Trap!

22BBY, August 12, morning.

The battle near Bespin Planet had reached its most intense stage. Admiral Magellan threw everything into the offensive, directing all of the fleet's firepower at the Agonev-class star base. He knew full well that as long as he destroyed this heavily armed and exceptionally sturdy star base, victory in this campaign would be his!

However, even though his attacks against the Agonev-class had continued through the entire night, the massive star base still stood firm. During the battle, its shields had been breached four times, yet each time, its heavy armor had withstood the Republic fleet's bombardment, allowing it to cycle its systems and raise its shields once more.

Although the shield capacitors were constantly being damaged, steadily reducing the shields' overall capacity, the Republic fleet was likewise suffering continuous losses under the unrelenting barrage.

Their greatest achievement had been blasting one corner of the star base into fragments. That section measured over 900 meters across, yet even so, this star base built upon the Industrial Floating City, Shefa City, had somehow held out until now! Even the Vaxian engineers responsible for the star base's construction found this somewhat astonishing.

The main fleet of the Galactic Republic 19th Army had now completely seized the advantage on the battlefield. No matter how thoroughly Igor Zavalov had planned, he was powerless to reverse the enormous disparity in strength.

Of the 80 Hunter Class Battlecruisers and 20 Aquitenes-class light cruisers, 59 Hunter Class vessels and 11 Aquitenes-class vessels still retained combat capability. Though all had suffered damage to varying degrees, such strength was still beyond what the Fourth Civilization's remaining fleet could match.

Seeing the battle develop to this point, Admiral Magellan finally made his judgment. Now, he would claim the fruits of victory!

"Order the defenders on Planet