The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2627 G Day...

2627, G day...

9BBY, August 10th.

G day...

For the Galactic Empire, it was just another ordinary day. The people of the Outer Ring Sector continued to rise up and fight against oppression. To ensure their wives and children had enough to eat and wear, and to prevent the value of their labor from being taken away by those unscrupulous tax collectors, they were willing to take up rudimentary weapons and confront the heavily armed Imperial Stormtroopers head-on.

The people of the Central District are also busy with their demanding jobs, with no hope of promotion or raises. Their only wish is to keep their current jobs, which barely provide for them. They don't even have time to look up at the brilliant starry sky and dream of the romance beyond…

No. In fact, most people in the Middle Sector never have the opportunity to leave their own planet in their entire lives. Sometimes, compared to those in the Outer Sector who risk their lives, life in the Middle Sector is the most monotonous and dull.

But at least you can live, right?

Business owners and factory managers in the Inner Ring Star District are grappling with the challenges of their businesses' development. Whether it's worker strikes or plunder from mega-corporations, they are walking on eggshells with extreme caution.

Sometimes they would vent their anger on lower-level employees or on the female slaves they sold, but when they looked up at the stars, they would also understand that their fate was not in their own hands.

And the inner circle? A life of revelry and extravagance prevails, with the powerful and wealthy continuing to indulge in their lavish lifestyles. They don't even need to manage their businesses, as professionals handle everything for them. So their lives consist of nothing but pleasure…

Sometimes they do contemplate life, philosophy, politics, and ideas, but only briefly, because they understand that any change could cause them to lose this way of life. Therefore, maintaining the status quo is their ultimate goal.

However, they were indeed too idle. Besides some novel and bizarre forms of entertainment, when some of the powerful and wealthy gathered to enjoy lavish banquets, they would even joke about the war between the Galactic Empire and the Kingdom of Dawn.

After all, for these powerful and wealthy individuals, isn't war just a game of spending money? It's just that sometimes the money spent can be so much that it's unbearable for others. But a game is just a game; ultimately, it's just something for entertainment.

Games are never really going to happen to you.

Recently, the topic of the rebel army has been increasingly prevalent within the inner circle of officials. Because of the rebels' continued rampage, the businesses of those powerful figures in the inner circle have been affected to varying degrees—today's income dropped by 5%, leaving only a little over 200 million credits. Oh dear, so disheartening. Pressure must be put on the military to send a fleet to fish out and burn all those troublemakers…

As for the war with the Kingdom of Dawn?

No, this topic doesn't even need to be discussed. After all, the Kingdom of Dawn is just a defeated opponent, forced to sue for peace in the Clone Wars. What can be expected of them? Compared to the fleet deployed by the Kingdom of Dawn on the border, the elites in the core circle are more worried about the rebellion's rampage damaging their economic foundation.

In fact, in the past few days, compared to the Dawn Kingdom's Northern Fleet with its erratic movements, the military coup that occurred on the agricultural planet Ugio within the territory of the Empire's Thirteenth Army has made the nobles nervous.

Calls to disband the Thirteenth Army began to grow louder, with many elites in the inner circle believing that the Thirteenth Army had consumed too many resources and was not worthwhile. They suggested abandoning the vast territory controlled by the Thirteenth Army, retaining only a few economically valuable planets such as Ries and Ugio.

Thus, a new round of arguments unfolded in the Imperial Diet. The members of parliament engaged in heated debates, arguing endlessly about the interests of their powerful backers and using every trick in the book in the book in an attempt to overpower the other side and prove their own worth in the eyes of the powerful.

……

On such an ordinary day, at a hyperspace outpost located in the northern part of the Milky Way.

The Imperial Navy soldier on duty, Veneto, yawned, picked up a glass of refreshing drink, took a sip, casually put the glass aside, and stared at the screen with his sleepy eyes.

This is the Northern Defense Line built by Admiral Gilard Pereren, the military commander of the Northern Theater. In order to detect the movements of the Dawn Kingdom's Northern Fleet as soon as possible, he built 150000 hyperspace outposts along the Northern Defense Line, stretching over 20,000 light-years and involving more than 13000 habitable planets.

Although most habitable planets have little strategic value, and some even have only a few thousand inhabitants, the Dawn Kingdom is now in league with the Geths, and the consequences of these planets falling into their hands would be unimaginable. Therefore, Gilard-Perez has adopted a comprehensive defense strategy.

With 150000 hyperspace outposts and overlapping monitoring ranges, the soldiers stationed at these outposts lead incredibly monotonous and tedious days.

The number of personnel stationed at each outpost varies from 4 to 50, depending on the size of the outpost. Moreover, due to the intense fighting in the North and the constant harassment of the rear by the Geths using warp speed, transport voyages here have been minimized. Supply ships typically come once every two months, delivering ample supplies each time, and then disappear without a trace.

Under such circumstances, there is no way to change shifts, and many soldiers stay in hyperspace outposts for more than a year.

Veneto stared at the screen, drowsiness washing over him again. The hyperspace fluctuation sensor equipped on the hyperspace outpost was actually quite simple in principle; it was just a part of the hyperspace engine, used to detect fluctuations caused by spaceships passing through the hyperspace path.

The device's screen displays only a very simple blue ripple, along with three numerical values. The ripple represents the intensity of hyperspace fluctuations, which are mostly very gentle lines. The three values ​​are: the detailed values ​​of the ripple, the coordinates of the hyperspace path at this current point in time—which changes constantly—and finally, the relative time of each fluctuation.

Anyone would doze off looking at a screen like that.

As Veneto's eyelids slowly closed, he began to see his wife and son, whom he hadn't seen for over seven months. His son must have grown taller by now...

Suddenly, a slight rumble resounded. Veneto stirred; he wanted to hug his wife and tell her that when the war ended, their family would move to Ludas and cultivate the blue wheat field their father had left behind.

Rumbling sounds filled the air as the tremors continued.

Immediately afterwards, the alarm started beeping.

Veneto suddenly woke up from his dream. He subconsciously looked up and vaguely saw that the screen background seemed to have turned blue, but he still didn't realize what had happened.

He looked around blankly until he saw his cup on the control panel, the drink inside rippling in the water!

That's impossible! The hyperspace outpost is a space structure; there's absolutely nothing here that could make it shake!
Veneto instinctively wanted to call the engineer at the outpost; he was still asleep. He wanted to wake him up and have him check the space anchor to see if it was malfunctioning. However, at that moment, he saw the screen again, and instantly, he froze!
Yes, the screen turned blue, but that's not because the background color changed, but because...

The intensity of the hyperspace fluctuations, in both amplitude and frequency, has reached the upper limit of the device's detection capability! Those densely packed, maximum-amplitude ripples have filled the entire screen!!
“Ah…this…no…” Veneto’s body stiffened. He seemed to want to say something, perhaps to wake up his comrades and partners, or perhaps to quickly send a distress signal.

But extreme fear prevented him from doing anything...

Because such a large ripple could only mean one thing—the enemy fleet is extremely large and is very close by!
Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed past the porthole, momentarily illuminating Veneto's vision. When his vision returned, he found himself facing an endless wall of metal!

Yes, it's a wall!!
Because through the porthole, all he could see was the endless metal structure; he couldn't see anything else at all!
Moreover, this massive metal wall was getting closer and closer to his outpost!
I don't know when it started, but the alarm stopped abruptly, a faint static came from the communicator, the lighting system started to flicker, and the hyperspace sensor stopped working.

"Gurgle...gurgle..." A strange sound came from deep in Veneto's throat. He wanted to scream, but in extreme fear, he couldn't make a sound at all!
"What happened?!" The cabin door of the dormitory was suddenly opened, and the other soldiers in the sentry post were awakened by the noise and rushed out.

However, when they saw the endless metal wall outside the porthole, everyone was stunned.

A pale green light suddenly shot out from the giant metal wall, enveloping the entire outpost. Veneto heard a creaking sound coming from the metal structure of the outpost, as the structure was being squeezed and deformed.

This is a traction beam!

Then came a dizzying spin, and the entire outpost was caught by the traction beam and thrown away. In the vacuum of space, the outpost didn't spin very fast. After Veneto adjusted, he used the momentum to fly over and landed face-first on the porthole.

Then he saw the true form of this giant metal wall!
It was an enormous hemispherical structure! Its diameter was over 8000 meters! No wonder you couldn't see the end through the limited view of the portholes!

Behind that hemispherical structure was a complex-shaped, but essentially cylindrical, hull. Yes, it was a massive warship!

Veneto's body trembled violently. Even by visual estimation, this warship was over ten thousand meters long! The presence of such a warship here signified something self-evident...

An enemy attack... and it was...

All-out attack!!
As the outpost drifted further and further away, Veneto was finally able to see more.

The white flashes continued as warships emerged from hyperspace and suddenly appeared in the starry sky. While each of those terrifying warships possessed a unique beauty, being in their presence only evoked boundless fear.

Some of the warships were even about half the length of the largest one. That's a massive size, 4 to 5000 meters!

So many giant warships appearing at once...

"Is this... going to destroy our empire?" Veneto murmured to himself.

Warships that have broken free from hyperspace continue to appear, almost reaching the limit of the hyperspace channel's carrying capacity.

The white light nearly blinded Veneto once again.

All that could be seen was a Prophet-class battleship escaping hyperspace and crashing right into this small hyperspace outpost, which was only about 90 meters in diameter.

The outpost was once again blasted away, tumbling through the vacuum of space, scattering debris and parts everywhere.

Seemingly annoyed by the impact, the Prophet-class battleship raised a flagship-level laser array on its starboard side, and a faint X-ray flashed by.

The hyperspace outpost instantly transformed into a molten fireball...

No one cares what's inside, how many people are there, and even less about Veneto's simple dream... that beautiful blue wheat field, his wife who, though plain-looking and overweight, is hardworking and virtuous, and his son who is old enough to understand and can work in the fields with him.

He experienced no pain; it all ended the moment the flagship X-ray flashed.

Nothing was left.

……

"General, our entire fleet has completed the hyperspace jump," the T-series tactical robot reported in its monotonous, flat voice.

Admiral Trench stroked the pincers on his smirk, looked at the holographic combat star map, and slammed his whip onto one of the planets, shouting, "Don't stop! Sublight engines, full speed ahead! Send out escort fleets, clear out the hyperspace blockers! Tsk tsk tsk tsk..."

“Roger!” The T-series tactical robot immediately relayed the command.

Among the massive fleet formation, there were hundreds of frigates, some of which were classic cobalt alloy-class frigates, while more than 20 others had a very menacing design and were entirely black.

It was none other than the Vasari's escort ship—the Lavasa Fighter!
These escort fleets were almost as small as ants compared to the massive Titan warships, but they moved swiftly, quickly creating fireballs in deep space. Those were the flames from the destruction of the Galactic Empire's hyperspace blocking devices deployed on its borders.

……

At the same time, piercing alarms also sounded simultaneously on several planets of the Galactic Empire!
Highest level of enemy situation!
The border has been attacked! The main fleet of the Dawn Kingdom has appeared!
The enemy fleet's objective is...

Planet Bilbo!