The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2300: A sudden change

11BBY, August 8, 4:19 pm, Supreme Operations Command of Dawn Planet.

"Urgent message from the planet Rendili!" An officer quickly ran to the deputy chief of staff and handed him a document.

The deputy chief of staff briefly glanced at the miniature holographic projection, his face changed, and he immediately turned and walked into the office of the chief of staff Qi Jian, "General Staff, urgent telegram from the planet Lundili!"

After Qi Jian read the document, he immediately pressed the button to remotely convene a military meeting. Holographic projections of senior generals from various military forces appeared in front of the desk.

"Admiral Trench sent an urgent message to the guard forces of the planet Rendili. The Galactic Empire may not have launched the attack through the hyperspace channel!" Qi Jian said in a deep voice with a solemn expression.

"Without going through the hyperspace channel? What's the method? Using a sublight speed engine?" Carls Walton frowned.

"It is also possible that they first used the hyperspace channel to travel to the vicinity of the Rendili system, and then used the sublight speed engine to travel." Defense Minister Cheng Shitao said, "This is not right either. As long as they use hyperspace travel, they will definitely be detected by the hyperspace outpost."

"Warp travel, that's the only possibility." Ling Liang insisted, "The Galactic Empire and the Geth have been fighting for so many years, it's not surprising to find some warp travel technology fragments from some Geth warships that raided the Empire's rear. In addition, with the current technological reserves of the Galactic Empire, developing warp travel is not difficult."

"The Geth have tied down a quarter of the Imperial fleet for us, but the Empire is also learning from the Geth at the same time..." Qi Jian frowned.

"Then the question now is, how to detect the specific location of the Galactic Empire fleet? Is there any way to counter it?" Ling Liang asked back.

Cheng Shitao shook his head and replied: "Warp speed travel cannot be effectively detected."

"Then the question now becomes, is the Galactic Empire really using warp speed to attack the planet Rendili? Couldn't it be the planet Eriadu? Or the planet Yago-Dur?" Qi Jian said.

"We can only speculate on this," Ling Liang said. "We can only assume that the Galactic Empire does not have higher-level warp engine technology, and they are also unable to upgrade more warships in a short period of time. Therefore, if the Empire wants to attack Eriadu and Yago-Dur, they will definitely gather through the hyperspace channel first, so that we may find them. Therefore, the best and most covert way is to go to Rendili."

"In the final analysis, we still only have speculations and no definite information." Qi Jian sighed, "How about it? Should we take the initiative to attack?"

"Taking the initiative to attack will be disadvantageous to us in terms of public opinion. I suggest waiting until the main fleet of the Galactic Empire appears before reacting," said Helmut Zemo.

Ling Liang also nodded in agreement. "I also think we should continue to wait. If we launch an attack according to Operation Zero now and crash into the Empire's main fleet without knowing its whereabouts, it will be a disaster."

Qi Jian nodded, "Indeed, before we open up the situation, our attack directions are still limited to the two directions of Eriadu and Yago-Dur. The probability of encountering the main fleet of the Galactic Empire is very high. So it has been decided. Send a telegram to Admiral Trench to hold the position firmly and not make any mistakes!"...

11 BBY, August 8, 4:22, Lundili Planet Command Center.

"Planet Dawn has decided to keep its troops... in place... Tsk tsk tsk tsk..." Admiral Trench stroked the claws at the corner of his mouth and said slowly, "They believe that the Galactic Empire may use curvature... navigation technology. Tsk tsk tsk tsk... Immediately imitate the Empire's possible strategy. Tsk tsk tsk tsk..."

"Roger!" The tactical robot beside him nodded, and its electronic eyes immediately began to flash rapidly. After a moment, it said in a flat and rigid electronic voice: "Combat simulation 5700 times, the Imperial Fleet has a 79% chance of bypassing the outer defense line and directly attacking the planet's orbital defenses."

Lieutenant General Malcolm Granger, who was standing nearby, nodded and said, "I feel the same way. I suggest that all the patrolling vulture robot fighters be recalled immediately. If the Galactic Empire uses the warp navigation technology to launch a direct raid, our outer defense line will be useless."

Malcolm Granger, the Air Force General from "Command & Conquer: Generals", is very good at commanding fighter formations. In the Battle of Rendili, he served as Admiral Trench's adjutant.

However, Admiral Trench tapped the holographic star map with his pointer and said slowly, "Not at all. It's useless. Tsk tsk tsk tsk... It will take at least... a month to call back the robot fighters. Tsk tsk tsk tsk... It's totally unnecessary."

He thought for a moment, then gave the order: "Let all vulture robots and fighter planes... go to the nearest planetary base. Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Provide logistical transportation for those harassing the Imperial fleet."

Malcolm Granger nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea. I'll arrange it right away."

The 150000 vulture robot fighters patrolling the Rendili system were basically recovered from various places, including those stocks that had not been fully used after the demise of the Independent System Federation, most of which were later received by the Principality of Dawn.

Like the B-1 battle robot, the Vulture robot fighter is also a cheap and good automated combat weapon. However, in this era, this robot fighter is completely outdated in the face of the V-wing Alpha-Light fighter and TIE/LN light fighter currently in service in the Galactic Empire.

In face-to-face air combat, the vulture robot fighters that once could fight back and forth with the V-19 Torrent fighters and Z-95 Headhunter fighters can only be slaughtered now. That's why they were taken over by the defense forces on the planet Rendili and carried out patrol missions with their large numbers.

As mentioned before, there are a total of 9 planets in the Rendili system, and Rendili is located on the third one. There are planetary bases on the six outer planets. Although the scale is basically not very large, the huge number of vulture robot fighters concentrated there can still threaten the logistics transportation of the imperial fleet.

……

While Admiral Trench began to carefully adjust his defense deployment, the Galactic Empire finally showed its fangs!
At 8:5 am on August 10, the Galactic Empire's diplomatic spokesperson Krua van der Long held a press conference and publicly announced that Rendili Interstellar Dynamics had a large number of corruption problems and had embezzled a huge amount of Galactic Republic assets!
As the successor of the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire has the responsibility to recover these lost assets and will impose the most severe sanctions on the evil Rendili Interstellar Power Company! (End of this chapter)