So, in the eyes of Gideon Tarkin, the frontline commander of the 20th Army's main fleet, the forces at his disposal were unlikely to see any explosive growth in the future.
Therefore, when astronomers observed the electromagnetic radiation storm caused by the two stars drawing close together, Gideon Tarkin decided to seize the opportunity.
Attack!
In his view, under such harsh conditions, even the Galactic Republic's fighters could only take off cautiously and could not operate too far from their carrier ships. They had essentially lost their ability to serve as the main attacking force. The Separatists' smaller Swarm Drones should be in even worse shape.
Those drones probably could not take off at all right now.
Since that was the case, they would gather their forces and fight to the death!
Under Gideon Tarkin's command, more than 200 Galactic Republic warships advanced directly from the front. Their force included 19 Knight-class Star Destroyers, 77 Hunter Class Battlecruisers, one Commander II-class Dreadnought, and more than 60 Aquitenes-class light cruisers.
On the Duchy of Dawn's side, Matt Hona had only around 100 warships. He ordered every ship to fall back, leaving the two Agonev-class star bases exposed in front to absorb the enemy fire, while the other warships served as long-range fire support.
But Gideon Tarkin had long anticipated such a situation. He ordered his warships to carry out long-range orbital bombardment of Yago-Dur, adopting an attitude that said, If you won't come out, I'll bombard you to death.
However, the Givin of Yago-Dur truly were not afraid of that tactic.
All the Givin had already retreated into shelter cities deep beneath the planet's crust. The crust around those shelter cities had also been artificially reinforced, and ordinary orbital bombardment simply could not harm them.
Not to mention that Yago-Dur itself