The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2747. The Goalkeeper Plan (Part 1)

"Order all fleets to enter Level One readiness, combat readiness. Tsk tsk tsk tsk..." Admiral Trench stroked the claw at the corner of his mouth and slowly said, "Locate the positions of the two Imperial super star destroyers: the Guardian and the Reaper. Tsk tsk tsk tsk..."

"Yes!"

Trench thought for a moment, then continued, "Intensify the ground offensive against Dantuin. Have the Geths continue harassing Palin-Minor. Tsk tsk tsk tsk..."

"Yes!"

"First Fleet, retreat to Palancy. Tsk tsk tsk... Clear the way for the attack."

"Second Fleet, suspend your offensive and rest on the outskirts of Borelias."

"Third Fleet, continue the attack on Planet Raiser. Take it within a week. Tsk tsk tsk..."

"Yes, General!"

"Your plan is to let the First Star System Army in, and then attack from three directions simultaneously for a fleet showdown?" a young man's voice came.

General Trench turned around and saw only the young boy standing behind him.

He was wearing a dark blue military uniform with no rank insignia on his shoulders, but his eyes were calm and steady, revealing a maturity and wisdom beyond his years.

Andre Viking, military advisor to the Northern Fleet, is the secret weapon in this major military operation in the North—Operation Gold.

“Yes. A three-pronged attack. I won’t give them any chance. Tsk tsk tsk tsk…” Admiral Trench said, stroking his claws.

“If that’s the case, we will face a defeat,” Ander-Viking said in a deep voice.

General Trench fell silent.

He had initially harbored some doubts about this unfamiliar young man, but later discovered that Andre Viking's grasp of the battle situation and his imaginative tactical ideas were incisive and hit the nail on the head. Without a doubt, he was a genius of war.

In previous battles, Andre Viking simply offered some suggestions that turned the tide of the war.

Including the recent attack on Palancy, it was his suggestion to launch a full-scale attack to seize the opportunity that made General Trench decide to ignore the direct order from the General Staff to stop short of a decisive engagement and send the entire army into battle.

As expected, the Galactic Empire's garrison retreated without a fight, surrendering Palancy and handing it over to the Dawn Kingdom in a glorious victory. This proved that if they had followed the General Staff's plan and only launched a symbolic battle, they would never have been able to directly conquer Palancy.

This made General Trench feel old.

Of course, the Hatch people generally live to be around 200 years old, and Trench is still only in his prime. However, he will respect every suggestion from Ander Viking, especially in the face of Thron, who previously defeated Admiral Mar-Tuk.

Upon seeing the battle reports and detailed tactical information, Trench realized he was no match for that man. His greatest hope for completely defeating Thrawn in the North lay with this gifted young man.

"What is your opinion?" General Trench asked slowly.

“I don’t think we should engage in a fleet battle with the Galactic Empire at this time,” Ander-Viking said. “There are two reasons. First, Palancy is not an ideal battlefield. Second, it is not in line with our strategic objectives.”

“Tsk tsk tsk... Planet Palancy has indeed been destroyed. We can’t get support from the planet,” Trench said seriously. “That’s why I decided to launch a pincer attack.”

“But this time, the Galactic Empire’s fighting spirit will be completely different from last time,” Ander-Viking said. “A rebellion has broken out in the Imperial capital, but the First Star System Army, which should have been guarding the capital, has not returned. This shows their thinking—they blame this rebellion on us. They are preparing to regain the face the Empire has lost on Palancy.”

He tapped on the holographic star map, simulating possible battle scenarios, and then said, "If I were the enemy commander, I wouldn't care about the fleet attacking from behind. I would only concentrate my forces to attack one of them, even if it meant suffering heavy losses, to inflict significant damage on us. They have two Executor-class ships; they are capable of doing that."

Trench nodded slightly, his breathing becoming heavy, clearly weighing the weight of the boy's words.

"The Imperial fleet's objective is to inflict damage on us regardless of losses. And what about our strategic objective? Is it also to destroy the Empire's manpower?" Ander-Viking shook his head and continued, "No. From the Galactic Republic to the present, the Galactic Empire has accumulated 25,000 years of resources and foundation. We need several years, even more than a decade, to catch up with them in terms of productivity, but we can't afford to wait that long. Therefore, the task of destroying the Imperial fleet should not be undertaken by us."

General Trench narrowed all eight of his eyes simultaneously. "Tsk tsk tsk. So, your plan is..."

……

"Marshal! The Dawn Kingdom's fleet is recovering from planets like Leather and Borelias. It seems they are preparing to return to Palancy and hold out to the death," the staff officer said to Oswald Tessik as he entered the command center.

Tesik sat in his seat, his hands supporting his chin, and said coldly, "It seems our attack plan has been leaked. Oh well, I never expected those incompetent bastards in the intelligence agency to be of any real use... They've always been losers in foreign wars, except for making a mess of the Empire's internal affairs."

“This puts us under tremendous pressure… What do you think, should we cancel the goalkeeper program, or postpone it…” the staff officer said.

"Cancel? Heh heh heh..." Oswald-Tesick said coldly, "No! Since they want a decisive battle, then I'll give them the chance! Order the entire army to prepare for battle. Two days later, the entire army will attack! Target—Plansey Planet!"

The Kingdom of Dawn has been very active in its military operations in the North. First, they launched three large-scale offensives on Dantuin, where ground forces from both sides were locked in fierce battles. They also continued to increase the size of their armored forces, clearly intending to annihilate the Galactic Empire's army there.

In response to the pressure from Dantoin, Dunn Wessex, the governor of the Galactic Empire's Ninth Army, who also commands the Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Legions and is considered the hope of the North, has no choice but to continuously deploy larger and larger land forces to Dantoin.

Moreover, the scale of ground fighting in the Dantuin direction is growing larger and larger, to the point where neither side can afford to give up.

Dunn-Wessex had to move its fleet north to ensure it could support ground forces as much as possible, while also guarding against potential orbital bombardment from the Kingdom of Dawn. Most importantly, it needed to ensure the astronomical daily supply needs of this massive ground army.

Meanwhile, the Geths fleet was constantly harassing Dunne-Wessex's supply lines with warp drive, forcing the Imperial fleet to disperse its escort forces and further exhausting them.

One day, a Geth dreadnought even dared to intrude directly into the outer space of the planet Palin-Minor. Although it was quickly shot down by the defenders, it terrified Dunn Wessex.

He continuously sent letters to the Imperial Central Command, claiming that the Dawn Kingdom's strategic intention was absolutely to first isolate Palin-Minor and then completely conquer the North. He even analyzed with great seriousness that once the North was taken, the Dawn Kingdom would gain a secure rear, allowing for continuous attacks that would threaten the core and even the security of Coruscant!

Then, Dunn-Wessex continued to entrench its main fleet along the line from Palin-Minol to Dantoin, a deployment essentially focused on full-scale defense and ensuring logistical support towards Dantoin. As for launching a decisive battle, that was absolutely out of the question.

At the same time, because Dunn Wessex held a pivotal position in the Galactic Empire, his cautious approach was approved by the Imperial military and even praised as a prudent move.

To be frank, even the high-ranking personnel in the Imperial military were very clear about the situation from all sides—Dunne Wessex was regarded as "one of their own" by His Majesty the Emperor, while Oswald Tessik was viewed with suspicion.

Therefore, even when faced with a crucial and risky military operation like the Goalkeeper Plan, the First Star System Army under Tessik's command struggled to gain sufficient support and trust. Dunn-Wessex's inaction, on the other hand, became a matter of course.

In reality, holding the northern borders would indeed require a large number of mobile forces, especially with the Geths constantly harassing the region with their warp-speed fleets. However, from the perspective of the Empire's overall situation, the Imperial military should not be concerned with how to defend the northern borders, but rather with how to make the best use of its already strained forces.

If we think about it from a different perspective, we might arrive at a completely different conclusion.

However, in a complex political system like the Galactic Empire, which is full of power and factions, sometimes the decisions made are not necessarily the best choice.

Of course, Marshal Oswald Tessik also sent his battle plan and the message of inviting the three Northern Legions to join the war directly to Dunn Wessex.

However, Dunn didn't even look at the message and immediately blocked it. Life is the most important thing, no matter what.

……

After confirming that Dunn-Wessex would not participate in the war, on September 11, 9 BBY, the First Star System Army of the Galactic Empire assembled on the planets of Urry and Borelias, forming two major battle groups, A and B, with the Reaper and Guardian Executor-class super star destroyers as the core, and launched a general offensive against Palancy!

The flagship of Battle Group A was the Reaper, personally commanded by Imperial Marshal Oswald Tessick, and included 600 Star Destroyers, 120 Heavy Cruisers, 900 Light Cruisers, and 2000 Frigates.

The flagship of Battle Group B is the USS Guardian, which includes 450 Star Destroyers, 200 Heavy Cruisers, 800 Light Cruisers, and 2400 Frigates.

To ensure that navigation through the hyperspace route would not be disrupted by the large size of the fleet, Battle Group A attacked in two waves, while Battle Group B attacked in three waves.

Even if the attack is carried out in batches, the scale of each batch is already terrifying!

This scale clearly tells the Dawn Kingdom – this is the core area!
The core area is the core area because the planets here are sufficiently advanced. And why are they so advanced? One of the key reasons is that the hyperspace channels in the core area are stable and dense enough to support the rapid deployment and logistical resupply of large-scale fleets.

This astronomical advantage allows the core region to project power far beyond the outer star system, enabling larger-scale fleet operations.

The Galactic Empire fleet, spearheaded by the Type II Aegis destroyer, first deployed a massive deflector shield field to defend against potential doomsday weapon attacks, followed by the Executor-class super star destroyer leading a large number of warships in a swarm!

A powerful electronic jamming was instantly deployed, and then the Blocker-class Star Destroyer activated its hyperspace blocking field, cutting off the warp escape routes of all enemy fleets around Palancy.

Immediately, the entire army launched an attack!
However, the moment they entered the battlefield, Oswald-Tesik discovered that they had not deployed their formation on the outer edge of Palancy, but instead pushed their formation to the vicinity of the fifth planet's orbit near the outer edge of the star system.

At this moment, based on the orbital position of this fifth planet, it is about 15 light-minutes away from the Dawn Kingdom fleet and is moving away.

After consulting with the accompanying experts and confirming that the planet would not affect their operational plans, Oswald-Tesick ordered the firing!
Countless turbo laser cannons and ion cannons fired simultaneously, weaving a dense network of fire that illuminated the dark universe.

The sheer volume of fire unleashed by hundreds of Star Destroyers and thousands of small and medium-sized warships amounted to hundreds of thousands of rounds in an instant! Moreover, the rate of fire of the turbo laser cannons made the barrage of fire even more terrifying!
Oswald-Tesik knew that the Dawn Kingdom's greatest advantage lay in the overwhelming power of their fighter force against the Empire, as well as the particle lances mounted on the Paladin-class and Cataclysm-class battlecruisers for long-range fire support.

Therefore, instead of launching a fighter squadron directly, he ordered the fleet to ramp up its sub-light speed engines to the maximum and launch a full-speed attack!
He planned to use his overwhelming numerical superiority to drag the Dawn Kingdom's fleet into a direct confrontation!
Meanwhile, after Battle Group B entered the battlefield from another direction, Tesik ordered them to attack Palancy directly, and after securing control of the planet, to attack the Dawn Kingdom's battle formation from the flank and rear.

This strategy is somewhat risky because his A battle group does not have a significant advantage in troop strength before the B battle group launches a pincer attack, and the frontal pressure will be enormous.

But it doesn't matter. As long as Battle Group B launches its attack, victory will come! (End of Chapter)