Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 181, Section 183 - Retreat?

The "Resilient" hurtled through the void, its engines spewing out a heart-pounding torrent of energy, its hull structure groaning under the extreme thrust.

Brigadier General Kendall Ozer's heart was pounding in his chest, almost as if it would jump out of his throat.

When the lights of the engines on the enemy front suddenly went out, followed by the bright signals that indicated weapon charging and shield activation, a cold, stinging sensation instantly spread throughout his body.

He couldn't tell whether it was the extreme tension brought about by this suicidal charge, or the ship's damaged inertial compensators that were futilely trying to counteract the enormous stress generated by the overloaded main reactor, but were proving ineffective.

"Sir!" an officer in the data processing area reported, his voice trembling slightly, "The detectors indicate that the enemy's 'Vulture' robot fighter squadron is in full retreat!"

Jedi General Rhys Alrix lowered his head slightly to look down: "All of them?"

"All personnel confirmed to be out of contact area, sir!"

“Very good.” Aleks’s voice was flat. “Maintain the current acceleration and heading.”

"Understood, sir!" the officer replied immediately.

Ozer suppressed the turmoil in his heart and stared intently at a reading.

Relative speed – 35000 km/s!
More than one-tenth the speed of light!
This was by no means any tactic from a textbook, and even the most rigorous training could not keep him calm in the face of such insane speed.

The “Resilient”, no, the entire “Mediator Task Force”, is being pushed to the limits of physics, all in an effort to penetrate the separatists’ defenses before they can see through their true intentions!

“Five minutes…contact.” He uttered the word almost silently.

It's not "interception," but "contact."

Their goal was never to fight this separatist fleet.

"Execute the operational command package," General Aleks suddenly ordered.

However, the moment the encrypted narrowband command was sent out, the bridge's detector array was suddenly engulfed by a violent energy tsunami!

More than two hundred different types of sublight-speed engines started up simultaneously, reversed propulsion, and ran at full power. The intense heat and massive radiation they emitted instantly overwhelmed all valid signals!
Through the light-blocking layer of the observation window, one can see a series of dazzling white spots of light bursting out along the width of the Salust star in the originally dark void!
The relative velocity readings began to drop precipitously:
-
34000 km/s
-
31000 km/s
-
27000 km/s...

"The enemy is retreating!!" an officer shouted, his voice trembling with urgency. "They're slowing down and turning at full speed!"

General Aleks remained expressionless: "Maintain current acceleration and heading."

Ozer couldn't possibly remain so calm! "I need a detailed report! Are they advancing in reverse? How has their formation changed?!"

"Reverse propulsion confirmed! Sir! They...they are turning en masse, pointing their broadsides at us!"

A tactical alert instantly rang at the highest level in Ozer's mind!
He practically lunged into the data processing area, shoving past an officer, his eyes glued to the tactical display screen.

On the screen, the vector line representing the Confederate fleet's course is bending and contracting violently, deflecting as a whole towards port.

The speed of contact continued to plummet, while the expected contact time began to increase. He quickly reported to the general: "General! The enemy has completely switched from an offensive posture to a defensive one! They have abandoned the encirclement plan! But precisely because of this, they are now facing us with full flank fire! At our current speed and direction of contact, it is almost impossible to break through such a strong flank line as originally planned... We will be torn apart by the enemy before we can successfully break through... The lessons of the Battle of Centares are still fresh in our minds!"

Aleks frowned. "Aren't they trying to surround us? From this position, I don't see how they can possibly carry out an encirclement."

“This only proves one thing, General,” Ozer said, his tone tinged with frustration and a hint of annoyance, “that our true intentions have been seen through! The Separatist warships’ firepower advantage is concentrated on their broadsides. Facing a well-prepared line of fire, attempting to break through would be tantamount to suicide, as the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Centares has fully demonstrated.”

The Jedi General narrowed his eyes, shifting his sharp gaze from Ozer to the bizarre void outside the observation window, now illuminated by the Confederate fleet's turn.

The bridge fell into a deathly silence, with only the roar of the engines and the faint hum of the instruments.

“Sir?” Ozer couldn’t help but break the silence.

"...Tsk."

Rhys Alrix let out a perfectly clear click of his tongue, which sounded particularly abrupt and loud in the silent bridge.

“Sir?” Ozer’s heart sank. She turned around abruptly, and Ozer caught a glimpse of a deep, almost undisguised anger flashing across her face.

Her Jedi robes billowed violently with her sudden movement.

Under the astonished gazes of dozens of officers, she strode across the bridge, clearly intending to leave her command post.

Ozer cursed under his breath and quickly crawled out of the data processing area. "General!? Please advise! What's our next move?!"

“Send a message to General Grant and the Twentieth Military District,” Aleks ordered without turning his head, “requesting reinforcements and making it clear to them that we have encountered Ryan Bontry.”

"What about the enemy in front of us, General?!" Ozer pressed.

“The enemy?” Aleks paused, as if only then remembering that the battle was not over. She turned her head slightly. “…Retreat to the original blockade position. I need to meditate…to clear my mind. We’ll try again in sixteen standard hours.”

After saying that, she took another step, her figure passing through the automatically sliding, heavy blast-proof door and disappearing around the corner of the passageway outside the bridge.

The entire bridge seemed to have been paused, falling into an eerie stillness.

"What are you all standing there for?!" Ozer's roar shattered the silence, his voice filled with suppressed rage. "Didn't you hear the general's orders?! Immediately order the entire fleet to adjust acceleration and disengage in an orderly manner! Return to the Salust orbital blockade point!"

"Yes, sir!" The bridge was activated instantly, and the officers hurriedly carried out the order.

The helmsman carefully maneuvered the massive "Resilient" to slow down, his movements as gentle as if he were holding a priceless yet fragile relic.

As the physical pressure on the ship gradually lessened, Ozer's sense of frustration grew heavier.

He looked at the tactical display screen again, his gaze sharply tracing the original course of the "Endurance".

That line pierced through the Confederate fleet's simulated formation, pointing straight into the depths of the Sulurub asteroid belt...

Ultimately, it points to the five massive and cumbersome auxiliary ships that the separatists brought into this star system!
Ozer hadn't paid much attention to them before; they were busy repairing Ventress's dilapidated fleet and were just repairmen.

But the Jedi General clearly doesn't see it that way.

Why did the enemy react so strongly?
There's only one answer: they figured out our true objective and were terrified!

Those auxiliary ships... are far more complex than they appear!
“Lieutenant,” Ozer pointed to the auxiliary ship icon on the screen, “retrieve all the analysis reports on those auxiliary ships, immediately!”

The sensor officer looked up, puzzled. "Sir? Nobody would take an auxiliary ship directly to the front lines. That's common sense."

"Therefore, they must possess some crucial element that we haven't yet grasped!" Ozer stated decisively. "Use all available detection methods to scan, analyze, and compare databases! I need to know everything about them!"

"Understood, sir!" The officer immediately got to work.

Kendall Ozer gazed one last time at the doomed flight path.

If General Aleks' plan succeeds... it will be a suicide charge with no return.

Even if they successfully penetrated the enemy lines and entered the asteroid belt, it would mean being surrounded and completely isolated from the relatively safe blockade point in Salust orbit.

But this Jedi general firmly believed that if the definition of "victory" was not the annihilation of the enemy, but rather the deprivation of the enemy's ability to achieve its strategic objectives, then these five unassuming and clumsy ships were the crucial key.

Judging from the enemy's reaction of protecting them at all costs—

"It seems... this Jedi general was right again."

Ozer stared at the dot on the screen representing the auxiliary ship, muttering to himself in a complex tone.

What exactly is being hidden?
A bad feeling crept into my heart.

(End of this chapter)