The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2683. The Result of the Collapse
In just ten minutes, the tide of battle turned!

Major General Doras felt a chill run through him as he stared at the holographic battlefield... He had been so confident, believing victory was within his grasp, but in just ten minutes, all his illusions were shattered!

He originally intended to lure out the Generous-class frigates of the guard fleet, then launch a large number of fighter jets to attack them. At the same time, he also anticipated the enemy's ambush on Planet Three and used air mines to trap the enemy's high-speed cruiser formation.

If the battle continues to develop in this way, the defending fleet's Generous-class frigates will soon be severely damaged by the fighter squadron due to their weak air defense capabilities, while the enemy's high-speed cruiser squadron will be swiftly annihilated by its own main fleet.

Now it's time to reap the rewards!

However, a mysterious fleet suddenly appeared on the battlefield, and its arrival went undetected by the border hyperspace outposts! Not only the hyperspace outposts, but even his own deployed outer reconnaissance outposts showed no reaction. In the end, only the final hyperspace fluctuations were detected, and at that point, he had less than ten minutes left…

Even at this point, Major General Doras still believed that since this mysterious fleet was not large, he could completely use his numerical advantage to defeat it.

But once the battle actually began, he realized how wrong he had been!

This mysterious fleet is incredibly fast and maneuverable, managing to achieve the maneuverability of a fighter jet despite being only the size of a light cruiser!
Furthermore, Rear Admiral Doras discovered that these warships were also incredibly fast, reaching sub-light speeds. The tens of thousands of kilometers they covered after leaving the hyperspace channel were almost instantaneous for them. These warships immediately charged into the formation of his own fleet, and the two sides engaged in a chaotic battle.

Even so, Major General Doras still believed he had a chance. After all, he still had the numerical advantage; at most, he could retreat temporarily to regroup and fight a decisive battle later.

However, the two things that happened next completely made him lose his composure.

First, the fighter squadrons that went to attack the Generous-class corvettes suddenly abandoned their targets without warning and flew in another direction. Even though some of the Generous-class corvettes had been severely damaged, their fighter squadrons did not pursue them but left the area.

Rear Admiral Dolas immediately issued a communication, ordering the fighter squadron to complete the mission immediately and destroy all the Generous-class frigates.

However, the fighter squadron sent back communications claiming that they were attacking the Generous-class corvettes and had already sunk two of them.

? ? ? ?
However, before Major General Doras could verify the situation on the battlefield, something happened that almost immediately destroyed his entire will to resist!

A fleet that appeared out of nowhere suddenly appeared on the battlefield! And this fleet has 40 Victory II-class Star Destroyers! This fleet is currently near the planet Drukenville, and judging from their actions, they are clearly working with the defending fleet.

40 Victory II-class Star Destroyers!

Such a force could easily crush Rear Admiral Dolas's fleet head-on!

Compared to the Jaeger-class battlecruisers, which were designed before the Clone Wars even began, the Victory II-class Star Destroyers, whose design was finalized in the later stages of the war, incorporated a great deal of combat experience from the war. As a result, many of their designs were very simple and efficient, reducing the assumptions made when designing the Jaeger-class.

Therefore, although the Victory II-class Star Destroyer is only 900 meters long, significantly smaller than the Jaeger-class, it would undoubtedly emerge victorious in a battle.

Although Rear Admiral Doras had many small and medium-sized warships, his main fleet consisted of only 15 Jagdpanzer-class ships. Facing 40 Victory II-class ships, he was utterly outmatched in both quantity and quality!

He roared in near-collapse, “Where did this fleet come from? Why does Silas-Tagg have a fleet like this?! Are the Imperial Intelligence Service eating shit?! Why didn’t anyone know that Tagg Corporation had a capital fleet of this size?! These bastards!! They had the ability to annihilate us all, but they’re just playing games with us?!”

He genuinely couldn't understand how this fleet had come to be.

These are 40 Victory II-class Star Destroyers, not 40 fighter jets! No matter where on the planet they are hidden, such a force cannot possibly escape the detection devices on our side.

But this fleet appeared out of nowhere, as evidenced by the piercing alarms on the bridge.

Fear finally overwhelmed Major General Doras's reason, and he shouted almost frantically, "Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! All troops retreat! Forget about those Star Destroyers, retreat!!"

Faced with this situation, victory was impossible. His only hope was to get as many warships away as possible. He was nearing retirement and saw no need to get involved in this mess.

Clearly, the other ships in the fleet had also noticed these 40 Victory II-class ships. The captains of these ships shared the same thoughts as Rear Admiral Doras: they were all part of the frontier sector's defense fleet, commanding outdated and obsolete ships, their only hope being to coast along and wait for death.

In such a place, advanced equipment is not available to them, excellent soldiers are not available to them, sufficient funds are not available to them, and opportunities for promotion are not available to them. Therefore, they will naturally not fight to the death with the enemy.

In any case, this border region might be occupied by the Kingdom of Dawn at any time. Then the allegiance will be different, so what's the point of fighting?

Not to mention Orman-Tagg's warships; they're all company employees, and the purpose of maintaining this fleet is simply escorting ships or fighting pirates. To put it bluntly, how much do you, Tagg Corporation, pay us? To send us to fight Victory II-level battles?
Rear Admiral Dolas's hysterical order to retreat immediately turned into a rout! Countless warships scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in all directions, wanting only to get out of the battlefield as soon as possible and activate their hyperspace engines to leave this place.

However, the 40 Victory II-class Star Destroyers did not seem to have any intention of pursuing them. The fleet simply docked near Druckenville and only fired occasionally, seemingly as a warning.

However, the Imperial Fleet couldn't care less about that now. They didn't care about the unusual behavior of the fleet at all. All they wanted to do was run!
run?
Even that will become a pipe dream! All that could be seen was the mysterious high-speed fleet that appeared later, relentlessly pursuing the Imperial fleet like mad dogs, firing wildly and chasing relentlessly. Then, when they discovered some warships preparing to activate their hyperspace jump engines to escape, they inexplicably unleashed strange pulse fields!
The force field exploded instantly, creating a spherical force field in space, resembling a bubble. The Imperial warships that flew into this 'bubble' suddenly and inexplicably lost their hyperspace engines!
Just as the commanders of these warships were frantically roaring for a quick fix and to initiate a hyperspace jump, a devastating attack had already begun!
The more than 200 escort ships attached to the 10 transport ships were extremely ferocious, and at this moment they became the main players on the battlefield!

These frigates have X-shaped wings, making them look like fighter jets, yet their overall length reaches 87 meters! This is the class of a frigate! Moreover, although they also have X-shaped wings, these frigates are completely different from the elegant T-65-X-wing fighter jet in both shape and combat style.

If I had to describe these frigates in one word, it would be a pack of mad dogs!
That's right, the Claw-class corvette—the Minmatar high-speed corvette in EVE Online.

"Waaaaaah! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill them! Waaaaaah!" In the cockpit of the frigate, there was only one person piloting the ship. It was a jackal, who was shouting and screaming wildly, even turning on the public channel to broadcast his ear-piercing noise to every corner of the battlefield.

The Imperial Fleet's communications officers, overwhelmed by the noise, had no choice but to mute their voices.

However, despite their utter madness, these gnolls possessed exceptional piloting skills. They piloted the 87-meter-long high-speed frigate like a fighter jet, maneuvering wildly in the air, accelerating and turning wildly, performing all sorts of dangerous maneuvers.

The gnoll pilot possessed exceptional spatial awareness and lightning-fast reflexes. All you could see was the pilot pushing the warship to its limits, nearly colliding with other ships several times, yet he seemed completely unconcerned.

His bloodthirsty eyes were fixed on a DP-20 gunship in front of him. Although the gunship was fleeing frantically, it was trapped by a warp disruption field generator, and its hyperspace engine was temporarily malfunctioning!

At that moment, the gnoll-piloted Claw-class frigate had locked onto its target! The gnoll slammed down a button, and the three projectile turrets on the Claw-class frigate unleashed countless cluster pulse missiles. The DP-20 gunboat's deflector shields flickered briefly before being shattered.

Immediately afterward, the gnoll changed ammunition. Within just 10 seconds, the fully automated system completed the ammunition change, and with the press of a button, countless hard molybdenum bullets poured out!

Without any suspense, the DP-20 gunboat's outer armor was torn apart by countless hard molybdenum shells! Moreover, the Claw-class frigate used its maneuverability to keep its eyes on the enemy's engine, and this barrage of fire completely destroyed the enemy's engine!

The 120-meter-long DP-20 gunboat was like a lamb to the slaughter in front of the Claw-class frigate and was quickly and completely sunk!

But the gnoll pilot didn't stop; he laughed wildly as he pounced on his next target.

The Galactic Empire's fleet was rapidly collapsing under the frenzied attacks of the Claw-class frigates piloted by these gnolls, completely powerless to retaliate.

This fleet is the Scourge Legion—a group of outlaws supported by the Kingdom of Dawn, and also the most notorious and ruthless pirate group in the Hutt Space over the past decade.

For those targeted by the Scourge, even leaving behind a complete corpse is a luxury!
The reason the Scourge has earned such a fearsome reputation, besides its insane and bloodthirsty members, is its equipment: EVE technology, specifically the Minmatar Republic's warships.

Tang Xiao transferred the technology of the Minmatar Republic to the Gorensla family of the Hutts and dispatched an advisory group to assist them in completing the research. After the corresponding production line was basically established, the Gorensla family sold some Minmatar warships to the Scourge.

However, the Gorenslar family primarily provides the Scourge with frigates and light cruisers, not truly powerful warships. For example, the Storm-class or Typhoon-class ships are impossible for them to obtain. Furthermore, the maintenance and logistics of these warships are handled by the Hutts; consumables like warp disruptors can only be obtained by the Scourge through the Hutts.

This is essentially putting a chain on the Scourge.

Even so, the Minmatar Republic's warships, known for their high speed, strong firepower, and weak defense, are perfectly suited to the Scourge, a group of desperate outlaws.

The ships that attacked Rear Admiral Doras were 10 Prowler-class stealth transport ships. The other 200 light cruisers were mainly Scimitar-class and Longtail-class, while the ones mounted on the Prowler-class ships for long-distance maneuvering were Claw-class ships!

Even from a purely technological standpoint, the Scourge's fleet was at least two generations ahead of Rear Admiral Doras's Jagdpanzer-class battlecruisers. Whether it was the warp-disrupting force field that could disrupt hyperspace jumps or the hard molybdenum bombs that could instantly tear apart warship armor, these were advanced weapons capable of being deployed on the main battlefields of the galaxy!

It can only be said that Major General Dolas, a veteran who has never had the opportunity to go to the battlefield in his entire life, although he has rich theoretical experience, has never seen such a scene before.

The Scourge's warships launched a relentless attack, destroying Galactic Empire ships one after another on the battlefield. Bubble-like warp disruption fields were also scattered throughout the battlefield, trapping Galactic Empire warships that could only await their demise in despair.

Three hours later, the battlefield was basically quiet.

The warships that could escape did so, and those that couldn't either surrendered or were destroyed. The battlefield was littered with fragments and wreckage of warships, as well as the corpses of countless Imperial Navy soldiers who had been blown out of their ships.

Rear Admiral Doras ultimately failed to escape. It wasn't that he was targeted for a decapitation strike, but rather that his Jaeger-class battlecruiser was too conspicuous and was targeted by more than 20 Claw-class frigates while he was fleeing.

More than 20 'bubbles' enveloped Major General Doras's flagship, followed by a frenzied bombardment. He wanted to surrender, but his surrender announcement was drowned out by the gnolls' frenzied roars on the public communication channel, and ultimately, he and his flagship were blown to pieces.

In this battle, Orman Tag suffered a crushing defeat! He lost half of Tag Company's warships and inflicted heavy losses on the Chakin Sector, which supported his operations. Major General Doras, who was fighting in his personal capacity, also died in the battle.

When the news reached him, Orman Tag flew into a rage. He roared, "Silas! You actually destroyed my fleet! How dare you!! No! I'll use the prototype ship! I'll show you what true technological superiority is!!! You just wait!!" (End of Chapter)