The giant corporations that started from Night City

Chapter 348: The Empire's Financial Crisis! The Sad Current Situation of the Stormtroopers!

Although this is an Imperial cargo ship, the materials transported are all various types of military supplies, so there are also some Imperial Stormtroopers on board as guards.

However, faced with the sudden paralysis of the spacecraft system, they had no way to deal with it for the time being. They could only use the night vision system of the power armor to patrol around to see what went wrong.

At this moment, the stormtroopers patrolling the corridor heard a strange noise coming from the entrance of a passage, and they immediately rushed towards the source of the sound.

Soon, a dazzling beam of light flashed in the dark corridor. After seeing the traces of the suspicious person clearly, the Stormtrooper captain decisively ordered to open fire.

"Enemy attack——!"

In an instant, countless beams of explosive energy attacked Paul like a storm, and the shadow of death quickly enveloped Paul.

But Paul dared to appear here so confidently, naturally he had a foolproof plan to deal with the enemy, otherwise he would not appear here so calmly.

He was seen swinging his lightsaber with greater ease than last time, just like playing badminton, bouncing back all the blaster beams shot by the stormtroopers!

That's right, thanks to the emergency research and development of the members of the scientific research department, they imitated the Hard Lightsaber 2.0, which is more like a lightsaber and can rebound blaster beams like the Force lightsaber.

In this narrow corridor, the storm troopers were extremely crowded, and Paul only needed to bounce the beam back to hit the enemy on the opposite side.

The stormtroopers soon realized this problem and began to retreat urgently, preparing to organize more manpower to encircle the damn invaders.

"Retreat! Go call for help!"

Just as the captain of the Stormtroopers squad was calling on his team members to escape, they were shocked to find that the gate behind them was locked for some reason!
No matter how they swiped their ID cards, they could not unlock the gate. It was obvious that the AI ​​Red Queen was interfering. At this moment, the entire spacecraft's operating system was under its control.

The Imperial stormtroopers trapped in the corridor could only watch in despair as Paul approached step by step, his lightsaber dancing like a ghost, outlining a graceful arc of death in the darkness.

More and more soldiers fell under Paul's lightsaber.

The white power armor they wore was nothing compared to the sharp lightsabers.

Paul only needed to wave his hand and cut off the power armor and human tissue together.

At such a short distance, these soldiers had no defensive weapons that could block the lightsaber, and no matter what the object was, it would be cut in half by Paul.

After a while, Paul retracted his lightsaber and walked away leisurely in the corridor littered with corpses, looking as cool as if he had killed one person every ten steps.

In this way, with the tacit cooperation of the AI ​​Red Queen and Paul, they attracted the storm troopers to the corridor while closing the gate to kill the enemy.

Paul and Chinnie were in charge of each side, and in the end, it took less than half an hour, and all the stormtroopers on the entire spaceship were killed by their swords.

After dealing with the last batch of crew members, Paul officially took over the control of the cargo ship. As soon as he took over the ship, he immediately contacted the Dreadnought headquarters.

【What are you going to do next? 】

The person who contacted Paul was the Transformer responsible for supporting him in this operation - Megatron!

"We have to disguise ourselves as crew members of a cargo ship, sneak into the planet's shield force field, and then find a way to steal the Death Star blueprints."

"But after getting the Death Star blueprints, there's a high probability that the alarm system will be triggered, causing the internal gates to close."

"If that's the case, you guys will be needed to break through the shield from outside and help us evacuate Scarif!"

Before carrying out this operation, Paul had already prepared for the worst possible outcome, but no matter how bad the outcome was, it would not delay his determination to bring out the Death Star design information.

"So, the dreadnought only has one chance to fire. Before I send out the signal, you must not act rashly. Follow my instructions and make a fatal strike!"

Paul warned again and again.

The firepower system carried by the Sojourner Dreadnought is completely capable of quickly destroying the shield field of Scarif, but the Imperial Army must have a way to restart the shield field.

Therefore, this operation requires internal and external cooperation. If Paul gets the Death Star design drawings but is trapped inside, it will be of no use.

[I understand. No matter what the price is, I will do my best to get you out. I promise!]

Megatron responded in a muffled voice.

Although this is his first time working with Paul, he will not let down at critical moments, and this time is no exception.

"Thank you, Megatron."

After discussing all subsequent action decisions with Megatron, Paul thought of the ship's onboard intelligent AI and asked it to immediately dispatch a team of clone soldiers from the cryostat.

This is to pretend to be Imperial stormtroopers with Paul and the crew of the freight ship. Only if the number of people on the ship matches can we avoid being stuck outside.

Moreover, these clone soldiers also need to create some chaos outside while Paul is stealing the Death Star design drawings, so as to divert the attention of the Imperial Army.

[Yes, 157 clone soldiers are being activated and are expected to be sent to your location in 13 minutes and 19 seconds! ]

While waiting for the clone troopers to be activated, the Templar Defenders from the Halo universe acted as engineers and quickly repaired the damaged hull of the cargo ship.

Then all the corpses in the cabin were burned with hard light beams, leaving only the stormtroopers' weapons and equipment. After the power armor was assembled, it was officially delivered to the clone soldiers who were about to land on the cargo ship.

Fortunately, the Universal Corporation has obtained a lot of technologies for free, such as convenient clone soldiers and Templar Defender AI, which are equipped on almost every warship.

Relying on the orderly cooperation of various departments, a group of fully armed clone soldiers, together with Paul, pretending to be the crew of this Imperial cargo spaceship, officially headed to the interior of Scarif.

After flying along the predetermined route for several hours, the cargo spacecraft gradually approached Scarif. Through the transparent porthole, Paul could see the blue planet more clearly.

Just as the intelligence said, the entire Scarif was tightly wrapped in a shield force field, and even communications were affected by the force field, resulting in intermittent communication.

Once the shield field is completely closed, the communication signals inside will be completely cut off from the outside world!
Therefore, Paul must send out a distress signal in advance before the garrison here senses the danger, otherwise Megatron outside will never receive Paul's instructions.

"I hope everything goes well for us this time."

Paul looked down at the beautiful planet below through the porthole from above the orbit and prayed silently in his heart.

If he could come back alive this time, the merits he would gain would be enough for him to raise his head with confidence in front of his father, Duke Leto!

Not long after, the cargo ship arrived at the location of the gate of the Scarif shield field. There were even three Imperial-class Star Destroyers stationed here, guarding the planet Scarif in a corner.

Their function is to ensure that in the event of an unexpected event, time is bought for the shield field to be completely sealed.

Even if the gate is destroyed, there will be no gap in the overall shield field. "Okay, let's get started!"

Following Paul's order, the clone soldiers each returned to their respective posts and successfully entered the gate according to the established clearance procedures.

When the cargo ship flew over the planet Scarif, a majestic tower building appeared in front of Paul.

Judging from the building's appearance which resembles a military fortress, it is very likely that it contains the design drawings of the Death Star!

Soon, Paul got more accurate information from the headquarters, which was the iconic building of Scarif - the Tower Fort.

All the military construction information of the Galactic Empire is kept here, and the design drawings of the Death Star are naturally also archived in it.

[Landing gear locked, start landing! ]

As the cargo ship lowered its landing gear and slowly landed on the designated landing platform, a group of Imperial stormtroopers came over and asked to board the ship to inspect the cargo.

Long before the official departure, Paul had arranged the entire process. While the clone captain was dealing with the Imperial stormtroopers, Paul and Chini took the opportunity to slip away.

With the help of nearby cover, the two rushed straight to the core area of ​​the tower fortress.

As for the clone soldiers disguised as Imperial stormtroopers, they actively cooperated with the inspector's requirements and carried the goods in the opposite direction of Paul's departure.

This is to reduce the number of defensive garrisons in the tower as much as possible and ensure that Paul can successfully obtain the Death Star design information inside.

But soon, tricky troubles arose.

Paul had only walked a few steps when he discovered that the security work near the tower fort was quite meticulous. In addition to the regular garrison troops, there were also soldiers belonging to the elite forces of the empire!
The most eye-catching among them are the Death Troopers wearing pure black power armor. They are the top-of-the-line version of Stormtroopers, and they not only have more sophisticated weapons and equipment.

It is also equipped with protective gear such as electric batons, ray shields, electromagnetic armor, etc. to deal with lightsabers. Its purpose is to prevent surprise attacks by Jedi Knights.

Among this majestic array of death soldiers, there was even the figure of the Imperial Judge!
They are Force users recruited by the Galactic Empire and are paid by the government. Most of them were once apprentices of the Jedi Order and are now adjudicators with a stable income.

These judges hold a red double-edged rotating lightsaber as their personal weapon.

Their appearance undoubtedly made this operation much more difficult for Paul.

Obviously, the defecting pilot also made the Empire realize that the Death Star design drawings might be stolen by the Rebels, so they strengthened the garrison on Scarif.

"It's bad. They actually sent so many force users. It's impossible for us to force our way through with just the two of us!"

After observing the situation in Tower Castle, Chini frowned and said that it seemed that what they did on Jedha Star had made the Empire more vigilant.

Seeing this scene, Paul thought thoughtfully for a moment. Although he could break in by force, he might not be able to get the relevant information before the Death Star design drawings were destroyed.

Paul couldn't guarantee that.

"Let's wait for the clone team first. Let them attract the garrison here!"

On the other side, a team of clones disguised as Imperial stormtroopers transported the goods to the jungle and then found an opportunity to disappear from the guards' sight.

After making sure there was no enemy sight around, they took off their armor and unpacked the cargo according to the established plan.

After removing the top layer of items, the things that floated to the bottom were the weapons and equipment they brought, including Gauss rifles, bolt guns, laser particle cannons, hard light sniper cannons, etc.

Of course, the most important thing is the latest MarkX+ anti-Hulk power armor developed by the global giant company. This is a two-in-one armor developed based on the X series power armor and the anti-Hulk armor.

Soldiers only need to wear the energy core on their bodies, and the armor components will be automatically absorbed by the magnetic levitation field and quickly assembled.

After being equipped with the sophisticated armor and weapons of the Megacorp, the clone soldiers looked brand new. Compared with the Imperial stormtroopers outside, their equipment was much more advanced and powerful!

Through the first-person perspective of the clone soldiers, Jack Wells, who was far away at the headquarters of the Ten Thousand Worlds Base, nodded thoughtfully.

He found that the treatment gap between the Galactic Empire's navy and army was quite obvious.

The Empire pursues the doctrine of big ships and big guns, and is keen on manufacturing various star destroyers, Death Stars, spaceships and other weapons, but it basically saves as much as possible on spending on the army.

Compared to the wealthy navy, the Empire's army is simply an inferior "deer", with the budget being used for the research and development and construction of ultimate weapons and the AT series of armored walkers.

The budget left for individual weapons and equipment for the army is only enough for them to build a bunch of useless white armor.

"Those unlucky guys are so miserable. They are clones too, but once they come out of the factory, they wear cheap plastic shells all day and carry rifles that are made in who knows how many years."

"Unlike us, we have all kinds of standard and sophisticated equipment, from throwing weapons to main weapons, so many that we can't hang them all."

Johnny Silverhand standing by also noticed this problem. The Empire had invested all its money in weapons such as armored walkers, star destroyers, and the Death Star.

But they ignored the lives of the soldiers. No matter they were real people or clones, they were all consumables of war in the eyes of the Empire and it was not worth the extra money to maintain them.

"It seems that what the boss said is right. The Empire's finances are indeed in big trouble. Without the support of the Trade Federation, they can only invest most of their funds in the Death Star and Star Destroyer."

Li De also echoed.

Not long ago, Leon revealed the weakness of the Galactic Empire, which is that the empire's financial foundation is unstable!
The reason why Palpatine dared to offend the consortium families in the galaxy and a bunch of trading civilizations was that he forcibly nationalized the Trade Alliance.

Essentially, it’s because the empire has no money!

He needed these consortium bosses to spend some money to help the empire overcome its difficulties so that he would have money to build various star destroyers and Death Stars.

But the consequence of total nationalization is a decline in enthusiasm for commercial trade.

If businessmen have no motivation to make money, the overall capital pool will become increasingly stagnant and money will stop circulating.

Therefore, if nationalization is not implemented simultaneously with capitalization, it would be like drinking poison to quench thirst.

The consequence of Palpatine's forced nationalization of the Trade Union was that the consortiums all gave up and waited for the empire's funding pool to become smaller and smaller.

The situation reflected in the Imperial Army is that the cheap clone soldiers, wearing plastic power armor and holding old blaster rifles, were chopped up like vegetables by the Jedi Knights.

This group of stormtroopers that no one cares about is a direct manifestation of the empire's gradual weakness and fragility!

(End of this chapter)