Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 102-103 - Gathering (Second Update)

The Beldrone Sector.

Near the hyperspace of Beldrone.

The deep space is like an endless black curtain, with only the faint light of distant stars and the thin rings of the gas giants below barely outlining the contours of space.

In this silent darkness, two massive robotic 'Disobedient-class' destroyers, like lurking behemoths, lay close to the surface of the star disk, their engines completely shut off, their hull temperatures reduced to a minimum, almost blending into the deep, cold universe behind them, leaving no trace of heat.

Their silence carries a chilling aura of death.

Above them, about 300,000 kilometers above the surface of the relative stars, a fleet of 27 old Republic supply cruisers was slowly sailing.

These cruisers had mottled hulls, and their engine nozzles shone dimly and weakly, resulting in inefficient propulsion. As a result, they needed to spend more time and travel greater distances to barely escape the gravitational pull of nearby stars.

The Republic Command was well aware of the vulnerability of these old vessels, so it specially equipped them with additional self-defense turrets, hoping that these firepower could hold out until the nearest patrol arrived to provide assistance in the event of attacks by privateers or pirates.

Unfortunately, their opponents today are not ordinary raiders.

Deep within the enormous shadow cast by the gas giant, the sister ships "Star Law" and "Elegy" had been lying in wait for several days.

Using top-secret intelligence, such as the Republic's logistics route map and supply station coordinates, they meticulously calculated the arrival time of this slow-moving fleet, the expected resupply cycle, and carefully analyzed the orbital and rotational parameters of the planet Beldrone.

Ultimately, they precisely chose a blind spot in space behind the gas giant planet, a spot that the patrol's sensors could never cover.

All the meticulous preparations were for this fatal blow.

Encrypted communication begins:
A short pulse signal from CND 1.911.615 10RV is received.

Initiate the handshake procedure.

Access to the Navy's encryption key rotor.

Decrypt the session.

[From CND Elegy 10RV]: Intelligence agent number one reports that the enemy patrol is at bearing 249, 9 parsecs away. To avoid conflict, they will withdraw in two hours.

[Sent to CND Elegy 10RV]: Received.

[From CND Elegy 10RV]: Please inform us of any flight plan updates.

[Sent to CND Elegy 10RV]: Elegy, take note. Execute the raid as planned. Do you agree?

[From CND Elegy 10RV]: Awaiting confirmation from the intelligence officer.

[From CND Elegy No. 10RV]: Agreed.

[Sent to CND Elegy 10RV]: Received. Target expected to contact in four minutes. Please provide instructions.

[From CND Elegy 10RV]: No enemy target detected. Proceed with standard interception procedures.

[Sent to CND Elegy 10RV]: Received, terminate session.

Terminate the handshake procedure.

The battle begins.

The Star Law was instantly activated from hibernation.

The hissing sound of liquid nitrogen flowing through the pipes inside the ship's hull emanated from it, the bridge indicator lights turned from dark red to a dazzling bright green, and the massive hull trembled slightly due to the sudden increase in energy.

The triple main ion engine suddenly burst forth with a dazzling blue-gray light, propelling the steel behemoth forward at an astonishing speed.

Once the speed reached 900 units of acceleration, the engine lights went out, and all the energy was instantly transferred to the heavy turret arrays covering the bow and sides of the ship.

The ship's attitude thrusters ejected subtle airflow to precisely correct the course of the final, silent glide.

Below, the Republic's crew remained on edge, wary of potential commercial plunder. When the distinctive blue-gray contrail of the Starr's engines suddenly lit up like a ghost in the darkness, piercing alarms immediately blared throughout the entire supply fleet.

The distress signal was immediately sent into the depths of the Jeyer system.

The five fastest-reacting cruisers hurriedly tilted their hulls upward in an attempt to reduce their exposed area of ​​impact and started their engines to perform evasive maneuvers.

However, just as they were trying to escape the threat below, from the exact opposite direction, the Elegy tore through the silent space, also approaching at high speed with a cold blue-gray trail.

The Republic's supply fleet was instantly caught in a crossfire between two deadly destroyers.

The battle erupted in a suffocating silence, with only the buzzing of energy weapons charging and the explosions of their impacts as the sole background noise.

Within just three minutes, the high-energy particle beams fired from the super-heavy forward main guns of the "Star Law" and "Elegy" precisely pierced through the two closest cruisers.

The destructive energy carried by the particle beam easily tore through the ship's fragile armor, triggering a chain reaction of explosions inside the vessel.

The two cruisers disintegrated in a silent flash, turning into countless high-speed flying metal fragments and twisted hull structures.

These deadly wrecks, like an out-of-control rain of bullets, rained down on nearby friendly ships, interfering with their targeting sensors and communication arrays.

The escort fleet was thrown into chaos, and the remaining cruisers made emergency turns to try to create distance between themselves to avoid being hit or interfered with by the wreckage of their own ships.

In the fourth minute, the Star Law completed a dazzling tactical maneuver.

The massive hull suddenly flipped over, and the reverse thrusters spewed out at full power, causing the ship to rotate clockwise like a high-speed projectile.

Carrying enormous kinetic energy, it crashed into the heavily damaged wreckage of the cruiser at a speed of 800 kilometers per second.

The sturdy metal wreckage was no match for the Star Law's tough armor, shattering completely like fragile crystals.

At the same time, the 102 laser turrets densely arranged on both sides of the ship opened fire simultaneously, and beams of blazing white energy lashed out like dense whips, mercilessly striking the panicked cruiser fleet.

The thin armor plates were instantly melted through by the high temperature, and the hull structure twisted and broke under the violent impact.

The cruisers were torn apart by the violent energy, revealing broken pipes, flickering wires, and burning compartments inside.

A short pulse signal from CND 1.911.615 10RV was received again.

The Star Law has reduced its speed to a controllable 270 kilometers per second, and the massive hull is turning nimbly, with its bow precisely aligned with the hyperspace route to the Kolumex system.

The shipboard scanner detected a small fleet retreating at full speed from a distance of 83 light-minutes.

Initiate the handshake procedure.

The sister ships' interplanetary navigation computers exchanged data streams at high speed, precisely synchronizing coordinates and jump parameters to ensure that the two giant ships could enter and share the same hyperspace tunnel simultaneously.

Destination locked: Kolumex system.

[To CND Elegy 10RV]: Preparing to jump, do you agree?
[From CND Elegy No. 10RV]: Agreed.

……

Outer periphery of the Kolumex galaxy.

Paris watched as meteors streaked across the sky and fireworks rained down.

Then fireworks exploded one after another.

Large areas of signal on the star map were erased.

"Kronau radiation fluctuations were detected."

Xiaota remained calm and composed, saying, "It's the 'Star Law' and the 'Elegy' arriving via hyperspace jump."

(P.S.: There's no fixed schedule at the moment; I'll update it as soon as it's finished writing.)
(End of this chapter)