The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2117 Crisis Core

2118: Crisis Core

Francis Underwood's expression suddenly turned very ugly. He stared at Helmut Zemo and said word by word, "The Grand Duke has only lost contact now. This is not the time for you, a mere Prime Minister, to act recklessly!"

Zemo responded coldly, "Currently, the Principality of Dawn does not have any laws related to heirs. So, may I ask, Prime Minister, on what basis do you want to be the regent? You mentioned nomination just now, so who nominated you?"

He knew very well that Francis Underwood wanted to take this opportunity to completely suppress Operation Zero. He would never let Francis succeed.

"Since there is no legal successor, then I, who currently holds the highest administrative position, will take over temporarily. This should be a matter of course." Francis said proudly, "Are you trying to say that you are more qualified than me?"

"Although the Grand Duke has temporarily lost contact, the country cannot be without a supreme leader, so it is obvious that the Grand Duke's descendants should temporarily serve as regent." Helmut Zemo said coldly, "This should be the rule we should follow now."

"This is not democratic!" Francis growled, "It is also not the principle of fairness, justice, and freedom that the Principality of Dawn has always upheld!"

"That's why I asked you, when did the Principality of Dawn become a democracy?" Zemo asked back.

Bang! Francis Underwood slapped the table and said sternly, "Tang Xing and Tang Yun are only 6 years old this year! What sinister intention do you have in wanting such young children to serve as regents?! Do you think you can easily control two children?"

Zemo and Francis started arguing, neither of them giving in. But it was obvious that among the people present, only Matt Horner and the priestess seemed to support Francis Underwood, while the others were in favor of Tang Xing and Tang Yun to temporarily serve as regents.

At this moment, Edel Ulan suddenly stood up and said sternly, "Stop arguing! Tang Yun will be the regent of the Principality of Dawn, and as the first lady of the Principality, I will supervise Tang Yun in the performance of his duties! The chief minister of the cabinet, Helmut Zemo, and the prime minister of the Principality, Francis Underwood, will temporarily serve as regents to assist Tang Yun in managing the affairs of the Principality of Dawn!"

Francis Underwood obviously disagreed and wanted to say something, but Adele Ulan gnashed her teeth and said, "Enough! We can't waste any more time at this table! We must deal with all the follow-up matters caused by the Grand Duke's loss of contact as soon as possible! If anyone is still fighting for power and making a fuss here, don't blame me for solving this problem in the most extreme way!"

"It's natural, ma'am." Helmut Zemo took a step back and saluted respectfully.

Francis Underwood had never expected that Adele Ulan, who had always been weak before, would be so decisive and resolute. He looked at the extremely beautiful first lady and saw that she had a graceful and noble heroic posture with her eyebrows raised, almond eyes full of anger, and cherry lips tightly closed.

"I understand." Francis Underwood stood up, bowed to Adele Ulan, and walked out without looking back.

Adele-Ulan let out a long breath and said to the others present: "When I return, I will bring Tang Yun here. I will tell her that this is the training given to her by her father. After that, we need to prepare a clone of the Grand Duke, let the clone pretend to have just returned from an unknown star region, and make a public appearance."

Helmut Zemo nodded and said, "I will arrange this matter immediately."

Adele-Ulan continued, "In the coming period of time, the eight of us present, plus the Grand Duke's daughter Tang Yun, will function as a secret council to jointly discuss all major issues of the Principality of Dawn. However, if the topic cannot be resolved through discussion, Tang Yun will have the final say."

Everyone nodded. Although Tang Yun's so-called final decision-making power was actually in the hands of Adele Ulan, this was already the best result.

After all, no matter whether it is Helmut Zemo or Francis Underwood, once they become regents, they will definitely eliminate dissidents at the first opportunity, and the other party will not sit idly by, which will eventually make the political arena of the Principality of Dawn a mess.

Just as they were continuing to discuss, Qi Jian suddenly received a communication. After seeing the content, his face changed drastically. He stood up suddenly and said, "Wait a minute! Let's stay here first! Planet Dawn will immediately enter the highest level of alert! Send guards to bring Prime Minister Francis here immediately!"

"What happened?" Ling Liang immediately realized that something was wrong.

However, the next voice came from outside the screen of the priestess. A deep and powerful voice came from the priestess's communication, "Let all your senior leaders enter the shelter immediately! Mobilize all the strong men of the Principality to return to the Dawn Planet!"

"Phoenix?" The priestess turned around and looked in confusion.

"I don't know what you have done, but this is absolutely unforgivable! You and I will set off immediately and rush to the planet Dawn! Bring Judgment with you!" The one who spoke was the guardian of the Protoss temple, the heroic figure Phoenix!

As soon as she finished speaking, the priestess's communication was cut off.

At this time, Qi Jian said seriously: "The Glory mothership sent a distress signal, which was sent directly through the main brain! At the same time, the various command departments and defense departments of the Glory mothership sent messages that everything is normal."

"What did you say? If this is true, there is a very high possibility that the Glory mothership has been controlled!" Ling Liang said anxiously.

"Send out the defense fleet immediately to surround the Glory mothership! We can't let any mishaps happen to the mothership!" said Matt Horner.

Ling Liang frowned and thought for a while, then said, "I suggest not sending out the warships directly."

"Why?" Matt Horner asked.

"The defense of the Dawn planet is very strong, and we haven't found any signs of invasion. This can only mean one thing - the problem with the Glory mothership is from within." Ling Liang analyzed, "And most of the forces we have left inside the mothership, except for a small number of scientific research departments and precision engineering departments, have already withdrawn from the mothership. So the only ones who can cause the mothership to alarm are the mothership's defense forces. But this situation doesn't make sense..."

Qi Jian nodded and said, "The defense forces are very loyal and well-treated. Even if we exclude this factor, it will not be of any benefit to them if the defense forces rebel. And if only the defense forces rebel, we only need to send out a fleet to completely resolve it... This is not enough for the main brain to directly sound the alarm. Then the problem is likely to be..."

Many people at the scene realized the problem, and they said in unison: "Hibernation Chamber!"

  Indeed, even though Tang Xiao was the only one who knew all the secrets of the mothership and the hibernation chamber, as the highest leadership of the Principality of Dawn, they naturally knew that there were many outstanding talents sleeping in the hibernation chamber, and some of them were very dangerous!

"Directly sending a fleet to surround them will only alert the enemy. We need to organize some strong enough people to sneak into the mothership and confirm the situation before making a decision." Ling Liang looked at Matt Horner, who was the highest commander of the armed forces near the Principality of Dawn. "Who can be used in the territory of Dawn now?" Matt Horner thought for a while, shook his head and said, "If what Phoenix said just now is true, I'm afraid we don't have many people we can use. Ghost agents are obviously useless... Maybe Nova can? She happens to be on Dawn. I'll ask her to come here immediately."

This matter involved the most core and biggest secret of the Principality of Dawn, and all parties acted very quickly. Although the fleet was not immediately dispatched to surround the Glory mothership, the defense forces in all aspects were strengthened. The orbital defense cannon on the star ring of the Dawn planet had silently adjusted its angle and aimed at the direction of the Glory mothership.

The engineering department sent a message to the Glory mothership in the name of maintenance, requesting to board the ship for maintenance, but the response they received was that everything was normal and no maintenance was required.

Soon, Francis Underwood was forcibly taken back by two ghost agents with an angry face. He originally thought it was a coup. But after learning that the Glory mothership had an accident, his expression suddenly became extremely solemn.

At this time, the priestess's communication came again. She told Matt Horner and others not to act rashly, because the opponent's strength might be beyond everyone's imagination.

Ten minutes later, Nova arrived and was arranged to protect everyone here temporarily.

Qi Jian said seriously, "I just received news from the main brain. It told me that the engine power system of the Glory mothership has been cut off by it, which can ensure that the mothership will not escape. But it will not cut off the power supply of the mothership, because there are too many important things in it, and the power cannot be cut off. It said that the awakened person is doing something very dangerous, and asked us to stop him as soon as possible."

"It's the master brain! It should know best what happened inside the mothership! But it doesn't tell us anything?" Francis Underwood said angrily.

Qi Jian was the only person present who had the authority to talk to the mastermind. He paused and said, "The mastermind said that only the Grand Duke could know the secret of the mothership, so it will not tell us the details. We need to solve this matter by ourselves. This is also a test for us... um?"

"Why should a computer test us?!" Francis was furious.

"It should at least tell us who occupied the mothership, right?" Ling Liang asked with a frown.

Qi Jian shook his head. "The mastermind only told me one word - prisoner."

Everyone fell into deep thought, but they still couldn't understand the meaning of the word prisoner.

……

At this moment, a Protoss shuttle is traveling at high speed in the hyperspace channel of the Dre II satellite heading to the Endor system.

The Protoss shuttle is a shuttle that can only be operated by the Protoss. After combining the Protoss's psionic power, this shuttle has extraordinary maneuverability, stealth performance, and endurance performance. Just one shuttle has a hyperspace engine level that can cross the galaxy.

"It is estimated that it will take us another 21 hours to reach the planet Dawn. Get back to your best condition, it will be a fierce battle!" said Phoenix.

He is a Protoss warrior hero and temple guardian.

In this newly rebuilt Protoss civilization, Phoenix is ​​currently the most transcendent and powerful being. He wears gorgeous and noble golden armor, the gem on his chest emits spiritual light, and the light blades on his wrists are transformed from Kyber crystals.

The light blades used by Protoss warriors now are also made of Kyber crystals, but after being modified by the Protoss, the emitted light blades are no longer cylindrical, but dagger-shaped, which is more in line with the Protoss' combat habits.

The priestess and the judge rarely saw the Protoss so nervous. Although they were confused, they still meditated and adjusted their state.

A few hours later, the priestess opened her eyes and found Phoenix standing in front of a single-person operating platform, looking at the holographic star map, wondering what he was thinking.

She walked over and asked, "Now you should tell us who our enemy is this time, right?"

Phoenix turned around, and his voice rang out in the minds of the Priestess and the Judge, deep and powerful. Just hearing this voice made people feel extremely at ease.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, but I don't know either." Phoenix said, "After boarding the mothership, we all lost a lot of our memories. Even we, the Protoss, lost most of our memories. However, when this person was awakened, I felt a very strong resonance - yes, the awakened person is a Protoss."

"A Protoss?" The priestess frowned.

"All I remember is that this person was a sealed prisoner. He once posed a huge threat to the Protoss and even to the universe we once lived in. After paying a huge price, we were unable to kill him and could only seal him." Phoenix said, "I don't know why he was awakened, because according to Tang Xiao's previous standards, he would never awaken such a person."

"How great a sin has this man committed? How powerful is he that even the Star Spirits have to seal him?" Judgment asked.

Although the Protoss are very mysterious, the Priestess and the Judge have lived with the Protoss on the Drai II satellite for a long time. Now the Protoss are also the teachers of the Twilight Covenant, so they have a deeper understanding of the Protoss.

  How terrifying is this existence that can make the Star Spirits go out with almost all their strength to capture it, and yet fail to kill it?

Phoenix said in a deep voice: "I don't know what he did. I only remember his hatred, his anger. And...his name..."

He looked at the starry sky outside the porthole and uttered a name that was taboo for the Star Spirits—

"Ulrezaj..."

  Thanks to Xingchen Love Novels for the 200 Qidian coins!!
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It’s Orega… How come you guessed it so accurately in the last chapter?
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In fact, although we are used to calling him Ulrezaj, the voice in StarCraft II calls him "Ulreza", and some translators think it is "Yulagje". In terms of pronunciation, "Ulreza" is more accurate, but I think that "Ulrezaj" is more familiar to everyone, so I'll stick with it.