The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2186: Absurd Possibility

"She actually ran to that place?" Tang Xiao frowned. "No wonder we lost contact before. But...how come we are in touch again now?"

"This is one of the messages she sent." He Ru said, "She is currently on a planet called Ciara. This planet has been completely swallowed up by Mnggal-Mnggal, but the civilization of Ciara once built a huge hyperspace signal relay station. Now Shepard and the small number of troops she brought from Kraku are desperately besieging Ciara. She hopes that we can go to reinforce her as soon as possible."

At this time, BIG-BOSS said: "But now there is a very practical problem - how can you be sure that Shepard is not controlled by Mnggal-Mnggal, and then set a trap to lure us over?"

Lieutenant General He Ru shook his head and said, "To be honest, I'm not sure. That's why I need to consult the Supreme Operations Command."

"If it's just a question of whether or not to send reinforcements, and you're bringing it up to the Supreme Combat Command, are you kidding me?" Army Commander-in-Chief Xian Hui said coldly, his expression intimidating without even getting angry.

Lieutenant General He Ru quickly unfolded the coordinates sent to him and displayed the route data. "According to the coordinate data Shepard gave us, the planet Ciara where she is located cannot be reached by normal means. Even if we start from the planet Levik, the former capital of the Xiru Empire in the unknown star field where we are currently stationed, it will take hundreds of hyperspace jumps, and this number is changing all the time."

He kept zooming in on the data, showing the complex environment around the planet Ciara, "Not to mention the vicinity of the Ciara Galaxy. The Ciara Galaxy orbits a supermassive black hole, and there are tens of thousands of galaxies around it. That area is equivalent to a huge star system inside the Milky Way. It's very strange and very dangerous. I can't even understand how Shepard and her crew's Normandy got there."

"What's the conclusion?" Xian Hui asked.

"The conclusion is, if we want to send reinforcements over there, at the moment, I have no other spaceship that can get there except for the Eternity Super Spacecraft to go out on its own," He Ru said.

Everyone present looked at each other and fell silent.

"Your Excellency, excuse me for being blunt, but if only a super battleship like the Eternal can go to reinforce Shepard, the stakes are too high. We currently have no way of knowing whether Shepard is being controlled or not, and the messages she sent are only text, not even sound." Navy Commander-in-Chief Matt Horner said to Tang Xiao.

Tang Xiao pondered for a moment and said, "Any other news?"

He Ru nodded and replied, "In addition, Commander Shepard said that the Korok people, the natives of the planet Kraku, have an artifact called the 'Psychic Harp'. It is said that when this artifact is activated, it will generate an energy field that can completely isolate all signals on a planet. She believes that this energy field can also completely isolate the control of Mnggal-Mnggal's core over all other clones."

"Then why doesn't she use it?" Tang Xiao asked coldly.

"The Mind Harp is controlled by the Elders Council of the planet Krakuul, and they refuse to lend it. At the same time, this artifact cannot be activated." He Ru said.

"This is simply ridiculous!" Volgograd-Kanidi could no longer sit still. "Since the artifact cannot be activated, how did she know the effect of this artifact? Did she experiment on Monggal-Monggal?" Lieutenant General He Ru shook his head and said, "No. She heard about the effect of the artifact from hearsay. An elderly Korok man told her. The old man said that this artifact had been activated before and blocked all energy including stellar radiation. Judging from this, this effect may also be useful for Monggal-Monggal."

"For such an unfounded possibility, we have to sacrifice an Infinity-class super aircraft carrier?" Volgograd-Kanidi said coldly, "This is ridiculous!"

Chief of Staff Qi Jian asked, "So, what does Shepard suggest regarding this artifact, the Mind Harp?"

He Ru said: "Her suggestion is to send reinforcements as soon as possible. After they meet her, they will head straight to the Kraku planet. If the Elders do not cooperate, then we will seize the artifact by force. At the same time, since the artifact was last activated on Planet 5 of the Rafa Galaxy, she hopes that we will immediately send an exploration team to the Rafa Galaxy to conduct exploration and research to find the secret of the Mind Harp."

Qi Jian asked again: "So if everything goes well, our reinforcements arrive at the planet Ciara, rescue Shepard from his predicament, and return to the planet Kraku to seize the Mind Harp, and also find a way to activate the Mind Harp, then what? What are we going to do?"

At this point, He Ru's forehead was covered with sweat. He sighed and said, "Then, Shepard thinks we need to go directly to the core home planet of Mnggal-Mnggal - the planet Mug-Faro. Defeat the rotten star ring around the planet Mug-Faro, and then activate the Mind Harp at the core of Mnggal-Mnggal."

Qi Jian was still very patient and continued to ask: "Okay, then let's not talk about this rotten star ring for now... There are still two problems to be solved. First, are the coordinates of the planet Mug-Faro accurate? Second, even if we arrive at the planet Mug-Faro, it is a planet. We are going to look for the core of Mnggal-Mnggal on a planet? Can we locate it?"

He Ru shook his head and said nothing.

It's useless to say anything more. This is simply a fairy tale... and fairy tales can't exist in the real world.

Qi Jian also sighed, looked at Tang Xiao, shook his head and said: "Grand Duke, if things develop like this, I'm afraid that we can no longer describe this matter with words like 'adventure', 'gamble', and 'all in'. Apart from the myths and legends in the movies, what else can meet so many prerequisites at the same time, and then achieve the only possibility of success among countless possibilities of failure?"

Tang Xiao sat there, like a sculpture, cold and majestic.

After a long while, he slowly said, "How about having your supercarrier Eternal set off immediately to reinforce Shepard on the planet Ciara. Then set up defenses on the planet Ciara to ensure smooth communications. Notify the Minister of Military Intelligence, Saratan Moss, to immediately organize the strongest intelligence force to go to the Rafa system for investigation."

"Your Excellency!"

"This won't do, Your Majesty!" Almost everyone around was horrified and they hurried to stop it.

But Tang Xiao just said calmly, "Because, she is Shepard." (End of this chapter)