533. Painful decision
On the planet Geonosis, both the battles on the ground and in space have become increasingly fierce.
Trench's fleet continued to launch attacks, and it had already been strangled with the Galactic Republic's fleet, turning into a melee. The fleets of both sides were full of firepower.
The Galactic Republic's fleet originally had the advantage, but at the beginning of the battle, in order to meet the ground forces, they sent more than half of their warships to fight in the atmosphere of the planet Geonosis. As a result, Trench, who was good at catching fighter planes, was The admiral just caught it.
Under the completely lifeless attack of the Confederate Fleet of Independent Systems, Admiral Wolf-Yularen could not even delay, so he had to urgently ask for help from the ground.
He is much more experienced than the tactical advisor Mabel Garson who commanded the fleet before. Naturally, he understands that once the space battlefield is defeated, the fleet will be besieged on the surface of Geonosis like the previous fleet. And this time, they There will be no chance of escape.
But the ground battlefield at this time was also very tight. General Grievous was also not the T-series tactical robot who had previously commanded ground operations. In order to support General Trench's operations, he pressed all the robot armies. The same Launch a general attack regardless of losses!
In the previous battle, General Grievous had completed his deployment. He first consumed the clone army's ammunition supplies, and then when they were short of ammunition and had to shrink their defenses, he deployed the robot army to all sides of the ruins of the main lair.
But now that the time is right, robots from every direction have launched an attack!
In order to evacuate, Republic commanders must load troops onto spaceships and transport them away, but the more troops are loaded onto spaceships, the smaller the troops left to defend their positions and the greater the pressure.
If it was at the beginning, they could still rely on the aerial fire support of a large number of Republic warships in the sky, but now that the space battlefield is urgent, they have to dispatch warships to space, which further intensifies the pressure on the ground battlefield.
At this moment, Admiral Trench's fleet only has 2 Divinity-class destroyers, 3 Defiant-class light destroyers, 6 Generosity-class communications frigates, and 4 Vengeance-class light destroyers. But under his command, these warships, which were already covered with injuries, were still attacking crazily.
Even when the Dream Sisters led the remaining fighter planes and attacked the Confederate fleet with the help of illusions, they ignored them. Admiral Trench has understood that instead of struggling with these illusions, it is better to focus all firepower on the opponent's warships.
Anyway, your illusion can't transform into battleships. Even if it could, these battleships are not as flexible as fighter jets and are actually easy to identify. Anyway, you only have more than a hundred fighter jets in total. I will give up these battleships in exchange for you! Finally, let’s see if your Force is durable enough or our super-matter engine is durable enough!
The battle situation was indeed as Admiral Trench expected. Luna Dream and Luna Phantom were unable to reverse the situation. Although they led the fighter squadron to severely damage several Confederate warships, the Republic's fleet still suffered heavy losses.
Admiral Trench was confident anyway. Anyway, the fleets lost belonged to the Confederation of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic, not to Admiral Trench, nor to the Fourth Civilization to which he was truly loyal. And on the contrary, because he caused heavy losses to the Republic in this battle, Admiral Trench will be rewarded.
Among the Republic fleet, all four Invincible-class heavy cruisers were severely damaged and withdrawn from the battle, and three of them were unable to evacuate due to damage to their hyperspace engines. Now Admiral Wolf-Yularen is organizing shuttles to evacuate these three battleships. The officers and soldiers on board were picked up by other warships.
Not only that, 10 Karak-class light cruisers, more than 30 CR-70 frigates were destroyed, and 7 Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers were severely damaged. If Master Yoda hadn't dispatched battleships in time to support, and the surviving Jedi Knights also flew fighter jets to join the battle, they might really have been wiped out.
Throughout the space battlefield area, broken metal fragments and a large number of broken battleship wreckage can be seen everywhere. Countless corpses and robots were thrown out from these wreckage, and some wreckage even continued to exist in the vacuum of the universe. Combustion, which is mostly the engine or energy part, or a life-support facility that continuously produces oxygen.
But the fierce battle continued, with new warships constantly rushing out of the atmosphere of the planet Geonosis to join the battle, and the advantage of the space battlefield gradually tilted in the direction of the Republic.
However, in contrast, the situation on the ground battlefield gradually collapsed.
There are still 20,000 ordinary soldiers and more than 30,000 clone soldiers holding their positions. As more and more spacecraft are deployed to fight in space, they are no longer able to defend the offensive of 600,000 robot armies attacking from all directions at the same time. .
"Master Yoda, our ground positions have been retreating steadily and cannot be defended." Republic tactical adviser Mabel Garson said, "There is only the last Cheer-class assault landing ship left on the ground. Even if it is All the vacancies on this battleship are filled, and it can only accommodate a maximum of 25,000 people. And we dare not let the battleship land any more. If the landed battleship takes off again, all preparations will be delayed for at least half an hour. This Not counting the time to load the crew, we can’t wait..."
His meaning was obvious, now part of the ground troops must be abandoned.
The faces of the Jedi knights present were all ugly, and Masters Yoda and Windu were silent.
War is always cruel, and such a choice will one day have to be faced, but I didn't expect it to come so early.
"How long can we hold on, the fleet in outer orbit?" Master Yoda asked, closing his eyes.
"It's not a question of how long we can last. It's that we can't let a fleet carrying more than 100,000 soldiers fight in space for a long time... This will turn into a disaster." Mabel Garson said with great frustration.
Master Yoda was silent for a long time and said slowly: "The soldiers who stayed behind helped us defend our position with their lives. This is a painful choice."
Mabel Garson gritted her teeth and said: "I suggest that clone soldiers be put on board. Their value is much higher than ordinary soldiers. Let me give this order! Everything has nothing to do with the Jedi Order! And! , I am willing to stay and live and die with these soldiers!"
Because his wrong choices made the war passive before, he now decided to take up this responsibility.
Master Yoda closed his eyes and said nothing.
"For the sake of war, Mabel Garson made the right choice. Now, as the living, the only thing we can do is to win this war and make the sacrifices of the deceased more valuable." Master Windu said.
Master Yoda suddenly opened his eyes and said: "I will give the order to retreat. I will bear the responsibility for defeat."
His eyes were extremely firm. At this moment, he made the best decision to sacrifice the 20,000 ordinary soldiers to save the clone soldiers as much as possible.
For him to issue this order will undoubtedly bring shame to the reputation of the Jedi Order again, but Master Yoda understands that if he does not do this and just puts all the blame on Mabel Garson, he will be in vain. A person who practices the force of light and walks in the light...
Jedi Knight.
Final orders were given, and Master Yoda himself told the soldiers that they must stay and hold out, but after the fleet left, they were allowed to surrender. The Galactic Republic government will also do its best to diplomatically urge the Confederacy of Independent Systems to at least give these captives normal treatment.
The clone army will also have 5,000 people staying, but they don't have many complaints. Most of the injured asked to stay, but for the 20,000 ordinary soldiers, this decision is extremely cruel.
After the order was given, they almost mutinied on the spot, but were suppressed by 5,000 clone soldiers.
