The Death Star has been destroyed. While the Coalition celebrates, Ezra and Jaral return to Lothal, to spend some time with their family and introduce Luke to the ways of the Jedi. But the Empire is far from broken, as Grand Admiral Tanis and his fl...
"Sir, Outpost 8 has stopped answering. Should we prepare a counterattack?" the Lieutenant asked.
"Negative." Iulius replied a bit discouraged. "They'll only get slaughtered. Order all units to gather at Fort Ruusan and prepare for a last stand."
"Yes, sir." she replied before walking away.
He sighed lightly and leaned on the holo-table, where a map about Lantillies' control was showing. By now, the Federation had taken over 53% of the surface. Their advance had been slow, mostly thanks to many tactics introduced by Veers, which were so successful that Iulius had decided to promote him to General and put him in charge of the defense of the planet.
In orbit, the situation was still in balance. The two fleets were more or less on equal strength and none seemed eager to make the first move. On one side, the Turians were in command of it, and they were a methodical and patient race. By now, some Human cruisers had also joined the fleet, plus two carriers.
Most of the action in orbit was being carried out by fighters and stealth frigates and corvettes, as both sides were trying to hit the supply convoys of the opponent, with Captain Kyrell now in charge of the TIE squadron tasked with protecting these runs with the support of the Admonitor. Iulius thought that the strong bond between Thane and Ciena would do wonders for their coordination, and he had been proven right.
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In this field the Empire actually had the advantage: from the Core the hyperspace lanes to reach Lantillies were relatively clear, while the Federation had to bring supplies from far away systems and pass through the insidious Roche Asteroid Belt, a stopgap they couldn't avoid in order to reach the theater of war.
And speaking of reinforcements, not only the Wookies of Tarfful had arrived, surprising every imperial soldier with the ferocity they showed in the last weeks against the Federation. Images of the fur balls fighting head-to-head against the terrifying Krogans had been broadcast galaxy-wide per Iulius' order, and now many other alien races were volunteering to join the fight. Iulius even received a request from the Gungans on Naboo, who also felt they owed their newfound freedom to him, to send a small army with their ion bombs.
The Lord-Protector had already decided to abolish the rule that allowed only Humans into the Army. The population of Lantillies welcomed them with open arms, but their culture was already renowned for accepting everybody who could make themselves useful, no matter how many arms they had or the shape of their head.
Admiral Versio, as member of the ISB, was managing a propaganda campaign on his homeworld, Vardos, where the mixed population of Humans and aliens was particularly loyal to the Empire, to find more manpower. The greatest problem was to give the non-Humans with right equipment: while humanoids like Zabraks, Zeltros and other species with minimal differences could still be provided with the usual Army uniform, other species like the Rodians or the Biths needed specially designed uniforms, the production of which had been delegated to new industrial companies.
