The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2699, The Turmoil in the Capital

As the battle between Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious continued, their respective fleets also fought their way around the planet.

The two of them had gone completely mad, and they actually gave the order—open fire!

Hundreds of warships from both sides fired wildly across the shattered space city, completely disregarding the fact that their supreme leader was inside the ruins.

The spot where Darth Masaiel and Darth Sidious stood was instantly surrounded by a barrage of artillery fire!
Explosions and flames were everywhere. The space city, under concentrated bombardment from two fleets, was rapidly collapsing!
The two Sith Lords fought fiercely in this terrible environment. Force storms and Force lightning intertwined amidst the gunfire. Under such circumstances, they could not determine a winner, and only engaged in a frenzied killing and battle.

Even the priestess dared not participate. After the two Sith Lords went mad, she had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield, despite her anger towards Darth Sidious.

Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious have now almost lost their minds, both affected by the power of the dark side. Even Darth Malthael, who usually seems more normal, is deeply entangled in it due to his abuse of "Son's" power.

In this space city that is constantly exploding, filled with flames and debris, they vent their anger and darkness.

The situation finally spiraled out of control after both flagships arrived on the battlefield!
Darth Malthael brazenly ordered the Titan Messenger to fire its doomsday weapon! At the same time, Darth Sidious ordered the Reaper super star destroyer to unleash its full firepower and completely obliterate the entire space city!
The farce ended in a devastating explosion, and the battle between the two fleets ultimately fizzled out.

The Dawn Kingdom's fleet was short-handed and, having just fought the Battle of Bilborin, was generally in poor condition, suffering considerable losses in this battle. Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire's fleet also suffered heavy losses, as it lost the protection of the MK-II shield ships when both sides' warships charged towards the space city, resulting in the destruction of many of its ships by doomsday weapons.

The two Sith Lords, Darth Masair and Darth Sidious, turned and ran away immediately after giving the order to open fire.

During the previous battle, they all secretly dispatched a shuttle from their fleets, hiding it among the ruins of the space city. Once their flagships arrived, they ordered fire, boarded the hidden shuttles, and sped away.

As a result, both flagships exploded simultaneously, achieving nothing except completely shattering the space city.

Both fleets withdrew separately; the Dawn Kingdom's fleet returned to the planet Bilblin, while the Galactic Empire's fleet returned to the planet Scipio.

However, this frenzied battle had extremely dire consequences!

The Kingdom of Dawn maintains strict control over public opinion, with only a few rumors circulating. Fleet Commander Admiral Trench privately complained that the battle was a complete farce with no military significance.

The Galactic Empire, however, directly raised questions. Many media outlets even defined the battle as a massacre of civilians by the Sith Lords!

Because this battle took place right under the noses of everyone on Planet Palancy!

Palancy is already a core planet of the Galactic Empire, and it's also a financial planet, meaning it relies primarily on the flow of information. The space city destroyed by Darth Masaier and his forces was a place where many wealthy and powerful figures in the core circle conducted transactions and negotiated business.

If there's one industry that the Galactic Empire's control over public opinion cannot reach, it's undoubtedly the financial industry. This is because the financial industry is vital to the empire's survival, and to ensure market fairness, it must be as transparent as possible.

During the Clone Wars, the Interstellar Banking Association, which controlled finance, was an arrogant and domineering entity that didn't even respect the Republic's Speaker. Even now, the major financial conglomerates and powerful families still maintain a great deal of freedom.

As a result, right there in the middle of it, the ruins of the completely destroyed space city kept falling toward the planet, and the planet's inhabitants watched a meteor shower for three whole days. Many large pieces of debris, moving at a slower speed, even passed through the planet's shield, bringing with them numerous corpses that fell down with them.

Despite previous evacuations, over a million staff and civilians remain in the Palancy space city! The number of corpses that fell onto the planet with the massive debris is countless!
The imperial nobles on Planet Palancy watched a brutal massacre live.

In particular, much of the battle between the two Sith Lords was captured by surveillance cameras on the space city and transmitted to the planetary control center, eventually becoming known to almost the entire galaxy.

Thus, this battle was directly defined as a fight started by two Sith Lords for personal grudges, resulting in a large number of unnecessary military casualties and the deaths of millions of civilians.

After this battle, both sides temporarily withdrew their troops and returned to their respective forward bases to garrison.

After returning to Dawn Planet, Tang Xiao immediately went to Dagoba Planet in secret to absorb his dark side Force using the Sith artifact, the Dark Harvester, hidden there. When he reappeared in public, he appeared pale and unwell.

But by this time, the Dawn Kingdom's propaganda machine was already in motion, portraying the Battle of Palancy as a heroic act by King Tang Xiao of Dawn, who, in an effort to end the war quickly, single-handedly charged into the Imperial fleet, attempting to kill the Galactic Emperor. However, the Emperor escaped by using the million civilians in the space city as a shield.

Tang Xiao also gave a public speech, announcing the victory of his personal campaign—not only did he capture the Empire's fortress planet Bilblin, but he also seriously injured the Empire's Emperor Palpatine twice in one-on-one combat.

Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire, after internal adjustments, launched a propaganda offensive, condemning the Dawn Kingdom for instigating the war and massacring civilians. The Empire, under Emperor Palpatine's leadership, fought valiantly, but Tang Xiao used inhumane and anti-civilizational weapons from the ancient Sith Empire, causing massacres and killing many Imperial soldiers. To avoid further bloodshed, the Empire was forced to strategically retreat and withdraw from Bilblin.

However, the biggest difference between the two sides lies in the fact that the Galactic Empire is extremely secretive about His Majesty the Emperor's immense power and has not discussed it at all. On the contrary, the Dawn Kingdom's propaganda has been constantly exaggerating Tang Xiao's strength and invincibility.

While opinions on both sides are arguing, both leaders have realized one thing—what it means for two kings not to meet.

Their battle is now pointless except for mutually destructive outcomes. If they both suffer losses in the fighting, it will only embolden opposition forces within their respective countries, making it a losing proposition.

Even Tang Xiao, whose image of invincibility he has cultivated over the years, would suffer a significant blow if he were seriously injured by Darth Sidious. Furthermore, the Dawn Kingdom, as a latecomer and challenger, controls 90% of the former Galactic Republic/Galactic Empire territory. If they cannot deter these people, they might face rebellion the very next day.

To paraphrase Steel IV, these territories are still striped!
After the battle, the two returned to their capital to focus on governing their country and entrusted the war to true professionals. The priestess remained in the North to assist Admiral Trench in continuing the military operations there and preparing for the third phase of "Operation Gold"—the attack on Scipio!

At this point in the battle, the situation became somewhat delicate.

Although the Dawn Kingdom has occupied the planet Bilbrin and opened the gateway to the core, it does not mean that they can directly threaten the planet Scipio.

The planets Bilbrin and Scipio are still very far apart, except that there are no longer any heavily fortified planets between them.

However, if they were to launch a frontal assault, given the overwhelming strength and high morale of the Empire's First Star System Army, it would be virtually impossible, judging from the outcome of the Battle of Palancy.

Furthermore, although the Galactic Empire was unaware of the Dawn Kingdom's plans, due to the importance of Planet Scipio and the Interstellar Banking Association's consistent duplicity, they still established their forward base there—partly for defense, and partly for deterrence.

Therefore, a more sophisticated plan is needed to determine how to attack Planet Scipio.

Admiral Trench's plan remained the same: to launch a surprise attack using the hyperspace route that led directly to Planet Scipio. However, the Interstellar Banking Association (S) also knew about this route, so it was naturally a key area for defense.

However, now is the best time to attack Planet Scipio.

The main reason is that the occupation of Bilbrin left the Imperial north without any fortresses. If an attack were to be launched, the only things to consider would be the Imperial fleet and planetary shields. Compared to the situation on Bilbrin, where hyperspace routes are sometimes limited, sometimes covered by asteroids, and sometimes filled with armed space stations, this is naturally much better.

However, the absence of a fortress now does not mean it will not be in the future.

Take, for example, the financial planet Palancy, which is also a major transportation hub. The Galactic Empire is currently dispatching large engineering teams to construct the Golan Class III armed space station. If the delays continue, the Galactic Empire will soon arm several more planets.

Meanwhile, if Planet Scipio remains under threat from the Kingdom of Dawn for an extended period, the Galactic Empire will likely instruct the Interstellar Banking Association (S) to expedite the transfer of Scipio's treasury, bonds, databases, and other resources, and then, most likely, send these items to their administrative headquarters, Planet Algol.

Even if we were to conquer Scipio by then, it wouldn't be a devastating blow to the Galactic Empire's economy.

Therefore, this plan must be implemented as soon as possible!
If we miss this opportunity, we'll have no choice but to confront the Galactic Empire head-on.

Turning the war into a protracted war of attrition is a situation that the Kingdom of Dawn absolutely must avoid.

……

Meanwhile, in a little-known corner of the Empire's central industrial district, two shadowy figures were subtly plotting something.

“Palpatine’s injuries this time are quite serious, I can feel it. Moreover, Tang Xiao from the Dawn Kingdom isn’t in much better shape either.” The speaker was a somewhat deep female voice.

“That would be great, especially since Oswald Tessik isn’t here either. You should know that if he were here, we wouldn’t have any chance at all. But now… only Rufán Digorinus is handling the affairs of those great families among the Imperial Marshals, and the heart of the Empire is more empty than ever,” a hoarse male voice said.

“But there are still quite a few troops stationed here. I can handle Palpatine, but can you handle those troops?” the woman’s voice said.

“I have a way to deal with the garrison. But… have you seen those videos from Planet Pallansi? You people are really that terrifying… I can’t believe Palpatine is so powerful.” The man’s voice was tinged with fear.

"Don't worry, I can handle him. The black hole has escaped, and we don't know where Cardan has been all this time. Darth Vader is in the Dron system, and the Imperial Inquisition is almost wiped out. You're right, Palpatine doesn't have many people around him now," the female voice said.

"Based on your assessment, how long will Palpatine need to recover?" the male voice asked.

“It will take at least three months. His Force aura is extremely chaotic, and he can hardly even hide his Force fluctuations anymore. At this point, we need to continue to cause trouble for him in the council to distract him. But in any case, we'd better make our move within a month,” the woman said.

“If that’s the case, then that’s great.” The male voice said with a cold laugh, “Don’t worry about the parliamentary affairs. There are many self-proclaimed liberal members of parliament who are happy to cause trouble for Palpatine in various situations. For example… Bell-Ogana… Hehehehe.”

"Then, a month from now, it will be Palpatine's doomsday." The woman's voice finished coldly, and she vanished without a trace.

The man also pressed a button hidden inside his clothes, and he immediately became transparent before hurriedly leaving.

……

In the outer ring of the Milky Way, in the southwestern region, lies Anagi, the capital of the Model Sector.

A somewhat blurry holographic image was projected into an ordinary apartment. In this holographic image, there was none other than the earth-shattering battle between Darth Masaiel and Darth Sidious in the space city of Palancy.

"Sigh, turn it off, then delete the content, don't leave a trace, BD-1. You're too curious, downloading this stuff from the Galactic Empire's network, it's easy to attract the attention of the cybersecurity bureau..." The speaker was a young man with red hair.

Carl Kestis. (End of Chapter)