Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 75 - The Spy (Shamelessly asking for monthly votes, 75 words tomorrow)

The Quill Galaxy, the planet Quill.

Nuri Sector.

Above the azure planet known as Quil, twelve colossal warships hovered silently.

These behemoths were several kilometers long, dwarfing any spaceship Barris had ever seen.

However, when a large number of warships in urgent need of repair require a mobile deep-sea dock, converting cargo ships and bulk carriers into auxiliary fleet repair vessels becomes the quickest and most feasible solution.

Now, the huge gantry cranes that were originally used for loading and unloading containers are being used to provide maintenance services for docked ships.

In terms of resources, the corporate giants of the separatist alliance are never short of money.

Paris stood on the observation platform of the "Express," a mobile dock converted from a cargo ship.

From here, you can just see the communications mast of another auxiliary ship peeking out from the edge of the planet's curved horizon.

These giant ships are evenly distributed on the surface of Quil, with almost no defensive capabilities. They can only rely on the planet's signal interference for cover to evade detection by remote galactic scanners.

In essence, they are still interstellar merchant ships, unable to fly within the atmosphere.

Therefore, they can only carefully maintain a certain altitude, relying on their powerful anti-gravity devices to stay suspended.

The eerie blue flames emitted by those devices stretched downwards from the hull of the ship, like colossal pillars supporting the floating island.

“You need to speed things up, Captain Chom,” Raine said sternly through the communicator. “The ‘Unicorn’ Squadron was supposed to be heading to Odd Tiddle.”

“I’m powerless to help you either, Commodore!” Chom pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly exhausted by Rein’s demanding requests. “My ‘Aurora’ auxiliary fleet is busy dealing with the battles on Commander Schiff and Captain Aviso’s side. Our resources are being prioritized for the Salin front, not… the ‘Unicorn’ rapid reaction squadron, not to mention these barely flyable Atlasken wrecks!”

"We need to find a way, otherwise all our efforts will be in vain. Besides, I'll think of some other solutions!"

After saying that, the signal connection was lost.

Upon hearing the conversation, Lieutenant Lamé Carroll frowned silently.

Who is this person?

Barris couldn't help but feel sympathy; they had indeed safely evacuated all their troops from Atlaken intact.

However, some extremely anti-Republican Atlasians refused to surrender to the occupying forces. These people raided the secret shipyard in Trelos, seized the ships there, and declared their allegiance to the Separatist Alliance.

These people betrayed the Atlaken government.

The question now is whether to take them in or abandon them in the harshness of space.

Ryan did not comment on this, leaving the question to Barris.

Paris had no choice, but then another problem arose: what they called a "ship" could be more accurately described as a "flying metal coffin."

Some of these ships were wrecked warships hastily repaired in the early stages of the war, while others were cobbled together using the limited resources available.

Paris couldn't believe these ships could still travel in space.

Although they lack combat capabilities, they can indeed fly.

As for combat capability, that's precisely the problem that Xiaota needs to solve.

“You know what,” Carroll said softly, pulling her aside, “it’s actually quite reasonable to let a tactical robot command a squadron. Why didn’t I think of that before? A lieutenant shouldn’t have that much power.”

Paris gave a wry smile. It was all orchestrated by Ryan, and she was being pushed forward. "Considering the circumstances when we found you, you should be able to understand."

“Yes, having a robot in command doesn’t look good to the outside world; it lacks trust.” Carol sighed. “However, I’m not sure how ‘he’ will solve this predicament. The Atlanteans came here with us because they trust me…”

His voice trailed off as he looked into the distance.

Following his gaze, Paris saw a supply frigate undergoing aerial refueling, and a row of Atlaken light frigates waiting to be refueled.

Those were all Holgo Schiff's ships, Barris thought of the Muen man.

These ships are being rotated out of the front lines for rest and recuperation.

"Captain!" A Sinot logistics officer rushed over and saluted. "Vijn sent an urgent communication; it's Commander Schiff."

Captain Chom seemed to be suddenly grabbed by something, even as he spoke, “Bring him in.”

The display screen above the console lit up, and Holgo Schiff appeared on the screen.

He scanned everyone present, and only after confirming that everyone's attention was on him did he get straight to the point.

“Your location has been exposed,” Commander Muun said bluntly. “Our intercepted communications indicate that a Republican task force is currently en route to Quill.”

“How…how could this be!?” Captain Chom exclaimed in astonishment. “Our location should be top secret! It couldn’t have been leaked by me. Since arriving in the Quill system, we haven’t conducted any unauthorized external communications!” “A spy has infiltrated our ranks, more deeply than we realized,” Commander Schiff frowned. “Either Bontri’s management is too lax, or someone with high-level deployment authority in our military has sided with the Loyalists.”

“You mean…from the General Staff?” Chom began pacing on the deck, biting his lip nervously. “This is…this is outrageous!”

“Jom, we don’t have time to worry about spies,” Schiff interrupted. “You must get out of Quill as soon as possible. Anakin Skywalker was last seen moving from Salin toward the edge. I will intercept him in Vijon. We’ll split up.”

"You said the enemy is on their way," the captain of an auxiliary ship pressed. "Have you traced the source of the communications? Is it in this area?"

“A radius of 1,500 parsecs,” Schiff confirmed. “You only have one day… or even less. Listen, Chom, we cannot lose the Aurora support fleet. Your command ship is like a mobile Ringo Venda. If necessary, I will sacrifice my Havoc squadron frigates to ensure your escape. Nothing is more important than your survival.”

Chom swallowed hard, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "Understood, Commander."

"This is bad," Carroll muttered to himself.

The auxiliary ship's captain swallowed hard, mustered his strength, and ordered, "All ships, enter yellow alert, prepare to evacuate!"

Before the Sinot officer could relay the order, Little Tower took a heavy step forward, his steel boots striking the ground with a sound like a gong: "Cancel that order, Captain."

His tone was decisive, as if the robot was already used to giving such instructions.

“You don’t know which direction they’ll come from,” the tactical robot continued. “Acting too early would be a mistake.”

Captain Chom struggled to process Little Tower's words, his wrinkles deepening. "Kalia's soul, Shiv, you brainless piece of trash..."

Then, with a sigh of resignation, he said, "Fine, robot, why don't you use your programming to think of a way for us to escape?"

Barris was a little confused at this point, and subconsciously used the Force to probe the thoughts of the auxiliary ship's captain.

His mind was almost completely unguarded, opening up to her instantly.

A slight panic and a deep anxiety welled up in her heart, mixed with fragments of tactical knowledge that were far richer than her own.

Only then did she realize what she had done.

Logically speaking, the enemy is most likely to approach from the Salin Corridor.

However, Commander Holgo Schiff still controls that hyperspace route.

This means that the enemy's task force is operating behind the separatist lines, and therefore they could launch an attack from any direction.

Retreating too early could indeed expose us... or lead us directly into the enemy fleet.

“Maintain yellow alert,” Little Tower nodded. “I will take full command of the ‘Havoc’ and ‘Unicorn’ squadrons. Arrange for all crew members to prepare for an emergency evacuation. We will remain inactive until we see the enemy.”

Chom asked, "What's your plan?"

“Sacrifice one or two auxiliary ships,” Little Tower replied bluntly, “and then escape in the opposite direction.”

Carol opened her mouth silently, making an "ah" sound, her eyes shining as if she had suddenly realized something.

"What's wrong?" Paris asked in a low voice.

“Simple yet ingenious,” Carroll said. “Now I finally understand why the docks are located in these places.”

"To reduce the signal characteristics of their sensors?"

“Yes, look at this…” Carol drew a simple two-dimensional map of the planet on the tablet, with twelve shimmering dots evenly distributed around its circumference. “This also means that no matter where the enemy attacks from, like here…”

He tapped the screen, and a new spot of light appeared at the edge of the 2D image.

Two dashed lines extend outward from the point of light and are tangent to the circumference of the planet.

“See that? Their intra-galactic scanners can’t detect any ships on the other hemisphere of the planet,” Carroll explained, pointing to the diagram. “This maximizes the concealment of our signals from their scanners. Ideally, we can save half the ships, but if we can hold off the enemy long enough…”

“We can have the remaining ships hide behind the tangent line, only needing to sacrifice the support ships closest to the enemy.” Paris quickly understood and picked up on his line of thought.

"But the question is, which ships should be sacrificed?"

Carroll looked up at the ships.

“That’s up to the enemy.” Little Tower strode past them. “Get on board, Lieutenant. We need to prepare for battle.”

However, they didn't even have a day left.

Only five hours left.

"Starfire Dawn reports sensor contact, sir!" Taylor suddenly reported. "Should we reverse-engineer the trajectory of the incoming attack to determine the direction of the enemy's origin?"

(End of this chapter)