Orson Krennic immediately assembled all of the Death Guard, roughly two hundred men—about a company—and gathered the Stormtroopers stationed aboard the ships of the defense squadron to protect their interiors, bringing the total to around three thousand. He personally led the force aboard transport ships, flying aggressively toward the Death Star still under construction.
The area around the Death Star had already descended into chaos. TIE fighters darted wildly around it, firing upon the station. Some fighters even flew directly inside the Death Star, bombing their targets relentlessly.
Because the Geonosians had seized the spaceport on Tarassia and acquired some fighters, with communications still down, no one could tell which side the fighters belonged to.
The transports flew toward the Death Star under the escort of a squadron of fighters. At the same time, the defense squadron advanced and completely encircled the Death Star.
Orson Krennic was extremely nervous, but with the assurances of the two Dark Prophets, he forced himself to come along.
This force could be called elite, especially the Death Guard in black powered armor. Against the Geonosians, they were like tigers among sheep.
Most of the Geonosian rebels belonged to the labor caste. They had received some weapons and raided some armories to arm themselves, but fewer than one-third of them were armed. The other Geonosians still held tools in their hands. If not for their sheer numbers and the Imperial army's complete lack of preparation, this would have been a one-sided massacre.
At most, the Geonosian laborers carried Blaster rifles, most of them smuggled in through the black market. They could barely be considered usable. They struggled even against the Stormtroopers' plastoid armor, let alone the Death Guard!
Those low-powered Blaster rifles were no more than a scratch against the Death Guard's black powered armor.