Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 4 - Clash
In the Republic's operations room, everyone's expressions were somewhat solemn.

"I'll connect the line," the communications officer said.

“Should we retreat?” Cody asked. “We can use the moon to cover our flanks.”

Obi-Wan looked at the holographic projection.

Cody's idea was to have Lysis act as a shield to prevent them from being surrounded by the numerically superior enemy forces, and then hold out until reinforcements arrived.

If it can be confirmed that reinforcements will arrive, this is a reasonable strategy.

But if reinforcements don't arrive, this strategy will put them in a difficult situation.

At this point, he noticed something.

The separatist vanguard is still advancing, even beyond the support range of their flank squadrons.

"Why are they overstretching their lines?" a sharp-eyed clone naval officer asked. "Their rear defenses can't support troops that far away."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. "This is a bold move. Giving up a numerical advantage like this is something no robot could do."

Cody said somewhat uncertainly, "You think this was done by... someone trying to take credit, sir?"

“Eight frigates, a more balanced force on both sides,” Obi-Wan said after a moment of thought. “If we defeat them, the four frigates that are trying to flank us will be in a completely disadvantageous position.”

“We can take them down one by one.” Cody nodded approvingly, understanding the plan. “I’ll get the soldiers ready, sir.”

……

Captain Raine reported, "We are intercepting a hyperspace transmission signal between the Republic fleet and the planet's surface."

Raine pinched his cheek and asked, "Can you crack it?"

Little Tower: "'Progress Wave' has hacked equipment, but it will take a long time. We should interfere with them."

Ryan pointed out: "If we interfere, they will stop communicating, and we don't want that. A talkative enemy is a stupid enemy. We're starting to crack their frequencies."

Xiao Ta: "Yes, sir."

At this moment, Taylor said urgently, "Sir, we have crossed the second squad's support arc and spotted the target's position at 0-0-0, and—"

"Quiet," Renn said sternly.

He glanced at all the key readings around him. “Descent 20,000 kilometers, into their blind spot. I’m going to… tilt and rotate 16 degrees upwards. On my command, fire the bow-mounted turbine laser cannon.”

This is a dangerous move.

To put it kindly, it was reckless.

However, this is on the premise that the "Victory-class" destroyers carry the light attack fighters that they are usually equipped with.

But they didn't, otherwise they would have been overwhelmed by starfighters by now.

This means these are ground support ships.

In other words, it's an aircraft carrier with weakened air combat capabilities.

Interstellar battles take place in three-dimensional space, but the brains of all terrestrial beings are born adapted to two-dimensional space.

After the Russan Reforms, a relatively peaceful thousand years passed. During that time, most shipyards, except for a few, forgot how to build warships.

This can be seen from the design of these warships.

The design of the "Generosity-class" frigates was flawed.

One peculiar aspect of this frigate design is that most of its turbo-laser cannon turrets are located in the bow and flank of the ship, hidden beneath the extended armor belt that surrounds most of the ship's habitable area.

It is worth noting that the cockpit is not within this layer of protection.

This means that to fully utilize the ship's firepower potential, the target must be below it.

Of course, this meant voluntarily giving up the protective function of the frigate's main armor belt, but Rein felt that this was the fault of Holsch Kessel and his foolish naval designers, not his.

When the cruiser's hull was fully visible through their transparent steel windows, Ryan simply ordered, "Fire."

Sparks flew across the tactical hologram as sixteen gas canisters filled with red turbine laser energy shot toward the abyss.

Seconds later, they struck the ray shield protecting the enemy cruiser's hull.

As expected, the Victory-class destroyers began to list downwards, attempting to bring them into range of their own guns, and accelerated faster and faster.

Since they were trying to break through the blockade, Ryan guessed that their main weapon this time was pure forward momentum. They were falling deeper and deeper into his trap.

“Execute combat order four.” Raine felt a strange, godlike sense of detachment. “Raise the ‘Shadow,’ ‘Necessary,’ ‘Progress Wave,’ and ‘Hound’s Fang’ to 40,000 kilometers. Take it slow. The Jedi are wary of traps. We need to lure them into the encirclement.”

The first squadron was divided into four groups. The four ships below continued to fire at the enemy's bottom, while the four ships above began to rise like whales leaping out of the water.

As various vectors and data flashed before Rein's eyes, he felt like a god, because he could see the Republic fleet's every move, and they couldn't even guess that he was watching them.

Their ships continued to glide forward, sinking deeper and deeper into the trap, while his fleet's course intersected with theirs, and Raine smiled.

……

On the Republic's command bridge, just a short corridor away from the operations room, a group of officers were peering through the operations room's transparent steel windows at the enemy's perplexing tactics.

The separatists divided their vanguard into two layers, and as the two fleets drew closer, they gradually increased the distance between the two layers.

However, the Negotiator continued to list downwards, targeting enemy ships in their blind spot as previously ordered.

Now, they are in trouble.

Obi-Wan's cruisers didn't have ventral gun turrets, so they could only aim in one direction at a time. The question was, should they aim upwards or downwards?

"Cancel that order," Obi-Wan shouted. "Pitch up and concentrate all firepower on the enemy ship above."

The main turbine laser gun turret of the "Generosity-class" frigate is located on the bow of the ship, which means that enemy ships above them pose the greatest threat at this moment.

In addition, the enemy has abandoned all physical armor in exchange for stronger firepower, placing all their hopes on shields.

Now that they had a clear angle of fire, the eight heavy gun turrets of the Negotiator roared to life, and soon the Resolute, Dauntless and Vanguard also opened fire.

The dark abyss was filled with shimmering red and blue beams of light.

Nevertheless, the warnings of the Force continued to echo in Obi-Wan's mind.

A potential warning that he was falling straight into a trap.

But if he wanted to prevent Christopher Sith from falling into the hands of the separatists, he had no choice.

Just as he was trying to perceive more deeply, Obi-Wan felt a sharp sense of awareness and looked up.

There is a situation.

"Sir?" Just as he expected, a voice came from the port side crew quarters, "Sir, I have received an incoming message from the Jedi Council."

The clone communications officer pressed his finger on the transceiver inserted into his ear.

Obi-Wan strode to the edge of the crew quarters, bent down, and asked, "Is it recorded or live?"

The officer checked it and said, "It's recorded, sir."

“Listen from your post,” Obi-Wan straightened up. “What’s going on up there?”

The communications officer pressed a button, fell silent, his fingers still pressed against his ear, listening intently to every word being recorded.

Obi-Wan tried to decipher the message, and a sharp pain shot through his senses.

“It’s from Master Yoda, sir.” The clone looked up at him. “General Wurtz is leading reinforcements to our position.”

“That’s great news,” Obi-Wan said with a sense of relief. “Cody, I need you to check Admiral Trench’s combat records to see if there’s any record of this tactic.”

“I’ve already checked, sir.” The clone commander straightened up. “There are no relevant records.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting.” Obi-Wan crossed his arms. “Help us get in touch with Senator Organa’s headquarters on the planet’s surface. Perhaps Admiral Yularen will know, after all, he fought against Trench.”

……

“Another enemy transmission signal intercepted,” Little Tower buzzed. “The ‘Progress Wave’ has cracked the Republic’s frequency. Should we take over their transmission?”

Raine thought to himself, "The Jedi's radio discipline is really bad."

“Be careful,” he warned. “Taylor, send people to trace the signal source and download the data from their database. I need to know the call sign of the people we’re dealing with.”

"Yes, yes."

Taylor said, entering the command to begin tracing.

(End of this chapter)