52 Dejarik

Admiral Dao was waiting for the Separatist to make their move. To him, battles were like Dejarik games. He had already made his move by setting up his defenses. Now was the time for the enemy commander to make his, or hers, as they didn't even know who it was yet.

Dap was not a clone, but he was already an admiral on the Old Republic army for years before the Clone Wars began. He had worked his way up the ranks and was an expert on pacification and defense missions.

His years of experience told him that since the enemy had not to attack immediately there were three paths that the enemy could choose.

The first one was that they were expecting reinforcements, and were not worried about time.

They could also be waiting for contact from the Republic, probably to order that the clone army surrendered unconditionally.

Lastly, the Separatist could be trying to intimidate them, by showing their numbers and firepower.

Either way, Dao new that on any of those situations the enemy would have to contact them first. Dao certainly would not surrender, even if that cost him his life.

He could also bet that the clanckers weren't waiting for reinforcements unless they were really stupid. Kamino was the heart of the Grand Army of the Republic. Even if the Separatist have found a secret hyperspace path that the Republic didn't know about, and caught them by surprise, that would only buy them a few hours at most.

So, the only option was that the Separatist leader was trying to apply to press on the defending forces, and hoping to crush their morale. Then, according to Dao deductions, the enemy commander would say that the Republic had no chance and will be destroyed, all of this in hopes that the clones fight with a little bit less spirit.

For all that Dao knew, those were the worst kind of enemy. An enemy that uses all his strength to kill you is scary, but one who tries to decrease your forces, both physically and mentally, on every which way before attacking is absolutely terrifying.

"Admiral. Incoming transmission from their capital ship. All of our command ships are receiving it."

"Put it on the table."

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Facing the Republic ships, on the biggest of the Providence-class dreadnoughts, called Tramboch 1.

Different from the other ships of the Trade Federation, the crew members of the Tramboch 1 were not B1 battle droids, but mon calamarians. They had red or green skin and looked many alike fishes, a necessity considering the planet they came from.

Besides the rows of deactivated battle droids on the hangar areas, there wasn't a single other robot on the entire ship. Even cleaning and transportation were made by mon calamarians. If it wasn't for the fact that the ship was clearly a Separatist dreadnought then, and one looked only to the crew, they might think it was a commercial ship.

On the bridge, a glass compartment supported by a part of the ship, that towered over the rest of the dreadnought, there was a big chair, decorated with images of aquatic creatures.

The mon calamari sitting on the chair was incredibly small, looking like a child next to the others, but he had abstract tattoos all over his arms and faces. On the mon calamari traditions, those tattoos were only given to a leader and a hunter who fought countless of the dangerous creatures on Mon Cala and survived.

One of the mon calamari crew members went to him and bowed respectfully before rising and giving his message.

"We are ready tooo transmit ooour message cooomander."

"Pass me tooo all of their capital ships."

Another mon calamari went to the chair and also bowed before taking out a hologram projector from his sleeves. The mon calamari on the chair straightened up and started talking.

"Admirals, I see ooour tactics didn't wooork oooon yooouu."

The projections kept quiet, waiting for their opponent to finish talking.

"Since things are like this I wooon't delay my attack anymore. As a sign of respect, I am warning yoooou. Ten minuuuutes."