Battlefleet Orpheus - The Battle of Amarah: In the quarter of a year since the first attack on the Orpheus Sector had begun, Calibron Laan had steadily reinforced the defences of Amarah, until said defences had grown to colossal proportions. With the first reinforcements from the neighbouring Sectors arriving at the capital, the build-up of forces quickly became one of the greatest of the entire Segmentum -- on the ground alone over nineteen million Imperial Guardsmen had been deployed, with ten-times that number of Imperial citizens pressed into the Militia. Battlefleet Orpheus had also been considerably reinforced, the fleet protecting Amarah having steadily grown until it counted more than sixty Cruisers our capital vessels of which at least seven were primus-grade Battleships. The Imperial fleet would be commanded by Knight-Commander Georg Carew, Grand Admiral of Battlefleet Orpheus from the bridge of the venerable Arica Dominus, the same ship that had heralded the inception and conquest of the Orpheus Sector. Alongside these vessels, more than a hundred Escorts belonging to Amarah’s own orbital defences, Battlefleet Orpheus or the Imperial Navy would take to the fight, the coalition further strenghtened by the power vessels at the disposition of the Minotaurs, chief amongst them being the great Assault-Carrier Daedelos Krata. While independent from Battlefleet Headquarters, Asterion Moloc, Chapter Master of the Minotaurs had signified his will to concur with the wider Imperial strategy and perhaps untypically for his Chapter, decided to bow to the will of Amarah’s Imperial Governor.Calibron Laan had explicitly forbidden Battlefleet Orpheus to investigate the fate of the lost worlds, or even to gather information about the enemy’s strength or true nature. Therefore, Grand Admiral Carew had looked after his fleets defences and moulded the battlefield to his liking. On the system’s exterior, Battlefleet Orpheus had deployed a thick minefield around Amarah's Mandeville Point, the location where Warp/real-space translation was safe and could not be interfered with by the sun’s gravity and radiation. The fleet itself was anchored around Battlefleet Orpheus' fleet anchorage of Laymon, orbiting Amarah's third planet -- locally referred to as Laymon -- in order to intercept any formation breaking through the minefield and heading system-inwards, considerably weakening the foe and if possible stopping him from landing any troops at all on Amarah. If the enemy prove to powerful in this first engagement, Battlefleet Orpheus and its allies could still fall back and anchor their second line on Amarah's orbital defence platforms. The battle plan was a sound one, and Carew had much faith that the battle against this mysterious and yet unidentified enemy could be won in space. He could not have been more wrong.When the attack finally came at 1534202 local time of 3970992.M41, the Imperial fleet and Battlefleet Orpheus were totally taken by surprise. No auguries, no deep-space scan had warned the Imperials from the Necron's arrival, nor had the attack been predicted by the visions of an Astropath, seer or Librarian of the Adeptus Astartes. As previously, the Necrons used an unknown technology to disorientate, weaken and disorganise their foes, somehow forcing Amarah's sun to eject matter into space. The star’s projection were so massive that it reached the innermost planet of the solar system, Auric, flash-incinerating everything on its day-side, whilst the radiations, gravitational anomalies and solar winds vomited in space blinded every augury of both fleet and defence grid and caused a total communication breakdown. It was only when battle station Sentinel 4 in deep orbit around Amarah Prime exploded that the reeling Imperial forces realised that battle had been joined. Still at anchor, the fleet could only watch helplessly as the black fleet of the enemy passed them by, utterly ignoring them and heading for the system’s core. Somehow, the Necron had entirely circumvented the exterior defences and appeared deep within the Imperial defences. Moving at a speed no Imperial vessel under his command could hope to match, Grand Admiral Carew watched impotently as the strange silhouettes of the enemy ships headed to the world he had sworn to protect. Ordering the fleet to mobilize and the Arica Dominus to cycle its generators to full power and engage its engines, the armada of Imperial battleships began to stir, but for Amarah it was already too late. By the time a warning could be send, the Necron-ships had already obliterated the interior minefields and destroyed first Sentinel 2, the Sentinel 1, each station harbouring the firepower of an entire cruiser squadron. The station's fiery demise illuminated the night-sky above Amarah, a fiery omen of what was yet to come.While on the ground battle was joined, the naval engagement had not yet started. The Imperial fleet, fuelled by righteous anger was powering at full burn towards Amarah, intent on catching the Necron fleet before it could disengage or flee the system. The Maynarkh however had quite a different goal in mind and turned in perfect unity and a grace that no human ship could hope to match right into the path of the attackers. At the heart of the Necron fleet stood two towering behemoths, two Cairn-class Tomb Ships identified as the Dead Hand and the Sun Killer. Easily dwarfing an Imperial battleship, it would be the first time in Imperial history that the Imperial Navy would face two of these fearful tools of destruction at the same time. The Necrons could further rely on twenty of the so-called Harvest Ships of the Scythe-class, but most oft the Necron fleet was made up of lighter craft of Escort-level tonnage. By conventional wisdom, Battlefleet Orpheus outnumbered its enemy nearly four-to-one, but despite his naval expertise, Grand Admiral Carew had never fought Necrons before.The Imperial warships formed two battle-echelons. The first would be led by Carew himself and the Arica Dominus, which totaled the main force of Battlefleet Orpheus, while the second echelon, closely behind as to exploit any break in enemy formation would stand ready to deliver the killing blow. This second echelon was centered on the relic Assault Carrier, the Daedelos Krata and was almost exclusively made up of the Minotaurs’ warfleet -- three mighty Battle Barges and their escorting Strike Cruisers. Against them, the Necrons had arrayed themselves in a large crescent-shaped formation, with the heavier Cairn-class Tomb Ships at its heart. Despite the affront made to his honour and his burning desire to avenge the ships previously lost, Carew kept a cool head, planning his opening moves with the exactitude and precision of a great tactician. At tremendous speed, the Necrons were still heading towards the Imperial fleet, perhaps in an attempt to break through his formation. Conferring with Asterion Moloc, Grand Admiral Carew asked for the second echelon to slightly fall back as to better intercept any ship managing to break through before matching the enemy’s course. With serene attitude, Carew ordered launch-tubes to be prepared and the Imperial fleet entered the battle proper with a coordinated wave of torpedoes.On the bridge of the Arica Dominus, all eyes were locked on the tactical holo-sphere as hundreds of blue icons, closed in on the enemy ships. Red alarm glyphs suddenly sprang to life as the torpedoes were about to hit their target : scores of torpedoes simply ceased to function, their thrusters powering down and leaving them floating or tumbling on an erratic course, their warheads deactivated by some foul xenos technology. Others even self destructed or cork-screwed on new trajectories that let them bypass the Necron’s flypath. Far too few flew on undeterred, and these were easily avoided by the surprisingly nimble Necron ships or exploded harmlessly on the thick black hull of the large Tomb Ships. Before the Imperial fleet had fully recovered from its shock, both fleets had entered lance range and the Necrons retaliated with their own ordnance. Marked by gravitational distortions and flying close to the speed of light, the cogitators and machine spirits of Battlefleet Orpheus identified the projectiles far too late to alter their course. The venerable battlecruiser Richtenback, next in line to the Arica Dominus itself was struck amidships by just such a projectile : its shields instantly overwhelmed and its fiery demise shacking the flagship to its core - the Necrons were hurling spears of star-matter at Battlefleet Orpheus. Knowing fully well that to call of the attack now was all but impossible, Grand Admiral Carew ordered his ships to come about and rake the Necrons with the full might of their broadsides. The closing space between the two fleets became a blinding storm of blazing lance strikes, super-heated plasmabeams or flying macro-cannon shells and missiles whilst the Necrons answered with a fury of strange emerald blasts. The first casualties began to come in, and the Knight-Commander was horrified to notice what havoc the Necron had wrought within the Imperial battleline; fully a quarter of his fleet had either been destroyed or crippled against so very few xenos-vessels. As the Imperial warships powered away, horror piled on horror as mocking inertia and conventional dynamics of naval engagements, every ship in the Necron fleet made an 180° turn on itself and headed back the way they had come, now bearing on the vulnerable rear-quarter of the Imperial battle line.The second engagement with the Necron fleet was even more murderous than the first pass, as many ships had not recharged their depleted Void Shields and were now attacked from the blindspot created by their own thrusters. Dozens of ships perished not knowing what had attacked them, including the Mendicatus and the Retribution-class Battleship Talisman of Grace, which was cut in two by the Sun Killer’s fire. Frantically ordering his ships to disperse and break formation, Grand Admiral Carew ordered the Arica Dominus to turn as tightly as its veteran crew could manage it, zeroing in on an isolated Harvest Ship and unleashing the full might of its broadside upon it. The Necron ship soon succombed and disintergrated under the cheers of the Arica Dominus’ bridge crew, but that joy was short-lived. The Imperial fleet had fallen into disarray, each ship trying to save itself from the more rapid Necron vessels. Many Imperial bombers and fighters were not shot down by the enemy, but by the defensive fire of their own panicked comrades. The Arica Dominus was assailed by a trio of Necron Escorts which deeply wounded the ship, breaking the ship’s starboard boardside upon and leaving it open to the void whilst disabling its manoeuvering capacity, leaving the relic battleship’s to helplessly tumble around. With the Arica Dominus taken out, and the twin behemoths of the Dead Hand and the Sun Killer in their midst, Battlefleet Orpheus soon fell into disarray and retreated.