The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Episode Rating Graph

The Free Planets Alliance Navy Expeditionary Fleet is fighting a severe supply shortage, and the supply convoy that was sent to save them has been destroyed by Kircheis in a fierce attack. Without their desperately needed supplies, the disheartened Alliance fleet takes a hard hit from the Imperial Navy. As Reinhard's subordinates take out the Alliance fleets one by one, Yang's 13th Fleet is attacked by the Kempff Fleet.

An Alliance relief fleet is finally heading to the Iserlohn Corridor, but combat forces on the battlefield are limited, and a wrong move could turn fatal. Should the Iserlohn garrison fleet be unable to break the blockade imposed by Kempff's ships, the reinforcements from Heinessen would be easily destroyed. On the command bridge of Iserlohn, Caselnes and his officers animatedly discuss the countermeasures, but what sounds like the best plan comes from somebody most unexpected.

Schönkopf and his subordinates from the Rosen Ritter successfully infiltrate Iserlohn Fortress by disguising themselves as Imperial soldiers on the run from the Alliance. He requests an audience with the fortress's commander, saying he wants to relay some vital information acquired during an espionage mission. The commander, Admiral Stockhausen, gives permission, but the captain of the control room guard grows suspicious.

In humanity's distant future, two interstellar states—the monarchic Galactic Empire and the democratic Free Planets Alliance—are embroiled in a never-ending war. The story focuses on the exploits of rivals Reinhard von Müsel and Yang Wen Li as they rise to power and fame in the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.

The Imperial fleet relentlessly conducts their assault on the Iserlohn Corridor, one blow after another. As Caselnes is still struggling with organizing an effective resistance, Imperial armored infantry units have landed on Iserlohn, and threaten to establish a bridgehead. Then, former Imperial admiral Merkatz, who defected to the Alliance, asks to be assigned temporary command of the garrison fleet.

When the massive Geiersburg Fortress suddenly materializes in the Iserlohn Corridor, Caselnes immediately forwards a request for reinforcements to Heinessen, but now he must prepare for the imminent Imperial attack. Meanwhile, in Heinessen, Frederica is desperately looking for allies to save Yang.

The Free Planets Alliance counters the Galactic Imperial Navy's advance in the Astarte Starzone, still divided into the 2nd, 4th, and 6th Fleets to surround the latter on three sides. The Alliance top brass are certain that their victory is assured, but 2nd Fleet Deputy Staff Officer Commodore Yang predicts the enemy's attack on their divided forces before their encirclement is complete.

The battle against the Lippstadt Nobles Coalition has ended, and a victory celebration and audience with the war prisoners is being held at Geiersburg Fortress. The guards forbid Kircheis from carrying his firearm inside, even though he always had permission to keep his weapons in Reinhard's presence before. As the war prisoners face Reinhard one by one, Braunschweig's adjutant, Ansbach, enters with his leader's body in a coffin...

Kircheis suppresses the Castrop Rebellion in only two days of combat, earning a promotion to vice admiral. Meanwhile, Captain Oberstein, having abandoned the commanders at Iserlohn to flee on his own, seeks an audience with Reinhard. Despite Kircheis's misgivings, Reinhard recognizes Obersteins talent as a tactician and takes him on as a subordinate.

Sub-lieutenant Greenhill, a woman with an unusually keen memory, is added to the crew of the 13th Fleet along with several other highly well-regarded officers. Captain Schönkopf and some members of his regiment, the Rosen Ritter, board a previously captured Imperial cruiser as part of Yang's plan to infiltrate and capture Iserlohn Fortress, disguising themselves as Imperial soldiers being pursued by the Alliance

A High Council vote determines that the Free Planets Alliance will invade the Galactic Empire. Meanwhile Yang, after having his resignation rejected by Chief Sithole, visits a restaurant with Julian for dinner and runs in to Frederica Greenhill, who was there with her father. The four of them dine together. On the way home afterward, Yang learns that Jessica, the fiancée of his fallen comrade Lapp, has decided to go into politics.

Only a short time has passed since the Alliance's failed invasion of the Empire, and an assassination attempt on Admiral Cubersly, a key figure in the Alliance Navy, further deepens the people's anxiety. On top of that, an accidental explosion the following day takes fourteen young soldiers' lives. Growing discontent has caused revolts to break out on several planets within the Alliance. Bewcock orders Yang to put down these revolts, but before Yang has a chance to deploy, a coup d'état is executed on the capital planet Heinessen.

A meeting is underway at the Free Planets Alliance Navy Integrated Tactical Operations Center to plan the Alliance's large-scale invasion into Imperial territory. Commodore Falk, an operations staff officer, proposes a plan, but Vice Admirals Bewcock and Yang raise concerns about the dangers of invading with widely separated forces and an excessively long supply line. Meanwhile, Reinhard is concocting a plan to draw the Alliance Navy deep into Imperial territory and destroy them in one fell swoop.

January 798 UC: A squadron of the Iserlohn Garrison Fleet under the command of Dusty Attenborough conducts a patrol and training mission in the Galactic Empire side of the Iserlohn Corridor, during which it encounters an Imperial patrol fleet under the command of Eihendorf. Hostilities ensue and Attenborough's squadron, largely comprised of trainees, is quickly forced into the defensive. Julian Mintz, one of the trainees, undergoes his first battle as a fighter pilot. The outmatched Attenborough Squadron is on the brink of defeat when it is saved by the entirety of the Iserlohn Garrison Fleet led by Yang Wen-li.

The head of the Galactic Empire's Science and Technology Department, Anton Hilmer von Schaft, is a man known for his sheer ambition. He is now presenting to Reinhard a large-scale plan to retake the long-lost Iserlohn Fortress.

Emperor Friedrich IV of the Galactic Empire has suddenly passed away without naming a successor. Edwin Josef, the son of the late prince and the emperor's only surviving direct descendant, is only five years old. The Braunschweig and Littenheim families, into which the emperor's daughters had married, begin scheming to install their respective daughters as the new empress. Thus begins the battle for the throne between the families who serve as guardians to the emperor's three grandchildren. Reinhard has not sided with any of them yet, so a certain influential power seeks to take advantage of his military strength.

Military Police Commander Ulrich Kesler informs Reinhard that Count Alfred von Landsberg and Leopold Schumacher, two former members of the now-dissolved Lippstadt Nobles Coalition that fought against Reinhard during the Civil War, have reportedly infiltrated the Imperial capital of Odin. Unsure of their true intentions, Reinhard first asks Hilde to assure Annerose's safety, then summons Fezzani High Commissioner Boltik. It's June of the 489th year of the Imperial Calendar...

As if to fill the void caused by the death of Siegfried Kircheis, Reinhard von Lohengramm devotes his energies entirely on reforming the Galactic Empire. His wide-ranging reforms earn him tremendous goodwill from the populace, and despite considering them to be publicity stunts, even his sceptics are suitably impressed by the breadth of the reforms.

As the new wind of war seems to reinvigorate the will to fight among the Empire's youth, the military machine moves on to mobilize an attack force of unprecedented proportions. At the Supreme Operations Council, Reinhard reveals his audacious plan, not without sparking bewilderment and skepticism among the assembled admirals. Meanwhile, Heydrich Lang, former chief of the much-feared Department of Social Discipline, tries to find himself a role in the new regime, and a replacement for the Imperial throne is about to be announced.

Wolfgang Mittermeyer and Oskar von Reuenthal, two renowned admirals under the command of Reinhard von Lohengramm collectively dubbed as the "Twin Pillars", get together and reminisce about their respective pasts, culminating in the event that would lead to the defining moment of their careers: the Klopstock Incident. In March 795 UC, after thirty years of life in exile from Imperial high society, Marquis Wilhelm von Klopstock plotted an assassination of Kaiser Friedrich IV that was to occur during a party organised by Duke Otho von Braunschweig.

The Empire moves forward with its experiments to warp Geiersburg Fortress through space to attack Iserlohn Fortress. Reinhard and several of his subordinates watch anxiously from the safety of his flagship as the countdown begins. Amidst the tension, some of Reinhard's most trusted men discuss how he has changed since Kircheis died a year ago.

When the Free Planets Alliance Navy conquered Iserlohn Fortress, they took two million Imperial soldiers as war prisoners. And during the Battle of Amritsar, the Galactic Imperial Navy took two million Alliance soldiers as war prisoners. A deal has been reached to exchange all of these prisoners at Iserlohn Fortress. Representing the Alliance at the exchange is Yang, the commander of Iserlohn Fortress. Representing the Empire in place of Reinhard, the one who proposed the exchange, is Kircheis. The two men, who have fought one another with equal resourcefulness in battle, meet face-to-face for the first time at the prisoner exchange ceremony.

Animosity continues to grow between Reinhard and Lichtenlade, the guardians of the young emperor Erwin, and the pure-blooded noble families with Braunschweig and Littenheim at their center. In the midst of all this, Hilda, the only daughter of Count Mariendorf, visits the Fleet Admiral's Mansion on Odin to meet with Reinhard. When he asks what brought on the sudden visit, she tells him that the Mariendorf household would like to side with Reinhard in the civil war that could break out at any moment.

The Free Planets Alliance attempted a large-scale offensive within the Galactic Empire, but with a reversal strategy by Reinhard and the Galactic Imperial Navy, they lost three space fleets. Although the 13th Fleet, led by Yang, maintained 90% strength, the other fleets suffered heavy damage. But Lobos, the commander-in-chief, ordered all remaining forces to gather at the Amritsar Starzone, so Reinhard also ordered all of his forces to head there. Yet another battle between the two armies was about to unfold.

With their respective conflicts handily wrapped up, both Yang and Reinhard spend their time in the afterglow counting their regrets.

Oskar von Reuenthal ran out in a stormy night to seek help from Reinhard von Lohengramm (then Müsel), a rising star in the Imperial Navy that was also known to be disdained by the high nobles. During the meeting with Reinhard and Siegfried Kircheis, Reuenthal convinced Reinhard to save Wolfgang Mittermeyer, in exchange for the absolute loyalties of both of them to Reinhard. Mittermeyer was promptly freed from captivity, and together with Reuenthal, became the first people outside Kircheis to join Reinhard's cause. Back in the present, Reinhard is busy consolidating his authority as supreme commander of the Imperial Navy and prime minister of the Galactic Empire, and to facilitate that he expands the number of commanders under his direct command.

The planet Fezzan is an autonomous dominion located in one of the only two safely navigable zones that connect the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance. Every Fezzani head of state, or Landesherr, has protected the independence of the dominion by maintaining strong ties with both its much more powerful neighbors. However, the current fifth Landesherr, Adrian Rubinsky, also known as the Black Fox of Fezzan, seems intentioned to change this long-standing policy.

Julian is deeply hesitant about his new assignment in Fezzan. Wouldn't he be more helpful to the Alliance's cause by staying at Iserlohn, where the Imperial fleet is more likely to strike, making any available pilot sorely needed in the near future? However, Yang believes that this otherwise unwelcome top-down decision may actually turn out to be crucial to obtaining invaluable insight on where the struggle for power in the galaxy is heading.