The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2891. Ceasefire and silence

The second sister approached Solon and said coldly, "You have been arrested, Marshal Solon."

Thron simply smiled very politely and said, "I think I should thank you for still calling me Marshal."

The second sister said, "Since you are a marshal personally appointed by His Majesty the Emperor, we will naturally respect your military rank—even if you have committed a serious crime."

Solon countered with a question: "The emperor who bestowed this title upon me is already dead."

The second sister glanced at him, then turned away, ignoring him, and waved her hand, saying, "Take him away."

Thrawn frowned, noticing a few details… the judge's cloak bore a fist-shaped insignia, inconsistent with the old Imperial system. Also, according to his second sister, it seemed they still respected Palpatine's original decision?
Two Death Charge soldiers, dressed in black polymer alloy armor, brought by the second sister, shoved Thrall and took him away.

Immediately, all the Imperial warships present began to turn around, disengaging from the battle and ceasing their engagement with the Fourth Empire's fleet. In particular, the three super star destroyers within the atmosphere turned tail and flew towards the other side of Coruscant.

Even so, the fleet has already suffered extremely serious losses.

In particular, many warships engaged in atmospheric warfare cannot simply retreat at will.

such as……

Iron Fist!
Marshal Neil de Crane has now gone mad. His mind was already severely damaged after Palpatine's death, and then, at Thrall's request, he resumed his battle meditation to support the Imperial fleet in its counterattack.

By now, his mind was on the verge of collapse. The dark side had eroded his will, turning him into a bloodthirsty madman.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his fingers were digging deep into the edge of the control panel; he had completely lost his mind.

"Attack! Attack!! Destroy the entire separatist fleet! All of them!!" Neil-Declan roared.

Under the influence of his completely distorted battle meditation, the naval officers and men of all ranks on the Iron Fist super star destroyer and other Imperial warships around it also fell into a state of irrational madness.

Including the Iron Fist, approximately 100 Galactic Empire warships launched a suicidal charge toward the Fourth Empire warships located at the north and south poles of the Death Star.

At that moment, the beam of death tore through the void, and the doomsday weapons of the two Titan warships, the Divine Messenger and the Archangel, struck the Iron Fist simultaneously!

Meanwhile, the other warships' incredibly fierce firepower completely overwhelmed them.

The Iron Fist super star destroyer was already severely damaged. It had only undergone a few hours of emergency repairs on the Centax-1 satellite, which was far from enough to withstand two salvos from the doomsday weapon!
The ship's hull twisted and tore apart in a blinding white light, its armor peeled off like paper, and the core of the supermatter reactor emitted an incomparably dazzling light!

In the silent explosion, the wreckage of the Iron Fist tumbled and spun as it hurtled toward the Death Star.

Wilhoff Tarkin, who was directing the battle from the bridge of the Death Star, simply stared coldly at the super star destroyer and then casually waved his hand.

The Death Star's main cannons were fully charged, and a green laser beam instantly struck the wreckage of the Iron Fist. The terrifying energy surge brought instantaneous temperatures of millions of degrees, blasting the massive warship wreckage into countless fragments!
The tiny fragments struck the Death Star like a meteor shower, creating ripples of energy on its massive deflector shield. This was the last trace of the Iron Fist remaining in the world.

This is the third Executor-class super star destroyer to be destroyed in the Battle of Coruscant, following the Guardian and the Reaper!
Imperial Marshal Neil Decklan became the sixth Imperial Marshal lost by the Galactic Empire in the war, following Rufon Digorinus, Oswald Tessik, Demetrius Zarin, Orman Tag, and Denita Peeta.

Of the twelve marshals appointed by Palpatine, more than half have been lost.

After Neil Deklann's death, the effects of combat meditation disappeared once again, bringing another wave of emptiness and collapse to the surviving Galactic Empire naval officers and soldiers.

During this process, a large number of officers and soldiers suffered mental breakdowns or even went insane.

However, the Fourth Reich's fleet had no intention of continuing the fight. After transporting all of Coruscant's core troops and equipment onto the fleet, they began to plan their retreat.

Wilhoff Tarkin is directing the Death Star to begin spinning in place, preparing to avoid the blind spots of firepower at the North and South Poles and launch a devastating attack on the Fourth Reich's fleet.

In this position, the spherical Death Star would actually spin very quickly, and after spinning several times, the Fourth Empire's warships would begin to suffer losses again.

Therefore, the Archangel and the Divine Messenger-class Titan warships immediately deployed hyperspace beacons at the north and south poles of the Death Star, respectively, to cover the remaining fleet in the vicinity as they escaped the Death Star's gravitational pull.

But this was also a journey to death. The Death Star's attacks were relentless, and dozens more warships were destroyed by it.

The wreckage and flames bloomed silently in space, and the twisted corpses of the Fourth Reich Navy were ejected from the wreckage by negative pressure, solidifying in the vacuum into floating ice sculptures.

This was also the final scene of this incredibly brutal battle.

……

8 BBY, April 27, 7 PM, the last Fourth Empire warship leaped into hyperspace, and most of the Galactic Empire's warships also left, leaving only the massive shadow of the Death Star slowly rotating in Coruscant's orbit.

From April 20th until now, this battle on Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Empire, has lasted for a full six days!
Moreover, during these seven days of fighting, both sides deployed an unprecedented amount of troops and equipment, making it arguably the most brutal and grandest space battle since the Galactic Civil War.

The total number of main warships deployed in this battle exceeded ten thousand. Among them, the Galactic Empire deployed seven Executor-class super star destroyers and one Eclipse-class super star destroyer. The Dawn Kingdom/Fourth Empire deployed all three Anchoron-class Titan warships, two Prophet-class Titan warships, and one Kurtorask Dictator.

Both sides have staked almost everything on this decisive battle.

Moreover, the battle lasted for seven days in a sustained, high-intensity combat rhythm! Such a long battle pushed both sides to their psychological and physiological limits far beyond those of conventional battles, and the casualties reached a terrifying number.

According to preliminary post-war statistics, the Galactic Empire lost over 5,000 Star Destroyers, while the Fourth Empire lost over 1,500 capital ships and heavy cruisers!

The losses of small and medium-sized warships on both sides were countless!

It can be said that both the Galactic Empire and the Fourth Empire lost fleets equivalent to 50% of their total forces in this battle!
The loss of personnel was even more terrifying; the Galactic Empire fleet lost over 100 million officers and soldiers in this battle! The Fourth Empire fleet also lost over 10 million officers and soldiers in this battle!

This was still due to the high degree of automation of the Fourth Empire's warships and the extensive use of robots. Even so, the naval officers and soldiers of the Fourth Empire who retreated from this battle suffered extremely severe physical and mental trauma, and at least half of the surviving soldiers required psychological treatment.

Within this, approximately 200 million Fourth Empire naval soldiers, whose spirits were almost completely consumed by battle and slaughter, were forcibly or semi-forcibly enlisted in the "Rebirth Project," becoming an immortal army that would fight for Emperor Tang Xiao until eternity.

And on another battlefield, the fighting was equally fierce on the surface of Coruscant—the Galactic Empire's army and the Fourth Empire's ground forces were locked in a tug-of-war in the capital region, with the war spreading to hundreds of planetary layers.

This battle was also a catastrophe.

The entire "Grey Army," composed of 300 million Kamino clone soldiers of the Galactic Empire, was wiped out by gene-targeted weapons, with more than 700 million ordinary soldiers killed in action.

The number of Spaticlone soldiers killed was 3000 million!
On the Fourth Reich side, the ground forces also suffered heavy casualties: more than 190 million ordinary army troops were killed, while the casualty rate of elite troops also exceeded 30%.

Even more heartbreaking is that Coruscant itself was also severely damaged in this catastrophe—its atmosphere was repeatedly torn apart, the ozone layer almost disappeared, and 0.04% of the planet's surface was completely burned up.

This proportion may seem small, but it's actually equivalent to an area of ​​200 million square kilometers. The fires raging in these areas have already begun to destroy the planet's atmosphere.

If Coruscant weren't for its highly efficient atmospheric remediation system, such losses alone would have been enough to cause irreversible damage to the planet's entire ecosystem.

Furthermore, the number of civilians who died in the crossfire of the battle reached a staggering 17 billion! On any ordinary planet, this would essentially mean its destruction!
……

Meanwhile, the aftermath of this battle is far from over.

On Coruscant, a large number of Fourth Reich ground forces are still wreaking havoc, including more than 20000 Fourth Legion soldiers!
These killing machines, born for war, dispersed throughout Coruscant, wandering like ghosts in the planet's underground layers, constantly seeking opportunities to create new chaos and casualties for the Galactic Empire.

Furthermore, the number of Fourth Reich agents, infiltrators, and even gangsters and smugglers they have bribed, hidden in the shadows and yet to be discovered, is countless. These people have built a terrifying underground network, and with the addition of the Fourth Legion, they now possess the strength to directly confront the Galactic Empire's regular army.

Even more unsettling is that Coruscant's night sky is no longer peaceful—every five hours, two Death Star cannonballs land on the planet's planetary shield, preventing Coruscant from shutting it down again.

To prevent Death Star cannonballs from landing in the holes where planetary shields were destroyed, such as those in H-23 and G-77, the remaining fleets around the planets had to be on high alert, patrolling constantly and intercepting them in time.

Meanwhile, due to the extremely harsh environment on Coruscant, many powerful families and even high-ranking officials of the empire secretly fled the planet, making the planet's administrative environment extremely harsh as well.

The harsh administrative environment was also reflected in another very specific matter—the Imperial Palace and the Imperial Parliament Building!

Prior to this, Palpatine had moved the headquarters of almost all of the Galactic Empire's administrative departments to the Imperial Palace. When the Battle of Coruscant broke out, although most of the officials working in the Imperial Palace were quickly evacuated to the underground command center, thousands of civil servants of various ranks remained trapped inside.

Then, as the Imperial Palace was destroyed in the earth-shattering battle between Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael, these officials also vanished into thin air.

The mass deaths of officials disrupted normal operations, bringing many administrative affairs to a standstill; the destruction of offices resulted in the loss of countless data, especially core databases related to fiscal budgets, military deployments, and public welfare. The loss of these data nearly paralyzed the subsequent administration of the Galactic Empire.

Even more terrifying, with the destruction of the imperial palace, the Sith altar built by Darth Sidious also collapsed, ultimately revealing a bottomless abyss—the Temple of the Abyss.

No instrument can penetrate the immense darkness of the Force within the Abyss Temple. The only way to estimate its depth is by examining the thickness of Coruscant's surface. The Abyss Temple is estimated to be about 1000 meters deep.

Darth Vader was knocked down by Darth Malthael during the battle, and his fate is unknown.

Now, the Galactic Empire can only completely seal off the Imperial Palace area, build high walls, and prohibit anyone from approaching.

The situation at the Imperial Houses was even worse—yes, it had to be described as terrible.

Because this place was transformed by Tang Xiao into the venue for his coronation ceremony as the emperor of the Fourth Empire!

The dome of the Parliament building was removed, one of the outer walls was also demolished, and a towering obsidian platform was built in the middle—in addition to its own height, there was a coronation altar with a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine steps!

Furthermore, the enormous Fourth Empire flag, over ten kilometers high, and Tang Xiao's portrait had been displayed on Coruscant for a full seventy-two hours before the Galactic Empire's army destroyed it.

During those seventy-two hours, countless residents in the surrounding area, and even more people online, watched as the flag of the Fourth Reich fluttered in the sky above Coruscant, right in front of the Imperial Houses—the place that has symbolized the center of power in the galaxy for twenty-five thousand years.

Now, the Galactic Empire's rulers have to invest enormous resources to rebuild the Parliament Building. They dare not demolish it, even though it's the most convenient solution for a completely renovated building, but the Galactic Empire cannot afford to lose the Parliament Building on top of the destruction of the Imperial Palace. (End of Chapter)