When the scan data was transmitted back to the command module, Solo's eyes instantly became serious.
The spherical ship that had landed on the surface had been converted into a "mobile factory."
Although it couldn't compare to Geonosis's giant factories, it could produce three hundred B-1 Droids per hour and assemble one aat tank every two hours, provided there were sufficient materials.
Calculated, this "semi-finished factory" could produce seven thousand Droid and twelve Tanks in a single day, plus the prefabricated parts that might be stacked in its sixty-six million cubic meter cargo hold, allowing the Separatists to continuously resupply their forces here.
"General, all ground troops have successfully landed, and equipment offloading is complete!" Commander Blum's voice came through the comms, carrying the characteristic steadiness of a Clone.
"Very good, advance towards the Separatists' position!" Solo said, then boarded the mobile command module on top of the AT-TE Tank.
Amidst the roar of turning treads, the Tank drove off the dingyuan's loading ramp. Ahsoka followed beside it, her eyes wide, constantly looking around, her excitement almost overflowing from her body.
This was her first time experiencing a large-scale ground battle firsthand.
On the front lines of the battlefield, AT-TE Tanks formed a neat battle line, their cannons slightly raised, aiming at the enemy position.
Clone infantry interspersed in skirmish lines between the Tanks, fingers on their blaster triggers, ready to fire at any moment.
Light AT-RT walkers moved swiftly on the flanks, responsible for reconnaissance and alert.
Six spha self-propelled artillery followed closely, their chassis slowly lowering their support legs, beginning to calibrate their firing parameters.
At the very rear, ten spha self-propelled artillery advanced proudly like steel behemoths, their forty-meter-long cannons pointing skyward; their sheer deterrent power was chilling.
"All units!" When the troops advanced to within two kilometers of the enemy ship, Solo ordered, "Prepare, fire!"
The spha self-propelled artillery roared first, orange-red energy beams cutting through the air, precisely hitting the enemy's shields.
Ten seconds later, the shields overloaded and flickered under continuous bombardment, finally dissipating completely. The second volley directly penetrated the hull, metal fragments splattering with the sound of an explosion, and a large gash was instantly torn in the enemy ship's outer armor.
Only then did the Confederacy army react. Fifteen thousand B-1 Droids formed dense formations, protected by two hundred aat tanks and ten MTT heavy transports, surging towards the Republic position like a tide.
"Tanks, suppressive fire! Infantry, open fire at will!" Solo's command echoed through the army via comms.
The main cannons of the AT-TE Tanks began to roar, each shell precisely destroying an aat tank.
Clone infantry lay prone on the ground, blue beams from their blasters forming a continuous stream. B-1 Droids fell like cut wheat, and metal wreckage piled up like small mountains in front of the position.
Solo stared at the holographic tactical map in the command module, a slight smile playing on his lips.
His so-called "plan" was actually just not interfering with the professional operations of the Clones, only nodding at critical moments.
It seemed now that these rigorously trained Clones didn't need him to overcomplicate things.
"Air units, execute 'Star Attack,' destroy enemy ship's firing points!" Captain Ragnos's voice came from space.
Dozens of V-19 starfighters and LAAT gunships launched surprise attacks from various directions, their missiles precisely hitting the enemy ship's turrets.
On the ground, the kinetic penetrator rounds of the AT-TE Tanks continuously bombarded the ship's weak points, while the spha self-propelled artillery continuously covered the Robot clusters around the enemy ship.
The combined air-ground attack was immediately effective. A series of explosions began inside the enemy ship, and the reactor eventually detonated.
There was no earth-shattering roar; most of the energy was released upwards, with only a dust-laden shockwave reaching the ground.
Normally, Droid losing command should shut down.
However, the lessons from the Battle of Naboo had led the Neimoidians to make improvements.
After communication was lost, battlefield tactical Droid would automatically take over command.
Despite this, the Droid, having lost their reinforcements, could not escape defeat. Assault gunships destroyed the last defensive nodes, Clone infantry cleared out the remaining enemies, and a few minutes later, the last B-1 Droid was hit in its core by a blaster, collapsing onto the rocks, turning into a pile of scrap metal.
"Well done, brothers! Immediately tally casualties!" Solo said into the comms.
"It feels... too easy, doesn't it?" Ahsoka drew out her words, her tone full of lingering dissatisfaction.
She had stayed in the command module throughout the entire battle, and several times she wanted to rush out but was ignored by Solo. Now, she was staring at him with a look of grievance.
"General, casualty count complete!" Commander Blum's voice came in just in time, "Total casualties are less than zero point five percent. Specific numbers are still being verified."
Just as Solo was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a communication from the dingyuan suddenly came through, Captain Ragnos's voice heavy with unprecedented seriousness: "General, we have trouble!"
A chill instantly ran down Solo's spine: "What trouble? Explain in detail!"
"The remaining cruiser reports detecting seven Separatists ships approaching... three lucrehulk-class, four generous-class frigates!"
Images of the enemy ships immediately appeared on the holographic screen. The generous-class frigate's unique wedge-shaped hull was particularly striking, and the main cannon at its bow exuded a sense of deterrence even in the hologram.
Solo frowned inwardly. According to the data he had seen, the main cannon power of the generous-class was not much different from that of the venator-class, mainly because the focusing lens technology produced by the Banking Clan was backward.
But now the enemy had seven ships, while they only had one venator-class and one cruiser. A head-on fight offered no chance of victory.
He turned to Ahsoka, who was still complaining that "the battle was too easy," and said with a complex tone: "Now, do you still think it's easy?"
... The clash of war intensified, with no tactics between the Republic and Confederacy forces, only sheer firepower.
Boom!
A nearby explosion caused Solo to duck his head sharply, splintered wood and dirt flying over his helmet.
He couldn't remember how many times they had been attacked; Ahsoka said it was the twenty-seventh, so it must be.
Anyway, each time it was a torrent of metal and death assaulting their position, and they, in turn, picked up their weapons again and again, repelling the enemy.
The bridgehead on Donovia had been held for three days.
During these three days, the fighting never stopped, and the situation worsened day by day, yet Solo didn't even have time to catch his breath.
If defensive lines hadn't been set up in advance, casualties would have been even more severe, and even now, the casualty figures were constantly updating.
The dingyuan and the remaining cruiser had already made an emergency withdrawal from the system.
Facing seven enemy ships, they couldn't last even ten minutes. At the last moment, the remaining operational starfighters covered the ships' retreat. In the face of enemy air power a hundred times their own, this was the most reasonable choice.
Now, Vulture Droids ruled the skies of Donovia.
Although the anti-aircraft gunners were on full alert, and even everyone who could wield a blaster would shoot into the sky during an airstrike, some stragglers still broke through the defenses.
On the makeshift landing platform, the wreckage of that cruiser was still burning.
To destroy it, after several failed airstrikes, the Separatists actually sent more than twenty Vulture Droids for a suicide ramming attack.
The cruiser captain performed a miracle; he successfully transported four thousand tons of supplies to the ground, providing crucial resupply for the bridgehead, but he perished with his crew, and not even their bodies could be recovered.
Solo still remembered that when the bridgehead was initially established, it was planned to take two days, but they discarded all non-essential materials and completed the deployment in just six hours.
The position was chosen at the confluence of mountain valleys, with spruce-like plants growing on the mountaintops and dense jungle covering the valleys, making the terrain complex and easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The entire base was hexagonal, with a defensive node at each of the six vertices, similar to permanent firing points, each node deploying several laser cannons of different powers.
Solo personally led a Clone regiment and two Tank battalions to defend the widest front, where the valley width exceeded three kilometers, with two regiments deployed on each of the left and right flanks.
Ahsoka was originally stationed at the rear with a regiment, but on the first day of battle, she moved to Solo's side, saying the rear was "too boring," but she actually wanted to participate in more combat.
One Clone company served as a reserve, but unfortunately, after three days of bloody battle, it had already been scattered, with remnants dispersed along the entire front line providing support.
Under the small protective dome in the central area were the engineering troops, field hospital, and the reactor for the defense system; this was the core of the entire position and absolutely could not fall.
The perimeter wall of the defense line was not complete... they didn't have enough time or materials, so they could only erect walls at critical locations, leaving firing ports and embrasures.
Missing sections were filled with stones and tree trunks, and later even the Droid' wreckage and destroyed equipment were put to use.
The terrain also helped greatly; the steep slopes and dense jungle were natural barriers themselves.
Even so, facing an endless stream of enemies, the defense line repeatedly teetered on the brink of collapse.
Solo adjusted his grip on the DS-15a blaster rifle and issued an order via internal comms: "All units attention! This is General Victor, prepare to repel a new wave of attack!"
The Clones silently entered the trenches, and the Z-6 rotary blaster gunners rotated their barrels, the sound of metal friction particularly clear in the silent battlefield.
These "machine guns" were mounted on makeshift tripods, welded from the "arms" and "legs" of B-1 Droids; here, such modifications only took a few minutes.
The tripod not only improved accuracy but could also connect to a forty-kilogram high-power battery via cable; standard batteries could only sustain 30 rapid-fire shots, which was insufficient for high-intensity combat.
Solo couldn't help but laugh.
Ahsoka, who had been complaining about "no battles to fight," was now frantically sweeping with a Z-6, so excited she nearly jumped.
He had long heard that Jedi Younglings rarely received blaster training, at most a few lessons on weapon structure and one range practice.
But this little girl in front of him, in a single attack, eliminated three B-1 Droid companies in less than seven minutes, and just now she had proudly shown off to him; her little thoughts were completely transparent.
In the distant jungle, the metallic footsteps of Droid grew closer.
Solo saw the enemy's formation clearly through his helmet's auxiliary screen: dense columns of B-1 Droids interspersed with heavily armored B-2 Super Battle Droids.
Giant "magna-3" spider Droid advanced on long legs, surrounded by small DSD-1 Homing Spider Droids; aat tanks and NR-N99 Persuader-class droid enforcers, having learned from previous lessons, followed far behind, using their main cannons to provide suppressive fire on the position, blue energy beams constantly falling around the defense line, kicking up clouds of dust.
"AT-TE tanks attention, prioritize destroying enemy armored units! SPHA prepare for long-range support!" Solo's voice was as cold as ice.
He estimated that the Separatists had deployed at least four hundred thousand Droid to this planet, supported by fifteen thousand armored vehicles.
In three days, the number of enemies they had destroyed had long exceeded ten thousand, yet the enemy still poured in as if endless.
"General! Left AT-TE gunner is down!" a soldier's shout came through the comms.
Solo cursed.
This was the third gunner today.
He threw away the blaster rifle in his hand, leaped across the distance between the trench and the tank, agilely jumped onto the tank's top, and simultaneously activated his lightsaber, the blue blade instantly blocking several incoming blaster bolts.
This AT-TE's locomotion system was hit and it couldn't move, but the reactor was intact, and the laser cannon and anti-infantry blaster cannon could still fire normally.
As for the tanks equipped with kinetic weapons, they had already fallen silent on the second day of battle, all 96 rounds of ammunition exhausted, and the warehouse for replenishment ammunition had been evacuated with the ships before it could even be deployed.
Solo closed his eyes, immersing himself in the flow of The Force; this feeling of "gazing at the universe" became more and more skilled. He could not only easily deflect blaster bolts but even reflect some shots back into the Robot Cluster.
Although this approach was risky, only through the crucible of war could one better survive the even more intense wars to come.
In the Galaxy, it was the same for becoming a more influential person.
Being overly timid would only lead to a quicker demise in the fires of war.
When Huo Qubing first went to battle at the age of 17, he charged ahead, unmatched in bravery.
Solo, having transmigrated, thought about how to save his life, and after a comprehensive analysis, he arrived at this conclusion.
Now on the front line of the war, he wanted to elevate his standing on the battlefield; before the Clone Wars escalated, it was the best time to accumulate prestige.
War was unavoidable.
War became the fastest path for him to accumulate influence.
Just then, the Clone he had named to replace the gunner rushed to the tank, carefully moved his fallen comrade's body, and quickly sat into the gunner's seat.
"General, I'm ready!"
"Three o'clock direction, AAT Tanks; twelve o'clock direction, spider Droid; ten o'clock direction, B-2 Droid squad!" Solo rapidly called out the targets, and the Clone immediately operated the main cannon, orange energy beams accurately hitting their targets, each shot tearing open a gap.
The gunner occasionally glanced at Solo, his eyes full of admiration.
A Jedi standing on top of a tank deflecting bullets with a lightsaber—this scene was truly too shocking.
The Clone operator inside the tank swept the approaching B-1 Droids with the anti-infantry blaster cannon.
In the distance, the spha self-propelled artillery finally opened fire, a giant energy beam streaking across the sky, instantly destroying four NR-N99 tanks.
Solo had always worried that these forty-meter-long steel behemoths would be destroyed, but fortunately, they were sturdy enough; only three out of ten were destroyed, another three were providing power to the reactor under the protective dome, and the remaining four, under the cover of anti-aircraft fire, could both support the ground and intercept enemy orbital bombardment attempts.
On the other side, Ahsoka's Z-6 finally overheated. She simply activated her lightsaber, the orange blade flashing up and down, deflecting the incoming blaster bolts one by one, her face full of excitement.
Solo had long reminded her to "use short bursts to cool the barrel," but the little girl simply wouldn't listen, and now could only temporarily defend with her lightsaber.
The Clones continued firing from trenches and cover, and several times the Droid charged to the front line, EMP grenades becoming a lifeline.
Pressing the detonator, the strong electromagnetic pulse could instantly disable Droid within a ten-meter radius.
With this tactic, they repeatedly forced the enemy back.
This time, after suffering heavy casualties, the Droid actually retreated when they were halfway to the defense line, and even the Vulture Droid air raid didn't come.
Solo frowned, feeling something was amiss.
"All sectors report status!" he shouted into the comms.
"Sector One, attack repelled!"
"Sector Two, enemy retreating!"
"Sector Three, no residual enemies found!"
"Sector Four, the tin cans all ran away!" Ahsoka's voice came through, with a hint of confusion, "Master, should we pursue them?"
Solo rubbed his brow helplessly; this was Ahsoka's Nth time proposing a "counterattack."
He switched to a private channel, his tone serious: "I'll say this one last time, we are not attacking, just hold the position."
"Alright, Master..." Ahsoka's voice was full of disappointment.
Just as Solo was pondering the reason for the enemy's retreat, the internal comms suddenly chirped, and an excited voice came through: "General! The 'dingyuan' has contacted us! Reinforcements are here! Six venator-class landing ships, and a large number of fighters! They are attacking the enemy ships!"
Solo suddenly looked up at the sky.
Although he couldn't see the space battle, he could imagine the spectacular scene when six venator-class ships launched their surprise attack.
It turned out that the Separatists retreated because their backyard was on fire.
He couldn't help but laugh, his nerves, taut for three days, finally relaxed.
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