01.15 : The Light Begins to Dim

[22 BBY]

[Confederate Navy Starship Bountiful Fauna, Task Force 42, Hyper-limit, Ryloth System]

"Ah, it seems Skywalker returns as expected...also reinforced as feared by Intelligence. How rare of them to be correct..." Mar Tuuk, proud Neimoidian patriot and currently Captain of this Taskforce, noted as he watched the Republic fleet come out just beyond the hyper-limit of the system "...confirm enemy strength, alert status droid-fighters to come to an intercept vector on enemy bombers"

"But Sir, the enemy hasn't launched any bombers yet!" one of the 'senior' B-1 droids replied in the confused tone that seemed a standard in the software at times. Mar Tuuk would have preferred a few more organic command staff, but his Task-force, while reinforced, had been rushed to support this foolish expedition over Ryloth almost fresh from the shipyards. So instead he would have to rely upon the B-1's as both command staff as well as crew, and took on a calm 'explain to the idiot children' tone he took with his sister's family

"They will, attempt intercept when they vector towards this vessel or Herald of Freedom. Now confirm status of enemy forces"

"Roger, Roger.....Sir, there are two Venator-class heavy cruisers, four Acclamator-class assault ships, eight frigates of various..." the Droid replied before tilting it's head to the side in confusion again "....oh, they are jamming us. How rude"

Mar Tuuk motioned with his hand "Deploy all our star-fighters and bombers, but they are to hold position with the flotilla. I want all sensor data tied to the tactical display"

"Roger, Roger" echoed back as despite heavy sensor jamming from the Republic fleet he saw their deployment of fighters and bombers appear on the holographic display. Exact types and numbers were difficult to tell yet, but it appeared to be similar to the last attack – save in greater force this time around. But it was obvious the tactic was similar with a number of bomber squadrons escorted by fighters at the van, with the fighting ships of the Republic coming forward at a slower pace behind. Watching the numbers emerging from the sensor jamming versus his deployed alert squadrons vectoring towards them he stroked his chin then nodded to himself.

"Deploy all squadrons from the Herald of Freedom to taking out the enemy bombers, all those alert fighters vectoring to attack are to pin the fighter screens"

"Roger, Roger"

He didn't expect the attack on the Republic screens to be overly successful; there would be more than one Jedi pilot most likely, and those were unnaturally good. But those starfighters could do little damage to his Luchrehulks or Munificents and the sacrifice of a portion of his Vulture droid-fighters to eliminate the Republic bombers would be a net gain to his forces. On the screens he watched that portion of his fighter squadrons move towards the enemies, the Republic task-force moving swiftly behind their fighters towards what would be the extended range of turbolasers.

"Sir...uhhh...." the droid complained "...there aren't any bombers? There are more enemy starfighters behind the enemy starfighters"

He stroked his chin in thought "Interesting, very interesting....order the Vultures droids to continue attack, pin the enemy fighter squadrons and monitor for enemy bombers. Our reserves are to remain in place and attack the en..."

"Hyperspace emergence, it's, uhh, enemy bombers"

Mar Tuuk nodded to himself, watching as the enemy squadrons, hyperspace capable ones, jumped in behind his now engaged forward droid ones. Right at the edge of the hyper-limit into and out of the system; probably with guidance from the advance Republic units in the system. Sadly for them he had not deployed his full strength like they had probably expected "Send this vessel's droid-fighters after them, those squadrons from the Munificents are to maintain guard over the formation for any breakthroughs or further arrivals. Our formation is to advance at 10% speed into firing range, turbolaser batteries to engage once the Republic forces"

"Roger, Roger"

It had been a mistake the last time to allow Skywalker to escape, and he still had a numbers and firepower advantage in his two Luchrehulks and eleven Munificents over the clearly reinforced enemy fleet. But there was no need to rush forward; all his information on this Jedi indicated an aggressive commander, and actions so far were indicating such as the bomber squadrons once again surging towards his capital ships. Not surprising, it was a flaw that still existed in the Confederate Fleet's battle structure, and one unlikely to easily solved in the middle of the war. They could only attempt to minimise it, and make use of the droid forces as effectively as possible.

"Hey....more hyperspace emergences Captain!"

"Yes, on beneath and to the flank of us" he muttered back to the droid's warbling "...reserve squadrons to cover us, Munificent Group 2 to engage them. Group 1 pull back from mainline as reserve, all other ships concentrate fire on the Venators, and we are just in range....now. All batteries open fire"

He was committed now, and the new enemy force was fairly extensive if not possessing a number of light escort vessels around a central cruiser and was launching a small number of fighters. For now his best option was to pin them with one of his Combat Groups with their three Munificent-class frigates while his main force took out the primary strike-force. Much like his droids the clones of the Republic seemed to be lacking imagination and rapid reactions to sudden changes in battle; oh, superior to the droids of course, but not by a massive margin, and there were less of them than his mechanical idiots.

'Still, one must cover oneself' he noted as he contacted the new 'Governor' of Ryloth, and as the first long-range barrages between his fleet and that of the Republic's fleet slammed home the figure of Wat Tambor glowered down at him "What do you want Captain"

"I am sorry Sir, but large enemy forces have arrived in-system. More than projected, I would request deployment of droid-fighters from...."

"Denied, you will hold with what you have!"

"The Sir I would advise preparing for potential Republic breakthroughs..."

"Captain Tuuk the Bountiful Fauna is to hold in system and defeat the enemy at all costs"

He frowned, nodding and answering just before the hologram vanished "Of course Your Mightiness, as command"

'As expected' he thought as the enemy pressure continued to build. As he'd feared the enemy fighters were outperforming his own now that their numbers advantage was less than desired. Still one of the Venators had withdrawn, and the Acclamators...

"Hyperspace emergence....hey! We're getting reinforcements"

"What?" he questioned in startled in surprise as more ships emerged, this time on the other flank, above and again at the edge of the hyper-limit out into Republic territory. Sure, there were a number of large ships....freighters from the looks of it, with three Munificents at the lead alongside....corvettes perhaps? The frigates were pinging CIS IFF's and were launching Vulture droid-fighters, but...

'They are flying towards us in attack formation, and those are old codes' he thought frantically as the droid-fighters attacked the last of defensive fighters and the farthest edge Munificent "Target those ships! Those are enemy droids! A trick!"

He stood up, seeing how this would now, go, and began to stride towards the doorway towards his personal starfighter. The 'senior' droid's voice was confused "Captain, where are you going?"

"To the other Luchrehulk! You are in command here now! Follow the Governor's orders, the Bountiful Fauna must fight to the last"

"Roger, Roger...hey, I'm the Boss now, isn't that..." he ignored the droid's voice as he increased his pace through the corridor and input codes to unlock fighter pod. The situation was clear, and he needed to salvage what he could from this mess within the limits of his superior's orders...

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[22 BBY]

[Republic Navy Acclamator-class Assault Ship Majestic, Ryloth Liberation Task-force, Ryloth System]

General Locus Geen watched as the assault plan's final element came out of hyperspace on the far flank of the Separatist fleet. It had been damn near impossible to keep all of the disparate elements of 'his' forces operating effectively together, so he'd done his best to turn that flaw into a minor asset. Or, at the very least, not into a catastrophic flaw; so he had let the Jedi with heavier Venators and Acclamators jump in with Rahm Kota's corvettes and Carrack light cruisers for their generally blunt idea of strategy.

'We still lack proper coordination...' he thought unhappily as he ordered the Majestic to slow its advance, shifting its attack vector to present the better armoured bottom to the enemy guns. Each Jedi General 'under his command', however loosely that term mattered, apart from General Kota was largely dictating where and what their Star Destroyer or Assault ships fired at and that wasn't optimal '...even if we are winning, we are taking far more damage than I'd like'

He wanted to keep both of the Venators, the Resolute and damaged Defender, further from battle but with the star-fighter battle swinging in their favour and the arrival of the Ailon Nova Guard forces the Jedi General Skywalker had pushed both up. Yes it had prevented the escape of part of the enemy fleet as they began to turn away from the battle....but both heavy cruisers were effectively combat ineffective after the battle.

It had also forced him to push up his Acclamator-class along with the other three Jedis, and that had cost him minor damage to all of them. Worse, had led to the destruction of two of the corvettes he'd set to escort them, and one of the Carrack's would need weeks of yard time to be ready again. One of the biggest problems seemed to be that the Jedi, Skywalker was merely the worst offender right now, did not seem to be able to think beyond the immediate battle and to the next fight. Three lost Venator-class heavy cruisers was a bad blow in the short term as the Republic just didn't have that many to throw away...

"Keep us between the enemy and the Resolute, get engineers over to them and get those fires out..." he ordered gesturing at the nearby Venator "...I want the Y-wings to focus on both Lucrehulks. Especially the one breaking away from the battle"

They'd won, most of the enemy formation was attempting to break away after all as the Aegis Guard's 'trickery' with their own droid-fighters managed to take out the small reserve of droid-fighters the enemy had held back along with a Munificent. But there were a lot of problems, and he badly needed to get at least some of the demands for heavier ships from his three subordinate Generals answered; Acclamators like his Majestic just weren't good enough for a front-line combat role, and they'd just lost the Venators. It just wasn't acceptable in his mind...