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The Munificents, Recusants, and Hardcells along <span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span>’s flank tighten their formation to more effectively concentrate their collective powerful frontal armament against the Republic fleet. In a surprisingly level-headed move, the enemy force divides into two smaller sections, one closer to Anx Minor and one further away, both less bunched up than your own ships are. Despite this, another Carrack succumbs to fire from a pair of Munificents, and yet another is caught up in a massive chain reaction that results from the main battery of an Acclamator striking a flight of Condor fighter-bombers dangerously close to the smaller ship while its shields are weakened. A pair of Dreadnaughts on opposite sides of the Republic lines are almost simultaneously speared through and through by the main guns of your Recusants.
Despite losing several of their smaller vessels, the Republic’s Acclamators remain relatively intact. Early intelligence and after action reports say that the assault ships are crewed almost entirely by Clones, with at least the captain and first officer chosen from among the Republic’s small judiciary and the various (and varying in size) Sector Defense Fleets. These facts would explain the more orderly conduct of the delta-hulled ships, and the more panicked flying you’ve seen from especially the enemy Carracks, which are doubtlessly captained by ill-prepared junior officers. Still, the assault ship closest to Anx Minor has sustained some damage, and the portmost vessel of the further wing has begun to engage in a losing gunnery duel against your fleet’s forwardmost Recusant.
A whisper from the Force causes you to turn your head to the overhead monitor currently occupied with the (relatively) calm area of the battle directly to your flagship’s port. It’s good that you looked at that moment, as as soon as your eyes are on the monitor, the Fantail picketing <span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span>’s side is struck by an errant shot from <span class="mu-i">High Gravity Empress</span>’s main battery. The heavy turbolaser shot instantly gouges a sixty-meter hole in the hull of the frigate’s stern, completely ignoring the smaller ship’s shield, which was concentrated against frontal fire, and vaporizing the engine underneath. The frigate, out of control and moving on momentum alone, violently swings into the nearest ship, a Munificent occupied with the Republic ships engaging it, and sheers into the destroyer’s hyperdrive fin and the section of hull below, exploding with a shockwave when its failing shields make contact with the fuel lines underneath the shattered armor.
The glow of the Munificent’s engines cuts out as soon as its fuel lines are severed, though miraculously, when the fireball that was the Fantail clears, the destroyer has not been ripped in half, likely a result of its well-shielded aft. Still, one of its wings is drifting off into the void, and it has ceased firing.
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