The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2649 Re-battle on Planet Bilblin
2649. The Second Battle on Bilbulin Planet

The Dawn Kingdom fleet currently assembled on the planet Bilbrin has reached 120 capital ships and 350 heavy cruisers! In addition, there are more than 600 ships ranging from frigates to light cruisers, which is roughly equivalent to half of the Northern Fleet this time.

The Galactic Empire's fleet defending Bilblin currently consists of 550 capital ships and over 2700 medium and small warships. The Galactic Empire's four northern legions—the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Legions—have a total of 3500 capital ships. However, due to the annihilation of the 8th Legion, the remaining three legions must defend vast areas; therefore, 2000 of the 3500 capital ships are used for defense in various locations.

Meanwhile, because the Kingdom of Dawn had also dispatched more than 50 capital ships to attack the planet Dantuin on the northern edge of the border, the Empire was forced to send 100 capital ships to meet them in kind. The Seventh Legion also sent 40 Imperial-class star destroyers in two waves deep into the unknown star system, preparing to harass the rear of the Chis territory.

Therefore, at this moment, on the planet Palin-Minor, the administrative center of the North, stands a powerful force of up to 700 capital ships. Thus, the fleet currently defending Bilbrin, led by Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils, is actually roughly half the size of the Northern Mobile Fleet.

Although on the surface Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils appears to be on the defensive, and still has the support of factories on the planet Bilbrin's home planet, as well as firepower from thousands of armed asteroids on the surrounding area, giving him a huge advantage in terms of manpower, in reality, Admiral Trench has a fleet of super-battleships in this direction, including eight Prophecy-class battleships, two Titan battleships, two Eternal-class supercarriers, and three Archon-class aircraft carriers.

The Titan warship Divine Messenger was especially terrifying; its two sorties forced the Galactic Empire to mobilize its entire fleet to fight against it!

Therefore, Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils also believed that once Admiral Trench assembled the most powerful warships to launch a surprise attack, his defenses would likely be breached, thus threatening the planet Bilblin.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils repeatedly requested his superior, General Gilard Perein, the highest military commander in the entire Northern Territory, to put enough pressure on the Kingdom of Dawn to prevent them from sending more warships.

Gerald Perein led the mobile fleet originally intended for the defense of Palin-Minor. He finally persuaded Dunn Wessex, who only wanted to stay in his hometown, to continue to increase the force to 450 capital ships and 2000 medium and small warships to attack Od Mantel.

The Dawn Kingdom's forces defending the planet Ode-Mantel consisted of 150 capital ships, 350 heavy cruisers, and over 2000 medium and small warships. Furthermore, since there were no Titan warships present, the difference in troop strength between the two sides was not significant.

In this direction, neither side intends to fight to the death; they both only intend to restrain the other.

On May 20, 9 BBY, Admiral Trench first ignited the war on the planet Bilbrin!
The Titan-class battleship, the Divine Messenger, charged straight to the front, launching its doomsday weapon as soon as it was fully charged! The terrifying energy beam pierced through an Imperial-class Star Destroyer from end to end, then swept across three armed asteroids, leaving a trail of explosions and flames in its wake.

Immediately afterwards, the particle lances equipped by the Cataclysm-class and Paladin-class battlecruisers also bombarded the Galactic Empire's defenses.

The Prophet-class battleships lined up at the forefront of the battle line, their flagship-level laser arrays flashing continuously, and powerful X-rays instantly projecting devastating energy.

In the center of the formation, the Kohl II-class heavy cruisers, the Behemoth-class battlecruisers, and the Minotaur-class heavy cruisers also opened fire with their medium- and long-range firepower, forming a three-dimensional fire net.

The Eternal-class supercarrier and the Archon-class drone carrier were positioned behind the front line, not launching fighters and drones immediately, but instead allowing the main warships of both sides to engage in mutual bombardment.

Upon receiving notification of the attack, Imperial Defense Fleet Commander Dagon Nils took command from Bilbrin. Learning from the previous experience of Admiral Holster Streich, Vice Admiral Nils decided not to engage in battle aboard the flagship, lest it be instantly killed by a doomsday weapon.

At this moment, besides the three Commander II-class Dreadnoughts, there are no other warships in the fleet on Bilbrin's planet that can serve as flagships. And the Commander II-class Dreadnoughts, after all, are modified products from the Clone Wars era. Although they reach a length of 8000 meters, their combat effectiveness is not high. Using a Commander II-class Dreadnought as a flagship doesn't provide the same sense of security as the 4800-meter Archon MK-II-class.

Dagon-Nils ordered his fleet to disperse into hundreds of small combat formations, concealed behind the armed asteroids. This would minimize the risk of being picked off one by one by the Titan-class destroyers' doomsday weapons.

These armed asteroids range in size from three to four kilometers in diameter to hundreds of kilometers, and are equipped with independent energy reactors, deflector shield generators, and heavy turbine laser cannons. Most of these components were salvaged from old, decommissioned warships and can still serve some purpose.

Most importantly, these armed asteroids are natural shelters.

Faced with the Dawn Kingdom's attack, the 700 Imperial-class Star Destroyers also responded with overwhelming firepower! Compared to the Dawn Kingdom fleet's attack method, which mainly consisted of beams of light, the Imperial fleet's counterattack was like a rainstorm! A single salvo fired thousands of turbolaser beams! Moreover, the rate of fire was extremely fast; the XX-9 heavy turbolaser cannon could fire 40 times per minute!
The barrage of attacks landed on the Dawn Kingdom fleet's formation, immediately igniting countless pale green energy ripples, even on the Prophecy-class battleships that were not equipped with energy shields!

The Taotie Titan warship deployed its fleet shields immediately!
Furthermore, the Titan warship Divine Messenger activated its phenomenon generator, enhancing its entire fleet.

With this shift in power, despite being at a significant disadvantage in terms of troop strength, they were still able to firmly suppress the Imperial defensive fleet. Meanwhile, the doomsday weapon of the Divine Messenger Titan warship began its second recharge.

As long as the doomsday weapon exists, each launch can reliably destroy the Imperial fleet's warships, causing them to suffer continuous losses.

It seems that General Trench is quite satisfied with this exchange.

The battle to launch a full-scale assault on the planet Bilblin has reached its most intense stage from the very beginning!
Less than 10 minutes after the battle began, both sides began to suffer casualties. The Imperial Fleet lost 18 Imperial-class Star Destroyers, while the Dawn Kingdom also lost one Prophet-class battleship that was severely damaged and began to retreat, along with 3 Hells Angel-class battlecruisers and 3 Martha-class missile heavy cruisers.

Neither side launched fighter squadrons, because they both believed that launching fighter squadrons to attack when both sides were in such a tight formation would only result in greater losses.

The fierce battle lasted for four hours, with both sides engaging in almost constant long-range artillery fire.

During this period of fighting, the Galactic Empire's defense fleet lost 82 capital ships and over 300 medium and small warships. The Dawn Kingdom, on the other hand, lost 20 capital ships and heavy cruisers, and 76 medium and small warships.

In reality, the primary reason for the Galactic Empire's devastating losses to its defense fleet was the Doomsday Weapon fired by the Titan warship, the Divine Messenger. In this engagement, the Doomsday Weapon was fired four times, and these four launches alone destroyed 19 Imperial-class Star Destroyers!
Furthermore, the firing of the doomsday weapon created gaps in the Imperial fleet's defensive formation, giving other warships an opportunity to exploit the situation. Therefore, at least half of the losses were related to the Titan warship, the Divine Messenger. After using the Phenomenon Generator and firing the doomsday weapon four more times, the Titan warship, the Divine Messenger, began to turn and retreat. The Titan warship, the Taotie, with the assistance of three Dunov-class battlecruisers, once again deployed its fleet shields, covering the entire fleet's rapid turn and creating a safe distance from the planetary defenses.

The Kingdom of Dawn has deployed ten Dawn's Radiance-class motherships approximately five light-hours from the planet Bilbrin. Although these motherships are only 2300 meters tall, they are equipped with various industrial facilities and interstellar docks. When deployed, they combine to form a small military base, providing maintenance for the fleet.

Ten Dawn of the Light-class motherships have been fully deployed, and facilities including hospital space stations, fighter hangars, interstellar docks, capital ship docks, entertainment centers, and star canteens are all ready.

Numerous engineering and transport ships are traversing this small interstellar city, some constructing more facilities, while others are transporting various supplies.

More and more spaceships arrive here from time to time via the hyperspace route, bringing more supplies.

The only advantage the Bilbrin system has for the Dawn Kingdom is its abundance of asteroids. They can use these asteroids to smelt materials and then build various parts to maintain their warships.

Although most of the materials used to manufacture these parts locally did not meet the standards, they were still sufficient for the battlefield environment.

Meanwhile, within this small military base, some Vasari engineering ships were busy at work, having already begun preliminary construction of the stargate.

In fact, Vice Admiral Dagon Nils, commander of the Galactic Empire fleet, had considered this military base, but the order from Lord Dunn Wessex, King of the North, to preserve strength first, prevented him from pursuing this audacious plan.

Admiral Holst-Stretch hastily launched an offensive, but failed to even destroy the enemy's small fleet centered around two Titan warships. Now that the enemy has set up defenses here, another offensive, while not necessarily a guaranteed defeat, will certainly result in heavy losses.

If that's the outcome, Dunn Wessex will definitely have him shot!

Therefore, Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils' greatest hope lies in the continuous stream of reinforcements and the restraint exerted by Admiral Gerard Perein on the planet Ode Mantel.

The Galactic Empire attaches great importance to the defense of Bilbrin. To strengthen Dunn-Wessex's resolve to hold the planet, the Imperial High Command has been generous with its supplies, providing whatever is needed. Therefore, Lieutenant General Dagon-Nils currently has ample support.

Dunn-Wessex will not order a withdrawal unless the situation escalates to the point of imminent massive losses.

Even so, the intensity of this attack still gave Dagon-Nils a scare. If such an offensive continued, his casualties would increase dramatically, and it would be hard to say whether Dunn-Wessex, who was focused on preserving his strength, would still be able to hold out on Bilblin.

Dagon-Nils began to deploy his defenses more cautiously. He was no longer thinking about how to attack the forward base set up by Admiral Trench, but rather how to preserve his fleet in the upcoming offensive.

However, just as he was standing in front of the holographic combat star map, deep in thought, an officer from the sensor department suddenly rushed over and shouted, "General Nielz! There are unusual hyperspace fluctuations at the Separatist fleet's base!!"

“Unusual fluctuations? What’s going on?” Dagon-Nils frowned. “Is that Titan warship, the Divine Messenger, deploying its navigation beacon to guide reinforcements again?”

“No, this fluctuation is much stronger than before! And the frequency of the fluctuation is completely different from before. It’s like… it’s like…” The officer gestured for a while, his face pale, and said, “It’s like… it’s like we’re about to leave this place.”

"Leave?" It took Dagon-Nils five seconds to process this information, then he felt a chill run through his body. "What did you say?! Leave??"

He strode towards the sensor department, just as a soldier shouted, "Hyperspace fluctuation confirmed!! The enemy's two Titan warships have activated their hyperspace engines and left this system!!"

"Have the separatists gone mad?!" Dagon-Nils exclaimed in shock. "The hyperspace routes in the Bilblin system are extremely complex, and we've set up a large number of hyperspace blockers. They finally made it here, and now they want to retreat? Wouldn't all their previous efforts and sacrifices have been for nothing?"

He suddenly thought of a possibility and turned to his adjutant and staff officer, saying, "Could they be retreating and heading to the planet Ode-Mantel?"

The adjutant nodded and said, "That's very likely. So that attack just now was just to distract us... Perhaps the separatists found Bilblin too easy to defend and difficult to attack, so they gave up."

The staff officer added, "We should immediately inform General Gerald Perrin that it should take three to four days to maneuver from here to the planet Od Mantel. Let those two Titan warships struggle in the chaotic hyperspace environment of the Bilbrin system for a while."

Dagon-Nils nodded and instructed his adjutant to quickly inform Admiral Gerald Pereira of the news of the withdrawal of the two Titan warships.

At the same time, he was also considering a question—should he take the initiative to attack the Dawn Kingdom's military base?

However, just one day after he began preparing for the attack, news of an explosion suddenly came from the planet Ode-Mantel!

Two Titan warships! Appeared on the battlefield of Oder-Mantel!!