The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2354 Upgrading
(The summary of the previous chapter adds the Broadsword fighter.)
2355, Upgrade

After engaging in a battle with those scaled-down warships, Admiral Gilad Perrine immediately realized that although these warships were much smaller in size, their combat capabilities had not decreased at all!

The most obvious one is the scaled-down version of the Cole-class battlecruiser. The length of this battlecruiser, which was once 1300 meters, has been reduced to 837.2 meters, a full circle smaller, and the volume has been reduced by more than half.

And according to the situation of the scaled-down Cole-class warships that are currently fighting, these warships have installed a very large twin-mounted hypermatter electromagnetic cannon on the upper and lower parts of the hull, which is unprecedented. Moreover, the caliber of this hypermatter electromagnetic cannon has been reduced to 20 meters, but the firepower is still very terrifying. The power of the two twin-mounted giant cannons is naturally far greater than the previous single-shot shaft-based cannon.

The technological progress of the Kingdom of Dawn can be seen from these two turrets. In order to install the huge 40-meter-caliber hypermatter electromagnetic cannon, the Cole class was built into a semi-axle-based cannon, and the entire launch system was more than 500 meters long! Now, the barrel of the 20-meter-caliber hypermatter electromagnetic cannon is only 142 meters long, and the turret is only 208 meters long, and it is a twin-mounted one! The form of the turret is also much more flexible than the previous semi-axle-based cannon, and the target can be aimed without the warship turning.

Without significantly weakening the firepower, directly dividing the firepower point into four is not only more flexible but also covers a larger area, and the firepower is increased exponentially.

At the same time, the front of the warship was replaced with a huge semi-axle-based laser cannon, which also has very terrifying firepower. But compared to the firepower, what is even more amazing is that the scaled-down Cole-class can not only bear the dual-mounted hypermatter electromagnetic cannon, but also bear such a semi-axle-based laser cannon? ! Does this mean that the energy level of the scaled-down Cole-class has reached or even exceeded the previous 1300-meter model? !
After seeing this series of astonishing numbers, Gilad Perrine now understood that the Kingdom of Dawn was upgrading its warships!

And it is obvious that the upgrade and improvement work is the research and development and construction completed by the Kingdom of Dawn in the North. Comparing the main fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn in the battle of Kira Planet, it can be seen that the main battleships in that direction are the God-Revelation-class battleships, the Hell Angel-class, the Doomsday Battlefield-class, the Disaster-class, and the Paladin-class battlecruisers. There are also Cole-class and Dunov-class battlecruisers, but they are all ordinary models.

This means that the upgrade has not yet been deployed to the southern part of the Kingdom of Dawn. In contrast, the fleets in the northern part rarely see Hell Angel-class battlecruisers and Disaster-class battlecruisers, and completely miss Revelation-class battleships and Archon-class aircraft carriers, which also means that these battleships are not produced in the northern part.

The clear distinction between the models of warships in these two directions fully demonstrates that the Kingdom of Dawn has not yet completely completed the upgrading of its navy. Many warships have been built but have not yet been deployed before they were attacked by the Galactic Empire.

But saying this now would not help the battle situation at all. Admiral Gilad Perrine looked at the battle situation, his expression gradually becoming solemn.

Although his fleet has the advantage in numbers and size at the moment, Admiral Mal-Tuk's fleet, which is mainly composed of cruisers, can already compete with his star destroyers! However, according to intelligence, Admiral Mal-Tuk's commercial joint fleet has more than 200 battleships and more than 5000 small and medium-sized warships!

If those small and medium-sized warships that have not yet arrived are also these new types of warships, then when the subsequent reinforcements arrive, this commercial joint fleet will definitely not be able to deal with them!
The best option at the moment was to retreat. But Gilad Perrine also knew that he couldn't retreat now, otherwise he wouldn't be able to give an explanation to Dunn Wessex and Emperor Palpatine.

"Order all ships to continue turning and moving forward, and get out of the gravity well of the planet Anxin as soon as possible!" Gilad Peraune gave the order. He decided to fight outside the gravity well of the planet. On the one hand, this would keep him away from the planet's defense facilities. As the planet revolves, the Argonev-class interstellar bases above the North and South Poles would not threaten him. On the other hand, it would also allow his warships to start hyperspace jumps as soon as possible and leave this galaxy.

In making this decision, Admiral Gilad-Perrine also acknowledged that he could not achieve his strategic goals.

……

At the same time, the flagship of the Commercial Fleet, the supercarrier Neimoidia.

"General, the Imperial fleet is maneuvering in the direction opposite to the planet's revolution." The T-series tactical robot said to Admiral Mal-Tuk.

"They want to escape! Don't give them this chance! Chase them and tie them up!" Admiral Mal-Tuk said sternly, touching his smooth chin.

"We are still short of manpower. In the past three hours, another 40 Victory II-class Star Destroyers have arrived at the battlefield. If we continue to pursue them now, without the firepower support of the planet's defense facilities, we may suffer heavy losses." The T-series tactical robot said, "According to the current strategic deployment, if we lose too many of the new warships originally planned to be allocated to the planet Dawn, it will affect our combat plan."

"Hmm..." Admiral Mal-Tuk's expression was serious. He fell silent and began to think.

The tactical robot was right. He really couldn't afford too much loss. Why was the warship ratio of the commercial fleet so unbalanced? Just like Gilad Perrine's judgment, it was because the war broke out too hastily, resulting in the failure to complete the deployment of new warships.

According to the original plan, the Kingdom of Dawn should provide a batch of Hell Angel-class, Paladin-class, Disaster-class, Doomsday Battlefield-class battlecruisers and other battleships, and then send a batch of new battleships such as Cole II-class, Martha II-class, Minotaur-class, etc. After that, it will become the third task force on the planet Mygeeto.

However, this plan was interrupted by the outbreak of war, so Mal-Tuk, at the urging of the current Trade Union Chairman Lot-Dodd and Interstellar Banking Association Co-Chairman San-Hill, organized all the current warships here to form a commercial joint fleet and then join the war.

However, such a hasty formation naturally resulted in a strange formation with cruisers as the main force but not many battleships. Although the combat effectiveness is still very strong, without the tough battleships to attract frontal firepower, relying solely on cruisers to confront the opponent's Imperial-class Star Destroyers head-on, even if they can win, they will definitely suffer considerable losses.

To put it another way, isn't this the reason why the Kingdom of Dawn is building a large number of Hell's Angels-class battlecruisers?
After thinking for a while, Admiral Mal-Tuk waved his hand and said in another direction: "Call Skywalker over."

"Roger." The tactical robot responded, and then its electronic eyes flashed for a while and sent out the command.

A moment later, a girl walked over from the other side of the bridge.

The girl was not very old, only about 10 years old, and her blue skin and red eyes clearly showed that she was a Chiss. Behind her, there were two adult Chiss women who were servants who took care of the girl.

"When will our reinforcements arrive?" Mal-Tuk asked directly.

The Chiss girl clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and began to meditate. After a long time, she opened her eyes, shook her head, and said, "The Heavenly Road has not been opened. The 'Tangle' is still chaotic and it is still not navigable. I need to sense it again in half a day."

She seemed a little weak, and the woman behind her quickly supported her.

"Half a day... and you're still not sure?" Mal-Tuk frowned. "Yes." The Chiss girl nodded and replied, her voice becoming weak.

"Go down and rest." Mal-Tuk waved his hand, asking the girl to leave and rest.

These girls are all Chiss Skywalkers, the Chiss' unique hyperspace navigators.

As we all know, in unknown star regions, because the hyperspace routes are very chaotic, some routes can even change in one or two hours. Therefore, traditional hyperspace navigation technology cannot be used in unknown star regions. Therefore, it can be seen that most civilizations living in unknown star regions have never been able to step out of their own planets in their entire lives.

Only a few civilizations that can master navigation in this super-chaotic hyperspace channel known as the 'Tangle' can grow and develop into a massive nation with multiple planets.

For example, the biological battery technology of the Xiru Empire, the telepathy of the Grisk Hegemony, and the "Skywalker" of the Chiss Territory.

Skywalkers are basically young girls, usually no older than 13, and all of them are Force-sensitive. According to Chiss research, female Force-sensitive people under the age of 13 can develop a very strange sense of hyperspace channels after training.

Through this sense, these girls can guide the spacecraft to make a successful hyperspace jump, thus passing through the unpredictable "Tangle". This sense is called the "third horizon" by the Chiss.

The reason why Admiral Mal-Tuk was able to lead the Commercial Combined Fleet to reach the planet Anxin in just three days was because of the power of these "Skywalkers".

The Kingdom of Dawn did build star gates in the north, but unlike the Galactic Empire's panic-stricken judgment, the Kingdom of Dawn's construction of star gates is still far from the point where they can be built at will and then form a network.

Because the phase cores of these stargates can only be manufactured by Vasali phase engineers, and because the Vasali have not yet fully recovered their former technology, the output is not high, but the cost is frighteningly high.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

In the North, the Kingdom of Dawn built two star gates, both on the planet Mygeeto. One star gate leads directly to the planet Dawn, while the other star gate leads to Chiss Territory.

As for the question that Gilad Perrine had been worried about, whether there was a stargate on the planet Odd-Mantell, the answer was - there was none at all. At least one of his judgments was correct, that is, the industry on the planet Odd-Mantell was not developed, so it was indeed very difficult to build a stargate there.

However, once bitten, one becomes afraid of ropes for ten years. In the Battle of Kira Planet, the Galactic Empire was severely harmed by the mobility of the Stargate, and almost lost 1000 capital ships and the entire southern border of the Milky Way.

Therefore, people throughout the empire are terrified at the mention of star gates. They even think that the Kingdom of Dawn has built star gates everywhere!

Girard Perrine really didn't expect that even though he had considered the issue of the Star Gate very seriously, it was still the Star Gate that tricked him this time!

But now he is still in the dark.

Mal-Tuk did not choose to go to Anxin through the Namadi Corridor from Ord-Mantell. Not only was the journey long, but one could easily tell that the Imperial Fleet would have set up heavy defenses along the way, and it would be impossible to reinforce Anxin.

So he led his fleet directly through the star gate to Chiss Territory, then brought the "Skywalkers" who were already in place there, and then used the hyperspace channel to go directly from Chiss Territory to Anxin Planet.

With the help of Skywalker's Third Horizon, his fleet passed through the 'Tangle' very quickly, making this roundabout operation very successful. As expected, they arrived at the battlefield before the fall of Anxin Planet, giving the Imperial Fleet a small shock.

But there was still a problem, because the scale of the Commercial Combined Fleet was too large, so even with Skywalker's navigation, after the first fleet passed, the hyperspace fluctuations became extremely violent, making the entanglement even more chaotic, and it was impossible to find any navigable route.

So Admiral Mal-Touk now found his reinforcement fleet delayed.

After thinking for a while, Admiral Mal-Tuk said to the T-series tactical robots: "Stop chasing and recover all the warships! Tell the Geth to stop chasing and return to the gravity well of the Anxin planet and follow the planet's revolution."

"Roger!"

Admiral Mal-Tuk looked at the holographic battle star map coldly, touched his chin, and smiled coldly: "Well, now that I have taken the initiative to show weakness, what will you choose? General Gilad Perrine..."

After the two sides engaged in battle, all kinds of encrypted and unencrypted communications were flying everywhere, so the code-breaking departments of the fleets of both sides were able to crack some of the other side's communications. At least knowing the number of the other side's fleet and the name of the commander was still possible.

……

The problem posed by Mal-Tuk really stumped Gilad Pellaeon. He looked at the retreating fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn and fell into deep thought.

"Why don't they pursue us? Where's the momentum they had at the beginning of the battle?" Gilad Perrine muttered to himself, "Are they trying to lure the enemy deeper into our territory? Or do they have other plans? Or... are they waiting for reinforcements?"

An intelligence officer came over and said to Gilad Pellaeon, "The intelligence from Ord-Mantell confirmed that the Separatist fleet is not there. This means that Mal-Tuk may have brought all the warships here."

"So, he is indeed waiting for reinforcements?" Gilad Perrine's face became serious.