The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2816. The Pursuit of the Fugitive (Part 2)

Talia had her hand on Kleist's shoulder and was singing. This was one of their ways of working together; the upbeat melody, imbued with the Force, echoed through the wires and was transmitted by Kleist's abilities to the ears of those making phone calls, instantly disrupting their brains.

To Otto Stratus and his companions, it sounded like the devil was singing!

"Retreat! Quickly!" Otto Stratus shouted.

The temporary command immediately began another retreat according to the established plan. Even without the Force, Otto Stratos could feel the presence of death.

This is the third time they've been moved in a row, and even so, they're still locked on. That can only mean one thing—their previous methods of concealment have been completely cracked!

They quickly began to move things, and many items were even picked up and carried away directly—because of the continuous relocation, some items were still in a packed state.

At that moment, a staff officer who was holding a radio suddenly screamed in agony as he and the radio were cleaved in two!

Blood Warrior Master Modorai roared and brandished his blood-red lightsaber to meet the attack, seemingly colliding with another lightsaber in the void of air.

"It's an invisible man!!" someone shouted.

However, Modolai was not affected. His sword abruptly changed direction, and blood light poured out like a waterfall, forcefully splitting a faint ripple in the void—a slender figure then appeared, a beautiful woman with a ponytail, Xiao Yan.

Wielding a blue lightsaber, she clashed fiercely with the crimson lightsaber, each collision unleashing blinding ripples of Force. Mordor roared and slashed with his sword, but Xiao Yan seized the opportunity to retreat, disappearing once more.

Over there, Otto Stratus no longer cared about hiding. He pulled out his communicator, connected to hyperspace communication, and began calling for reinforcements.

As he made the call, more than a dozen Sentinel-class electronic warfare frigates patrolling in outer space immediately intercepted the communication signal and handed it over to Cummings' command.

At the airport on the outskirts of Joar, the capital of the planet Jabim, three Banshee fighters took off, activated their cloaking devices, and sped towards the direction from which Otto-Stratos had sent the signal. The air was empty except for the faint hum of their ducted engines.

The battle between Xiao Yan and Modore had reached a fever pitch. Although Xiao Yan was much weaker than her opponent in terms of both physical strength and Force, she kept maneuvering by using her invisibility ability.

She saw Otto Stratus's figure disappear quickly, but she was not in a hurry at all, and continued to fight Modore, holding him tightly.

Modore was growing increasingly impatient; he wanted to kill the invisible woman before him as quickly as possible and return to Otto-Stratos. The Force was constantly warning him that Otto was in grave danger—no, wait, wrong time, his life was in danger!
However, Xiao Yan had already switched to the third sword technique, Soresu, and began to adopt a defensive stance to stall for time.

At that moment, a sharp shriek suddenly came from the sky, and then a winged person and a blood-red light sword descended from the sky as one!

With a swift strike, Modolai nearly broke through his defenses, forcing him to retreat repeatedly.

All Mordolai saw was a beautiful Elu woman with colorful feathers gliding through the air while wielding a blood-red lightsaber and attacking him relentlessly. He immediately realized that this Elu woman was much stronger than that invisible bitch!
With Talia holding them back, Xiao Yan unleashed her full power. Her figure vanished once more, this time without a trace. Mordolai was locked in fierce combat with Talia and had no time to detect Xiao Yan's whereabouts.

Talia fought and sang, her voice sending shivers down Modola's spine, clearly indicating she was under attack! Those Jabim guerrilla staff members who hadn't gone far collapsed and died instantly upon hearing the song!

Modole also began to fight fiercely, almost desperately, forcing Talia to retreat repeatedly.

But the next second, a blue lightsaber pierced his chest! The lightsaber appeared silently, as if it had materialized out of thin air. It pierced through his back, the tip emerging from his chest—Xiao Yan's figure finally solidified in the bloody light, the blue lightsaber humming and trembling. Modolai stared blankly down, a gurgling sound in his throat. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to his knees. The lightsaber extinguished, and his body slumped to the ground.

"That was a Shadow Strike, remember that in your next life, you idiot." Xiao Yan grabbed Modolai's bald head and shoved him, causing his corpse to fall to the ground.

On the other side, Otto Stratus was fleeing frantically, with more and more Cloud Rain Commando soldiers equipped with gliding boots joining him, bringing their numbers to over a thousand.

Otto Stratus was also equipped with gliding boots, allowing him to move at high speed through the swamp without any hindrance.

Suddenly, a series of missiles rained down from the sky, boom! boom! boom! boom! The explosions shook the ground, turning up all the swampy mud.

"Banshee fighters! Prepare for air combat!" Otto Stratus roared as he raised his blaster and fired wildly into the sky.

Several members of the Cloud and Rain Commando also took out man-portable air defense missiles produced by the Galactic Empire. Their sights scanned the empty sky, but they couldn't lock onto anything at all!

"Go! Retreat!" Otto Stratus had no choice but to abandon the staff officers and commanders who dared not wear gliders and follow the Cloud Rain Commando on a large-scale transfer.

Those people were basically all taken prisoner.

Three Banshee fighters continued their bombing raids from the sky, while the Cloud Rain Commando soldiers on the ground could only wildly fire their blast rifles and blast machine guns at the sky.

If there hadn't been so few Banshee fighters, this would have been a one-sided massacre.

Soon, after firing all its ammunition, the Banshee fighter quietly disappeared into the clouds, deactivated its cloaking device, and sped away.

But the battle was not over; Otto Stratus had been locked onto.

More than ten minutes later, a Nemoidean foreleg-class shuttle appeared in the sky. Before the Cloud Rain Commando Team could react, they were suddenly subjected to a barrage of pulsed lasers!

Another stealth fighter!

"It's a Ghost fighter! Everyone be careful, spread out!" Otto Stratus and the Kingdom of Dawn are now sworn enemies, and he could recognize the type of the enemy fighter as soon as he heard it.

The ghost fighter swooped down like a phantom, its pulsed laser tearing streaks of fire across the swamp's surface. The puddles, irradiated by the lasers, even boiled and evaporated instantly, the steam carrying a burnt smell. Just as the Dawn Kingdom had envisioned, stealth fighters like the Banshee were utterly annihilating to the poorly equipped rebels! They simply had no way to effectively detect stealth.

Under the cover of fire from the Ghost fighters, the Nemodia Coleoptera-class shuttle began to descend.

The only person seen piloting the shuttle was none other than Shen Yuanhao!
He moved the joystick while searching for his target on the thermal sensor.

“Here.” A finger suddenly reached out and tapped the screen; it was Zhang Xucheng.

Shen Yuanhao piloted the spaceship toward that place without hesitation, even though the sensor showed a blank area.

"It's right down there!" Zhang Xucheng shouted.

Shen Yuanhao glanced down; he couldn't see anything from the spaceship, but he chose to fully trust Zhang Xucheng. Zhang Jiarui's son was exceptionally talented; even the Protoss mentors praised him for having the highest level of sensitivity to psionic energy.

"Get to work, Karina!" Shen Yuanhao shouted to the back, and then opened the hatch in mid-air.

Inside the spaceship's hatch, a pair of blood-red vertical pupils suddenly appeared, and then a terrifying body, with a burly build that was at least two sizes larger than an ordinary Injori, stepped out.

Karina grinned maliciously, took a two-meter-long metal rod from behind her, pressed a button, and five additional Keber crystal generators on the metal rod immediately shot out blood-red light, spreading out in a fan shape. This thing was basically a light axe!
Then, Karina jumped straight out of the air without using a parachute!
Boom! With a deafening roar, Karina's massive body slammed into the ground, creating a huge crater that seemed to shake the earth. Her immense weight sent swamp mud flying in all directions like waves.

After she landed, she saw a group of figures rapidly dispersing from the mud ahead—the remnants of the Cloud Rain Commando! They were wearing very well-camouflaged clothing, and it seemed that they also had thermal insulation devices on their bodies, which is why the thermal imager showed a blank screen.

Karina roared, wildly swinging her light axe. The scorching blades tore through the air, instantly dismembering more than a dozen Cloud Rain Commando soldiers. She moved forward, stepping back as she went, roaming the battlefield, searching for Otto Stratus.

At that moment, Zhang Xucheng's voice came through the communicator, "11 o'clock, 700 meters away from you."

Karina roared and charged toward the direction Zhang Xucheng had indicated at an incredible speed disproportionate to her massive size.

At this moment, more reinforcements from the Kingdom of Dawn arrived. Two transport ships flew over quickly, opened their hatches, and countless B-1 combat robots surged out like a tide, jumping directly from the sky and engaging in firefights with the Cloud Rain Assault Team the instant they landed.

"Your Majesty! This way!" More than a dozen Cloud and Rain Commando soldiers escorted Otto Stratus, attempting to take him to the largest nearby military base.

Their numbers dwindled; of the over a thousand Cloud Rain Commando fighters who had initially joined them, fewer than two hundred remained, all wounded. Moreover, the master sent by the Blood Warriors, Modolai, had also lost contact and was likely in grave danger.

Otto Stratus continued his rapid escape, with his Cloud Rain Commando warriors constantly turning back to form a final line of defense with their own flesh and blood, risking their lives to hold off countless combat robots and Karina for even a second.

The number of soldiers around me is dwindling: 200, 100, 80, 75...

Otto Stratus closed his eyes in pain, but his movements remained perfectly fluid. The extremely difficult-to-operate gliding boots showed no stiffness on his feet; he remained incredibly fast and agile.

There is another secret base ahead. If we can get in, we will have a chance to catch our breath, make contact with the rebels as soon as possible, and get more weapons and equipment, and even the support of the Blood Warriors.

500 meters!
200 meters!
100 meters!
A figure appeared in front of them. It was a very young-looking boy who held a blue lightsaber in his hand. Surprisingly, he had his eyes closed!

The Cloud and Rain Commando soldiers immediately opened fire, but the boy, with his eyes closed, was able to accurately block all the blast beams.

"Die!" Otto Stratus, wielding the King's Sword, used the speed from his gliding boots to gather all his strength and thrust it directly at the boy!

The Stratus family’s long, golden hair, a family tradition, fluttered in the wind and rain.

During the Clone Wars, he used this powerful attack method to kill several Jedi Pagans and Jedi Knights.

With a whoosh, the hand holding the sword fell to the ground.

As the boy swung his lightsaber to block the dense barrage of energy beams, he rushed forward and placed the lightsaber against Otto Stratus's neck.

The gunfire nearby instantly ceased, and the Cloud Rain Commando soldiers froze, their gun barrels slightly lowered—the boy, beads of sweat on his forehead, still took out his communicator and said, "Sister Talia, mission successful, I captured Otto Stratus."

"Well done, Zhang Xucheng. We were able to catch this guy thanks to you and Kleist," Talia praised over the communication.

Later, Karina continued her rampage through the crowd, but the Cloud Rain Commando soldiers were fast and agile. They kept fleeing, flanking, and firing, which, while not causing her much damage, significantly reduced the efficiency of her slaughter.

As news of Otto Stratus's capture spread, guerrillas in various regions, as well as elite Cloud and Rain Commando soldiers, laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Otto Stratus ruled Jabim for many years. With his resolute character, he always took the lead in every battle, whether against the Galactic Republic, a domestic coup, or the Kingdom of Dawn. As a result, he was highly respected on the planet, and almost every citizen loved him dearly.

One can imagine the shock his arrest caused to the civilians of the planet.

Otto Stratus, whose arm had been severed, was escorted back to the planet's capital, Joal. The original plan of Samirs war hero Cummings was for him to give a public speech to make the stubborn guerrillas on the planet surrender immediately.

But when Otto Stratus was pushed onto the stage, he suddenly laughed loudly, denouncing the Dawn Kingdom's massacre on the planet Jabim and calling on all the people to fight against them to the end!

He was severely beaten live, his face bruised and swollen, showing no trace of royal dignity, but he still cursed angrily.

Finally, he was sent to the temporary capital of the Eastern Temporary Sector of the Dawn Kingdom, the planet Losar, for trial. (End of Chapter)