Admiral Rammscene immediately looked out into space after the warp shields had lifted. He saw to his dismay that the Tau fleet had arrived before the Imperials, but the admiral was confident in his fleet that was at his control. He typed a few commands into his chair and the fleet's status was brought in front of him, he had at his command twenty-five escorts, fifteen frigates, eight cruisers, six vengeance class cruisers, three retribution class battleships and finally his flagship "The Valens". As well as four troop ships and four marine strike cruisers, these ships would hang behind and would not engage the enemy.
Rammscene wasted no time once his fleet dropped from warp. He relayed his orders to all the ships captains, "Men of the Emperor we are tasked with a duty to free the people of the planet Circth from xenos hands. As such our plan is simple we go at full speed and engage the Tau fleet in close quarters battle, and smash the Tau fleet while they are disembarking. The troopships and the strike cruisers along with the battleship "Black Spear" and the escort ships "Tear" and "Raetia" are to take the left flank and land the troops on the night side of the planet, with the marines disembarking first to the locations pre-marked. With that praise the Emperor and let's deliver these xenos death"!
The Imperial ships went at full speed towards the disembarking Tau fleet, missile pods and lance batteries were fired, three Tau ships were destroyed outright, two were crippled. The few idle Tau ships fired back only one escort was damaged. The Tau loosened another volley this time destroying the frigate "Barb" on a lucky shot, though it would not be enough as the Imperials closed with the Tau fleet. "Sir the Tear has been destroyed and the Black Spear is immobile. They appear to have been ambushed by Kroot Warspheres, but they have been driven off sir".
" Full speed towards the Black Spear we need to save those troop ships". Yelled Rammscene.
The Tau fleet was forced to abandon its troops on the ground as the remaining ships limped towards the edge of the system. Overall the Imperial lost six escort, three frigates, and one vengeance cruiser. The Tau lost upwards of thirty ships and a quarter of their landing force. The Tau fleet was forced to the fringe of the system where they would have to regroup and try to swat away the Imperial fleet, which was next to impossible. The Imperial landing had begun and within twenty hours all of the troops would be deployed.
Rammscene finished reading the after battle report, he was extatic of the success of the attack. All that was left was to wipe out the Orks and Tau ground forces which could take months.