Alexis Polux - Battle of Phall: The Imperial Fists' warfleet established a base of operations in the Phall System. The two habitable planets of Phall were unremarkable agrarian worlds, lightly populated and of no great strategic importance. For reasons they could not ascertain, the Warp was calm in this region and the Imperial Fists found that they could navigate to and from the system with some surety. With their astropaths blind, the Legion's commanders grew increasingly frustrated as time wore on. Though a few amongst the senior captains and battlegroup commanders might chafe at Polux's orders, the majority of the fleet's commanders could not fault the young fleet master.The fleet was vulnerable, and an attack was likely. In such a position one needed to create a solid defence and conserve fighting strength. Polux's deployment addressed all of these needs with a direct elegance. The remains of the Retribution Fleet formed a sphere close to the Ocean World of Phall II. Each commander in the fleet led a battlegroup of smaller vessels. Every battlegroup moved on a precise looped course around the watery planet. Together the whole resembled a cage spun from the tails of comets.Captain Polux quickly established a routine. While regular scouting missions were launched into the Warp, the Legion's astropaths busied themselves with trying to break through the Warp storms and make contact with Terra, and in particular also with the Loyalists trapped on Isstvan III. The fleet was kept at full battle-stations and Polux relentlessly drilled his shield-equipped Breacher Squads, honing their skills at war like a blade edge made sharp only by harsh practice. They wanted to be prepared in case of any inevitable boarding actions. When an enemy came, the Imperial Fists needed to be ready. The opinions of others, whether they agreed with Polux or not, were of no consequence -- strength required obedience, not thought.When it inevitably came, the Traitors' attack, led by Perturabo and his Iron Warriors, was sudden and overwhelming. From his flagship the Gloriana-class Battleship Iron Blood, the Iron Warriors' primarch commanded the first one hundred voidships that burst into reality at the same moment. The Iron Warriors vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one upon the Imperial Fists vessel Hammer of Terra. The doomed warship exploded spectacularly as the enemy salvo set off a chain reaction in the ship's plasma engines. Within solar seconds of the death of the Hammer of Terra, twelve of its sisters followed, consumed by Nova Shell explosions and torpedo spreads.The Imperial Fists' grand cruiser Sulla fired a single salvo before enemy macrocannon fire stripped its shields and its hull became molten slag. The six destroyers clustered around it were destroyed in the explosion of the larger vessel's plasma reactor. The Crusader and Legate lasted scant solar seconds longer. They and their escorts were hit by a trio of Vortex Warheads and vanished into the hungering dark.Twenty-four grand cruisers and battle barges made up the tip of the Iron Warriors' fleet. In close formation around the capital ship Contrador they moved as one. They rammed through the debris of their kills, fire and molten metal smearing their prows. Around the Iron Blood hundreds of Traitor warships followed in close formation. Behind them, hundreds more emerged from the Warp to add to the Iron Warriors' fleet.Initially, the Imperial Fists' fleet fragmented under the attack. Flame-wreathed battle barges pulled back, trying to outpace the guns of the Iron Warriors. Heavy cruisers staggered their flight, first one taking fire, then the next, while faster strike cruisers tried to cover the heavier warships as they pulled away. As the golden Imperial Fists fleet broke into pieces, the Iron Warriors continued to press forwards. Smaller ships crippled targets, and then larger ships delivered the killing blows. It was methodical and merciless, like a siege drill eating through rock.Plunging his fleet into the midst of the Loyalist fleet, Pertuabo's strategy was to scatter the Imperial Fists' fleet formation and then to destroy it piecemeal. His plan was dependent upon the Loyalist warships not being able to fight back quickly enough to break the momentum of his thrust. However, Captain Polux and his fleet commanders quickly recovered from the shock and suddenness of Perturabo's attack and fought back. Despite their long sojourn at Phall, they had been kept in a state of constant battle-readiness. This policy paid off for the Imperial Fists as they began to concentrate their fire on the leading ships of Perturabo's fleet.This was what the long solar months of planning had been for, the hundreds of solar hours of training. The Retribution Fleet was ready to resist an attack, but they faced an enemy far greater than Polux had ever planned to face. The Iron Warriors had taken losses, but their strength remained. If the Imperial Fists had broken in the first moments of the battle, they would have died. If they had attempted to fight the Iron Warriors head on, they would have been slaughtered. The Iron Warriors knew their foes' weaknesses, the Imperial Fists theirs. The Iron Warriors had hoped to find the Loyalists unprepared, but they had not cracked after the first attack. The Imperial Fists' defence had snapped back into place like the cogs of a clockwork mechanism.The Loyalist fleet presented an unfixed fortress made of moving strike groups, fading resistance and punishing counter-attacks to their foes. Slower battleships drew fire, pulling Iron Warriors ships out of formation, while on the edge of the battle sphere fast strike groups looped around and through the margins of the Iron Warriors' fleet. They struck again and again, crippling, destroying, trimming warships from the edge of the enemy fleet like fat carved from meat. The Iron Warriors fleet was pulling itself apart as it tried to engage the Imperial Fists, and it bled at every turn. The Imperial Fists rallied and began inflicting significant casualties. The Iron Warriors still had greater numbers, but that margin quickly diminished.The Imperial Fists concentrated their fire at the leading ships of Perturabo's fleet. The impact of this was devastating to the Traitors as their lead ships were torn apart in the firestorm. As the lead ships were battered, the remainder of Perturabo's fleet broke off their attack to regroup. This gave the Loyalists the chance to go on the offensive, but before they did so, the Loyalist fleet's astropaths relayed a critical message to their commanders. The Imperial Fists' astropaths had succeeded in making contact with Terra and the VII Legion had urgent orders to return there, by the will of their primarch Rogal Dorn. These orders came with the highest priority. The Imperial Fists of the Retribution Fleet were not to let anything delay them.Coincidentally, a passage seemed to have somehow opened up in the Warp storms, though the Imperial Fists were not sure how long it would last. If they were to obey their primarch's orders, they had to withdraw from Phall while there was a chance of making it through the storms. Embattled against the Traitors of Perturabo and his Iron Warriors Legion, the Loyalists had an opportunity to force the issue and launch a counterattack against Perturabo's fleet, perhaps dealing a wound to the enemy so severe that the Iron Warriors might never recover. But they had their orders; it was the will of Rogal Dorn that they return to Terra post-haste. And so, sustaining horrific losses, Captain Polux ordered the Imperial Fists' Retribution Fleet to withdraw from the massive void conflict and made good their escape.