Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 29 - Admiral Yularen

Christoph's Galaxy, Lysis satellite orbit.

Savarin sector.

Inside the bridge of the Vanguard, a Victory-class Star Destroyer of the Galactic Republic, Eularen wore a serious expression.

“It’s no use, General,” Lieutenant Clive shook his head in frustration. “We’ve calibrated the scanner over and over again, but we just can’t get it to work properly.”

“This won’t do. We can’t even locate a Lukri Hook-class battleship that’s 300,000 kilometers away.” Yularen glared at him. “At such close range, even passive sensors should be able to handle it easily. Now you’re mistaking the wreckage area for an asteroid ring… Please find the problem and fix it as soon as possible.”

“It’s not a software problem, sir,” Clive swallowed. “I had the technical team check it, and they found nothing. It must be caused by the battle a week ago. If you’d like, I can send some men and robots up there to see if we can fix it.”

In a war-torn star sector?

That's obviously not realistic.

Yularen refrained from giving an unprofessional response.

The sensor array malfunctioned, and they were now like blind men.

No, it's worse than being blind.

Everything that was displayed before my eyes seemed like an illusion, completely unreal.

Without visual confirmation, detection or observation is unreliable, and this doesn't even take into account the "Pioneer's" targeting system.

“There’s no need,” Yularen said helplessly. “Find out the extent of the damage. I need to know if our fire control system has been affected. Do your best to solve the problems you can identify, but don’t send engineers out.”

"I'll get right on it, sir." Lieutenant Clive snapped to attention, saluted, and immediately returned to his work area.

At that moment, Yularen discovered that the "Victory" and its two escort cruisers were just a few hundred kilometers away from the main view window of the bridge.

The two warships have entered a synchronized orbit with the planet below, providing cover for the ongoing battle beneath the industrial zone.

This also means that they are rapidly approaching Admiral Wurz's "Iron Spear Fleet," which is currently engaged in space combat with the separatist Admiral Tonis's orbital blockade forces.

With the "Vanguard's" targeting system malfunctioning, Yularen had no choice but to evacuate.

He has already lost two ships and experienced crew members, and cannot risk the safety of another ship.

Yularen couldn't help but wonder if things would have been different if he had stayed on the bridge of the Resolute during Christopher's first battle and hadn't accompanied General Skywalker on his rescue mission.

If Obi-Wan Kenobi hadn't taken over command, he might have been able to see through the enemy's seemingly simple yet highly deceptive strategy on his own.

But that's just a hypothetical.

This general has many opinions on the role of the Jedi in the Republic's Grand Republican Army.

Of course, Jularen also felt very lucky.

Jedi strategies are often aggressive, and although Anakin Skywalker and his opinions sometimes differ, the Jedi are supported by extraordinary courage and keen tactical insight.

These qualities, coupled with the trust he and his men placed in each other, made General Skywalker a formidable force in ground combat.

This alone cannot translate into an advantage in naval warfare.

To wage a naval battle, strategy is required, and the Jedi have no advantage in this regard.

At the tactical level, they can only be considered basic, and some Jedi players don't even reach the basic level.

Of course there are exceptions.

One of them was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Many of his tactical achievements have been circulated through military channels, and some have even been written into textbooks on Planet Prevsbelt IV.

If even a highly respected Jedi general with mysterious insight couldn't detect a trap in advance, how could an ordinary admiral possibly detect it?

Moreover, the newly emerging "Hydra Operations" tactic is completely new and has never been seen before.

Putting aside all hypotheticals, Yularen could now write a strongly worded report to the Admiralty, pointing out the serious weaknesses exposed by the "Victory-class" warships. Currently, the only way to turn the tide was for the Republic's intelligence services to find out who was actually fighting them.

"Sir!" Lieutenant Clive suddenly shouted, "Something's up!"

Yularen whirled around, looked at the somewhat bewildered lieutenant, and said, "Remember the composure required during training, Lieutenant!"

"I...I'm so sorry, sir!" Clive's hands trembled as he fumbled with the control panel, stammering, "I...our sensors detected a large amount of Kronau radiation at the edge of the galaxy!...Afri, did you see that?"

Another officer bent down for a closer look, his expression also changing. "It looks like a huge object is jumping back from hyperspace to normal space. I'll contact the 'Victory' right now, sir!"

Yularen questioned, "Could it be another sensor malfunction?"

“Our sensors are just malfunctioning, not completely broken, sir,” Lieutenant Clive shook his head and insisted. “They can detect Kronau radiation… If the reading is too high, then the ship isn’t as large as reported; if the reading is too low…”

A slender finger stroked his mustache, a small, unconscious gesture that Yularen made when he was uneasy.

“The ‘Victory’ reports the same thing, sir,” Lieutenant Afri said nervously to Yularen. “The radiation levels match… but our sensors are malfunctioning. We only detected one radiation source, while they detected hundreds. This suggests that it is very likely an enemy fleet.”

Yularen reacted instantly, ordering in a deep voice, "Contact the 'Unyielding' and the 'Coruscant Sky' and put them on red alert! All personnel to combat posts! Afri, immediately connect me to Admiral Wurtz!"

“There’s a line of ‘Generosity-class’ warships blocking our way from Admiral Wurtz, sir…” Lieutenant Afri’s words made perfect sense, but they did nothing to quell Yularen’s anger. “I don’t know if I can manage this…”

"Then do your best."

Yularen suppressed his anger and did not explode directly.

At this moment, the dark red alarm lights began to flash, and the alarm could be faintly heard in the combat room and throughout the entire ship.

"Lookout reports visual target!" a clone officer reported. "Relative bearing 099, distance... distance... approximately one million kilometers!"

"About?"

Upon hearing Yularen's question, the clone looked troubled. "This is the best data our rangefinder can currently provide, sir."

"..."

Yularen took a deep breath, roused himself, and prepared for the next move.

He strode across the bridge, walked to the starboard side, and stared intently at the observation window.

Below is Admiral Wurtz's fleet.

Looking further into the distance, hundreds of black shadows moved slowly against the backdrop of the starry sky.

“Merge the data with the ‘Coruscant Sky’,” Yularen thought for a moment, then ordered directly, “Have them identify those ships.”

Now is not the time to panic.

They still have time.

Escaping hyperspace at a distance of one million kilometers far exceeds the range of any conventional laser cannon or even missile system.

Those ships were definitely reinforcements for the separatists, but they made such a strange decision.

Is there some purpose behind it?

Putting those issues aside, what they need to do now is avoid getting trapped between two enemy fleets.

At that moment, a purple beam of light streaked across the abyss at incredible speed; Yularen missed it in the blink of an eye.

When another faint light appeared on the left, Yularen realized what had happened.

He turned sharply.

The HMS Victory is on fire.

(End of this chapter)