The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2839. My wife got drunk, so the construction took a little longer today.
“Keltu Destroyer…Vaknos Destroyer…Wait a minute!” Oswald-Tesik suddenly retrieved a message, “Lavasa Fighter! That’s right! Same naming convention! Unlike the normal class designation + warship model, this type of warship has a name that combines two nouns! This is a series of warships!”

In the previous preliminary battle in the Bilbrin system, it was the direct decapitation strike by 100 Lavasa Fighter frigates that destroyed Admiral Holt-Stretch's flagship, a 4800-meter-long Archon-II class battlecruiser, resulting in the death of an admiral right at the start of the battle.

Those black and red painted warships, with exterior designs inspired by crustaceans, looking incredibly ferocious, are now appearing in even greater numbers!

This is yet another completely unfamiliar series of warships, whose tactical logic far exceeds the Empire's existing intelligence framework, boasting formidable performance and unbelievable technology. These features had already begun to emerge with the Lavasa Fighters, those 90-meter-long heavy frigates; a combined deployment of 100 of them actually destroyed a 4800-meter-long warship!
And now, this technology has actually led to the development of capital ships, and they are even being deployed in large numbers!
Marshal Oswald Tesik began to believe that this was likely a completely unfamiliar race! And this race might have already developed to a considerable size! Given the previous situation of the Dawn Kingdom, this race was very likely another strange being they had brought out from an unknown star system.

In other words, the Galactic Empire is not fighting against just one civilization, the Dawn Kingdom, but is likely fighting against three or four civilizations with very different styles and complementary characteristics at the same time!

"Withdraw the troops in batches immediately! The remaining warships will continue bombarding Bilbrin!" Oswald Tessik made the decision. "The retreating warships should not be grouped together; return to Scipio immediately!"

He now commands a massive force of 1000 Star Destroyers and over 8000 medium and small warships. Even if he were to retreat, he could only do so in batches. Therefore, he ordered the warships that were not yet due to retreat to continue attacking the planet Bilblin.

……

At this moment on the battlefield of Planet Scipio, Major General Carrick was completely terrified and was directing the fleet to retreat. As for Marshal Rufon-Digorinus, who was on his way, he couldn't care less.

There was still an hour until Marshal Rufán Digorinus's small reinforcement force arrived, but Major General Carrick was already impatient to wait.

The Keltu Destroyer's attack was not only aimed at the warships, but also at destroying the morale of the operators!
This technology, which constantly suppresses the energy supply of one's own warships, causing frequent overloads of ship systems, flickering shields, and incredibly slow main gun recharging, places immense psychological pressure on the operators. It's like asking someone accustomed to Windows 11 to go back to Windows 3.2—they'll likely explode with frustration in no time.

When Marshal Rufon-Digorinus arrived with 40 Star Destroyers and 300 medium and small warships, he saw Rear Admiral Carrick's flagship hastily leaping into hyperspace, trailing thick smoke, leaving only more than 200 medium and small warships and 8 Imperial-class Star Destroyers struggling to survive under the attack of the enemy fleet.

Rufán Digorinus felt his mind go blank.

He had absolutely no idea why this was happening.

During the short six-hour journey, he imagined countless possibilities, but he never expected that after he arrived on Planet Scipio, Major General Carrick would actually run away with the Guardian Star Destroyer!

What's happening here?
Rufon-Digorinus considered the possibility of a fierce battle, and then he added fresh troops to buy time while waiting for Oswald-Tesik's First Star System forces to return to reinforce him; he also considered that Carrick was using his maneuverability to hold off the enemy ships, and although he was cowardly avoiding battle, he could at least buy time; in the worst-case scenario, he even thought of the other warships being completely destroyed, but the Guardian still holding on.

Because that was an Executor-class super star destroyer! Even the only super star destroyer sunk by the Galactic Empire during the Kira Planet campaign held out for a long time under the siege of hundreds of warships!
Quarter Dynamics' shipbuilding technology, even with its technological advancements, still boasts unwavering manufacturing processes. But the problem is…

Carrick ran away!
He escaped in the Guardian Executor-class super Star Destroyer!
He's just a minor general! The Imperial Marshal came to his rescue, and he actually dared to run away before the Marshal even arrived! He dared to abandon his troops and flee before the Marshal himself arrived!
He's just a minor general, yet he dared to abandon a financial center like Scipio! He left those 100 planet-destroying platforms to bombard it relentlessly, and just ran away!
“Carrick! I’m going to court-martial you! No, I’m going to court-martial your whole family! How dare you desert your post! You bastard! Coward!” Rufon-Digorinus’s aristocratic air vanished instantly. He cursed wildly into the communication, not caring whether Carrick, who was currently in hyperspace, could hear him.

However, after his anger subsided, Rufon-Digorinus looked back at the battlefield. Thirty super-large warships, each 2000 meters long, were reaping the spoils. Among them, five of the massive 2000-meter-long warships, the Keltu Destroyers, had even turned and were flying towards him.

He turned his head stiffly and asked the navigator, "The hyperspace engine... how much longer until it's ready?"

"Marshal...we just completed the jump, and it will take at least an hour to cool down before we can jump again..." the navigator said, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

……

A day later, Marshal Oswald Tesick arrived at Pantolomin with a massive fleet of 600 Star Destroyers and 10000 frigates and destroyers. He began to reorganize the fleet in preparation for a general offensive against Sipio.

He had just received three bombshell reports and was still reeling from them.

The first piece of news is that Major General Carrick fled in the super star destroyer USS Guardian and has now been arrested and is being tried by the Imperial Supreme Military Court. His family has also been implicated.

The second piece of news is that Marshal Rufán-Digorinus has been captured by the Dawn Kingdom's fleet.

The third piece of news is that after the planetary destroyer platform group on Planet Scipio blasted a hole in the planetary shield, 100 large transport ships forcibly landed. Now the surface of Planet Scipio is engulfed in flames, and the Dawn Kingdom's landing forces are swarming out via transport ships, crushing the planet's ground forces.

In fact, upon receiving these three pieces of news, Marshal Oswald Tesick had a very clear thought in his mind—the Galactic Empire seemed to be not far from defeat.

……

On the surface of Scipio, a million Vasari soldiers are wreaking havoc. They have rapidly captured almost all of the planet's major cities, cut off communications, shut down the planetary shield, and begun their attack on the treasury. (End of Chapter)