisers 11 Heavy Cruisers 6 Escorts	Osroene "Southern Fleet" 3 Battleships 7 Cruisers 5 Escorts
Losses
1 Escort destroyed 2 Cruisers crippled 41,907 dead 12,823 injured	2 Battleships destroyed 2 Cruisers destroyed 2 Cruisers captured casulaties estimated at 900,000
Outcome
First Legion secure naval superiority in the Southern Theater

The First Battle of Kopt Dara was the opening engagement of the Parthorum Xenocide. It was fought in the orbit of the gas giant Kopt Dara, in the outer system of Destoona. Imperial forces drove through a Xenos broadside to create a deadly melee. Although the attackers took considerable damage, they were able to inflict a severe defeat on the Osroene.

Background

In planning the Parthorum Xenocide, Hektor Cincinnatus determined early on that the Osroene's voidfleets were of pivotal importance. The Xenos relied on a strategy of containment and counter-attack, using planetary forces to slow down attackers until their fleets could arrive. Rather than fight on the enemy's terms, Hektor intended to bring their fleets to battle and destroy them, allowing his First Legion free reign throughout Osroene space. Due to the Xenos' overall material superiority, the Primarch planned to deal with their empire in sections. Rogue Traders had identified the patrol area closest to Sol, a region of space about 50 light years in diameter, and it was within this "Southern Theater" that the First Legion would begin their operations.

Conscious of the need for intelligence, Hektor's first order dispersed the Rogue Traders under his command to monitor the systems of Southern Theater. As was usual practice, a Space Marine officer held formal command of each vessel, but the vessel's original captain took the role of ship's master and guaranteed its smooth running. The sight of Solar-built vessels raised little alarm among the Xenos, who had become accustomed to the presence of Rogue Traders during the preceding months. But despite their innocent appearance, the Imperial vessels were hunting for concentrations of Osroene naval power. Adela Exard's Black Joke, now under the command of Ouragos Markos Priscus, found the Xenos' Southern Fleet docked in the Destoona System at 057/811.M30. Priscus immediately ordered his Astropath to signal the First Legion's HQ that their quarry had been discovered.

The battle

Simplified view of the Destoona system

The arrival of Hektor Cincinnatus' naval force at Destoona's jump points is timed to 073/811.M30. If the presence of the Black Joke had not aroused suspicion, the Osroene reacted promptly to the arrival of a group of seemingly hostile warships. The Southern Fleet made haste for the outer planets of the Destoona System, taking up station at the gas giant Kopt Dara. From this position, the Osroene believed themselves well-sited to plot intercept courses against the invaders. Meanwhile, within the operations center of his flagship, Monarch of the Void, Hektor Cincinnatus held a holo-call with the Legion's senior void commander, Navarch Basileus Orion Mucius. The commanders anticipated that their enemies would draw up in a line formation, using the gas giant to guard their flank while presenting a broadside to approaching vessels. To counter this strategy, they agreed on an aggressive approach. Hektor and Monarch of the Void would lead a large column of Imperial ships to break up the Xenos line roughly in its center. Mucius, aboard the Olympiad would take a smaller column into the enemy's rear. By this tactic, the Third Expedition Fleet's commanders hoped to divide their opponents' forces and defeat them in detail.

The battle initially developed as Hektor and Mucius expected. Although the Xenos were not entirely naive to the Imperial tactics and had deployed a reserve line of escorts in a lower orbit, the speed of advance caught them off-guard and gaps opened up as their ships hastily tried to tighten their formation. Despite their confusion the Osroene mustered a ragged broadside at the oncoming Imperial vessels. The Monarch of the Void was the first ship to come under fire at 094/811.M30, but she withstood several salvos before breaking the Xenos line just ahead of the battleship identified as SFBB-2. Olympiad also took some damage in her approach, but she stayed in control and passed between the Osroene cruisers SFCA-6 and SFCA-7. As the Imperial columns poured into the breach and came about into fighting positions, two semi-connected melees ensued.

At the rear of the Osroene line, Orion Mucius' five cruisers and three escorts faced three Xenos capital ships. Initially, the battle swung heavily in favour of the Imperials. Olympiad's heavy guns ripped open the magazine on SFCA-6 and the resulting explosion not only disabled the cruiser's drive but sent her out of orbit to be torn apart by Kopt Dara's gravity. Ankoresh and Pilum pounded SFCA-7 into scrap, with Pilum taking minor damage in return. However, as Solstice moved to cross SFBB-3's bow, a freak shot damaged her heat sinks and left the Luna-class Cruiser drifting hot for seven desperate Terran minutes while her tech priests battled to seal the gap. Scion of Mercury and the three agile Havoc-class Frigates at the tail of the column darted behind SFBB-3 and raked her stern, doing serious damage but not crippling the Xenos warship. SFBB-3 was able to come about and exchange a broadside with Scion of Mercury, temporarily disabling the cruiser's weapon batteries, before falling prey to a close-range torpedo spread from Olympiad.

The second, larger part of the battle took place at more even odds. Monarch of the Void raked SFBB-2's bow and her sister-ship Monarch of Luna crippled the Xenos battleship with a broadside to the stern. However, unlike at the rear, the Osroene escorts were in position to counterattack the Imperial line breakers. Hektor's Grand Cruisers, together with the Crusade-class cruisers Zetal Heights, Mount Ararat and Blessing of Thunder came about sharply to face the Osroene vanguard and were exposed to a rear attack by the enemy escorts. Mount Ararat and Blessing of Thunder received concentrated fire that left both ships crippled and adrift in the void. Syntagma Ophelos Potitius was forced to order an evacuation of the Mount Ararat when her secondary hull began to fail, while repair crews aboard the Blessing of Thunder worked desperately to avoid a catastrophic failure of the stricken voidship's plasma drive. Meanwhile, Hoplon, Eclipse, Scion of Venus, and Scion of Mercury fell upon SFCA-4 and SFCA-5 and began to hammer the isolated cruisers. From the end of Hektor's column, Brother Demokritos , Brother Eusebios, and Brother Nikanor sharply accelerated to intercept the Osroene escorts and put an end to their flank attack. This timely intervention still left Monarch of the Void, Monarch of Luna and Zetal Heights facing a trio of Xenos cruisers while SFBB-1 slowly turned ahead of them. But the ships ahead of Hektor had little stomach for the fight after seeing the destruction already wrought. SFBB-1 aborted its maneuver and left orbit, while the cruisers remained for a brief exchange of fire before they fled. The battle of the escorts had gone poorly for First Legion, with Brother Nikanor destroyed and Brother Eusebios badly damaged, but the remaining Osroene light ships broke off and followed the vanguard. Only SFCA-4 and SFCA-5, sandwiched between Imperial cruisers, were left behind and these ships promptly surrendered in the face of a hopeless situation.

Aftermath

The action was over in less than a Terran hour. Victory at Kopt Dara gave the Imperials void superiority in the southern portion of the Parthorum Stream. Although the Osroene had more warships to reinforce the weakened theater, their high command would not receive a request for reinforcements until months later. By that time events would have already overtaken their effort to respond. However, the damage incurred at the First Battle of Kopt Dara forced a lengthy delay on First Legion. A heroic salvage effort managed to make Mount Ararat and Blessing of Thunder Warp-worthy again, and prize crews were put aboard SFCA-4 and SFCA-5, but the fleet was hardly in condition to assault the fleet base at Jeglora, part of the inner system of Destoona. The Imperial ships and their prizes got underway again at 094/811.M30 and travelled out to their jump points then back through to warp to Sol. Only Black Joke remained in system, hiding behind the great bulk of Kopt Dara and monitoring the system via satellites.

Jeglora remained a key strategic objective. Hektor would return to the Destoona system and seize the world later in 811.M30, before the arrival of Osroene and eventually Mechanicum reinforcements led to the decisive Second Battle of Kopt Dara.

SFCA-4 and SFCA-5 would be repaired and granted to Rogue Traders as partial payment for their services in the Parthorum Xenocide. Adela Exard took possession of SFCA-4 and christened it the Fat Purse, while Lord Captain Megasu Athon added SFCA-5 to his fleet as the Fortunate Son.

Order of Battle

Data on the Imperial order of battle is somewhat incomplete. Surviving figures on casualties do not differentiate between losses suffered by the Adeptus Astartes and those taken by Auxilia, but as there were no boarding actions it is likely that very few Space Marines died, or were even injured, in the battle.

The Imperial Fleet at Kopt Dara
Name	Class	Commander	Casualties	Damage	Notes
First Column
Monarch of the Void	Repulsive Class Grand Cruiser		98 killed, 440 injured	Light damage	Hektor Cincinnatus' flagship
Monarch of Luna	Repulsive Class Grand Cruiser				Isokratos Vivianus' flagship
Zetal Heights	Crusade Class Cruiser
Mount Ararat	Crusade Class Cruiser	Syntagma Ophelos Potitius	16,018 killed, 2,943 injured	Secondary hull cracked	Evacuated during battle
Blessing of Thunder	Crusade Class Cruiser		9,412 killed, 7,331 injured	Plasma drive breached
Hoplon	Boundless Class Cruiser
Eclipse	Luna Class Cruiser
Scion of Venus	Inferno Class Cruiser
Scion of Vulkan	Inferno Class Cruiser
Brother Demokritos	Havoc Class Frigate
Brother Eusebios	Havoc Class Frigate		683 killed, 212 injured	Badly damaged
Brother Nikanor	Havoc Class Frigate	Syntagma Timaeus Aburius	14,984 killed	Destroyed	Only sixteen survivors
Second Column
Olympiad	Repulsive Class Grand Cruiser				Orion Mucius' flagship
Ankoresh	Crusade Class Cruiser
Pilum	Boundless Class Cruiser
Solstice	Luna Class Cruiser		712 killed, 1897 injured	Heat sinks compromised
Scion of Mercury	Inferno Class Cruiser
Brother Drakon	Havoc Class Frigate
Brother Meliton	Havoc Class Frigate
Brother Solon	Havoc Class Frigate
Support Ships
Black Joke	modified Saturnyne Cruiser	Ouragos Markos Priscus			Owned by Adela Exard. Did not engage in battle

No Osroene records for the First Battle of Kopt Dara were recovered, so their story must be told through enemy eyes. Imperial data shows that very few prisoners were taken at the First Battle of Kopt Dara. Those that were taken are all identified as human crewmen from SFCA-4 and SFCA-5. This is despite two enemy cruisers surrendering and the likely presence of escape craft from destroyed warships. The most obvious conclusion is, most likely, correct - that the First Legion slaughtered the Xenos without mercy.

The Osroene Fleet at Kopt Dara
Name	Class	Commander	Casualties	Damage	Notes
Battle Line
SFBB-1	unknown class battleship
SFCA-1	unknown class cruiser
SFCA-2	unknown class cruiser
SFCA-3	unknown class cruiser
SFBB-2	unknown class battleship			destroyed	identified as flagship
SFCA-4	unknown class cruiser			light damage	captured and granted to Adela Exard, renamed Fat Purse
SFCA-5	unknown class cruiser			minor damage	captured and granted to Megasu Athon, renamed Fortunate Son
SFCA-6	unknown class cruiser			destroyed and deorbited
SFCA-7	unknown class cruiser			wrecked	broken up for scrap in 812.M30
SFBB-3	unknown class battleship			wrecked	used as a target ship in 813.M30
Reserve Line
SFES-1	unknown class escort
SFES-2	unknown class escort
SFES-3	unknown class escort
SFES-4	unknown class escort
SFES-5	unknown class escort
Support ships
SFMS-1	unknown class courier