The Battle of Corvus was an engagement fought between an Alliance fleet under the command of Captain John Geary and a the Syndic defenders of the Corvus system, led by a Syndic Executive Class Officer in command of the garrison on the fourth planet of the system.
Geary's fleet arrived in system to find it minimally defended. Syndic forces consisted of two Nickel Corvettes and a single obsolete light cruiser, as well as the personnel stationed on the fourth world. While proceeding in-system, Geary ordered the First and Second Battle Cruiser Divisions, under the command of Captains Duellos and Tulev, to remain behind at the jump point to engage any Syndic pursuers. He further ordered Duellos' ships to lay a minefield across the jump exit.
Despite Geary's best efforts to keep the fleet in formation, the various ships under his command, still used to the unorganized fighting style then standard in the fleet, broke formation at the first site of the Syndic corvettes, each attempting to get there first and destroy them. While this was going on, Geary attempted to convince the Syndic commander to surrender, but the Syndic officer, constrained by Articles Seven, Nine, and Twelve of the Syndicate Fleet Fighting Instructions, refused.
As the Alliance fleet raced toward the Syndic defenders, a pursuit force consisting of twelve Hunter-Killers and a single heavy cruiser appeared at the jump point, but was promptly destroyed by the combined firepower of Duellos and Tulev's battle cruisers. Their task complete, Geary ordered them to rejoin the fleet. Meanwhile, the main body of the fleet continued to fragment, leaving the vulnerable auxiliaries, particularly the damaged Titan, unescorted. At the same time, the Syndics launched a courier vessel from the base on the fourth planet, attempting to get word out to other Syndic systems of the attack. Geary succeeded in diverting half the ships which had gone after the corvettes into pursuing the fleeing courier.
At this time, the Syndic light cruiser lept into action. An obsolete design with extremely overpowered engines, the ship proved capable of extreme acceleration, and used this in a mad dash to get past the Alliance fleet and attack the Titan. Geary was forced to maneuver the Dauntless into position to intercept and destroy the Syndic cruiser. Ultimately, the Alliance succeeded in destroying the light cruiser, one of the corvettes, and the courier, which was prevented from escaping. The second Syndic corvette, PC-14558, surrendered and was stripped of parts and supplies and, once its crew had abandoned ship, was destroyed.
With no Syndic warships remaining, the Alliance fleet was free to move about the system as it wished. An Alliance marine force assaulted the Syndic base on the fourth planet, neutralizing remaining Syndic opposition and seizing vital supplies, as well as destroying a majority of the base. Now resupplied, the Alliance fleet completed its transit of the system unimpeded, departing for Kaliban some time after the battle.