Chapter 2132. The Beginning and Ending of the Trade Alliance (3)
2133. The Beginning and Ending of the Trade Alliance (3)
Therefore, the Trade Alliance could actually be said to be the largest in the entire galaxy. An economic entity, or at least a second one. Moreover, the Trade Alliance controls the lifeblood of the Outer Rim Star Region. It can be said that the Galactic Republic's rule over the Outer Rim Star Region can actually be accomplished through the Trade Alliance.
That’s why they, like the Interstellar Banking Association, became the only entities during the Clone Wars that could hedge their bets without being liquidated - because these two entities are too huge, a monopoly One has monopolized the financial industry of the galaxy, and the other has monopolized the transportation industry in the middle and outer rings of the galaxy.
Compared with these two, others such as corporate alliances and business guilds are actually completely incomparable to them.
It is precisely because of this that the Trade Federation was used by Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, and became the trigger for many conflicts in the central and outer star regions of the galaxy.
So now when Darth Vader proposed taking action against the Trade Federation, everyone reacted like this.
Because this proposal is both feasible and unfeasible.
The feasible aspect is because the headquarters of the Trade Federation is located on the planet Balmorra, and at the same time, the home planet of the Neimoidians, the planet Neimoidia, as well as their important colonial worlds and wealth The worlds Cato-Neimoidia, Deco-Neimoidia, and Kru-Neimoidia are all located in the core circle of the Milky Way.
In other words, the Galactic Republic can attack these places with just a raised hand.
In fact, the headquarters of the Trade Federation was not in Balmorra at first, but in the Outer Rim Star Region. Later, their strength grew more and more, so they set their headquarters on the planet Coruscant. Then the separatism grew stronger and the war was about to break out. The Trade Federation, which had been controlled by the Neimoidians, moved its headquarters to the Neimoidians' wealth world of Cato-Neimoidia on the grounds of protecting property. planet.
However, during the war, because Newt Gunray stood on the side of the Separatists, the Galactic Republic decided to sanction the Trade Federation, and also experienced the experience of Cato-Neimoidia, a planet that once sheltered The incident of the Plague Titan battleship led by the Separatist General Severance Tann made the Trade Federation feel that the planet Cato Neimoidia was not very safe.
That's why they finally moved the Trade Federation headquarters to their largest, most developed, and most advanced industrial world in the core circle - the planet Balmorra. Therefore, it was once called Balmoral-Neimoidia.
The people of Neimoidia finally understood that in such war years, all wealth and finance were all illusory. Only industry, and it must be industry, can protect itself.
So, for the Galactic Empire, although the Trade Federation's influence in the galaxy is intricate, and their client worlds are almost everywhere, reaching thousands of galaxies, their most core planets are almost all In the inner circle.
In other words, the Galactic Empire does not need large-scale mobilization, and can even directly dispatch the three armies guarding the core circle-the First Galaxy Army, the Second Galaxy Army, and the Third Army to attack the Trade Federation. Although the Second System Army suffered heavy losses and was almost completely destroyed due to its previous expedition to the Mandalorian sector under the leadership of Master Mace Windu, the First System Army and the Third System Army together dispatched more than 2,000 capital ships. Still no problem.
But the plan to attack the Trade Federation is also very unfeasible - even though the Trade Federation has been blatantly mixed with separatism and the Principality of Dawn in recent years, the reputation they have built up over a long time The network of relationships is still intricate and cannot be shaken easily.
It is not clear how many people have interests in the Trade Federation, people who have been bribed by the Trade Federation, and even people whose home planet is controlled by the Trade Federation. Even though the Republic Assembly has been dissolved and the Imperial Assembly is basically a decoration, those members and senior officials still have enough energy to influence the decision-making of the Galactic Empire.
Therefore, if we directly attack the Trade Federation at this time, let alone the fact that the Trade Federation will definitely block all major transportation routes and directly destroy them, the opposition within the empire will definitely not be small.
But the opportunity is also here.
Darth Vader's dull voice said: "Now that Darth Malthael has disappeared, we will take this opportunity to directly destroy the Trade Federation and occupy their core planet. The Principality of Dawn will not be able to make any response."
"Jiejiejie... Indeed! Indeed! Good! Very good!!" Darth Sidious laughed strangely, obviously very satisfied with this plan, "Since attacking the Trade Federation will cause them To counterattack, it’s better to take advantage of Darth Malthael’s absence and destroy them directly before they have time to react!”
“Now is undoubtedly a good opportunity… ...I also support an immediate attack on the Trade Federation," Sutter-Pestach quickly agreed.
For him, as long as Palpatine doesn't think about forcibly sending troops to attack the Principality of Dawn, then everything will be fine. It might not be a bad idea to vent all Palpatine's anger on the Trade Federation.
Others present thought the same way.
After all, the Trade Federation is still a tangible target, and the Galactic Empire can definitely crush their weak fleet. Instead, the Principality of Dawn? That was during the Clone Wars, when they fought battle after battle and defeated the Galactic Republic, and in the end the Empire had to accept their powerful existence of a separate peace agreement!
Don’t think that the separate peace negotiation at that time was the Principality of Dawn bowing to the Galactic Empire. In fact, the Galaxy Empire also believed that it failed to wipe out the Principality of Dawn in one fell swoop. On the contrary, it could only hold its nose and sign peace with them. Agreement, this is a huge shame.
As a big country, you can only accept the proposal of a small country to end the war. This is a huge failure in itself!
But unwilling to give up, humiliation is humiliation, even Palpatine has to admit that the Galactic Empire, with its current internal and external troubles, is indeed not suitable to choose the Principality of Dawn as its biggest enemy.
The Trade Alliance is indeed the most suitable goal from an economic and military perspective.
Therefore, the decision to attack the Trade Alliance was confirmed hastily in such an anticlimactic meeting.
The one who led the army to launch this offensive was naturally Darth Vader. He immediately went to the Imperial Ministry of Defense and began to mobilize the fleet and formulate plans.
This attack on the Trade Federation was named 'Operation Eradication' by Darth Vader. The main force launching the attack will be the main fleet of the Third Army of the Galactic Empire, with a total of 1,200 capital ships. And the First Galaxy Army will also deploy 300 capital ships to join this operation. Therefore, the total strength is 1,500 battleships, 2,800 light cruisers and heavy cruisers, 12,000 small battleships, and 2,000 transport ships, including 4 million marines.
The action time is initially set as 40 days later, 12 BBY, August 1.
...
After determining the established strategy, all the propaganda machines of the Galactic Empire were fully activated.
Countless editorials and news exposed the Trade Federation's collusion with the Separatists during the Clone Wars, and the two sides fought against the Galactic Republic.
Not only that, in the many years since the Trade Alliance was founded, almost all secret transactions, all money laundering, and all illegal activities have been made public!
For a time, the reputation of the Trade Alliance plummeted.
Even though the media controlled by the Trade Federation tried their best to whitewash themselves, the sound they made was still insignificant compared to the official mouthpiece of the Galactic Empire.
Under the control of Crueya Vandron, the core of the Empire's New Order Maintenance Committee, the major media in the Galactic Empire almost have the same voice, and all different voices are directly suppressed in various ways. It disappears.
All propaganda and media are pointing in one direction - treason by the Trade Federation!
Not only did the Trade Federation control the navigation data of the Outer Rim Star Region, it made it impossible for the Galactic Republic to counterattack and enter the Outer Rim Star Region when it had a slight advantage in the early stages of the war, forming a snowballing situation. In addition, the Trade Alliance helps the Confederation of Independent Systems produce robot armies, and through large-scale logistics channels, the Confederation of Independent Systems can establish an organization on Parment Port, a small industrial satellite that was originally unknown, that is comparable to the three major powers of the Galactic Republic. The industrial core of industrial giants comes!
Then, the Supreme Court of the Galactic Empire pronounced the Trade Federation guilty of treason in absentia without the presence of Trade Federation representatives. The Trade Federation was ordered to confiscate all assets to compensate for all war expenses from the beginning of the Galactic Republic to the present, and will be responsible for all war losses during the Clone Wars.
The current Governor of the Trade Federation, Newt Gunray, was declared a Class A war criminal and was the number one person responsible for the Trade Federation's participation in the war. At the same time, Lot-Dude, the parliamentary representative of the Trade Alliance, was directly expelled from the Imperial Parliament, deprived of all political rights, and was not allowed to make any voice for the Trade Alliance in parliament.
These actions all point to one fact - the Galactic Empire is determined to wipe out the Trade Alliance in one fell swoop! Under such circumstances, many neutral factions were forced to stand on the side of the Galactic Empire under pressure, preparing to participate in this feast of carving up the super cake of the Trade Alliance!
The Trade Federation was naturally not willing to sit still and wait for death. They immediately stopped all navigation and transportation services in the outer ring star areas and announced that all official and unofficial spacecraft of the Galactic Empire were not allowed to use the navigation data of the Trade Federation.
At the same time, the Trade Federation instigated almost all the participating star systems and their permanent customer systems to stand up directly against the Galactic Empire. Not only did large-scale demonstrations break out, the assets of the Galactic Empire were seized, and all merchant fleets flying the flag of the Galactic Empire were directly targeted.
This time it was almost a direct confrontation. The Trade Federation carried out a destructive counterattack against the Galactic Empire with the mentality of losing everything.
For a time, the Galactic Empire lost contact with all its spheres of influence in the outer ring of the galaxy at almost the same time. In the absence of navigation data, the Galactic Empire could not even send troops to the outer ring star area to suppress it!
So the Galactic Empire has only two options left - the first is to sit back and watch the Trade Federation cut off all communications with the Outer Rim Star Region, acquiescing to the fact that the Galactic Empire loses all territory in the Outer Rim Star Region. The second is to directly deploy heavy troops in the core star system of the Trade Alliance to force the Trade Alliance to engage in a decisive battle.
In short, our Galactic Empire will fight to the end with your Trade Federation even if we lose the Central and Outer Rings!
There is no doubt that the Galactic Empire chose the latter.
A large number of fleets began to assemble, and several of the core planets of the Trade Alliance—Neimoidia, Balmorra, Cato-Neimoidia and other most powerful surrounded by planets.
In fact, even before this, these planets were already under the direct supervision of the Galactic Empire fleet. A powerful force of more than 800 capital ships has blocked these planets.
In fact, the blockade has existed before, and the core planet of the Trade Federation has long been surrounded by the fleet of the Galactic Empire. But the current series of troop deployment operations is obviously not a normal defense change.
The deployment of thousands of capital ships and more than 4,000 frigates of various types also shows one thing - the Galactic Empire has no intention of letting the Trade Federation continue to survive this time!
But the Trade Federation has deep pockets after all. In order to protect their own property, they began to build large-scale planetary defense systems in these core planets.
Planetary shield? That's the minimum equipment.
These planets also include planet-level energy supply centers, large-scale planetary shields, large-scale orbital defense systems, concealed space hangar platforms, Agonev-level interstellar bases, Gauss defense platforms and other various defense facilities. These expensive and powerful facilities have begun to be installed in almost all participating systems of the Trade Federation.
In short, the Trade Alliance lacks everything except money.
A complete planetary defense system can match the powerful force of a squadron of the Galactic Empire. But now that it has been discovered that the Galactic Empire has evil intentions, the Trade Alliance has activated all its defense forces, forming an extremely powerful defense network!
Newt Gunray quickly appointed Mal Took, a rare and famous general among the Neimoidians, as the commander-in-chief to coordinate and arrange the orientation of the core planet.
At the same time, Newt Gunray also went to the Dawn Planet in person to ask for help from Tang Xiao, the Grand Duke of Dawn.
Now that the Galactic Empire wants to invade directly and solve all the problems of the Trade Federation in one fell swoop, Newt Gunray hopes that the Principality of Dawn can directly send troops, at least to launch several offensives on the border to contain the Galactic Empire's fleet.
But what made Newt Gunray very uneasy was that every time Tang Xiao asked for an audience with him, he would directly start the conversation without any hindrance. But now, Tang Xiao never showed up, and the person who received him was Francis Underwood, the Prime Minister of the Principality.
And Underwood's answer to Newt Gunray was also disappointing - the Principality of Dawn currently has neither the strength nor the will to directly send troops to start a war with the Galactic Empire.