Gothic War - Invasion (143.M41): The first outright battles of what would be called the Gothic War were fought as the year 143.M41 came to its close. During the first few months of the conflict, Chaotic warfleets launched a number of wide-ranging attacks against Navis Imperialis bases within the sector.Reports of attacking Chaos fleets flooded in from all across the Gothic Sector as the Warp Storms reached their peak of activity. Much planning must have gone into their all-important first strike, as the Chaos fleets targeted a dozen major Navis Imperialis bases in the sector. With no advance warning, the Traitors struck hard and fast, ambushing Imperial warships as they were in orbital dock or at rest at their stations. Caught unaware and already overstretched by the growing unrest in the sector, the Imperial Navy was poorly prepared to respond to this sudden offensive. At the world of Bladen, the Rhadamanthine had her starboard flight decks blown clean off by spatial torpedoes, while at Cherys, Doomfire bombers from the Heartless Destroyer damaged the Warp engines of the Battleship Lord Sylvanus so severely that it took nearly two years of repairs before the warship could make Warp jumps of greater than 5 light years.Orbiting Imperial space stations also fell to the Chaotic forces, destroyed or captured by the swiftness of the attack. The loss of many orbital shipyards such as Tripol Docks, Port Imperial and Gathara Station was particularly disastrous, not only because Imperial starships were badly in need of refitting, but because they were soon put to use by the enemy. Captain Grove of the Admiral Drake, an old Relentless-class Cruiser used as a Navis Imperialis training vessel, was one of the few survivors of the Chaotic attack at Halemnet Base in the Cyclops Cluster, which was typical of the attacks made by the Chaotic warships. Grove and his crew were lucky to escape the vicious assault. Fortunately for the crew of the Admiral Drake and many other Imperial vessels, the Chaos warfleets were not disposed towards lengthy battles, preferring instead to hit hard and then retreat, leaving the Imperial Navy suffering heavy losses, with many of its capital starships destroyed or needing months of repairs and refitting to return to operational capacity.Yet the Chaos fleets did not achieve total success in their first strikes. In a few battles the Traitor Fleets suffered serious defeats, most notably during the defence of the Hive World of Orar. When one of the many Chaotic warfleets involved in the conflict, led by the Chaos Warmaster Malefica Arkham, ambushed the Imperial battlegroup that was stationed in orbit of Orar, they did not find their enemy taken unawares. Having just received orders to help put down a rebellion in a neighbouring star system, the Imperial battlegroup, led by Captain Compel Bast on the Battlecruiser Imperious, was just preparing to break orbit. Already at full alert status, the Imperial flotilla easily evaded the attackers' initial spatial torpedo salvo and counter-attacked. Aided by the planet's orbital defences, the Imperious crippled the Chaotic Battleship Soulless with a blast from its Nova Cannon and the Imperial vessels went on to score a rare victory against the Chaos warfleet. Only a handful of Chaos Escorts escaped without damage and the Battlecruiser Deathbane and its fleet were pursued out of the system by vengeful Imperial captains.Orar was the only major setback suffered by the Forces of Chaos during the opening stages of the Gothic War. In one incident a small Chaotic warfleet consisting of several Iconoclast and Infidel-class Escorts, heading for a raid on Denerair in the Cyclops Cluster, fell afoul of the numerous bands of Ork Freebooterz in the region. Using their traditional tactic of lurking in an asteroid field for an unwary victim, the Ork vessels emerged from hiding and plunged into the heart of the Chaos fleet. Unable to use their greater manoeuverability in the swirl of asteroids, gas and dust clouds, the Chaos starships were mercilessly hammered by the Orks and not one Chaotic vessel survived the battle. Such occurrences were rare and the Greenskins were as happy to continue attacking Imperial shipping as they were to fight against the warfleets of Chaos.