953, Hyperspace Storm
Compared to Eriadu, one of the most developed planets in the Outer Rim Territories, the Eriadu satellite was also highly developed.
This moon, over 2,700 kilometers in diameter, housed numerous airfields, spaceports, factories, mines, and colonial cities. Its total population was around 100 million, most of them military and logistics personnel.
This was mainly because the moon's low-gravity environment made fighter takeoffs and landings far more convenient than on Eriadu itself. It was therefore also the primary fighter base in the defensive line established by Wilhuff Tarkin.
Two million troops were stationed on the moon, all of them conscripted soldiers of the Galactic Republic. No costly Clone Troopers were stationed there.
As communications gradually recovered, the Republic's command center was finally able to coordinate the battle under unified command.
But the first reports to reach the Republic command center were terrible—the Separatist army had already established an extremely solid forward position. One colonial town had fallen, and the combat-capable Indjori had even advanced more than a hundred kilometers in a single push!
Tarkin immediately ordered the moon's defending forces to concentrate their troops. Under no circumstances could the Planetary Shield generators be allowed to fall.
There were two ways to configure a Planetary Shield: external installation and internal installation. The Planetary Shields of both Eriadu and its moon used the latter. Although this left a gap in the shield directly above the generators, with the two celestial bodies supporting one another and large fleets protecting them, the issue was not fatal.
But the problem now was that the Planetary Shield faced destruction from within!
On the afternoon of May 6, more bad news came from the moon's ground battlefield. Rather than advancing directly toward the Planetary Shield generators, the Separatist landing force had first used large numbers