The Fourth Scourge of Star Wars - Chapter 2360

2339, Outer Ring Falls

However, now that the 17th Army of the Galactic Empire has been completely destroyed, the 15th Army of the Galactic Empire has also been completely exposed to the attack range of the Kingdom of Dawn’s fleet.

The 15th Army, also known as the Hook Nebula, was established at the beginning of the Clone Wars and is one of the 20 major legions established by the Galactic Republic. However, the strategic location of the 15th Army is relatively remote, and most of the time there will be no battles, so they are actually just a reserve army.

There are no developed planets in the jurisdiction of the 15th Army, at most there are a few agricultural planets and planets that provide labor. Including the capital of the 15th Army, Kemet, which was originally an uninhabited planet, but the hyperspace route on this planet is quite convenient, mainly because it can monitor the Five Veils Route, so a military base was set up here.

The Five Veils Route is a relatively prosperous trade route within the 15th Army, and it can be said to be the greatest value of the 15th Army. The Galactic Republic originally hoped that the trade volume generated by controlling this trade route would bring some fiscal revenue, but later it was proved that this meager income could barely maintain the expenses of the 15th Army.

After the establishment of the military base on Kemet, the Galactic Republic successively immigrated here and established colonies, with a permanent population of about 10 to 20 million and a floating population of 50 to 80 million.

Therefore, when the 17th Army was destroyed, the 15th Army had no power to resist at all.

After occupying Vogel, Severance-Tan sent a fleet consisting of a Revelation-class battleship, 70 Hell Angel-class battlecruisers, and 40 Minotaur-class heavy cruisers to enter the Five Yarns Route, and quickly broke through the defense line of the Galactic Empire’s temporary organization and arrived at Kemet.

The imperial army on Kemet still wanted to continue to resist, but the army of the Kingdom of Dawn was not very interested in this planet that did not have much strategic value, and directly carried out orbital bombing on the imperial colony on the planet.

Two days later, the high-level officials of Kemit, who were hiding in underground fortifications and struggling to survive, had no choice but to crawl out of the ground and surrender. However, at this time, the planet’s population of more than 70 million had been reduced to less than 200,000.

At this point, the 15th Army of the Galactic Empire was declared destroyed!

On September 7, the King of Dawn, Tang Xiao, personally went to the planet Vogel, where he held a surrender ceremony at the former Galactic Empire Naval Academy on the planet Vogel.

Those who were captured to attend the surrender ceremony were the president and vice president of the Vogel Imperial Naval Academy, instructors at all levels, and about 7,000 students. In addition, there were also senior Galactic Empire officers who were captured or surrendered in the military operations in the past month.

Among them, there were a total of 12 lieutenant generals, 35 major generals, and more than 700 school-level officers. Officers with lower ranks were not qualified to be presented as trophies to the King of Dawn.

The Imperial Naval Academy on the planet Vogel has a long history. It has existed since the Galactic Republic and has trained a large number of naval officers for the Republic and the Empire. This naval academy is located on the planet Vogel 7 in the central ring, and often recruits some civilian students, so it also has a high reputation.

Now with the destruction of the 17th Army and the 15th Army, the Vogel Empire Naval Academy has been occupied, which means that the power of the Galactic Empire in the central and outer rings has once again suffered a heavy blow.

In the surrender ceremony, the King of Dawn Tang Xiao looked at the academy instructors and academies representing the future of the Galactic Empire Navy under the high platform, as well as the senior officers representing the current Galactic Empire Navy. He laughed heartily and named Severance Tann as the admiral of the navy on the spot.

And Tang Xiao told everyone that when the planet Fangduo fell, she would become the second naval marshal of the Dawn Kingdom Navy! Second only to Matt Horner, who is now in seclusion in the unknown star field.

After the 17th Army and the 15th Army were successively destroyed, the fleet of the Dawn Kingdom has swept across the entire southern border of the Milky Way. Now here, except for a few planets that are still resisting, it has completely belonged to the sphere of influence of the Dawn Kingdom.

However, because the jurisdiction of these two legions is too large, and there are very few planets with developed economy and industry, the Kingdom of Dawn, which is currently investing all its energy in Operation Zero, has not spent too much effort to rule these places.

The authorities of the Kingdom of Dawn only sent local officials to some relatively obedient and stable planets, or directly appointed some local bosses who are willing to obey the Kingdom of Dawn to manage these planets.

In addition, at least half of the planets under the jurisdiction of these two legions are in turmoil, and many planets have even been occupied by the rebels.

After the rebels occupied these planets, they immediately established autonomous governments on the planets. All internal affairs of the planets are decided by the planets themselves, and no external forces are allowed to interfere.

The emergence of these autonomous governments has made the situation in the star regions under the jurisdiction of the 15th and 17th armies more chaotic and complicated. However, neither the Kingdom of Dawn nor the Galactic Empire intends to pay attention to these places.

The 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th armies were all destroyed, and the reconstruction of the 14th army failed. Now the power of the Galactic Empire in this area is only the 13th, 16th, and 20th armies.

The 13th Army, “Iron Lance”, with its capital at Ord Pardron, is the army with the largest jurisdiction among all the legions, and also the most awkward one. Because the jurisdiction of this legion covers the entire Hutt space… and the Hutts naturally never intend to obey.

Moreover, the 13th Army is also at the bottom of the 20 major legions, and its main function is to monitor the Hutts and prevent them from messing around during the war. Ord Pardron is just a military base built on an asteroid, and it has no industrial base.

Therefore, the 13th Army has basically been abandoned now, and it is completely impossible to resist the powerful front of Severance Tann. When Severance Tann feels that he needs to add a little bit to his medal of honor, then it will be the end of the 13th Army.

The 16th Army and the 20th Army now respectively control the hyperspace routes leading to the inner ring of the Milky Way. The 16th Army deployed on the planet Chardan to block the Hydia Channel; the 20th Army deployed on the planet Fangduo to block the Rema Trade Channel and the Corellian Trade Channel.

So far, the Galactic Empire has lost three-quarters of its sphere of influence in the outer ring of the Milky Way.

The entire Southwest Territory and the South Territory have been completely lost; the Southeast Territory and the East Territory belong to the Hutt Space, and the 13th Army is nominally monitoring them, but even in name it is just monitoring. The Northeast Territory was once the core control area of ​​the Independent System Confederation. Now the remnant separatist forces in that direction are uprising everywhere in response to the war of the Kingdom of Dawn; the Northwest Territory has long been completely controlled by the Fourth Group, the Interstellar Banking Association and the Trade Union, plus the assistance of the Geth.

So, the only outer ring star area that the Galactic Empire can barely control is the area where the 9th, 10th, and 11th Legions in the North Territory are located.

But even these places were not peaceful. Now the commercial coalition fleet led by the famous Neimoidian general Mal-Touk was advancing towards the Outer Rim Star Region in the north, with the momentum to sweep across the Outer Rim Star Region and completely drive out the Galactic Empire.

Faced with such a comprehensive retreat, the Galactic Empire Emperor Palpatine was naturally furious.

He personally ordered the arrest of the 17th Army Governor Lynch-Hauser and more than 40 senior naval generals who were defeated on various fronts, and then directly executed them publicly!

After that, Palpatine issued a death order to stop the Kingdom of Dawn from entering the inner ring of the Milky Way at all costs! Those who retreat will be executed without mercy!

In other words, even the Central Rim Star Region was regarded as a strategic depth by him.

In addition, although the 17th Army Governor Lynch-Hauser was shot, the 15th Army Governor Kintaro, who also lost his legion, was not punished.

Although Jintano was not on the front line when the 15th Army was destroyed but in the center of the Empire, his position as the governor of the 15th Army was only a part-time position. He was promoted at the end of the Clone Wars and served as the governor of the 15th Army and the Minister of Defense of the Republic.

After the Republic was reorganized into the Empire, Jintano continued to serve as the Minister of Defense of the Empire, holding a high position. At the same time, he and Dunn-Wessex were close friends, so they colluded with each other and had great influence in the military.

So even if Palpatine wanted to liquidate a group of officers, he could not liquidate him.

At the same time, since most of the Outer Rim star regions were either occupied or lost contact, the Galactic Empire also transferred the fleets that were suppressing the rebellion from various places to the Central Rim and star regions for defense.

It happened that most of the planets where riots and uprisings occurred were also in the Outer Rim star regions. In this way, the Galactic Empire lost many burdens and could gather more troops.

Now the Galactic Empire is determined to defend the Inner Ring Star Region, delay some time to allow its fleet to regroup, and then attack with superior forces to defeat Severance Tann’s fleet in one sentence!

Moreover, although the Outer Ring Star Region has basically fallen, this situation is not unfamiliar to the Galactic Empire. In the early days of the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems also relied on the extremely high reputation of Count Dooku and the separatist movement that swept across most of the Milky Way, and almost drove the Galactic Republic out of the Outer Ring.

However, the final winner was the Galactic Republic.

Why? Because the strength of the planets in the Inner Ring and Core Ring of the Milky Way, whether in industry or economy, far exceeds the sum of the Middle Ring and Outer Ring Star Regions. And this excess is not just a little bit, but a gap of several times or dozens of times!

Therefore, the Middle Ring and the Outer Ring actually only have advantages in population and resource reserves. But in fact, the population difference between the Inner Ring and the Core Ring is not much, and these places are mostly super planets with hundreds of billions of people. As for the resource advantage, when technology continues to develop until it is possible to exploit resources on stars, there is actually no shortage of inner rings and core circles with huge numbers of stars.

The inner ring and core circle are the real ruling center of the Galactic Empire. Since ancient times, even the once-prosperous Infinite Empire, the Sith Empire, the Mandalorian Crusaders, and the Eternal Empire have never been shaken!

On September 16, Darth Vader led a powerful fleet of 500 battleships to the planet Fondo, and more fleets were still coming.

After checking the battlefield, he angrily denounced Governor Octavian Grant and Admiral Gideon Tarkin for being cowardly, and immediately led all the fleets to attack General Ling’s fleet.

At this moment, the defenders of the planet Fangduo already have 1,600 battleships and more than 7,000 small and medium-sized warships, with an absolute advantage in numbers. But Gideon Tarkin is still worried, after all, a star gate is being built at the location of Planet No. 3.

If Severance Tann’s main fleet suddenly appears from the star gate, the strength of 1,600 battleships is not enough to defeat that powerful fleet!

But Darth Vader’s answer to Gideon’s question was very direct. He directly used the Force to strangle Gideon Tarkin’s neck and threw him ten meters away and half died.

For this younger brother of Wilhuff Tarkin, Darth Vader was able to keep him alive because of Emperor Palpatine’s face.

Then, the army went straight to Planet No. 3!

Faced with the aggressive Darth Vader fleet, General Ling chose to retreat directly. She did not give the Imperial Fleet any chance to fight. When she found that Darth Vader was coming, she turned around and ran away, leaving behind the half-built star gate and the fixed base facilities on Planet No. 3, and returned to the planet Yago-Dur.

Darth Vader recaptured Planet No. 3 with almost no effort, but facing the unfinished star gate, Darth Vader did not hesitate and directly ordered the bombardment.

The powerful artillery fire of the Imperial Fleet completely destroyed the “star gate” within a few minutes! At the same time, he also ordered an orbital bombardment of the facilities on Planet No. 3, which was also completely destroyed within just ten minutes.

At this time, Octavian Grant discovered the problem!

It turned out that this half-built star gate and the military base that was built with great fanfare before were all fake! General Severance Tann made a feint on the planet Fangduo, scaring the defenders there so that they dared not act rashly, and then turned around to destroy the 15th and 17th armies, completely clearing out the imperial forces in the southern part of the Milky Way.

Not only that, Severance Tann’s military action also made the Galactic Empire hand over a large number of troops to Darth Vader and rush to Fangduo. You know, the Galactic Empire does not have the mobility of the Stargate!

The reinforcements brought by Darth Vader plus the subsequent warships that are constantly gathering towards Fangduo will exceed 3,000 battleships in total!

Then add the 2,500 battleships deployed in the north, which is equivalent to the Galactic Empire deploying nearly half of its fleet in the north and west. Excluding the fleets that must be used to defend the key planets in the center and core circle of the empire, the mobile fleets that the Galactic Empire can use in other directions are already stretched to the limit!

Therefore, in this situation, the defense of Parment Harbor, the battle of Odd-Padron Planet and the battle of the Mararian Alliance started simultaneously in three different directions of the Milky Way! (End of this chapter)