The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2527, Movements of Both Sides

Hutt Space, Eadu.

After escaping to Hutt space, General Grievous built his own military base here with the help of the Hutt commander-in-chief Oruba-Gorensla.

The atmosphere of the planet Edu is very strange. There are terrible storms everywhere in the atmosphere, and it contains extremely high energy. For billions of years, the energy emitted from the stars has been gathered in it without any overflow, which makes the atmosphere of the planet a thermal energy layer.

Therefore, although the planet Eidu is very far away from the star, approximately the distance from the sun to Neptune, the interior of this planet can actually be habitable for living things.

The existence of this thermal layer that can absorb most of the energy also makes this planet difficult to detect. The Galactic Empire once built a secret laboratory here to experiment with super energy weapons, but later, as the rebellion began to break out everywhere and Hutt Space began to move towards independence, this laboratory was abandoned.

Now, the planet has become General Grievous' secret base.

His fleet was parked around the planet. Due to the limited spaceport, only a few damaged warships could dock, and the others were being resupplied via transport ships.

Outside the interstellar spaceport, near the synchronous orbit of the planet, there are several extremely hideous starry sky buildings. The background color of these buildings is black, and countless hideous spikes extend around them, and the tops of the spikes are all blood red, as if they were structures from hell.

These starry sky buildings are also very large in size, with most of them exceeding 2000 meters in diameter. From the buildings, one can see rays of light connecting to the planet's thermal energy layer, but it seems that they are not absorbing energy, but collecting data and studying the secrets of the planet's thermal energy layer.

And now, General Grievous' absolute main force - 15 Typhoon-class battlecruisers, are docked next to these hideous buildings.

There is no doubt that these are the interstellar research centers of the Vasari people. After they discovered the planet Edu, they showed great interest in it and immediately built a research center here. According to the phase engineers of the Vasari people, the planet Edu is a natural dark energy test site. The atmosphere of this planet contains a special dark energy substance that existed when the planet was formed.

Because of this, the planet can continuously absorb incoming energy and prevent energy from spilling out. After billions of years of evolution, the planet's thermal energy layer has become very stable. The middle of the planet's thermal energy layer is the best experimental environment for dark energy experiments. The foundation of all Vasari technology comes from dark energy!

Taking a shuttle to one of the largest interstellar research centers, General Grievous got off and saw that the entire hangar platform was painted in black and red tones, which looked very depressing.

There were also a large number of robots and laborers working inside. The robots were also black and red, and looked ferocious. The laborers were of all races, but the common point was that they all had a small device installed on their foreheads, which emitted a red light. Not only that, they also carried a backpack-like device, which had several sharp claws extending from it, piercing into the bodies of these laborers.

Driven by this series of machines, these laborers are very obedient, and their speed and strength far exceed those of ordinary people, and they even retain their own wisdom!

General Grievous also knew that this was how the Vasari enslaved those slaves. As a race that once dominated their own galaxy, the Vasari naturally had their own complete system to achieve their goals, and they didn't care whether this system was "humane" or not.

But General Grievous didn't care either. What he cared about more were the phase missiles provided by the Vasari!

When they arrived at one of the huge laboratories, they saw a space in the middle of the laboratory divided by an electromagnetic field. It was pitch black inside and nothing could be seen. However, a display screen next to it showed the contents of the space - there was a phase missile inside.

This is the type of phase missile used by the Typhoon-class battlecruiser. This is a large cruise missile, up to 12 meters long, slender in shape, and with a structure in the middle of the missile that flashes a faint purple light. In this completely dark space, the missile looms, disappearing and appearing from time to time.

Then, under the control of the Vasari engineers, some other metal objects were sent into this dark space. Only to see that these metal objects actually passed directly through the missiles without any hindrance!

At this time, a Vasali phase engineer wearing a robe and holding a metal cane that looked like a staff came over and said to General Grievous: "The so-called phase technology is actually the application of high-dimensional space. The movement of objects in high-dimensional space is phase shift, which is also commonly known as transition. Phase missiles are actually just a primary application of micro-phase shift. The reason why it is primary is that this kind of movement is generally uncontrollable."

He pressed a few buttons, and countless data in Vasari language appeared densely on the screen. Then he said: "We installed sensors on the phase missiles and input the deployment distance of the target warship's deflector shield in advance. For example, for an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, this data is 150 meters from the ship... Then when the missile approaches this distance, a built-in dark energy bomb will detonate, generating a miniature phase field, sending the missile into the phase space, and performing phase shift, passing through the shield."

"Because the phase field generated by the explosion can only exist for less than a microsecond, the phase shift of the missile is also very short, ensuring that it can hit the battleship's armor after passing through the shield and cause damage. Therefore, the timing of the phase bomb explosion needs to be precisely grasped. If it is too early, the missile will not be able to pass through the shield. If it is too late, the missile will enter the interior of the battleship. However, the battleship itself has a huge mass, so this mass will cause the phase shift to fail, and the missile will instantly disintegrate without causing any impact on real space."

"A very ingenious design! So, what is the probability of a phase missile penetrating the shield now?" General Grievous nodded with satisfaction.

"About 60%. Moreover, we have not yet found a more suitable dark energy material, so the phase missile can only appear in the size of this large cruise missile. When we break through the technology of dark energy materials, this thing that seems unattainable in the Galactic Empire will be just our conventional means of attack. Hahahaha!" Vasari Phase Engineer laughed.

"So, when can I expect the next batch of phase missiles?" General Grievous asked.

"It will be soon, hahahaha. I said, phase missiles are just the beginning! One day, the entire galaxy will tremble under our iron hoof! Hahaha!" The Phase Engineer seemed to be in a good mood.

"I hope you'll still be on our side by then." General Grievous said coldly with a metallic clang, "Otherwise, I'll twist your head off with my own hands!"

"It won't be yours. Don't worry." The Phase Engineer grinned.

……

However, at this moment, in the command center of the Galactic Empire's 12th Army's main fleet, the planet Bonta, Admiral Adar Talon had a sad face. In front of him was a paper notebook with countless words and drawings on it. He was simulating the battle in his own way. But the result was disappointing...

For him, the one issue that he couldn't get around was casualties. Whether it was shield-piercing missiles or the Destroyer battleship, these were both means that could cause visible damage to his own warships, and the existence of this means prevented him from driving his Star Destroyer captains to die.

But without paying a heavy price in casualties, there was no way he could defeat the Destroyer.

Therefore, the only way is to let his main battleship fleet chase the opponent's Typhoon-class battlecruisers. But the problem is that even if the Destroyer battleship is not considered to block it, General Grievous also has a small battleship fleet with extremely fast speed and super firepower.

The common feature of those strange-shaped warships is that they always have many structures that look like solar panels. Well, the technicians told him that this is a light-sensing radar array. In any case, these warships seem to be advanced warships developed by the Hutts in recent years. Their protection is very weak, but their speed and firepower are far superior to those of warships of the same level.

Faced with the threat of such a wolf-pack-like high-speed formation, Adar Talon did not dare to really let his battleship formation drive straight in to circle around the Typhoon-class battlecruisers.

In the end, the only solution he could think of was to proceed step by step, use the battleship formation to compete with the firepower of the battleship Destroyer and the Typhoon-class battlecruiser, and then endure extremely high combat losses and repel the enemy head-on.

But in this case, the battleship Destroyer would no longer have to fire electromagnetic pulse cannons, and could instead use the super star destroyer cannon on the bow to attack. How much damage could the battleships in his hands withstand?

Adar Talon sighed, tore off the pages of paper from his notebook in great annoyance, crumpled them up and threw them aside.

He found that many of the Dawn Kingdom's warships were truly shameless. They had enough means to make it impossible for you to hold on to one side, such as particle light spears, shield-piercing missiles, and various super star destroyers. However, they also had more means to prevent you from ever having a decisive battle with them in the best condition... such as various energy reductions, various fleet shields, and various nanorobot repairs.

In short, in front of the fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn, numbers are nothing but illusions. Often, superior numbers can become a trap for one's own generals to fall into.

Adar Talon knew that a composite fleet like the Kingdom of Dawn would have a huge impact on logistics, but the problem was that the initiative on the battlefield was in their hands, and they could choose where to attack. Moreover, they had stargates, so they didn't have to worry about the transportation of supplies... In fact, if you wanted to cut off the enemy's supply, you didn't even know where to cut it off!

The conclusion is...

Ask for help.

Adar Talon spent an entire night writing a very detailed combat report, and made an in-depth analysis of the new warships, new technologies, and new tactics displayed by the Kingdom of Dawn, and put forward many opinions and suggestions.

For example, developing high-speed frigates to replace bombers, and bombing battleships outside the attack range of the opponent's large-scale three-dimensional bombs; for example, organizing more light cruisers or high-speed star destroyers, so as to use maneuverability to shake off the opponent's core battleships and create a local force advantage.

He also suggested that when necessary, some warships may need to be sacrificed in exchange for a chance of victory. At this time, fully automatic unmanned warships or warships completely controlled by robots may be a better choice.

Moreover, Adar Talon mentioned that the shield-piercing missiles might come from a completely different technological system than the current one. He believed that it might come from a new race, perhaps another race brought by the Kingdom of Dawn from an unknown star region.

At the same time, Adar Talon also began to send out a large number of reconnaissance aircraft to search for the opponent's logistics supply center or star gate. As long as he could find the star gate, he might also have the ability to actively choose the battlefield.

After the message was sent, Adar Talon was not idle. He began to visit each warship, hold discussions with the captains, officers and soldiers at all levels, and even organized a large-scale social gathering. The purpose was to boost morale, unify thoughts, and brainstorm.

He also had a long conversation with the Governor of the XII Army, Throben, to discuss the possibility of defeating General Grievous in the grand scheme of things.

After doing all this, he found that he had not slept for three days and was completely dependent on stimulating drugs to stay awake.

But now is not the time to rest! General Grievous could strike back at any moment!

Adar Talon sat down in his office and created a new report on his personal terminal: [On the historical conflicts between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren and the diplomatic means that can be used]

While writing, I began to consult a lot of historical records about the planet Dak.

At this moment, there was a slight sound from his personal terminal, and he found that it was a message, and the sender was the Office of the General Staff of the Supreme Strategic Command of the Galactic Empire!

He took a deep breath and opened the message.

However, unlike what he expected, the content of the message made Adar Talon's eyes go dark!

The Imperial military severely reprimanded him for his failure in the battle and warned him that the fleet he had was more than ten times stronger than General Grievous's. He had nearly 300 battleships, but was defeated by only one battleship, the Destroyer, and 15 new battleships. Such a gap was unprecedented! Such a failure would only be considered by the Imperial military as an act of fear and avoidance of war and evasion of responsibility.

Finally, the Imperial military warned Adar Talon that even if he could not destroy General Grievous' fleet, he should at least ensure the security of the border. If he could not even do this, then what value would you have as a mere civilian promoted admiral? (End of this chapter)