The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

2130. The Empire’s Decision

This is already the seventh year since Palpatine became Emperor.

The longer he ruled the Galactic Empire, the darker and more terrifying his demeanor became. He no longer wears the gorgeous attire he had when he was a member or speaker. Instead, he wears a black cloak almost all the time.

Not only that, the half of the face exposed under the hood of the cloak has become more and more distorted, with pale wrinkles covering the entire face, the sinister smile and the yellowed and sharp teeth exposed from the mouth. It makes people feel that now he is more like a monster than a person...

Everyone sitting here looked at Palpatine nervously. Even powerful people like Dunne Wessex and Wilhuff Tarkin did not dare to show any slightness.

Over the past few years, Palpatine has become increasingly cruel, suspicious, and irritable, and no one can know what he is thinking. He may seem to be in a good mood one second, but he may directly kill someone the next second.

The decisions he made became more and more extreme and cruel. He issued orders more than once to carry out inhumane massacres on those planets that dared to resist. He hung the captured rebel leaders in the reconquered cities and watched them slowly die while struggling.

Darth Vader stood behind Palpatine, his tall body carrying an endless sense of oppression, and the constant heavy breathing sounded like a heavy hammer hitting everyone's heart.

Palpatine did not speak. He just scanned the crowd with his eyes that exuded a terrifying golden light, again and again, until they began to tremble with fear, and then he slowly said: "Grand Duke Dawn , Darth Malthael...is missing."

His voice was distorted and greasy, and he was not addressed by Tang Xiao, but by the Sith title. People who know Palpatine know that whenever this happens, it shows that his attention is on Darth Malthael himself, not the Principality of Dawn.

But compared to these, none of them were as shocking as the information he said.

Black Star suddenly raised his head, "Darth Malthael is missing? Your Majesty, are you sure?" As a powerful dark side force user, the only people present were him, Kadan and Darth Vader. The individual remained unmoved by Palpatine's pressure.

"I can no longer sense his presence in the Force..." Palpatine said slowly, "His disgusting aura has always been in the world of the Force, making me angry and thinking about it all the time. ...Kill him! But now...his force is gone."

"Is it because he is in a relatively closed place? Your Majesty. According to our intelligence, Tang Xiao has been in the unknown star field in recent months... The Dawn Principality should have encountered trouble there." Wilhoff- Tarkin said.

"Hmph! Stupid guy! How can a mortal like you understand the mysteries of the Force!" Palpatine snorted coldly, "I said he was missing, he is missing! It has nothing to do with where he is."

Black Hole also said on the side: "Even hyperspace turbulence cannot block the induction of the Force. Even time and space, the Force can leave traces in it. Since His Majesty can no longer sense Darth Malthael's existence, then he has only two possibilities - the first is to die, and the second is to be in a place that cannot even be penetrated by the Force. Either one will mean that Darth Malthael will be dead in a short time. Gui will not appear, or in other words, he will never appear. "

The Supreme Dark Prophet Kadan let out a sinister laugh, "Without Darth Malthael, the threat of the Dawn Principality was immediately reduced by more than half. This is our best chance... We should send troops immediately to eliminate the Dawn Principality in one fell swoop! Every one of their top brass was arrested and put on public trial, hehehehe.”

Palpatine also laughed triumphantly, "Hahahaha! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Let our fleets start gathering immediately! Launch an attack on the Principality of Dawn in the shortest possible time!"

However, after he said these words, everyone else present fell silent. Almost everyone kept their eyes and noses attentively, lowering their heads and not daring to speak.

"I'm telling you, send troops immediately!" Palpatine said coldly, his voice extremely sinister. He was obviously very dissatisfied with the current atmosphere.

In this almost stagnant atmosphere, it was Sate Pestage, the supreme advisor of the Imperial Advisory Group, leader of the Imperial Loyalty Committee, and Imperial Grand Vizier, who mustered up the courage to answer: "Your Majesty... Where do we still have a fleet that can attack now..."

The venue fell into a terrible silence again. The surrounding air seemed to be solidified, and everyone felt that breathing became very difficult.

Everyone could feel Palpatine's simmering anger in the silence.

Black Hole is finally a man. He snorted coldly and said sternly: "Our current navy has exceeded the size of the Galactic Republic by more than three times during the war! We have more than 10,000 capital ships at hand, and now you say that we don't have any." fleet?"

He said this to give Sartre a chance to explain quickly, otherwise if Palpatine asked, he might actually kill someone! In that case, Sutter-Pestachi's long list of titles might not even be able to save his life!

Sartre-Pestach cast a grateful look at the black hole, and he quickly said: "The resistance forces in the empire have been intensifying recently, and the work of rebuilding the 14th Army has been stagnant. There are even rumors that the planet Rylos is also secretly brewing. Revolution. And a civil war is also breaking out on the planet Geonosis, which has even affected the construction progress of DS-1. We have sent out almost all the battleships."

"Then you want to tell me that we have to sit here and wait for this great opportunity when Darth Malthael disappears?" Palpatine asked sullenly, "Then I am raising a bunch of cowards like you. What’s the use?! You told me last time that there were still 1,000 battleships available, but now, there’s not even one! Where did I spend my huge military expenditures?”

Eshin El-Raz, leader of the New Order Protection Committee, also said: "There have been many planets that have rebelled recently, and pirates have become increasingly rampant, which has caused our control over the outer ring star region and even part of the middle ring star region to continue to decline. In order to maintain To control the operation of the empire, we can only send more fleets to suppress it. With all due respect, considering the current territory of the empire, our fleet is still too small..."

Hei Dong, who is also the director of the Imperial Intelligence Agency, also said: "I have stepped up the intelligence penetration into the Principality of Dawn, and it is obvious that they have strengthened their intelligence deployment after Tang Xiao disappeared. I very much suspect that a considerable part of the rebellion, It’s the Dawn Principality that is causing trouble behind the scenes, just to distract us so that we can’t take action against them.”

"I need answers!" Palpatine roared, and he even brought the power of the dark side. This violent shout shocked everyone present, "Darth Malthael is missing now! And we , we must take this opportunity to destroy the Dawn Principality in one fell swoop! I only need to hear when..."

"I think... we can plan an attack on the fourth group in the northern border of the Principality of Dawn. First attack the planet Oud-Mantel, rebuild the Eighth Army, and then directly threaten the planet Murinster and seek a decisive battle with the fleet. In this way "In the future, we will be able to encircle the planet Mequito after occupying the planet Murinster," Dunn-Wessex said.

He is the King of the North, so of course he hopes that the empire's offensive will be launched from his side. In this way, the power and military might in his hands will be greater.

Sutter-Pestachi quickly echoed: "This should be possible. As long as we can occupy the planet Mequito, we will be able to obtain the huge wealth that the separatists of the Interstellar Banking Association have robbed before. This will greatly alleviate the empire's current situation." Financial crisis. As long as we have enough money, we will expand the fleet faster!"

Wilhuff Tarkin said coldly: "You can't even deal with the geth raging in the north, and you still want to send a fleet deep into the hinterland to attack the planet Mequito? When did you overestimate your abilities so much? Deng En-Wessex.”

He turned to Palpatine again and said seriously: "Your Majesty, the rebellions that are happening one after another are because the Star Destroyer's deterrence is not enough. The Imperial Navy reconstruction plan proposed by Dunn Wessex is wrong... …We need absolute power and absolute deterrence like DS-1. Only by completing the construction of DS-1 as soon as possible, by then, no one in the empire will dare to resist, and all our warships will be freed and used as mobile forces. ”

He raised a finger and said: "Fear is the best way to rule the galaxy. If there is still rebellion, it can only be said that fear is not enough. And DS-1 is the biggest fear in this galaxy! Than Ten thousand Star Destroyers are more effective."

This time, Palpatine interrupted Tarkin's words directly and rudely. He said gloomily: "Can DS-1 be dispatched now to destroy the Dawn Planet? If not, what's the point now?..."

He looked around at everyone again and said coldly: "If you can't come up with a plan, then let me do it. Within a month, gather at least 4,000 battleships and launch an attack! I don't care about any reasons, I don't care about those Whatever the battleship is doing, bring it back to me!"

"Your Majesty! This..." Sartre-Pestach quickly tried to dissuade this crazy idea, "This is inappropriate..."

If 4,000 capital ships are really transferred back, I am afraid that at least half of the empire will start to fight for independence! If something goes wrong, it is not impossible for a second independent galaxy confederation to be born from those places!

And once these planets begin to fight for independence, the 4,000 battleships sent out will immediately become rootless and completely defeated due to lack of supplies.

By then, will the Galactic Empire still be the Galactic Empire?

At this time, an extremely low and dull voice suddenly sounded, "Trade Alliance."

Everyone immediately looked at the source of the voice—Darth Vader, who had been standing motionless behind Palpatine! The most powerful general in the Galactic Empire, Palpatine's disciple and confidant.

"Hehehe... tell me what you have planned." Palpatine let out a twisted laugh.

"Declare the Trade Federation treason and all their activities illegal. Then attack the planets controlled by the Trade Federation, including Cato-Neimoidia and Balmora-Neimoidia, and completely wipe them out from the Empire." Darth Vader said coldly, "We will get the huge funds and resources of the Trade Federation, and at the same time, it will deter other forces that are plotting against the Empire."

The faces of the people present became solemn, and they were thinking about this matter seriously.

But this matter is really not easy to deal with.

Although the Trade Federation was one of the main core members of the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the previous Clone Wars. But in fact, the Trade Federation is still doing business with the Galactic Republic, and they always insist that Newt Gunray is only a part of the radical faction of the Trade Federation, and the Trade Federation is actually loyal to the Galactic Republic.

In fact, even during the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation did so, and they served both sides of the war at the same time. The wealthy Neimoidians also contributed a lot of income to the finances of the Galactic Republic, which made it difficult for the Galactic Republic and the later Galactic Empire to deal with them.

The key to the matter is actually the Principality of Dawn!

Because in the original plot, Newt Gunray, who was bewitched by Palpatine, surrendered directly at the end of the war. He shut down all the combat robots and waited foolishly for Palpatine to fulfill his promise. But what he waited for was Darth Vader's blazing lightsaber.

At that time, the Galactic Empire had no enemies at all, and the war was over, so they could do whatever they wanted. Palpatine directly declared several major corporate giants including Newt Gunray as the number one war criminals, and then directly plundered and confiscated all their industries and wealth in the name of treason, bringing the first huge financial income to the empire.

But now it is different. The Principality of Dawn is still there, and for the Trade Union, a company that is betting on both sides, if the pressure on them is too great, then maybe they will go directly to the Principality of Dawn. Just like the previous Interstellar Banking Association, the split of the Interstellar Banking Association at that time was a fatal blow to the finances of the Galactic Republic.

And if the Trade Union comes again, this blow will definitely not be small!

Because the Trade Federation has monopolized the logistics and transportation industry of the entire galaxy for thousands of years, once they have problems, transportation in many places in the Galactic Empire will be paralyzed.

Once transportation and logistics are paralyzed, many planets will suffer from famine and shortage of supplies, and then more rebellions will follow!

But... Palpatine changed his mind...

It seems feasible! (End of this chapter)