The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2762. A Heavy Price
"Stop...stop it..." General Maximilian Wells tried to roar, but what came out was a weak groan. He watched helplessly as the blue light shone again, like the scythe of death slicing through the earth.

The mechanical beetle, curled up in a ball and enveloped in terrifying energy, left a pale blue burn mark on the ground as it charged straight toward the AT-AT walking machines in front of the Imperial army, dodging obstacles along the way!
The AT-AT walker clearly noticed the situation as well. Its head immediately turned and fired continuously at the ball of light. The turbo laser cannon emitted a crimson beam, which exploded into bursts of intense fire on the ground.

However, it was completely useless. The pale blue light was so dazzling that even on radar, a point of light could be clearly seen circling and rushing towards them.

The pale blue ball of light hit the AT-AT walking machine precisely, and even climbed a few meters up the machine's long legs at the last moment before exploding!

The pale blue energy ball exploded instantly, its powerful force sending dust dozens of meters high into the air.

As the dust settled, all that could be seen were the four long legs of the AT-AT walking machine destroyed, and its main body lying on the ground, mangled and broken. But this blast hadn't completely destroyed it; the AT-AT's head was still shaking, and it had even fired another shot.

The hatch opened, and an Imperial soldier staggered as he tried to climb out, but was immediately set ablaze by the aftershocks of the explosion. His body was engulfed in pale blue flames, and after a few screams, he turned to ashes and fell to the ground.

General Wells remained silent.

At this moment, the diligent technician continued his analysis on his terminal, saying, "General, according to the calculations, the energy contained in the self-destructing drone launched by this golden maggot should be constant. In the attack just now, because it hit our AT-AT walker, the energy level of the explosion was reduced by about 80% compared to when it destroyed the underground fortifications. What flew up was dust, and there was not much residual energy in it."

"This thing can't destroy an AT-AT with a single shot, right?" General Wells asked slowly.

“That’s true. But it doesn’t make much difference. AT-AT’s mechanical legs can’t withstand this explosion, so if they’re hit, they’ll lose their combat capability,” the technician said.

General Wells gripped the edge of the command console tightly, his knuckles turning white. He stared at the malfunctioning AT-AT in the distance, still firing in vain, and whispered, "Adjust tactics, disperse the remaining walkers, and continue the attack."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the blue dot on the radar that had fired again. "Send all troops! We can't just sit here and wait to be killed! We must destroy this thing completely! Attack! Attack!"

He now understood that this golden maggot had very poor mobility, but if used for defense, its power was magnified many times over, meaning that the attacking side could only trade blows with the opponent at the cost of heavy losses.

And the most terrifying thing is that the self-destructing drones launched by these golden maggots are uninterceptable, undefendable, and can even autonomously turn and track! In other words, once it fires, it will almost certainly cause devastating damage!
"General, the golden maggots on the other side have also started firing. Our 219th Assault Infantry Battalion on the left flank has had a company destroyed by a single shell..." the adjutant whispered.

"If we don't take this thing down, we'll all die! Attack! Attack with all our might!" General Wells slammed his fist on the table.

The Galactic Empire's army surged forward like a tidal wave, with troops in battle positions launching their attacks without hesitation. Under the command of their frontline commanders, everyone spread out as much as possible.

The 100,000-strong army spread out like a net stretching for hundreds of kilometers, launching a full-scale attack along the broad battlefront. The imperial soldiers, clad in white polymer alloy armor, looked like white ants scattered across the land from afar, charging forward madly even amidst the enemy's artillery barrage.

Their commander had told them that staying put meant certain death. Almost everyone had witnessed the bizarre and terrifying explosion, and they knew that if they couldn't break through the Dawn Kingdom's defenses, they would have no chance of survival as this thing continued to bombard them.

Among the Galactic Empire's army are more than 20000 KX-series security robots, each carrying a blaster rifle and firing as they advance.

On the Dawn Kingdom's side, artillery fire was also in full swing. Hundreds of siege tanks fired wildly from their artillery positions, and dense plasma clusters rained down from the sky, causing terrifying explosions.

In the southern highlands, combat robots inside hundreds of bunkers fired wildly, while remote-controlled turrets continuously spewed flames.

However, their army units are deployed behind the battlefield as reserves, and they will only be deployed to fight when the front-line defenses may be breached.

The Galactic Empire's army paid a heavy price for almost every step forward, but they were not without effect. As the flanks continued to deploy, the Dawn Kingdom's defensive line was gradually stretched, its formation began to weaken, and some areas were breached by the Empire's soldiers.

General Wells, looking at the holographic war table from his command post, continuously issued orders, directing his troops to expand their gains as much as possible in the areas where they had already broken through.

"Immediately deploy the 14th Armored Assault Battalion! Assault along the road on the east side of the hill and completely breach the separatist lines!" General Wells shouted.

"Yes!"

Wells finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He looked at the terrifying golden maggot. Once the battle began, all kinds of communications and interference between the two sides were immediately intertwined. As a result, they also intercepted a lot of communication signals from the Kingdom of Dawn and learned that the soldiers of the Kingdom of Dawn called that thing "Golden Beetle".

However, this is probably not the official name, because in some communications involving officers, fragmented sentences revealed that its official code name was "Raider".

This golden beetle continuously fires blue orbs of light at an average rate of one every five minutes, causing devastating damage with almost every shot.

However, once the Imperial army's battle lines were fully deployed, the firepower of just two Golden Beetles was clearly insufficient. In such high-intensity, large-scale combat, the Golden Beetles' weaknesses were finally revealed to General Wells. He discovered that this formidable weapon had a very slow rate of fire; firing only once every five minutes meant it lacked the ability to sustain sustained fire. Moreover, the self-destructing drones it launched were actually rather slow in their impact, often arriving at their targets several minutes later after taking a circuitous route.

General Wells even discovered that when the Golden Beetle fired at Imperial armored forces, the self-destructing drones it launched targeted a 2-M hover tank. As a result, the driver of the hover tank seemed to be possessed by Superman, driving the tank to flee at breakneck speed.

The 2-M hover tank can reach a maximum speed of over 400 kilometers per hour. After a burst of speed, this self-destructing drone exploded halfway through its journey! Although it caused some damage, it was much better than a direct hit.

This tank was the only survivor after being fired upon multiple times by the Golden Beetle! General Wells decided to award the driver an Imperial Medal after the battle.

Meanwhile, General Wells also discovered that the Golden Beetle's rate of fire was decreasing. According to the diligent technician's analysis, the Golden Beetle's firing interval had now increased to once every seven minutes.

"Finally caught you!" General Maximilian Wells clenched his fist and looked at the battle lines on the holographic sand table. He finally saw the dawn of victory.

Furthermore, armored units have already begun to flank the Golden Beetle from all sides, braving the Dawn Kingdom's artillery fire!
If we can just kill this thing and collect some of the remains, that would be a great achievement!
However, at that very moment, the sleek, rounded transport plane that had initially carried the golden beetle flew over again, hovering above it, its belly casting a beam of light. Then, what happened next nearly suffocated General Wells…

That damned golden beetle actually rose slowly with the light and then entered the cargo hold of the transport plane. The whole process took no more than five minutes!

Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone, the transport plane turned and flew away, quickly disappearing from the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Imperial army's armored corps was still pushing forward under heavy fire, less than two kilometers away from the scene…

General Wells clutched his heart and nearly collapsed to the ground; he almost died on the spot from a sudden loss of breath!
He didn't feel anything when the transport plane brought the Golden Beetle over and unloaded it, but now that it had been sent away in less than 5 minutes, he realized that this incredibly amazing loading and unloading mechanism was simply outrageous!
This enormous machine weighed at least several hundred tons, and judging from the golden beetle's cumbersome appearance, it probably weighed over a thousand tons. Normally, loading something like this onto a transport plane would take at least half an hour. But in reality, the golden transport plane did it in less than five minutes! Five minutes!

General Wells felt a surge of rage rising within him, and he roared furiously, "Kill all these separatists! Kill them all!!"

The Imperial army launched a frenzied offensive, constantly expanding its battle lines and deploying more and more troops. Now it has encircled the southern highlands from both flanks, cutting off their connection and turning them into a salient of the Kingdom of Dawn.

Now, they can attack from three directions, compressing all the enemies within the high ground area into an encirclement and wiping them out in one fell swoop!
Imperial troops have already set foot on the southern highlands, and with the continuous bombardment, the deflector shields on the Dawn Kingdom's positions have been destroyed, allowing Imperial artillery fire to now directly reach their positions.

The artillery roared, and a continuous barrage of lasers, missiles, and shells rained down, almost turning the entire hilltop upside down.

A 1-H heavy hover tank charged ahead to the high ground, leaving behind a trail of destroyed metal bunkers and scattered B-1 combat robots among the wreckage.

The 1-H heavy tank is one of the most advanced and powerful armored units in the Galactic Empire. This tank is an astonishing 20.5 meters long and is equipped with a MK 4/E heavy laser cannon, a MK 3/S medium turbo laser cannon, and two light anti-personnel blast cannons.

Furthermore, this tank is even hovering; its powerful anti-gravity device allows it to fly at a height of two meters above the ground, with a maximum speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour.

Compared to the AT-AT all-terrain walking vehicle, which also has the function of transporting troops and whose weakness of having four long legs is too obvious, the 1-H super-heavy hover tank can be said to surpass it in all aspects, whether it is firepower, protection or mobility - after all, it is an armored unit dedicated to combat.

A very intuitive comparison is that although the AT-AT looks incredibly large, its four long legs make up a large part of that. In fact, the AT-AT is only 20 meters long, which is slightly shorter than the 1-H super-heavy tank.

However, so far, the 1-H super heavy tanks have been targeted by the Dawn Kingdom's bombers, and General Wells is worried about losing too much, so he is using these precious units very cautiously.

But now, with a steady stream of reinforcements, he finally has the confidence to play his trump card!

The 1-H super-heavy tank rampaged wildly. Two Scorpion tanks attempted to flank it from the side, but they were unable to penetrate its armor and were immediately destroyed by the 1-H's turret with a single shot.

One of the biggest advantages of hover tanks is that they can be easily equipped with deflector shields!

The tank charged through the sand, and there were no more enemies in sight ahead.

Before the tank driver could even process the cruelty of war, a mechanical spider, about half a meter in size, suddenly emerged from the ground. It then crawled at incredible speed, reaching the engine compartment at the bottom of the tank in less than two seconds. A blinding arc of electricity erupted from it, and then…

boom! ! ! ! !
A violent explosion erupted, blasting a huge gash through the front of the heavy tank and flipping it over. Although not completely destroyed, it was utterly incapacitated!
The tank, having lost its levitation ability, crashed heavily to the ground, thick smoke billowing from its engine compartment. The driver struggled to activate the emergency system, then opened the hatch and climbed out. Only then did he realize that his experience was not an isolated incident; many Imperial troops attacking the Dawn Kingdom's positions had encountered these self-destructing spiders emerging from the ground!

The deafening roar of explosions was deafening. The vanguard of the Galactic Empire was thrown into disarray by these exploding spiders. They halted and called for radar detection support from the rear—because they discovered that the radars installed on their tanks could not detect these exploding spiders at all!
Meanwhile, the Dawn Kingdom's actions did not stop. Bunkers carrying B-1 combat robots continued to fall from the sky, and after landing, they opened fire on the Imperial army.

These troublesome bunkers, along with the exploding spiders, caused enormous chaos for the Imperial army, forcing their previously unstoppable advance to a halt.

It wasn't until the early hours of the following day that the Galactic Empire's army recaptured the southern highlands. (End of Chapter)