21 BBY, July 1. This day was also one of the Fourth Civilization's official holidays. There was no special reason for it; reportedly, their leader Tang Xiao had simply waved his hand, picked a few dates on the calendar, and made them official. As for what significance they held, naturally, plenty of sociologists and humanities scholars were available to fill that in.
Eriadu, outer space.
A vast Fourth Civilization fleet had gathered here, continuously launching nuclear missiles and proton torpedoes at the heavily besieged planet Eriadu. Terrifying explosions erupted without cease across the Planetary Shield. The energy ripples raised by each blast stretched at least hundreds of kilometers in diameter, while some of the larger explosions created scenes across thousands of kilometers of the shield as though heaven and earth themselves had changed color!
Behind this massive fleet, two Dawn's Radiance-class motherships hung in space, all their bays and construction modules fully deployed, transformed into two enormous space factories that ceaselessly produced war materiel.
Hundreds of transport ships lifted off from the Eriadu satellite. They first went to the three Luukri-Hok-class battleships in the satellite's outer orbit for allocation and transfer, then delivered vast quantities of military supplies to the fleet and the motherships in support of the battle.
Seizing the Eriadu satellite was a crucial part of this campaign. Against the highly industrialized planet Eriadu, with the hyperspace routes almost entirely sealed off, the war resources on the satellite were the key factor in meeting the fleet's needs.
Nor was it only the Eriadu satellite. Within the Eriadu system, interstellar mines on several other planets, including Talastra Planet, had also begun operating, transporting huge quantities of resources to the satellite.
Attacking a planet's Planetary Shield was a contest of resources, a contest of energy.
After cutting off outside reinforcements