Bab 39: Naval Battle of Naboo(3)
"Your Grace! Power should be back on within 5 minutes." Admiral Jaime said, shit. This wasn't good.
The bombing squad would arrive in about 3 minutes, and without any shields, they would break our ship in two.
"Connect with the other ships and rely on information from them, how far out is the incoming bomber unit and what's the status of the main Lucrehulk." I said as I looked at the guy with a hand-communicator.
He repeated the orders and soon got a response.
"The bombing team is approximately 2 and a half minute away. Traveling at about 1100 kilometers per hour. They are about 46 kilometers out." He said and I nodded.
"What about our relief starfighters?" I asked again and he reasked the question into the mic.
"They are about 59 kilometers out and traveling at 1350 kilometers per hour. If statistics are correct then they'll intercept the bombers the second they pass through our first line of formation, mainly Munificents." He said and I nodded.
"And what about the main Lucrehulk?"
"Reports and scanners show their hull is at 20% integrity, we're launching a bomb run currently, they're about 30 seconds out from the Lucrehulk. But our fighters are getting pinned down and struggling to defend the 60 remaining bombers." He said.
Already lost 20 bombers, shoot.
"What's our casualties?" I asked and he sighed, fuck that was bad news.
"We've suffered immense fighter casualties, we've lost about 93 Z-95 Headhunters, they've suffered the brunt of the casualties, due to the Vultures being able to heavily outmaneuver them. Meanwhile, the Alpha-V is a perfect counter to the Vulture, and with our trained pilots we've lost about 19 ships." He said and I nodded.
"Who's leading our relief support?" I asked and it got followed through to one of the Gladiators.
"Apparently Fenn Rau took his elite squadron, they're ahead of the rest." He said. Great, his unit came from Mandalore and they're a part of our best fighters.
"Order all ships to focus their laser turrets and point defense cannons on the Vultures, we need to clear a path for the interceptors." I said and he nodded, passing it to every ship.
"Order the DP20s to retreat, they're slower so they need to head back first. Secondly, order all warships to focus fire on the main Lucrehulk." I exclaimed and he nodded again, passing it to the other warships.
And with that, I got a macrobinocular and took it out.
I zoomed in on the main battlefield.
I could see one Lucrehulk slowly going backward, with 3 Lucrehulks behind it speeding forward with all their might.
However, what was most noticeable was the swarm of blue and red bolts flying around.
About 8 kilometers away from the Lucrehulk. You could see a different type of formation. Usually, there would be 2 sides clashing and then splitting into squadrons.
Instead, it looked more like a spear flying through space, V-shaped fighters encircling the spear, with about 60 H6 Bombers in the middle. All around there were hundreds to thousands of Vulture-Class Droid Fighters throwing themselves against the spear.
However due to insufficient starfighter leadership, instead of attacking the back where there was nobody protecting the back of the fighters, they were charging the front, where whenever they tried to follow and dogfight a starfighter, another behind it would just blast the Vulture.
If they had attacked the back and then laser them from behind, we'd need to split up to protect the bombers, where we would have been easy pickings.
But me and Commodore Flint predicted that the Trade Federation never truly appointed a true starfighter overseer or used any tactics, as there currently does not exist a naval power capable of overpowering their swarm of fighters, mainly due to the Ruusan formation.
One might say we're overpowering them now, but that's incorrect. The battle has been going on for a bit over 6 minutes and we're already forced to retreat and our capital ship is down for the count.
Their leader is somehow competent due to their decision to call his warship back, but truly it's too late.
He doomed himself when he organized this position.
The two forward Lucrehulks are down for the count due to our powerful ion cannons and proton torpedoes, their main reactor is down for the count.
The 3 Lucrehulks in the back cannot fire due to the fact the 2 in front are blocking their firing range.
Personally, I would have them go straight up to get over the 2 forward ones, but the Commander obviously cares more about protecting his capital ship.
He's even using his heavy turbolasers against fighters. If he had focused fire on the Valiant once the ion cannons hit then we'd have lost, that simple.
But he gave us ample time to form a defensive perimeter and unless he has a godly talented gunner he won't be able to predict the turbolasers to fall perfectly on our ship. And sadly droids do not have that talent.
Slowly the bombers were closing in on the Lucrehulk. You could see the enemy commander getting more and more desperate. He increased the launching speed of their fighters, began turning the ship around, and was going straight upwards, to jump into hyperspace.
However, it was too late, through the combined effort of the escort fighters and the bombers they pushed through the Vulture flak and sped towards the Lucrehulk.
As they got within firing distance the Bluurg H6 Bombers each released their remaining proton torpedoes, coming out to a total of 120 proton torpedoes.
Immediately after it was released every single fighter and bomber averted their course, heading straight towards us.
However, again the greed and incompetence of the Commander showed. Instead of hunting down the now retreating swarm of fighters, he ordered a suicide swarm.
All fighters between the Lucrehulk and the proton torpedoes sped straight at the torpedoes, attempting to take them head-on. And it kind of worked. But if even a single torpedo got through they would die. Hundreds upon hundreds of Vultures headed straight for the proton torpedoes, however, due to their small size and quick movements it was extremely hard.
And even worse, those that were behind the proton torpedoes and were hunting down our forces before began launching a flurry of laser bolts, trying to hit the torpedoes.
This tactic kind of surprisingly worked, but it would only work with the droid fighters. Any human or organic fighters would never allow this tactic.
I had a datapad, which showed the Lucrehulk and the proton torpedoes on a scanner. As they reached 1 kilometer away there were 110 left.
At 900 meters there were 105
At 800 meters there were 95
At 700 meters there were 75, the defenders now launched the last of their fighters.
At 600 meters there were 52, now the Vultures shooting at the proton torpedoes began hitting the suicide vultures.
At 500 there were 40
At 400 there were 32
At 300, 21
At 200, 10
At 100, 5
At 20, 3
At 10, 2
I slowly watched as the last 2 proton torpedoes went through the last Vulture, and I knew they would hit.
However, a Vulture left the hangar just before they reached the Lucrehulk. And I turned on my comms as it was 4 seconds away
"STEER ONE OF THEM INTO THE HANGAR." I shouted into my mic, and just as it was about to pass the hangar, it slowed down and did a hard right, going straight into the Lucrehulk.
And with that, I relaxed.
The 1st Proton torpedo hit the Core of the Lucrehulk, creating a massive hole and completely disorienting the systems.
And then the last proton torpedo went straight into the reactor, causing a massive explosion.
And with that relief went through my body.
If that didn't work then I'd order an all-out retreat.
However, I still had work to do.
"What's the status of the boarding parties?" I asked as my neck turned at incredible speeds to the communications officer.
"Hold up, sir." He responded as he talked into his mic and got a response through his one-eared headphones.
"Reports indicate that both teams have taken control of each of their command centers. They've shut down all droids and are waiting for hyperspace coordinates." He said and I began thinking.
They were facing the Kira hyperspace route, however, we were in the way and we couldn't make any direct movements.
"Order the Munificents to get out of the way of the Lucrehulks! Clear a space for them to jump to hyperspace." I said and he again replied with the order. Meanwhile, all around me, I could see people running around. Systems were slowly starting up, it had now been 2 minutes since it went down.
I turned my head to look at the incoming bombing squad.
They were under heavy flak from our 14 Carracks, 5 CR-90s, 2 Gladiators, 4 Munificent and 12 fighters.
Fenn Rau Squadron had just barely entered the firing range, however, they were too far away to do any damage, and the other 2 squadrons were still out of range.
However it was truly working, we had already cut down 4 Vultures and 12 Hyena-Bombers, so currently 36 Hyena-Bombers and 8 Vultures were speeding towards us.
However, if even one Hyena hit us, we'd be dead.
Soon enough 10 seconds passed as Fenn Rau's squadron entered the range to actually do anything.
The 8 Vultures then turned around at incredible speeds, towards Fenn's Squadron.
I could see Fenn's signature fighter speed ahead, overheating its engines as it unleashed a flurry of attacks upon the incoming Vultures.
The Vulture flew in a wave formation, which is what they were programmed to do. 4 in front and 4 in the back.
It had its advantage in reducing casualties, due to using the forward wave as a shield, but a disadvantage in reducing firepower.
However, Fenn Rau overcame this, by simply overheating his blasters. He shot 4 precise shots at each of the forward 4 fighters, but then his true capacity came through.
2 shots were in front and 2 in the back. One of the first shots hit the Vulture's left wing, spiraling it out of control, but before that, the 2nd hit its head. Shutting it down.
And just as the Vulture passed under its second wave copy, the 2 next shots hit the head, shutting it down.
However he didn't wait for it to happen, by the time he shot one, he rolled to the left, shot another 4, rolled to the left, and did the same, until he had shot 4 shots at 4 different locations.
And as the last fighter died, he sped through it alongside the rest of the squadron that had caught up.
And then the show of skill that particular squadron had. They had an amazing 25% hit rate. Meaning they hit 1 out of 4 shots.
With 20 seconds until they reached bombing range, the remaining bombers were demolished. The continuous fire from behind, in front, and from the side. Took its toll, even on droids.
Every second 2 Hyena-bombers died.
So after 16 seconds, a whooping 32 Hyena-Bomer were dead, and only 4 remained.
However, most of the fighters had overused their guns and now needed to cool down.
As the 4 Bombers came closer and closer, my body began shaking more and more. I was staring death in the eyes, with death being 4 seconds away.
"PREPARE FOR IMPACT!" I shouted as everyone held onto something. However, every eye was on the 4 bombers evading fire from all sides.
The CR-90s were shooting from every single one of their cannons, the Munificents used every gun except the DBY-827 to shoot at the bombers. And the Gladiators tried to be in the way of the bomber.
As they reached the tip of the VSD Dauntless, a single one was shot down and went under our ship.
Fear spread through every crewman on the decks eyes, and a few veteran ones had even accepted their fate.
However, defying all odds. Fenn Rau sped ahead once again.
He had been in the back for most of the time, keeping his fighter's systems heated properly after his overuse of them earlier.
However, his fighter had once again defied all odds as it flew straight behind the bombers, unleashing fire once again, as his starfighter shot down one, the left wing blew out and it barely evaded crashing into our sides, but it went past it and into deep space.
He then shot down a second one, this one wasn't so fortunate for us and it went straight into our deck, but our hull could take it.
And then the last, he shot 4 shots, and relief spread through my eyes, we would not meet our end today.
But then against all odds, and fair programming the droid somehow evaded every single shot as it went straight down, and a proton torpedo showed from under the bomber.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Fenn's fighter slowly shutting down as black smoke came out of his fighter.
He however, decided to sacrifice his fighter and potentially himself as he once again, used all power, and went over his max of 5200 G's to reach an approximate range to shoot at the bomber once again, he managed to get out 2 shots as his fighter short-circuited and began spinning down to our deck.
I watched as the laser hit its target, the first bolt hitting straight into the droid's head, however, it wasn't dead yet.
It launched the proton torpedo.
I could see it speed towards us, but that was when I saw Fenn's second blaster.
He predicted the fucking launch. It was the thing I thought as the laser hit the proton torpedo and it exploded.
My mind went into shock due to the fast process and changes that had happened these last 2 minutes.
However, I regained my control.
"Send a search party after Fenn!" I shouted, just in time for the systems of the Valiant-Class Star Destroyer 'Dauntless' to start up again.
Wow, of course, it had to start now.
__________________________________________________________________
FINALLY OVER WITH THE NABOO CONFLICT!
Now I can finally go towards the fun parts of the actual start of the Clone Wars,
Also, I'll either be posting irregularily or with worse grammar this next week, my laptop got destroyed and I'm heading on vacation, so I'll write from my phone.
Additionally I'll make a lot of changes to the Clone Wars, expect an actual war and stuff.
4 advance chapters at Patrion.
patrion.com/pondsfyre
It really helps me stay motivated by getting a few donation. And maybe if we all are lucky i get grammarly premium and we get some better grammar :)
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