Orar Raid

The Orar Raid was a battle early in the Gothic War where a Chaos warfleet led by Warmaster Malefica Arkham tried to launch a surprise attack on the Hive World Orar.²

Unlike many such Chaos attacks up to that point, the defenders of Orar were far from taken awares. In fact, an entire battlegroup,² led by Captain Compel Bast on the Mars Class Battlecruiser Imperious ¹, was preparing to leave orbit to help put down a rebellion in a nearby system and was already on full alert. They easily avoided the raiders' initial volleys and launched a vicious counter-attack.²

Losses were extremely heavy for the traitor fleet as they tried to escape: the Slaughter Class Cruiser Soulless was crippled by a Nova Cannon hit from the Imperious and then destroyed by lance fire; a second Slaughter, the Deathskull, was reduced to a hulk by bombers from the Imperious and was destroyed as it fell out of orbit¹; even Arkham's own flagship, the Deathbane, had its bridge smashed by fire from the Iron Duke.²

In the aftermath of the battle, the Imperious was outfitted with a salvaged targeting matrix, and Captain Bast received the Solar Cluster for the actions of his ship and crew.¹

Sources

• ¹:Battlefleet Gothic Resources: Ships of the Gothic Sector p108 (accessed 2010.11.22)
• ²:Battlefleet Gothic Resources: 41st Millenium p94 (accessed 2010.11.24)