Dark Viper watched it all from his fortress on Venom. It was all perfect. He had known it would be. The StarBlazer army was on the run and badly damaged. The local leaders in the Alliance would no doubt want to see to the safety of their individual star systems, and unless something drastic happened it would probably be several days before Marnax could pull his Alliance back together and plan his strategy. Meanwhile Dark Viper would be orchestrating their doom.
For now, though, the important thing was Nedward Simmons. As long as the Shield Crystal was in the hands of someone fighting against the Empire there remained the slightest threat of defeat. Viper would not tolerate even that small chance. It would be eliminated the very next day, when Black Fang reached the Uraxis Nebula and put an end to Koral Ralok’s pathetic little colony. Then Nedward Simmons would have no choice but to join the Empire. When he did, or when he was destroyed instead, the last threat would be eliminated and Dark Viper would reign unchallenged.