Aftermath of the Battle (Part 2)
Under the silver-tongued report of Galactic Republic Senate Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the Galactic Republic's defeat in the Battle of Terminus was packaged as a victory.
Palpatine solemnly declared that the main fleet of Dawn Star Planet, the Separatists' largest industrial and military world in the Western Reaches of the galaxy, had been destroyed. The Republic's Western Reaches would now be completely pacified.
He also proclaimed that under Wilhuff Tarkin's leadership, the Republic 18th Army had defeated the stronger Dawn Star Planet fleet despite being at a disadvantage.
As for the warships fed into the battle piecemeal, they were supposedly local Defense Fleets that had voluntarily come to reinforce the 18th Army in its hour of peril. They had fought the Dawn Star Planet fleet bloodily and heroically, willingly sacrificing themselves to buy the 18th Army enough time.
Moreover, in this battle, the main fleet of Dawn Star Planet—which had previously destroyed the 19th Army and advanced with overwhelming momentum—had been utterly broken apart. Dawn Star Planet would never again be able to launch an offensive.
In fact, most of Palpatine's words were true, with only a handful of lies mixed in. Yet that was enough to steer the senators into interpreting his meaning from another angle and reaching the exact opposite conclusion from reality.
Dawn Star Planet's fleet did indeed hold the advantage, but those forces had been assembled on the rearward Manfarr. Due to the limitations of the hyperspace routes, they too could only keep heading to the Terminus Planet battlefield in piecemeal waves.
The 18th Army fleet was indeed at a disadvantage, but Wilhuff Tarkin could have gathered the arriving fleets in the rear and deployed them to the battlefield all at once. After all, the Republic's hyperspace routes were far better