The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2188: Forgotten Project

At this time, the holographic projection of Saratan Moss, the Minister of Military Intelligence, appeared. This Salarian intelligence chief said, "Your Excellency, I have collected preliminary information about the Rafa system. There are a total of eleven planets there, all of which have ancient ruins, and the Galactic Empire also has a research station. It is very difficult to conduct intelligence work in the Rafa system."

"I'm not here to listen to you complain about the difficulty, Saratan Moss." Tang Xiao said coldly, "Immediately mobilize the forces to collect intelligence on the Rafa system!"

Saratan Moss said in a deep voice: "What I mean is that if we launch an operation in the Rafa system, it will undoubtedly provoke the Galactic Empire and may cause a major conflict."

"Then provoke them. It's not impossible to attract the attention of the Galactic Empire to the eastern part of the Milky Way. You know what to do." Tang Xiao said.

"As you command..." The holographic projection of Saratan Moss gradually disappeared.

……

The next day, Rafa system, planet seven.

In a research station built by the Galactic Empire, several archaeologists are busy. About a hundred years ago, a huge and strange energy explosion broke out in the Rafa system. At that time, the explosion was even detected by the energy detection system of Coruscant and alarmed the Jedi Knights.

At that time, Master Yoda, the leader of the Jedi Knights, immediately ordered an investigation team to go and explore, and the Galactic Republic also sent a scientific expedition team.

Because before this energy burst, the Rafa system had always been considered a primitive system. The environment of this system was not good, and only the fourth and fifth planets had an atmosphere that was barely survivable, and a primitive species called Toka lived on the fifth planet.

When the Toka were discovered, they were still in the late Paleolithic Age. And sociologists from the Galactic Republic believed that given the resources in the Rafa system, it was unlikely that this civilization would evolve into the interstellar age.

Since there was no profit, naturally no one paid attention to it. The Rafa Galaxy was just like countless other galaxies in the Milky Way. It was assigned a number and then thrown into the star map. No one ever came back.

But that energy explosion allowed the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to discover something new.

Among the eleven planets in the Rafa system, large-scale civilization ruins were discovered! Moreover, the building materials of these ruins turned out to be a material that was somewhat similar to plastic, so they did not respond to almost all scanners.

This aroused great interest from the authorities of the Galactic Republic, who increased their investment and established scientific research stations on every planet to study these ancient relics. At the same time, they were also studying the primitive race of the Toka people.

Then, they also discovered the ancient race called Saru, and began further research. This research took three generations and a hundred years.

Over the past hundred years, their funding had been cut again and again, and finally no one in the department was interested in it, so it ended up piling up among hundreds of millions of various projects in the Galactic Republic, becoming a project that no one knew about when asked, but which still incurred a small fixed expenditure every year.

Dr. Yaco-Vesti, the current director of this project, is discussing with several other elderly scholars the words of the Saru language that they have deciphered. To be honest, their lives are quite comfortable. The Galactic Republic, and now the Galactic Empire, regularly transfer some money from the scientific research fund to their projects every year to support the operation of their projects. In fact, with the demise of the Jedi Order, no one has asked about their projects for a long time, and the funds spent on this project are actually not much. The Imperial Treasury will not be able to find them even if it checks the bad debts inherited from the Galactic Republic.

The only downside is that after entering this project, you will have to live in this harsh galaxy for many years, and the allowance is actually very small. However, for those scholars who truly love this career and the ancient civilization of the Sarul people, this is not a problem at all.

"...Actually, I think this word should be pronounced as 'he', and when pronouncing it, if you add a vibrato in your throat, it should express the opposite meaning." said Dr. Yaco-Vesti.

"I actually agree with your point of view on pronunciation, but I think the suffix of this trill should be plural." said another doctor.

"Gentlemen, I have a new discovery, rather than the meaning of words." A geneticist walked in and said, "I compared more than 21 different pronunciations of the ancient Salu people, of which require unique vocal organs to produce. For example, the 'he' sound word we just discussed, the trill at the end of it is something that our human vocal organs cannot produce."

"There is no doubt about it," said Dr. Yaco.

"But here comes the interesting thing. The Toka people, um, the primitive tribes on Planet Five, have organs of pronunciation that can produce all these syllables," said the geneticist.

"Wait a minute, you mean... the Toka people might be distant relatives of the Salu people?" Dr. Yako was surprised.

"I think it might be a bit more extreme - the Toka people are the degeneration of the Salu people." The geneticist said, "If this is the case, then it can explain why we haven't found any genetic samples of the Salu people until now, not even fossils. Because these things have been in front of us from the beginning!"

Dr. Yako stood up suddenly and said loudly: "This is crucial! This is crucial! I think this can solve many problems we have encountered so far! Quick, gather everyone for a meeting! In the next few years, we will live in the research base on Planet No. 5!"

Another scholar said reluctantly: "There is nothing to study on Planet No. 5... and those Toka people like to urinate and defecate near our research institute. The institute stinks all day long when we are there."

"According to our budget, this kind of inter-galactic relocation can only be carried out once every two years. And we just moved here from Planet 11 half a year ago... Do we have to apply for more funds from the Galactic Empire?" said a paleontologist nearby.

Dr. Yako said quickly: "Don't apply for funding! The Galactic Empire doesn't know about our project at all. It only transfers funds to us every year because it inherited the policies of the Galactic Republic. If we apply now, once the people in the Imperial Finance Department check it, I'm afraid our entire project will be gone!"

The geneticist said, "We can save this money by living frugally in the next year. This is a major discovery! At worst, I can clean the toilet for you when we go to Planet No. 5!"

Just as they were excitedly discussing their new discovery, a sinister voice suddenly rang out in the air, "It's okay, Planet No. 5, I'll take you there."

"Who!" Dr. Yako stood up very alertly, but the next second he was pushed back to his seat by an invisible hand.

Then, a flash of electricity flashed through the air, and three people in black tights appeared in front of them! (End of this chapter)