Quoted By:
Orders are immediately sent to <span class="mu-i">Gilt Cauldron</span> to cease deployment and turn about to reinforce <span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span> and <span class="mu-i">Bountiful</span> against the newly-arrived battlecruiser. After that, the remaining Fantails pull back to screen the Lucrehulks against any enemy fighters and flanking fire, and <span class="mu-i">Gilt Cauldron</span>’s section scrambles to redeploy itself in opposition to the incoming Republic forces. <span class="mu-i">Bountiful</span>’s section similarly pulls back to meet the Republic Forces and screen <span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span> against the bulk of the Republic fleet.
While Recusant-class light cruisers are far from maneuverable, they’re surprisingly capable of moving in a straight line at sublight on account of their relatively high output-to-displacement ratio and their outsized engines. The vast majority of fighters fielded by both the Separatists and the Republic are unshielded, so the presence of the light cruisers, combined with the hoard of Vulture droids already buzzing around the battlecarriers is more than enough to keep the Republic’s own swarm of (piloted) fighters and fighter-bombers away from your Lucrehulk’s newly opened flank.
It takes the far more numerous Munificents slightly longer to join the Recusants in their new place on the line of battle, Hardcells in tow. The pickets can easily outpace and outmaneuver both of the destroyer classes in your fleet, but their relative vulnerability and their outsized anti-starfighter capabilities both give them more than enough reasons to stick close to the Munificents. Their cover now in place, the Fantails at the back of the new line spread out and move in to protect themselves, both from the Republic fleet as well as the lone battlecruiser facing down your carriers.
<span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span> shudders violently as fire from the Maelstrom rakes its sides, shields weakened due to the ship repositioning itself. Thankfully, as the battlecarrier squares itself off against the enemy warship, the latter turns to a more oblique angle. This is to concentrate both its fire and shields against <span class="mu-i">Bountiful</span>, which sits under <span class="mu-i">High Gravity Empress</span>’s plane. Similarly to the Republic’s new Acclamators, most of the older Maelstrom-class’s guns are on its dorsal side, towards the rear section of its long delta hull, meaning it has to awkwardly maneuver to be able to keep its shields and firing arcs lined up with the three Lucrehulks. To the Captain (or, more likely, Commodore or Rear Admiral) of <span class="mu-i">High Gravity Empress</span>’s credit, even as the ship repositions, she begins to slowly reverse, starting to make its way towards the rest of the Republic fleet.
>(1/?)
