The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2720 Demeters Zarin
2720, Demetrius Zarin
Demetrius Zaarin, Imperial Marshal.

Few people know how he became an Imperial Marshal; even among the highest levels of the Empire, only Emperor Palpatine and fewer than ten others know.

He was originally born into an ordinary family on Coruscant and went through a very ordinary school life before joining the Science Council of the Galactic Republic and becoming a scientist.

Zhalin's scientific research talent can't really be described as outstanding; he's excellent, but far from being a genius. However, he has one quality that others can hardly match—he demonstrated exceptional communication and organizational skills during his student years.

This is a rare find in a science and engineering college, where straight men abound and all sorts of quirks are commonplace. Moreover, he is humble and gentle, with very high emotional intelligence, and can get along well with everyone. He also has excellent speaking skills and personal charm, so he always has many friends around him.

He was able to enter the Galactic Republic's Science Council with only average grades, precisely because his student research projects received the highest evaluation in the annual review, and his team was promoted as a model, thus attracting the attention of the higher-ups. Subsequently, with his outstanding coordination skills, he distinguished himself in several large-scale research projects and gradually entered the inner circle of the Empire's science and technology.

During the Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic encountered the Ghost Fighters from Dawn Planet, one of the core members of the Separatists at the time. These stealth fighters caused the Republic's fleet a great deal of trouble in the early stages of the war.

It could even be said that the Galactic Republic's defeats in many battles were largely due to the fact that their fighter squadrons were completely unable to counter the stealthy Ghost fighters, thus losing air superiority and allowing their capital ships to be indiscriminately bombed by the Dawn Planet's bomber squadrons.

Therefore, how to deal with stealth fighters and how to develop our own stealth fighters have become important projects for the Science Council of the Galactic Republic.

Demetrius Zarin's research team naturally also focused on stealth technology as their key research area.

At this point, with substantial financial support, Demetrius Zarin's talent was finally able to shine. He led his research team to successfully overcome numerous challenges and develop a large stealth device based on frigate-class warships.

This technology was initially applied to a CR-90 frigate called "Vorknkx", hence the name "Vorknkx Project", or simply Project V.

This project quickly attracted the attention of then-Speaker of the Republic, Shiv Palpatine. After reviewing the progress of Project V, Shiv Palpatine decided to invest more funds in the construction of stealth frigates, believing that once they could be mass-produced, they would gain a decisive advantage over Dawn, a planet that only possessed stealth fighters.

In addition, Demetrius Zarin's outstanding leadership and organizational skills, great personal charisma, and his demonstrated loyalty to Palpatine all left a deep impression on Palpatine regarding this originally very low-key scientist.

In a sense, Demetrius Zarin can be considered the father of stealth warships.

Although Project V was successful, given the technological path taken by the Galactic Republic at the time, achieving stealth for the frigates required the use of a rare mineral called Stygium crystals. This mineral was extremely rare and very expensive to mine, primarily found on a few desolate planets in the outer rings.

Worse still, the ancient Sith Empire extensively mined this mineral, primarily for Sith dark rituals or in the manufacture of lightsabers, making the crystal increasingly rare. This made the large-scale deployment of stealth frigates extremely impractical; even with advanced technology, overcoming the resource bottleneck was difficult. Ultimately, the Galactic Republic's plan to use stealth frigates to counter the Ghost fighters failed to materialize.

Demetrius Zarin realized that alternative materials or a reconstruction of the stealth principle were necessary, otherwise Project V would remain only at the prototype stage. He then turned his attention to alternatives to Sitig crystal, ultimately choosing a new composite material called "Hibridium alloy." This material was not only more abundant but also possessed excellent radar refraction and absorption characteristics. However, its drawback was that the stealth effect achieved by this alloy was two-sided; that is, it made one invisible to the enemy but also invisible to oneself, and it was highly unstable.

However, by this time, the Clone Wars had ended. During the war, the Galactic Republic had gradually developed tactics that used large capital ships to counter stealth and guide fighter formations in combat. These tactics had become quite sophisticated after several years of development, and stealth technology had significantly reduced its threat to the Republic's fleet. Therefore, the military was no longer so enthusiastic about implementing Project V.

During the reorganization of the Galactic Republic into the Empire, the shrewd and resourceful Demetrius Zarin immediately and firmly stood by Palpatine's side. This made Palpatine, who already greatly admired him, appreciate the outstanding scientist even more and promote him to the rank of Imperial Navy Admiral.

Even though he was now riding high on success, Demetrius Zarin remained remarkably humble. He wasn't wearing the white admiral's uniform, but rather the standard grey naval uniform, only with the admiral's insignia on his chest.

When asked about this, he humbly replied that he was not a true frontline general, and that the rank of general was merely an encouragement from His Majesty the Emperor; he dared not take credit for it. This earned him even more praise.

Later, Demetrius Zarin left Project V and instead formed a research team for "Next Generation Advanced Fighter," dedicated to developing more advanced fighter jets.

The Galactic Empire's current main fighter jet—the TIE Advanced X1—is the result of research by Demetrius Zarin's team. He also led the development of even more advanced fighter jets, including the TIE Avenger, further solidifying his position in Palpatine's eyes.

Therefore, whether it was to counterbalance the military's power or to cultivate his own technical elite, Demetrius Zarin became an indispensable pawn for Palpatine.

Therefore, it was only natural that he was chosen by Palpatine as one of the twelve Imperial Marshals, thus directly reaching the pinnacle of his life.

Historians of the Fourth Empire have always struggled to understand Demetrius Zarin, because, from both a personal character perspective and a career development standpoint, Zarin had no reason to betray Palpatine.

He was loyal and diligent, rising through the ranks step by step, always taking the development of the empire's technology as his own responsibility, and deeply trusted by the emperor, reaching the highest position in the court. He came from a commoner family and had no conflicts of interest with them; Palpatine was someone who had shown him great favor.

Therefore, even after Palpatine was assassinated, and the Imperial Intelligence Service was reorganized and Aysani-Isard's power was strengthened, and a reign of terror was launched in the inner circle, no one in the intelligence service ever gave Demetrius Zarin a second glance—because no one could betray him!

And even if we assume he were to betray us, how much of a stir could a technician from a common background possibly cause? How many legions or fleets does he command?
However, the result was that this absolutely loyal Imperial Marshal launched what could be considered the most serious rebellion in the history of the Galactic Republic, and ultimately kicked the Galactic Empire, which was already halfway to its coffin, into it, and even hammered a few coffin nails in.

The reason for Demeteris Zarin's rebellion was actually quite simple: he disagreed with Palpatine's ideology. Zarin believed that it was Palpatine's rule that led to the Galactic Empire's continuous defeats and eventual demise.

At the same time, his hidden ambition was something no one could detect!