Admiral Longo's flagship was hit by two turbolaser blasts!
One blast struck the rear side of the warship near Turret B, while the other hit beneath the bridge. Fortunately, both locations were heavily armored. Aside from a violent shake and some armor plating coming loose, there was no further damage.
As the Separatist fleet's second wave of fire arrived, the Galactic Republic fleet, which had yet to raise its shields, began to suffer losses.
Turbolaser fire struck the armor of the Hunter Class Battlecruisers, setting off violent explosions and flames.
Although most of the shots failed to penetrate the armor, the fire and thick smoke from the explosions had already cast a tragic air over this Republic fleet, which had been driven into a dead end almost as soon as the battle began.
The Republic warships began returning fire and launched large numbers of fighters.
The two fleets continued to close in, and almost simultaneously activated their laser cannons at a range of around ten light-seconds!
Thick laser beams swept continuously across the warships on both sides, sending ripples through energy shields and igniting seas of fire across armor plating.
At the same time, the fighters from both sides became locked in a deadly melee!
Fighting on their home ground, the Separatists launched a vast swarm of fighters. Their first attack group alone contained more than 6,000 fighters! Most were Vulture droid fighters, accompanied by a smaller number of Tri-fighters and Hyena-class Droid Bombers.
These fighters launched directly from space stations near the planet and did not need to rely on the carrying capacity of warships.
In contrast, although the Republic fleet had sixty Hunter Class Battlecruisers, with a theoretical fighter capacity of 24,000, they were not fully loaded as usual due to everyday combat losses and problems replenishing pilots.