The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

(The summary of the previous chapter adds the Broadsword fighter.)

2355. Upgrade

After engaging in battle with the scaled-down warships, Admiral Gilad-Pellaeon immediately understood that although the size of these warships had been reduced a lot, their combat capabilities had not decreased at all!

The most obvious one was the scaled-down Cole-class battlecruiser. This battlecruiser was once 1,300 meters long, but it was reduced to 837.2 meters long, a full circle smaller, and the size was reduced by more than half.

And according to the situation of the scaled-down Cole-class that is currently fighting, these warships have installed a very huge twin-mounted hypermatter electromagnetic cannon above and below the hull, which was not available before. And the caliber of this hypermatter electromagnetic cannon has been reduced to 20 meters, but the firepower is still very terrifying. The power of the two twin-mounted giant cannons is naturally far greater than the previous single-shot shaft-based cannon.

The technological progress of the Kingdom of Dawn can be seen from these two turrets. In order to install the huge 40-meter-caliber hypermatter electromagnetic gun, the former Cole-class was made into a semi-axle-based gun, and the entire launch system was more than 500 meters long! Now, the barrel length of the 20-meter-caliber hypermatter electromagnetic gun is only 142 meters, and the length of the turret is only 208 meters, and it is a twin-mounted one! The form of the turret is also much more flexible than the previous semi-axle-based gun, and the target can be aimed at without the warship turning.

In the case that the firepower is not greatly weakened, the firepower point is directly divided into four, which is not only more flexible but also covers a larger area, and the firepower is doubled.

At the same time, the front end of the warship was replaced with a huge semi-axle-based laser cannon, which also has very terrifying firepower. But compared to the firepower, what is more amazing is that in addition to being able to bear the supermatter electromagnetic gun that has become a twin-mounted one, the scaled-down Cole-class can also bear such a semi-axle-based laser cannon? ! Does this mean that the energy level of the scaled-down Cole-class has reached or even exceeded the previous 1300-meter model? !

After seeing this series of amazing numbers, Gilad Peraune now understood. This is the upgrade and improvement of the battleships that the Kingdom of Dawn is carrying out!

And it is obvious that the upgrade and improvement work is the research and development and construction completed by the Kingdom of Dawn in the North. Comparing the main fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn in the battle of Kira Planet, it can be understood that the main battleships in that direction are the God-Revelation-class battleships, the Hell Angel-class, the Doomsday Battlefield-class, the Disaster-class, and the Paladin-class battlecruisers. There are also Cole-class and Dunov-class battlecruisers, but they are all ordinary models.

This shows that this upgrade and replacement has not yet been equipped to the South Territory where the Kingdom of Dawn is located. In contrast, the fleet in the North rarely sees the Hell Angel-class battlecruisers and the Disaster-class battlecruisers, and the God-Revelation-class battlecruisers and the Archon-class aircraft carriers are not seen at all, which also shows that the origin of these battleships is not in the North.

The clear distinction between the types of warships in the two directions fully demonstrates that the Kingdom of Dawn has not yet completely completed the upgrading of the navy. Many warships have been built but have not been deployed in time before they were attacked by the Galactic Empire.

But saying this now will not help the war situation at all. Admiral Gilad Peraune looked at the battle situation and his face gradually became solemn.

Although his fleet has the advantage in quantity and size at this moment, Admiral Mal-Tuk's fleet, which is mainly composed of cruisers, can already compete with his star destroyers! But according to intelligence, Admiral Mal-Tuk's commercial joint fleet has more than 200 battleships and more than 5,000 small and medium-sized warships!

If those small and medium-sized warships that have not yet come are also these new warships, then when the subsequent reinforcements arrive, this commercial joint fleet will definitely not be able to deal with it!

The best option at present is to retreat. But Girard Pellaeon also understood that he could not retreat now, otherwise he would not be able to give an explanation to Dunn Wessex and the Imperial Emperor Palpatine.

"Telegraph all ships, continue to turn forward, and leave the gravity well of the planet Anxin as soon as possible!" Girard Pellaeon gave the order. He decided to fight outside the planet's gravity well, so that on the one hand he could stay away from the planet's defense facilities. As the planet revolves, the Argonev-class interstellar bases above the North and South Poles would not threaten him. On the other hand, it also allowed his warships to start hyperspace jumps as soon as possible and leave the galaxy.

While making this decision, Admiral Girard Pellaeon also acquiesced that he could not achieve his strategic goals.

...

At the same time, the flagship of the Commercial Union Fleet, the Neimoidia supercarrier.

"General, the Imperial fleet is maneuvering in the opposite direction of the planet's revolution." The T-series tactical robot said to Admiral Mal-Tuk.

"They want to escape! Don't give them this opportunity! Chase them and entangle them!" Admiral Mal-Tuk said sternly, touching his smooth chin.

"We are still short of troops. In the past three hours, another 40 Victory II-class star destroyers arrived at the battlefield. If we continue to pursue them now, we may face greater losses without the firepower support of the planet's defense facilities." The T-series tactical robot said, "According to the current strategic deployment, if we lose too many of the new warships originally planned to be allocated to the Dawn planet, it will affect our combat plan."

"Hmm..." Admiral Mal-Tuk looked serious, fell silent and began to think.

This tactical robot was right, it really couldn't bear too much loss. Because of the commercial combined fleet in his hands, why is the warship ratio so unbalanced? Like Gilad-Perrine's judgment, it was because the war broke out too hastily that the deployment of new warships had not been completed.

According to the original plan, the Kingdom of Dawn should provide a batch of Hells Angel-class, Paladin-class, Disaster-class, Doomsday Battlefield-class battlecruisers and other capital ships, and then send a batch of Cole II-class and Martha II-class battleships here. , Minotaur class and other new warships passed by. Later, it became the third task force on the planet Mequito.

However, this plan was interrupted by the outbreak of the war, so Mal-Took, under the urging of the current Trade Federation Chairman Lot Dude and the Interstellar Banking Association Co-chairman Thorn Hill, transferred the current battleships here All were grouped together to form a combined commercial fleet and then went to war.

However, such a hasty formation naturally resulted in such a strange formation with cruisers as the main focus and not many battleships. Although the combat effectiveness is still very strong, without the thick-skinned battleships to attract frontal firepower, relying solely on cruisers to confront the opponent's Imperial-class Star Destroyers head-on, even if they can win, they will definitely suffer a lot of losses.

To put it another way, isn't this the reason why the Kingdom of Dawn is building a large number of Hells Angel-class battlecruisers?

After thinking for a while, Admiral Mar-Took waved his hand and said to the other direction: "Call Skywalker over."

"Roger." The tactical robot responded, and then its electronic eyes flashed for a while and sent out the command.

After a while, a girl walked over from the other side of the bridge.

This girl is young, only about 10 years old, and her blue skin and red eyes clearly show that she is a Chiss. Behind her, there are two adult Chisi women, who are the attendants who specialize in taking care of this girl.

"When will our reinforcements arrive?" Mar-Tuk asked directly.

The Chisi girl clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, and began to meditate. After a long time, she opened her eyes, shook her head and said: "The road to heaven has not been opened, the 'tangle' is still chaotic, and it is still unnavigable. I Need to do the induction again after half a day.”

She seemed a little weak, and the woman behind her quickly supported her.

"Half a day...and you still can't be sure?" Mar-Tuk frowned.

"Yes." The Chiss girl nodded and replied, her voice becoming weak.

"Go down and rest." Mar-Tuk waved his hand and asked the girl to leave and rest.

These girls are all Chiss ‘Skywalkers’, the Chiss’ unique hyperspace navigators.

As we all know, in the unknown star field, because the hyperspace channels are very chaotic, some channels can even change in an hour or two. Therefore, traditional hyperspace navigation technology cannot be used in unknown star fields. Therefore, it can be seen that the vast majority of civilizations living in unknown star fields have never been able to take a step outside their own planet in their entire lives.

Only a few civilizations that can master the navigation of this super chaotic hyperspace channel called the "Tangle" can develop and grow into a huge country with multiple planets.

For example, the bio-battery technology of the Xilu Empire, the telepathy of Grisk Hegemony, and the Chisland's Skywalker.

Skywalkers are basically young girls, usually no more than 13 years old, and they are all Force-sensitive. According to Chiss research, female Force-sensitives no older than 13 years old can develop a very strange sense of hyperspace channels after training.

Through this induction, these girls can guide the spacecraft to make a successful hyperspace jump and pass through the unpredictable 'tangles'. This kind of induction is called the "third horizon" by the Chiss people.

The reason why Admiral Mal-Took was able to lead the commercial combined fleet to the planet Anxin in just three days this time was because of the power of these "Skywalkers".

The Kingdom of Dawn has indeed built a star gate in the north, but unlike the Galactic Empire's alarming judgment, the Kingdom of Dawn's construction of star gates is far from the point where they can be built at will and then form a network.

Because the phase cores of these star gates can only be manufactured by Vasari phase engineers, and because the Vasari people have not yet fully recovered their previous technology, the output is not high, but the cost is terrifyingly high. .

In the north, the Kingdom of Dawn has built a total of two star gates, both of which are on the planet Mequito. One star gate leads directly to the Dawn Planet, while the other star gate leads to the Chiss Territory.

As for the question that Gilad Pellaeon has been worried about, whether there is a star gate on the planet Oud Mantel, the answer is - not at all. At least one of his judgments was correct, that is, the industry on the planet Oud-Mantel was not developed, so it was indeed very difficult to build a star gate there.

It's just that once bitten by a snake, it has been feared for ten years. During the Battle of Planet Kira, the Galactic Empire was severely deceived by the mobility of the Star Gate, and almost 1,000 capital ships and the entire southern territory of the galaxy were defrauded.

Therefore, everyone in the empire has changed their minds when talking about star gates. They even think that the Kingdom of Dawn has built star gates everywhere!

Gilad Pellaeon really didn't expect that even though he had considered the Star Gate issue very seriously, the one who tricked him this time was still the Star Gate!

It's just that he is still in the dark.

Mal-Tuk did not choose to go to Anxin through the Namadi Corridor from Od-Mantell. Not only is the journey long, but it is also obvious that the Imperial Fleet must have set up heavy defenses along the way, and it is impossible to reinforce Anxin.

So he directly sent his fleet to Chis Territory through the stargate, and then took the "Skywalkers" who had already been in place there, and then went directly from Chis Territory to Anxin through the hyperspace channel.

With the help of Skywalker's third horizon, his fleet passed through the "Tangle" very quickly, making this roundabout operation very successful. As expected, it arrived at the battlefield before Anxin fell, giving the Imperial Fleet a small shock.

But there is still a problem, because the scale of the Commercial Combined Fleet is too large, so even with Skywalker's navigation, after the first fleet passed, the hyperspace fluctuations were extremely violent, making the tangle even more chaotic, and there was no navigable route at all.

So Admiral Mal-Tuk now found that his backup fleet was delayed.

After thinking for a while, Admiral Mal-Tuk said to the T-series tactical robot: "Stop the pursuit and recover all the warships! Tell the Geth to stop chasing and return to the gravity well of the planet Anxin and follow the planet's revolution."

"Roger!"

Admiral Mal-Tuk looked at the holographic combat star map coldly, touched his chin, and smiled coldly: "So, now that I am showing weakness, what should you choose? General Gilad-Pellaeon..."

After the two sides engaged in battle, all kinds of encrypted and unencrypted communications flew all over the sky, so the code-breaking departments of the fleets of both sides could more or less crack some of the other party's communications. At least knowing the number of the other fleet and the name of the commander is still possible.

...

The difficult problem posed by Mal-Tuk really stumped Gilad-Pellaeon. He looked at the retreating fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn and fell into deep thought.

"Why don't they pursue? Where's the momentum at the beginning of the battle?" Girard Pellaeon murmured to himself, "Are they luring the enemy deeper? Or do they have other plans? Or... are they waiting for reinforcements?"

An intelligence officer came over at this time and said to Girard Pellaeon: "The intelligence from the planet Od-Mantell confirmed that the Separatist fleet is not there. This means that Mal-Tuk may have brought all the warships here."

"So, he is indeed waiting for reinforcements?" Girard Pellaeon's face became solemn.