Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 2.2 - Torpedo
This piqued Ryan's interest.

The "Invincible" launched heat-seeking missiles, while the enemy ship used stealth devices to conceal its own heat radiation.

However, this is not the only way to find a stealth spaceship.

"Keep the active scanner constantly on the starboard flank," Ryan immediately ordered. "Scan for thermal, electronic, radar, magnetic field... anything that can help us identify that spacecraft."

Little Tower: "This will take time, sir."

“I want the ship to roll 20 degrees to port,” Ryan said, annoyed by the android’s obvious statement, frowning. “Cover the area where the target was last seen with laser fire…be careful not to hit friendly fire.”

As the frigate's powerful turbo-laser cannons began firing into the almost empty space, tiny sparks appeared on the tactical hologram, and soon the Invincible's massive quadruple heavy turrets joined the fray.

Soon, the area between the two ships turned into a deadly crossfire zone, with tactical displays filled with blinding flashes.

A few minutes later, Xiaota said, "No target detected."

“Cease fire,” Ryan then ordered. “Calculate the probability.”

"I calculated that the probability of that spaceship avoiding our combined firepower is 0.8%."

“But it did dodge,” Raine raised an eyebrow, thought for a moment, and then said, “Change the pilot variable to Jedi and recalculate.”

Renn could almost hear the sound of the small tower's computing processor overloaded as it performed calculations using such a difficult-to-quantify variable.

He guessed that the robot was sorting through every combat record with Jedi Knights serving as starfighter pilots to arrive at an average skill level, and then somehow converting it into an integer before substituting it into an equation.

"I calculated that the probability of a Jedi avoiding crossfire is 6%."

This number struck Renn as odd; it was too regular and unlike Xiaota's usual calculation style.

"You tried your best."

However, considering the low probability of avoidance, the only reasonable speculation is that this Jedi Knight was an exceptionally good pilot, even by their standards.

Raine began to think about which Jedi were known for their excellent starship pilots.

He regretted not watching the movie more carefully.

He only knew Anakin Skywalker because in the first movie, when Anakin was eight years old, he blew up a battleship.

"Damn protagonist's halo..." Renn muttered.

"Error: 'Protagonist Aura' does not exist in my database," Little Tower buzzed.

Raine waved his hand to tell him to mind his own business. "It means that someone is protected by... uh, the Force, so much so that they don't die even when they should be dead."

“The Force is not a quantifiable variable,” the robot complained.

"I hope it is, man, I hope it is..."

“Uh—there’s a communication signal on the open frequency, sir,” the communications robot said. “The signal is from the Invincible.”

“You stay at your post and listen in, then report back to me,” Ryan said. “Little Ta, how are the scan results?”

“No signal of any kind was detected,” the small tower reported.

“There are no completely hidden spaceships,” Ryan cautioned. “Scan again.”

“The fleet commander is provoking us, sir,” the communications droid said. “He told the Jedi Knights they should retreat because he’s dealt with those kinds of ships before.”

This confirms Ryan's hypothesis that even space submarines can be detected in some way.

They had to be prepared, because that ship would definitely launch another torpedo attack.

Submarines can be used as ships to break through blockades or to attack escort fleets.

In some cases, they can even sink capital ships.

Given that the ship could have easily broken through the blockade, Ryan dared to say its mission was to take down the "Invincible".

“The Jedi Knights won’t retreat,” Raine tapped his chair. “Aim those turrets at our starboard side, and when they show themselves, I’ll make them eat their fill of Tibana gas.”

"As ordered."

Ryan stared intently at the tactical display screen, his gaze tracing the virtual grid that divided this area of ​​space.

He silently counted down the time in his mind, wondering how long it would take for a space submarine to reload its torpedo tubes.

A new target has emerged. Ryan checks the display screen.

A robot read aloud what he had seen, “New target orientation relative to 134,329, speed and distance—” “Did you just come from the factory?” Ryan asked impatiently, “Don’t repeat those attitude vectors, just label them on the readings!”

“Sorry, sir,” a B1 robot next to him patted the errant robot’s metal head, “Number 5008 was just assigned to us during the last overhaul.”

Rein ignored them and turned to ask Xiaota, "Signal situation?"

"No electronic signal, weak thermal signal—locked magnetic field signal," Xiao Ta dutifully reported. "System warning: Cannot fire."

“No, of course we can’t fire.” Ryan covered his face with his hands in frustration.

The stealth spaceship changed direction.

During the time they lost track, it circled around to the other side of the Invincible, and now the Dreadnought stood between them and it.

The ship's visual lock-on wasn't even visible from the cockpit.

“Let’s keep on the same longitudinal axis as the Invincible,” Ryan sighed. “Hopefully, the fleet commander can control the situation.”

Suddenly, four bright dots appeared on the tactical display screen: torpedoes.

The halo surrounding the "Invincible" signal dimmed—the flagship had just lowered its specially designed thermal shield in preparation for launching a counterattack.

As these projectiles passed through the grid, the enemy ship's radar signal disappeared.

“The enemy target’s thermal signature has been lost,” Little Tower said. “We are still tracking its magnetic field signature.”

"Write it down for future reference."

The torpedoes suddenly turned, like hounds tracking an invisible scent, and Ryan realized that they were ultimately tracking the spaceship's magnetic field signal.

Then, the radar signal reappeared, and the vector readings jumped wildly.

The spaceship began to accelerate, reaching speeds almost like a torpedo, then changed direction and hurtled straight back towards the "Invincible".

Ryan fiddled with a knob, intently observing the readings around the "Invincible".

The signal was still very weak, and even as the stealth ship and the hound-like torpedoes that were tracking it rushed toward its starboard bow, its shields remained down.

"...Trent can't raise the deflector shield?" Renn muttered to himself incredulously.

Little Tower: "The thermal shield cannot be raised while it is charging."

"What the hell?" Renn gritted his teeth. "Get me on the bridge communications for the 'Invincible'! Now!"

Every second felt incredibly long as the enemy ship and the torpedoes behind it raced toward destruction.

Upon hearing the synthesized voice from the small tower, Rein's ears perked up, "Communication is complete..."

"Fleet Commander!" Renn practically screamed, "Give me the fleet command codes, now!"

"Captain Bontri..."

"Damn it... hurry up!"

A new beam of light shone in through the window, and Renn squinted. Even the robot couldn't help but turn its metal neck to watch as the forward bridge of the "Invincible" disintegrated in a fireball.

In the smoke, the spear-like hull of the space submarine flashed by, disappearing through the observation window and toward the planetary surface behind them before the Repulse's automatic firing system could react.

The flagship of the blockade fleet, the "Invincible," a "Heavenly Blessed" class dreadnought, began to tilt in real space, lost power, and was held captive by the planet's gravity.

“Give me a preliminary scan report of the ‘Invincible’,” Raine ordered weakly, panting. “I need to know the extent of the damage and how long it will take before it can be back in combat.”

The transceiver on Ryan's command chair started beeping, indicating that a new data transmission had been received.

His intuition told him something was wrong.

As usual, Little Tower reported dryly: "'Repulsion' has received the control code for the blockade fleet, sir."

This news gave Ryan a much-needed boost.

He used all his strength to restrain the urge to jump up from the chair.

If Trench weren't probably already a particle drifting in the solar wind, he would have loved to kiss the other's fluffy, round head.

"Alright, everyone!" Renn clapped his hands. "Synchronize the fleet with the password; I think our current situation is critical enough! Given that our esteemed fleet commander is missing, I've decided to promote everyone! Activate the sublight speed thrusters—Little Tower, do me a favor and plan a vector route to approach the enemy fleet!"

(End of this chapter)