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Arriving at the Nadir Jump Point the Taurian Expeditionary Force, was first received with hostility, because the Kuritans thought they were a second wave of invading Clanners. One Battlesat fired at the Taurian ships, but luckily, the shot hit the armor of the TCS Ajax that shrugged the damage. Before the Taurians answered in kind, both sides identified the other, and the situation calmed a bit. As soon as they identified the new visitors, the Kuritans requested their help in dealing with the invasion. Thankfully, for the Kuritans, all the ships were equipped with Lithium-Fusion batteries and after receiving the coordinates, they executed a second jump to the nearest Pirate Jump Point, the one to where the Tenzai was running. For a short moment Marshall Daniel Ostergaard toyed with the idea of sending a single WarShips to deal with the clan JumpShips that were at the Zenith Jump Point, but by this time they were likely to have already recharged, and he was probably going to need all his WarShips to deal with the Clan force.

After a quick exchange of words with the Tenzai as they crossed each other path, the WarShips set course aiming to intercept the Clan WarShips, while the JumpShips launched their DropShips that immediately headed for Luthien, to help defend against the impending invasion.

In response, the Clan WarShips also changed course, their objective being evident - to fight the TDF WarShip force.

The TDF war fleet was composed of the Heavy Cruiser TCS Pinnard (Winchester II Class), the Frigates TCS Parin and TCS Detroit (Concordat Carrier Class), TCS Fury and TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class) and the Destroyers TCS Ajax and TCS Perdition (Ajax Class). This force represented about 60% of the available TDF WarShips, without counting the Pintos, and it had been a risky decision to send such a force on such a long voyage but the Taurian Concordat thought it was worth the risk.

While all this was going on, a considerable portion of the ASFs escorting the Clan DropShips changed course and approached their fleet of WarShips, which slowed enough to catch them before they reached the Taurians range, the Clanners commander had obviously decided that he needed a bigger escort after the losses suffered against the Kuritan fleet.

To the Clanners surprise, the number of ASFs the Taurians launched was much higher than they expected, over 600, while they even with the reinforcements, had about 400. Worse, even before they got within range of the weapons the OmniFighters had at their disposal, and which had so far granted them superior range, the Taurian ASFs launched massive salvos of AAM missiles that proved deadly to the OmniFighers, having some sort of seeker that kept them in sight outside of the most violent maneuvers, or the few clan OmniFighters also equipped with ECM units. But the surprises didn't stop there, since a considerable number of ECM systems, reducing the range the Clan radars could lock weapons on the Taurian ASFs, negated their usual long-range advantage.

Again, the heavier ASFs advanced towards the Clans WarShips, leaving the task of fighting the OmniFighters to the lighter, more agile ASFs. However, this time they were not coming alone. Capital Missiles salvos launched from DropShips that stood at a great distance (Lee Pocket WarShips) were rapidly reducing the Clan escorting DropShips in small leftovers of nuclear explosions. Unlike the dueling ASFs, these not only had massive ECM protection, but the capital missile magazines available for the defense of the Clan WarShips had been considerably reduced in the previous combat.

In desperation, the Clan WarShips began using their Naval Lasers to try to destroy the approaching ASFs, and managed to shoot down a few more.

Radical maneuvers, and in the case of the CSR James McKenna, six Goalkeeper Mk.V, prevented the worst, but even so, the CSR Spur, the CSR White Terror, and the CSJ Snow Leopard were destroyed by nuclear explosions, while the CHH Bucephalus and the CSR White Cloud were damaged. The improved Alamos that the Taurians were using, proved that they have a better lock ability than the normal ones. 

Note: the Goalkeeper is a non-Lore, small craft, which appears in Delranes Fighting Ships 3061 - pages 85/87.

But now some of the WarShips were within extreme range of each other, and the long range weapons, Naval PPCs and Naval Lasers in the case of the Clans and Naval Lasers and nuke typed Capital Missiles in the case of the Taurians began to be used, the Clans having exhausted their Capital Missiles. Seeing the damage his forces had already done to the clan fleet, Marshall Ostergaard, ordered his WarShips to avoid combat if possible, planning to let the job of terminating the Clan WarShips to his still numerous ASFs that were right now returning home to re-arm and refuel as he didn't want to risk a conventional battle against much heavier and more experienced adversaries.

Having run out of Clan DropShips and ASFs to destroy, the Lee PW, tried to concentrate their weaponry on enemy WarShips, using nuclear warheads. Unfortunately for the PW Lees, the HNPPC and NL55 had superior range to the capital missiles, and the Clan WarShips dedicated some of their long range armament to destroying them. Of the initial 8 Lee PW, only one survived. Clearly, Pocket WarShips had no business to do in a fight of WarShips. 

Meanwhile, the Clanners were getting into range. Being the largest WarShip of the Taurian fleet, the TCS Pinnardreceived the attentions of the CSR James McKenna, and in the first exchange of fire unlucky, her armor been penetrated in several places by the heavy weapons of the Mckenna, at least not mortal. The TCS Fury was also in bad luck, being hit at the same time by the HNPPCs from the CSR Blizzard and several shots from the NL45 and the MNPPCs from the CSR White Cloud, and ended being penetrated at several points.

CSR Blizzard luck runs out when a Peacemaker hit the battle-cruiser bow, destroying its entire forward section and ending its long career.

The last Taurian capital missiles with nuke warheads finished off the CSR White Cloud, the battle from this point on would be decided with conventional weapons.

At this point, only the CSR James McKenna, incredibly nearly intact, and the severely damaged CHH Bucephalus remained, against seven Taurian WarShips, even though one of these was in equally bad shape.

The two Taurian Destroyers, the only Taurian warships still in combat range, concentrated their fire on the damaged CHH Bucephalus, finishing it off, even though both received several shots in return, leaving the TCS Ajax slightly damaged and the TCS Perdition moderately so.

At this phase in the battle, all the Taurian WatShips were now out of range from the McKenna, with orders to let the ASFs that were right now in the process of rearming deal with the mighty WarShip.

At the same time, pleas for the surrender of the Clan WarShip were broadcast by the Taurians, that clearly wanted to capture the mighty WarShip if possible. They were left without answer either because the Clan WarShip was left without communication means or because it was trying what to do after suffering such a beating.

Soon, about two hundred heavy ASFs, loaded to the gills with Alamos approached the sole Clan survivor. Salvo after salvo of Alamos hit the mighty Warship until it was little more than a wreck in space, venting atmosphere from several places, with the engines destroyed and without power.

SAR operations were immediately launched, while the Taurian ships started their repairs and the TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class Frigate), undamaged, being the first to move in direction of Luthien IV, to help with that part of the battle.