Battle of Antares The Battle of Antares was a space fleet battle between the Sontaran and Rutan Empire s . It took place in the Antares system in 2371 . It was the culmination of a long - term Sontaran plan to gain a foothold in the former Tzun Empire and access its rich sources of Terullian . The Tzun were long extinct by this time . The battle was never supposed to take place . The plan called for the Sontaran s to slowly tag the human population of the nearby colony of Raghi in the Unukalhai system with a polymerase chain via a retro - virus in the colony ' s water supply . Meanwhile , another Sontaran operation was taking place elsewhere in the star system . A small Sontaran unit had captured the human outpost on Agni , one of the moons of the gas giant Indra . The humans were hypnotised and used as slave labour to conduct repairs on a damaged Tzun Stormblade , particularly on its graviton drive . Once both of these initiatives were completed , a Sontaran task force under the command of Fleet Marshal Stentor would lay in wait for the Rutans . When Rutan probes arrived , they would detect the polymerase chain tags on the humans of Raghi . The Rutan fleet at Antares would be mobilised to destroy what they believed a Sontaran base . Upon arriving in - system , the Stormblade ' s graviton drive would condense Indra ' s atmosphere , achieving nucleosynthesis and creating a miniature star , wiping out the Rutan fleet . The Sontaran fleet would then move against the unprotected Antares , siphon off their data cores from orbit and destroy the base via orbital bombardment . The Sontarans would be free to move into the Terullian - rich sector at their leisure . The operation did not go off as planned . The Fifth Doctor sabotaged some of the Sontarans ' plans at Agni and also at Raghi and the Doctor ' s allies managed to destroy the aforementioned Tzun Stormblade , but the Sontarans were able to capture the Doctor ' s TARDIS and secure it aboard their flagship , a Linx class cruiser . The Sontarans did not know that the Tzun vessel had been destroyed , and continued with their operation . The Doctor contacted the Rutan probe when it arrived in the Unukalhai system , and warned them of the Sontaran plan . The Rutans decided to surprise the Sontaran task force by leaving the Antares system , jumping back shortly thereafter . The Doctor offered to accompany them in a human ship , and , using a stolen Sontaran transponder code , would board the flagship and lower its shields . The Rutans , suspecting that the Time Lord was after his TARDIS , announced that they would accompany him . When the Sontaran probes detected build - ups in the drive systems of the Rutan vessels and intercepted communications verifying a hyperspace jump to Unukalhai , the Sontaran task force jumped to Antares . At first , they detected no vessels of consequence . Then Rutan vessels began dropping out of hyperspace around the fleet . Despite this , exemplary admiralship by Stentor allowed the Sontarans to hold their own for a while . The Sontaran fleet destroyed many Rutan ships , but lost many vessels . A battle of attrition was fought . In the midst of the chaos of battle , the Intelligence section aboard the Linx - class cruiser decrpyted an important Rutan transmission . It detailed the location of the Rutan queen . Stentor immediately re - prioritised and ordered that the information be downloaded to every vessel in the fleet capable of carrying the data , in hopes that some of them would return to Sontaran space with the intelligence . This forced Karne , a Rutan spy who had infiltrated the Fleet Marshal ' s staff , to reveal himself . He killed the Fleet Marshal , escaped the bridge and sabotaged the ships reactors . With operational failure looming , General Skelp took command and ordered the Linx - class cruiser to ram the Rutan base on Antares . The cruiser exploded , destroying the base and most of the rest of both fleets . A few Sontaran Goban class III gunship s survived to escape . The Rutan fleet was completely destroyed . The war ended in a tactical draw with the Sontarans achieving a strategic victory . Though the Rutan fleet and the base on Antares were destroyed , there were no Sontaran ships of any significance to exploit this advantage . They could not follow up and exploit the Terullian resources of the extinct Tzun Empire , which was the entire point of the operation . However , acquiring the intelligence regarding the Rutan queen was incredibly valuable . There was an immediate re - prioritisation on the Sontarans ' part after the intel reached the Grand Strategic Council . ( PROSE : " Lords of the Storm " )