Chapter 28

3 bby, Naboo...

"Move! move! Don't be a slowpoke!" shouted a regimental captain of the planetary defense force of Naboo to the citizens unable to fight as he oversaw their evacuation. He's currently on top of an armored personnel transport.

The viceroy ordered the planetary wide evacuation of citizens that can't fight or is ineligible to fight such as, persons with disabilities, kids under the age of 8 and many more.

As he's evacuating them, all the planetary reserves was raised on a call to arms. Children from the ages 9 was currently lining up on the armories to get their equipment. People on the age of 75 will be serving as cannon fodders as they also lined up to get their equipments. All of these people are a combination of men and women. There's no discrimination in gender, as long as you're the right age and has no serious health issues then you'll fight.

"Heil Emperor! Captain! The shields will eventually crack and the enemy will start the landings!" reported a rushing soldier as he saluted and gave a data pad he took from his bag.

"I see... You! Kick them inside the underground complex! We can't have liabilities on the battle that we are about to fight." ordered the captain to a sergeant which just saluted and relayed the orders.

The line moved in a faster rate as the soldiers deliberately pushes them inside the entrance of the underground complex. The hand down tanks of the Imperium was stationed here as it numbered around half a hundred thousand in service not including the more than one hundred thousand in reserves. The soldiers also has some military hand down starfighters, atmospheric fighters and the likes. These are mostly hand downs as the Imperium has no plans, at least for now on using their up to date technologies. Surprise is the best element on a war, at least that's base on the war doctrine they use named "The Art of War" by someone named Sun Tzu.

"Fuck it! Why are you moving so slow up there?" growled the captain as he saw the line suddenly slowed down immensely so he ordered the driver of the armored car to travel to the forefront of the line.

As the captain was busy on the incident, the viceroy together with the sent representatives of the Imperium, namely an ecclesiarch and a witch hunter was working hard coordinating the whole planet to prepare for the enemy landings. The queen and the other ministers before was living a good life in the planet as they retained a fairly high position with no connection to the military or economy. They're working on interplanetary relationship which is a useless branch for they don't engage on such things right now. But nonetheless, it's still a job.

"They'll surely drop here, here, and here. These are the considered hotspots where the troops are concentrated the most and are choke points. They'll surely want to immediately engage the larger forces, then conduct the divide and conquer strategy next as the forces would be cut off from one another." said the witch hunter as she pointed on spots on the 3d planetary map of Naboo.

"But your excellency, they might also drop on the places where the troop concentration are minimal." said the viceroy as he highlighted the places where the troops are at a minimal number.

"I suggest we divide the troops to equally reinforce each spot as to ensure the planet are well defended." the ecclesiarch suggested while drinking something to the two. The two fell into deep thought and decided it will be for the best as to expect the unexpected type of plan.

The soldiers on the field got the orders as they boarded their transports to reach their new deployments. As the matter regarding the landing site has passed, the viceroy decided to pester the inquisitor about those lasguns again.

"Great inquisitor! When will we Nabooans get a piece of those experimental lasguns?" asked the viceory of the planet as when he heard of the technological breakthroughs of the people on mars, he immediately pestered the inquisitor and the ecclesiarch on sending some to this planet.

"Viceroy, for the nth time I'll be telling you that I don't know! I'm not that high in the command chain and this is my first assignment." said the witch hunter with an annoyed voice. This viceroy has been pestering her for a couple of years already about the matter of those lasers. She's already thinking that he might have feelings for her as he keeps on pestering her.

"B-" the words of the viceroy was cut off short as he got hit by a punch on the face. The witch hunter punched him which broke his nose off and made him experience pain an almost lose his consciousness.

"What did I said viceroy? If you can't understand what I said then don't pester me again. Once you do..." threatened the witch hunter as she cracked her knuckles sending fear into the viceroy's body.

...

Hours slowly passed by and the planetary shields showed gigantic spiderweb like cracks

due to the unrelenting orbital bombardment of the Imperial fleet. As of this moment, the planet of Naboo is ready and is on full alert as they expected the shields to break in around half an hour. They've already radiod their situation back to the Imperium as they got the response of hold the line as reinforcements will arrive.

"Commander... their planetary shields will crack anytime soon." informed an imperial officer to the commanding officer of the fleet.

"Ready the stormtroopers for landing actions. We'll take this planet and everything inside it." ordered the commander to the officer which complied immediately. The commander has an edgy black cloke with an electronic breather. He's a sith, an edgy sith.

"Aye sir!"

...

Transports of the Galactic Empire origin soared through the skies as the shields finally crumbled. Thousands of transport ships came thundering down the planet as they got intercepted by the fighter planes and starfighters of the planet. The escorts of this transport ships also engaged the intercepting enemy planes and fighters. They engaged them on a deadly dogfight as the anti air batteries of the planet sounded with indiscriminate fire.

As laser fires sounded, it was answered by machine gun fires. The fast and quick fighters and planes of the planet of Naboo came across the similar fast and quick fighters of the Empire. The only thing that sets them apart is their practicality. The TIE fighter which was nicknamed environmentally friendly coffin goes against the clearly superior in design fighters and starfighters of the Imperium that packs a serious punch.

The TIE fighters got turned into absolute shreds as they got show down by the planes and fighters of the Naboo planet. They're also given a hard fight by the anti air batteries on the planet as they desperately tried to gain the aerial superiority.

But the sheer number of the TIE fighters managed to somehow overcome their lack of firepower. TIE fighters squadron silenced the anti air batteries and managed to combat the starfighters that's almost the size of a normal corvette using their number superiority.

"Sir we can't fight back-aghhhh!"shouted a fighter pilot as her fighter plane got shot down by the innumerable TIE fighters up her tail.

The viceroy hearing this had a complicated expression on his face. Even though they have millions of men ready for a planetary siege, without the hope of air support it will be hard even for them. He doesn't share the martyr ideology of most of the populace. He's already a viceroy of a planet. He can't simply throw it away just because of some glory after death. He's not as devout as the others. He's chosen to be the viceroy due to his administrative skills and not his devotion.

The representative of the inquisition, the witch hunter babe saw his expression as she rolled towards her on her swivel chair and tapped his shoulders lightly.

"Don't fret viceroy, this is where the Imperium excels. War of attrition is our forte, and you should be smart on your next choices." whispered the witch hunter babe while smirking mischievously.

The viceroy felt a weird tingling on his back due to that smirk as he nodded slightly and returned his attention on the battle.

...

Hours gone by and the stormtroopers of the Empire successfully landed and established a stronghold on the planet. Though this landing was hard fought due to the sheer mumber of casualties easily passing over ten million. The pdf of the planet also lost quite the number, they lost planes and fighters, lots of them. On top of that they also lost around three million men on the battle. The stronghold of the empire was bombarded with artillery since it got established almost turning it to a wasteland. They also fired back as an artillery ran orchestra has started on the planet.

They managed to land with the help of corvettes who dangerously moved inside the planet to provide a more effective and efficient orbital bombardment.

Palpatine back on his office had a weird face due to the casualties report. The casualties only was on the landing and that's all, a couple of hundred kilometers of land for ten million lives was something unimaginable for him.

Palpatine slowly laughed as it got louder and louder. He clutched the paper as the paper slowly decayed due to his touch and eventually become matter which joined the universe.

At this moment, a knock on the office of Palpatine sounded as his assistant informed him that the press conference will go live in an hour and he should be ready.

Palpatine nodded and smirked as he got ready to dig his own grave by officially declaring a war against the Imperium.

...

On the large screen on the plazas of planets showed a soaring golden eagle as it did a somersault dive before suddenly stopping as it transitioned to the insignia of the Imperium.

Imperium news~

"In the matter regarding the galaxy, here's the hottest news brought to you by the reporters sanctioned by the Imperium!" said a female host as she smiled on the camera with her mouth open.

"The new upstart of an Empire, conveniently named First Galactic Empire has offended the Emperor. That's all you need to know as the Astra Militarum is in need of volunteers for the upcoming war." reported the male host with a straight smile.

"Moments from now, you'll see the Emperor with the official speech regarding this matter..."

...

A new space marine with the age of 25 has seen patrolling the streets of a random hive world. When he saw. someone offended the Emperor, he tightly clutched his heavy bolter and anger can be seen on his face. Conveniently, his face is covered with a helmet so it's not seen.

He's seen the Emperor only once and that's on this television 21 years ago during the parade. That moment he knew, he wanted to be a defender of humanity, he doesn't want to be just some worker on this hive world. No, he wanted to be a space marine.

His eyes was fixated on the picture of Palpatine as he looked at it with overflowing anger. There can only be one emperor on this galaxy. He'll make sure of that.

...

Holy Terra....

On a studio inside the Imperial Palace, the Emperor was sitting in front of the many cameras. He's wearing a suit and he shranked his height to about 6ft. He smiled in front of the camera as he waited for the green light so he can finally speak.

The director raised his thumb up to signify that it has finally started.