The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2634. The Battle of Bilbulin (Final)

Admiral Holster-Stretch now understood the enemy's operational intentions. The ultimate goal of the Titan warship Envoy's doomsday weapon blast was to create a gap in the Galactic Empire's fleet formation.

In other words, the enemy commander's target is still himself!

"Continue to maintain evasive posture! Assault formation, accelerate! The enemy Titan warships can no longer use their doomsday weapons, give it your all and blast them to pieces!!" Holster-Stretch roared.

At the same time, he was also staring intently at the holographic combat star map, pondering the opponent's strategy.

Clearly, the Dawn Kingdom's fleet doesn't have the extra strength to launch a surprise attack on them right now; maintaining their current formation is already quite an achievement.

After all, to have held out this long against a Galactic Empire fleet that outnumbered them eight to one is nothing short of a miracle. A miracle of engineering and science, of course.

Until more reinforcements from the Kingdom of Dawn arrive, the advantage on the battlefield remains firmly in the hands of the Galactic Empire fleet.

With this in mind, Holster-Stretch began to direct the other ships in the fleet to redeploy and adjust their formations, making the fleet's firepower network complete again.

In interstellar warfare, warships are generally tens of kilometers apart. A battle line is essentially a chain of ships that provides mutual cover and crossfire. When a gap appears in the battle line, the enemy entering through that gap will face less firepower than those on other lines.

Holster-Stretch is currently facing this situation.

At that moment, he was shocked to see that some of the ships in the Dawn Kingdom's fleet formation had begun to move.

Those are those black frigates!!

The frigates had an unusually menacing appearance, with black outer armor and sharp edges, making them look like terrifying crustacean creatures.

These frigates are 90 meters long and are classified as heavy frigates. Each time reinforcements arrive, some of these frigates will reach the battlefield. However, they do not engage in combat; instead, they quietly assemble at the rear of the formation, and their number has now reached 250.

Because such frigates cannot cause much of a stir in the current situation of capital ships battling each other, Holst-Stretch did not pay much attention to them.

However, now these frigates have been deployed!

Admiral Streich instinctively felt a sense of foreboding! He pointed at the holographic star map and shouted, "Stop all those escort ships!! Now!!"

A squadron of light cruisers immediately launched an attack from the rear of the formation.

However, those frigates were incredibly fast! Their engines were extremely powerful, quickly accelerating to 80G! Such instantaneous burst speeds are something that, apart from the specialized engines of fighter jets, have never been seen installed on warships!
Because this instantaneous thrust-to-weight ratio cannot be applied to warships that are much larger than fighter jets.

However, such speeds are found on these 90-meter-long frigates!

These escort ships were incredibly fierce, charging straight at the light cruisers ahead, almost unopposed. The Imperial light cruisers in front of them were few in number and were breached almost instantly.

Furthermore, it became clear at this point that the firepower of a light cruiser was simply insufficient to inflict fatal damage on these black frigates in a short period. Their armor was extremely thick!

Holster-Stretch began to panic, because many of his high-speed cruisers had been deployed to high-speed assault squadrons to attack the Titan-class battleship, the Divine Messenger. Currently, there were only about a dozen high-speed cruisers nearby.

The battlefield of this battle spans 5 light-minutes, and it will take time to bring cruisers over from other locations!
Inside the cockpits of these black frigates, fierce-looking Vasari crew members were yelling and screaming as they piloted the ships. They were all genetically modified, possessing computer-level reaction and spatial awareness abilities—enhanced human pilots.

They are trained almost from birth to be warship operators, and through genetic modifications, their growth is accelerated, allowing them to reach maturity in just ten years.

Those black corvettes were naturally one of the Vasari's main corvettes—the Lavasa Fighters!
Under the control of those enhanced pilots, 250 Lavasa Fighters pounced on Holst-Stretch's flagship, the Archon MK-II class battlecruiser, like a pack of wolves!

A Lavasa Fighter was hit directly by a shot from the arriving Arquitenth-class light cruiser. Its energy shield shattered instantly, and the subsequent turbine laser beam created a violent explosion on the escort ship's armor. The shockwave blew the Lavasa Fighter off course, but it quickly readjusted its course and continued its attack!
The armor protection of these Lavasa fighters is so formidable.

While both are armor-resistant, the Vasari warships differ from the Amarr Empire warships produced by the Fourth Group in EVE Online. Instead of using voltage-based cladding armor, they directly employ state-of-the-art dark energy technology and nanotechnology to process the materials used in warship construction, achieving an unbelievable level of armor hardness.

250 Lavasa Fighters charged straight through the gap in the formation created by the Doomsday Weapon of the Divine Messenger Titan battleship, heading straight for Admiral Streich's flagship!
This was the plan of the Dawn Kingdom fleet commander.

From the outset, they determined that under the overwhelming force of the Galactic Empire, even a powerful Titan like the Divine Messenger would struggle to find an opportunity to target the enemy flagship. Therefore, they modified their plan: to blast a path with a doomsday weapon and then entrust the task of decapitating the enemy flagship to the Lavasa Fighter Cluster!
For no other reason than that anyone who sees the technical specifications of this heavy frigate can easily make the following judgment: this frigate is capable of threatening capital ships.

The Lavasa Fighter heavy corvette is almost perfect in terms of firepower, armor, and straight-line speed, except for its poor turning performance, insufficient energy shield capacity, and lack of flexible turrets!

And this is indeed the case.

250 Lavasa Fighters broke through the blockade of more than ten light cruisers, losing only 12. The remaining 238 Lavasa Fighters had by then fought their way to Admiral Streich's flagship. And then…

Open fire and bombard!
These frigates have incredibly powerful firepower. Although they are only equipped with a single particle cannon on the front, its output power is comparable to that of a light cruiser!
"Quickly! Open fire! Shoot down these frigates!!" Admiral Holst-Stretch shouted the order.

His battlecruiser, the Archon MK-II class, was equipped with 60 quadruple-mounted heavy turbolaser cannons and 40 twin-mounted medium turbolaser cannons; 10 long-range ion cannons and 30 twin-mounted medium-range ion cannons were used to counter shields. Moreover, the quadruple-mounted heavy turbolaser cannons, mainly used to deal with enemy ships, were arranged very widely, in groups of three turrets, covering almost the entire ship.

In fact, it is quite obvious that the Archon MK-II class battlecruiser, although 4800 meters long, was not wrongly classified as a battlecruiser by the Galactic Empire—because its firepower was indeed insufficient.

This warship was designed as a command ship, with a large amount of space used for living quarters to house the command team, barracks for amphibious operations, and a large hangar for up to 120 fighter jets.

The Archduke MK-II class battlecruiser is now under attack by more than 200 Lavasa Fighters and is almost immediately at a complete disadvantage.

The Lavasa Fighters devoured the warship like a pack of wolves, each hit causing the warship's deflector shields to flash violently.

Admiral Streich had never seen such a ferocious frigate! Watching the shield capacitor readings steadily decline, he finally made his decision: "All forces, immediately retreat according to the original plan! Retreat!"

Unlike those incompetent generals who frantically call for reinforcements as soon as they are attacked, he was well aware that the capital ships were shifting their formation. If he were to turn some of the capital ships around, the frontal formation would inevitably fall into chaos.

This would relieve the pressure on the Dawn Kingdom's fleet, allowing them to launch a counterattack immediately!

Don't forget, their reinforcements are arriving in droves!

Under Admiral Streich's direction, the warships of the Imperial Northern Third Squadron began an orderly retreat. During this retreat, some of the capital ships began to move closer to the flagship.

Meanwhile, the Lavasa fighters were still relentlessly attacking the Consul MK-II class battlecruiser.

But at that very moment, the situation suddenly changed!
Twenty Cataclysmic-class battlecruisers suddenly appeared behind the Titan warship Divine Messenger, accompanied by a white light! These battlecruisers had just left the hyperspace channel and immediately targeted the Galactic Empire's fleet flagship, unleashing a salvo!
Particle light spear, 20 shots in rapid succession!

……

At this moment, in the bridge command center of the Titan warship Divine Messenger, Admiral Trench looked at Ander-Viking, who had been silently observing from the other side, and said, "Just as you planned, the movements of the Galactic Empire's flagship were all within our predictions. Tsk tsk tsk..."

“He can’t escape.” Ander-Viking nodded.

Admiral Trench clapped his hands with his pointer and said, "Order the 7th, 19th, and 43rd Fighter Squadrons to turn immediately and attack the enemy fleet flagship!"

“Roger!” the tactical robot responded immediately.

On the battlefield, about 100 fighters from the Dawn Kingdom's fighter squadron, which had taken off first and were engaged in fierce combat with the Imperial fighter squadron, immediately detached themselves and flew directly towards the direction of the Archon MK-II! During the air battle, these fighter squadrons never flew too far, always staying close to the gap that had been blasted open by the Divine Messenger!

This was a meticulously planned raid! Creating an opportunity when none existed!
The one who came up with this brilliant idea was not General Trench, who specialized in defensive tactics, but rather—Andre Wiking!

On the surface, this attack didn't seem particularly sophisticated: using doomsday weapons to blast a breach, then launching a surprise attack with high-speed warships and fighter jets, culminating in a decapitation strike with long-range particle lances. But what was truly terrifying was the anticipation of Admiral Streich's behavioral patterns.

Whether it's hiding the Lavasa fighters within the fleet formation, mobilizing them in batches, and then holding them still to reduce their presence, or arranging the maneuvering direction of the fighter formations in advance, or the order in which reinforcements arrive in advance.

The composition of the first wave of reinforcements via the Divine Messenger hyperspace beacon, the second wave, and the third wave were all planned in advance before departure. Only in this way could they avoid becoming stuck in chaos within the Dorin system.

Therefore, Ander-Viking had already determined which wave of reinforcements would arrive before the Kingdom of Dawn's fleet could establish a foothold and allow the Divine Messenger to launch its doomsday weapon. He also arranged for all the reinforcements in the following wave to be deployed on Cataclysmic-class battlecruisers.

It's important to understand that a Cataclysmic-class battlecruiser arriving at this time would offer absolutely no help to the main battlefront. Moreover, directly approaching the Divine Messenger would make it vulnerable to concentrated bombardment from the Imperial fleet, resulting in heavy losses. But this wave of reinforcements, with its barrage of particle lances, has precisely opened the prelude to a decapitation strike.

Therefore, these seemingly simple conditions have actually undergone precise calculations and judgments.

The result is already very obvious!
Admiral Streich's flagship was immediately hit by a salvo of 20 particle lances, shattering the ship's deflector shields instantly. Then, over 200 Lavasa Fighters pounced on it like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves, tearing at it relentlessly.

At that moment, among the three fighter formations, 30 Viking fighters fully loaded with proton torpedoes activated their stealth devices, circled around to the rear, aimed at the engine section, and pressed the launch button!
180 proton torpedoes, fired simultaneously!

The entire raid lasted only about ten minutes. Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of capital ships of the Galactic Empire, Streich's flagship, the 4800-meter-long Archon MK-II class battlecruiser, was engulfed by countless explosions.

Galactic Empire Navy Admiral Holster Streich was killed in action!
It wasn't that he didn't have a chance to escape to the life pods, but rather that Streich couldn't believe until his death that his massive warship had been sunk by more than 200 escort ships!
However, General Streich's troops did not fall into chaos. After all, he had ordered an orderly retreat before his death.

Therefore, the Galactic Empire's fleet began to take turns providing cover and retreating, eventually reaching the outer orbit of Bilblin. During the retreat, they did not give the Dawn Kingdom's fleet many opportunities to pursue them.

“This commander is not Thron,” General Trench said.

Ander-Viking nodded. "I know."

General Trench said, "Then, I will proceed with the attack as planned. Tsk tsk tsk... And who knows when Thrawn will appear? He's in your hands. Tsk tsk tsk tsk."

“I’ll know when he shows up,” Ander-Viking said calmly. (End of Chapter)