Trail of the Malevolence

Master Ares Nune stared at the massive warship on the screen, his face grim. "It looks like we were right. This is the Separatist warship that has been attacking our fleets along the Hedia hyperspace lane! Prepare for battle!"

The Clone Trooper Commander beside him immediately issued orders. "All ships, deploy into combat formation! Fighter squadrons, launch immediately!"

Ares Nune watched the Hangar Platforms unfold before the warships and the dense swarms of fighters taking off, but his face remained clouded with worry.

The first wave launched by the five Hunter Class Battlecruisers numbered roughly eight hundred fighters, and it was obvious from their flight patterns that the pilots were inexperienced.

After suffering devastating losses across the three battlefields of Falrin Planet, Bespin Planet, and Christophsis, the vast Galactic Republic was actually unable to find enough fighter pilots within such a short time. It was nothing less than a tragedy.

Even for the easy-to-operate V-19 Torrent starfighter, Clone Troopers who had received prior knowledge uploads related to piloting still required two months of training. Ordinary soldiers needed four to six months.

Yet only three months after the outbreak of the civil war, the Republic had already lost more than fifty thousand pilots across every front!

Ship crewmen did not require extensive training because their roles were highly specialized and the systems were intelligent and automated. More complicated positions, such as navigators, helmsmen, and engine engineers, were needed only in small numbers; a warship only needed around a dozen such personnel, and their losses had not yet exceeded three thousand.

Fighter pilots were different. A qualified fighter pilot had to independently control a complex starfighter, possess lightning-fast reflexes and spatial awareness, and undergo formation and combat tactics training. Almost every one of them was elite talent.

With the Republic having neglected