Chapter 365– Hyperspace Continuum Fission Cannon! The Emperor Falls! Total Collapse!
"What about Palpatine? That old bastard is the boss's top-priority prisoner. If we fire this shot, we might accidentally blow the old man to bits."
Galen Erso turned to Johnny and asked again.
Though Palpatine had once been his employer, Galen had long since grown sick of him. Now that there was a chance to obliterate the guy in one strike, he certainly didn't want to miss it.
But from the perspective of the bigger picture, now wasn't the time for Palpatine to die.
After all, the official ownership of the Galactic Empire still lay in his hands. If the Universal Megacorp seized control without going through the proper legal channels, it could spark a wave of rebellion and war.
The Imperial Navy's sheer scale was nothing to scoff at—millions of Star Destroyers were not a force easily digested.
Even for the Megacorp, swallowing such a massive military force in one go wasn't exactly simple.
But if they could successfully obtain the Empire's official deeds and execute a smooth transfer of power from his hands, it would be the perfect scenario for the Megacorp.
"Don't worry. The boss already gave the green light. All we have to do is fire."
Johnny Silverhand smiled coolly.
According to intel leaked by Li Ang , every generation of Sith Lords possessed a trump card—the ability to harness the dark side of the Force to transfer their souls into clone bodies, thereby achieving rebirth.
This soul-transfer process was so fast that one moment the consciousness would be in the original body, and the next it would instantly appear in a pre-prepared clone.
The catch was, the clone body had to be completely intact—any damage, and the soul couldn't fully fuse with it. The transfer would fail, and the soul would end up trapped inside the clone.
Eventually, it would begin to dissipate entirely.
In the Star Wars canon, Palpatine used this exact technique to escape death after his fall down the shaft. He transferred his consciousness into a clone.
But since he hadn't prepared properly, he ended up stuck in a damaged, decaying clone body. Even his soul nearly slipped into the Chaos Hell.
If not for his vast personal connections—even in the Chaos Hell—where ancient Sith Lords' lingering spirits lent him a hand, Palpatine might've been truly finished.
Add to that the zealots of the Eternal Cult from the Sith Empire, who used gene-splicing and flesh-regeneration techniques to patch up his ruined clone, and his miraculous resurrection became possible.
Chaos Hell is considered the Star Wars universe's "Void" dimension—an ancient, formless realm of entropy and madness predating the cosmos.
Any Sith Lord who fails to achieve resurrection through the dark side or ends up as a mere spirit risks being condemned to eternal torment in this realm.
Palpatine should've earned himself this "special treatment."
But between high-ranking predecessors running interference, and fanatical underlings working overtime like their lives depended on it, he clawed his way back from death.
Of course, even when a Sith Lord successfully pulls off this dark resurrection, their Force powers and physical condition inevitably take a hit.
Every rebirth weakens them further, which is why not all Sith Lords can afford multiple reincarnations.
To prolong their existence more efficiently, many chose a cheaper option—clinging to the living world as Force spirits.
These spirits would possess durable relics—temple walls, holorecorders, and so on.
And with Palpatine's cunning, he'd definitely find a way to resurrect again elsewhere.
When that time came, Johnny Silverhand had more than a few tricks up his sleeve to smoke him out and force him to the negotiation table with the Megacorp.
But for now, what they needed was a show of force—hit Palpatine so hard he'd never forget it.
"…Alright then."
Having received David's green light, Galen Erso immediately issued the final order to the Megacorp staff below:
"Starkiller, start charging! Prepare to fire!"
With the activation of control sequences, the Starkiller Base rapidly began condensing its already-stored stellar energy, blending it with dark energy and waiting for the launch order.
Before it ever left its home system, the Starkiller had already absorbed ample power. Right now, it had more than enough juice to annihilate the entire Yavin System battlefield.
"All personnel near the cannon mouth, evacuate to the safety shelters immediately," David Martinez commanded.
The Starkiller's barrel ran through nearly the entire planetary core. Once it fired, the recoil would be massive.
Anyone not safely inside reinforced structures would be torn apart by the shockwave.
At Starkiller's central command, a holographic image showed the Death Star fully charged and ready to fire at any moment.
Both sides were scrambling to gather targeting data, calibrating enemy positions as fast as they could—this was a Wild West shootout in space, and one well-aimed shot could decide everything.
But the two firing crews were in entirely different states of mind.
Palpatine was confident yet wary, while Johnny Silverhand was mostly concerned that their cannon's blast wouldn't accidentally hit friendlies.
Now, both main cannons were fully charged and loaded, just waiting for the moment to fire.
BOOM—!
With a sudden flash, the Death Star's superlaser struck first. Though they hadn't locked on perfectly to the Starkiller's location, the target was so massive that even a slight miss would still land a hit.
Eight green energy beams converged on the Death Star's surface, forming a blazing superlaser that tore through the void toward the Starkiller.
This was the Death Star at full power. As the beam screamed through the darkness of space, Palpatine and his command staff were confident of victory.
Even if Starkiller had planetary shields, the Death Star's main cannon could still punch through, pierce its core, and destroy it in one massive explosion.
Palpatine remained calmly seated in the Death Star's command center, satisfied as he watched the superlaser streak across the void.
This shot would reveal whether Starkiller was just a paper tiger—or something far more dangerous.
And just as the Death Star's superlaser was about to strike, Johnny Silverhand issued the final order:
"Starkiller—fire!"
The next moment, a beam of energy composed of stellar and dark energy burst from the barrel, tearing through the atmosphere. The resulting tremor and sonic boom rivaled a nuclear shockwave, rippling across the planet's surface.
The icy crust of the Starkiller Base shattered, waves of force spreading across the polar ice sheets like silk rippling on water.
Fortunately, the planet's frozen surface was solid enough to absorb the recoil—had it been any softer, the entire region might have collapsed.
Back on the Death Star, their space sensors detected the firing of Starkiller's cannon—but Imperial officers laughed it off.
To them, it looked like the energy beam had… disappeared halfway through flight.
A pathetic joke. Many high-ranking Imperial officers laughed aloud. Who would fear a doomsday weapon that couldn't even finish firing?
Palpatine relaxed, scoffing.
"Hmph. I knew those rebels were bluffing. Thought they could scare me? Not a chance."
His mood immediately brightened. He couldn't wait to see the Death Star's beam rip this overhyped Starkiller to shreds.
But just as Imperial officers were preparing to pop champagne and celebrate their impending victory—
Disaster struck.
See, Starkiller's weapon didn't work like a traditional cannon—fire a round and wait for impact.
Its beam, a fusion of stellar and dark energy dubbed the Fifth Element, tore a rift into hyperspace, using that as its firing conduit. It then splintered into multiple energy bolts, each drawn by gravitational sources and targeting enemy units.
In simpler terms: the cannon's shot split into multiple invisible paths, simultaneously hitting different targets across space.
And once the beam was fired, its trajectory became undetectable and unavoidable. By the time you realized what was happening, the Fifth Element was already in your face.
Even crazier—Starkiller's range could cover the entire galaxy. In this relatively tiny Yavin System, it wasn't even operating at full potential.
Soon enough, Imperial sensors detected reappearances of the vanished beams—behind them.
Multiple bolts had split from the main shot and were now streaking toward different sectors of the fleet!
As Imperial officers scrambled to react, one beam hit the center of the fleet dead-on.
A blinding light erupted.
In an instant, the heart of the Imperial fleet was annihilated. Countless Star Destroyers were turned to dust, as though they'd never existed.
Another beam struck the Death Star's own cannon, severely weakening its power.
And when that weakened superlaser finally hit Starkiller Base, it triggered the outermost layer of the planetary shield—and then fizzled into nothing.
Only then did the Death Star's command realize: the Starkiller's shot hadn't vanished. It had split and hit them from unseen angles.
"What the hell just happened?!"
Palpatine was stunned.
The Death Star was supposed to be the galaxy's most powerful weapon. How could it be so easily countered by the enemy's energy beam and shielding?
It didn't make any sense at all.
His first reaction was that something had gone wrong with the firing sequence of the superlaser, resulting in the failure to fully release the energy from the supermatter reactor.
Moreover, Palpatine simply couldn't wrap his head around how the beam from the star killer had suddenly vanished—only to reappear out of nowhere and then split into multiple strands.
Something was clearly off!
Meanwhile, the other technicians involved in the design and construction of the star killer base were already scared out of their wits.
Could it be—
This was the star killer Sub-Hyperspace Fission Cannon mechanism!
The Imperial military researchers who had helped design the star killer naturally knew what a perfected version of the weapon was capable of—and everything happening now was exactly as they had envisioned.
If nothing unexpected happened, the next target would be them!
"Your Majesty, I strongly advise you to evacuate this place, immediately…"
Before the Imperial star killer Project Director could finish his sentence, several fission beams suddenly erupted from hyperspace, striking the planet near the Death Star.
These split beams of the Fifth Element Cannon carried devastating power—instantly shattering the planetary crust and triggering a full-scale collapse!
From his hidden position in the Death Star's blind spot, Paul witnessed everything unfolding in space. The Devastator 's hyperspace fission barrage had caught the Imperial forces completely off guard.
They hadn't even been able to determine where the energy beams had originated from—yet in the blink of an eye, the entire Imperial fleet had been wiped out. And the real horror was only just beginning.
One of the nearby planets had just been obliterated—when another fission beam crossed the hyperspace corridor and struck the Death Star itself, hitting it dead center.
Inside the command center, Palpatine watched helplessly as the brilliant light engulfed him.
The faint starlight surrounding them had long been drowned out by the blinding glow—it was as if the entire universe was being melted away at that moment.
Palpatine's eyes lost focus. His whole being seemed to have its soul ripped away. In an instant, he and the entire Death Star command center vanished beneath the star killer's bombardment.
The Fifth Element Cannon fired from the star killer effortlessly pierced straight through the Death Star—like a high-temperature armor-piercing shell cutting through a sheet of plastic. Even the hardest shield generators were rendered meaningless.
The shot was surgically precise, annihilating the Death Star's command center and completely paralyzing the Imperial command structure—leaving the fleet leaderless and ripe for slaughter.
Everything had happened so quickly that most of the Death Star's upper ranks hadn't even realized what was going on. All they saw was a blinding flash of light—then, nothing but dust and silence.
The only thing the stormtroopers could take small comfort in was that this had been the last wave of fission cannon strikes, and its power was far weaker than the earlier blasts.
As a result, the energy beam only left a massive, gaping scar on the Death Star's surface without fully destroying its structural integrity.
It wasn't until this moment that the survivors on the Death Star fully grasped the terrifying power of the star killer cannon.
Compared to it, their so-called "ultimate weapon," the Death Star, was utterly insignificant. The difference between the two was night and day—an uncrossable chasm.
No wonder the enemy had acted so smug and fearless, even waiting for the Empire to fire first. They had clearly been prepared all along.
With the results of this round of bombardment plain for all to see, everyone now understood the true might of the star killer base.
The millions of stormtroopers stationed on the Death Star were practically paralyzed with fear. Their will to fight shattered—they were terrified but secretly grateful to still be alive. At least they hadn't died in this "poke-your-head-out-and-you're-dead" galactic battle.
At this point, with Emperor Palpatine dead and his command center obliterated, the Imperial forces—including the remnants of the Death Star and fleet—descended into total chaos.
In an instant, more and more stormtroopers began scrambling for escape pods and shuttles, desperate to flee. Once the rout began, it sparked an unstoppable cascade of desertions.
No one could claim to hold the upper hand in such a hopelessly lopsided war anymore.
With the Emperor dead, there was simply no one left worth serving!
The selfish, opportunistic elites of the Empire scrambled for the lifeboats, trying to flee. But there were only so many to go around—and the stormtroopers had already started fighting one another for a seat.
No one wanted to stick around and wait for the star killer 's next fission volley.
Paul's team, who had been hiding deep inside the Death Star, suddenly realized they no longer needed to be cautious.
Even if they walked out openly, the retreating, collapsing stormtroopers had no interest in stopping them.
They could do as they pleased now.
With command in ruins, morale shattered, and survival instincts taking over, chaos had consumed every corner of the Death Star.
And understandably so—if even the Death Star's superlaser was useless against the star killer, what could they possibly do?
The cold, brutal reality stared them in the face—there was no time left for anything but escape.
A handful of Imperial officers, realizing the Galactic Empire was finished, closed their eyes in despair and ended their lives with their own blaster rifles, seeking a final shred of dignity.
In stark contrast to the fear and collapse aboard the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance forces on Yavin IV were erupting into joyous celebration.
Even sitting out in the countryside on a grassy ridge, they could look up and clearly see the moment the massive Death Star was struck by the fission cannon.
Everyone had witnessed the Empire's ultimate weapon being destroyed by Universal Megacorp's superweapon.
The once terrifying, all-powerful Galactic Empire was no longer invincible!
This victory didn't just chip away at the Empire's HP bar—it took all three health bars and left them clinging to life.
The triumph completely shattered the Rebel Alliance's fear of the Empire. The Death Star, which once haunted them, had now become the punchline of a joke.
Jyn Erso and Captain Cassian Andor stood with tight lips, clearly holding back tears of joy.
As some of the earliest members of the rebellion against the Empire, they had endured countless setbacks and lost far too many comrades to Imperial bombardments.
Now, with their vengeance achieved, the long conflict was finally approaching its end.
With the Death Star completely disabled, Johnny Silverhand issued orders for the Infinity-class carriers stationed on the starkiller to wipe out the remaining Imperial fleet.
The star killer base was more than just a massive celestial weapon—it was a mobile military fortress capable of housing two full corporate expeditionary army corps.
Soon, fleets led by Andrew,and the other generals swept into the battlefield like harbingers of death, finishing off the scattered Imperial warships.
Already devastated and demoralized by the starkiller's assault, most of the Imperial fleet either surrendered or waited passively to be captured.
Only a few Star Destroyers chose to go down fighting, refusing to back down.
And Andrew was more than happy to grant their wish—executing them with the main hard-light cannon in a clean death sentence.
Meanwhile, Kendall Ozzel, captain of the Executor, was still under pressure from Darth Vader and dared not surrender just yet. He ordered his forces to hold their ground and not act rashly.
But his few words had little effect—he couldn't possibly quell the panic among his crew.
To make matters worse, Andrew deployed a massive number of AI drones to infiltrate the Executor and broadcast a message: "Surrender, and you won't be harmed."
That single line triggered a mutiny aboard the Executor. Stormtroopers stormed the bridge and killed General Ozzel, then raised their hands and surrendered to Universal Megacorp.
The surrender of the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer marked the definitive collapse of the Empire's military might. The Battle of Yavin was as good as over.
The Death Star was wrecked. The Executor had surrendered. The Empire no longer had any forces capable of standing against Universal Megacorp!
Meanwhile, the Hyperion and Phoenix launched from the star killer base, carrying Master Obi-Wan, Pani, Sam, and large landing parties to take control of the now-crippled Death Star.
With the station in chaos and disabled, it was the perfect time to seize this so-called "ultimate weapon."
Especially to capture Darth Vader and locate Palpatine's remains—if any.
Paul and the others were already making their way through one of the inner corridors of the Death Star, heading toward its supermatter reactor.
After all, that thing was powered by a massive number of Kyber crystals—they couldn't just let it be destroyed in the chaos.
Along the way, they passed countless Imperial personnel fleeing in every direction, frantically searching for any possible escape route. Hardly Anyone was heading deeper in.
Watching stormtroopers rush past them in a panic, Cassian Andor and the others wore stunned expressions—but it all made perfect sense.
In this kind of mess, who would care what they were up to anymore?
The star killer had delivered both physical and psychological devastation to the Imperial forces—like a force of nature sweeping away all resistance.
All Paul saw along the way were deserters—and Imperial officers blowing their own heads off with blasters, crushed under the suffocating weight of despair.
"So this was the boss's plan all along…"
Paul couldn't help but reflect in awe.
Universal Megacorp had never intended to outproduce the Galactic Empire in sheer numbers—they had used the Empire's own technology to craft a one-hit-kill ultimate weapon.
Maybe this outcome had been mapped out by the company's top brass a year ago… or even earlier.
This was the power of true top-tier strategic design.
(Show your support and read more chapters on my Patreon: p@treon.com/psychopet. Thank you for your support!)