2130. The Empire's Decision
This is already the seventh year since Palpatine became emperor.
As he ruled the Galactic Empire longer, his temperament became darker and more terrifying. He no longer wears the gorgeous attire he had when he was a member or speaker. Instead, he wears a black cloak almost all the time.
Not only that, the half of the face exposed under the hood of the cloak has also become more and more distorted, with pale wrinkles covering the entire face, a sinister smile and the burnt mouth exposed from the mouth. And the sharp teeth make people feel that now he is more like a monster than a person...
Everyone sitting here looked at Palpatine nervously, even For powerful people like Dunne Wessex and Wilhuff Tarkin, they didn't dare to show any slights.
Over the past few years, Palpatine has become increasingly cruel, suspicious, and irritable, and no one can know what he is thinking. He may seem to be in a good mood one second, but he may directly kill someone the next second.
The decisions he made became more and more extreme and cruel. He issued orders more than once to carry out inhumane massacres on those planets that dared to resist. He hung the captured rebel leaders in the reconquered cities and watched them slowly die while struggling.
Darth Vader stood behind Palpatine, his tall body carrying an endless sense of oppression, and the constant heavy breathing sounded like a heavy hammer hitting everyone's heart.
Palpatine did not speak, he just scanned everyone with his eyes that exuded a terrifying golden light, again and again, until they began to tremble with fear, and then he slowly He said: "Grand Duke Dawn, Darth Malthael...is missing."
His voice was twisted and greasy, and he did not call him Tang Xiao, but the Sith title. People who know Palpatine know that whenever this happens, it shows that his attention is on Darth Malthael himself, not the Principality of Dawn.
But compared to these, none of them were as shocking as the information he said.
Black Star suddenly raised his head, "Darth Malthael is missing? Your Majesty, are you sure?" As a powerful dark side force user, the only people present were him, Kadan and The three Darth Vaders remained unmoved under Palpatine's pressure.
"I can no longer sense his presence in the Force..." Palpatine said slowly, "His disgusting aura has always been in the world of the Force, making me angry. , I think about...killing him all the time! But now...his force has disappeared."
"Is it because he is in a relatively closed place? According to our information. , Tang Xiao has been in the Unknown Star Territory in recent months... The Dawn Principality must have encountered trouble there," Wilhuff Tarkin said.
"Humph! Stupid guy! How can a mortal like you understand the mysteries of the Force!" Palpatine snorted coldly, "I said he was missing, he is missing! And him It doesn’t matter where you are.”
Black Hole also said on the side: "Even hyperspace turbulence cannot block the induction of the Force. Even time and space, the Force can leave traces in it. Since His Majesty can no longer sense Darth Malthael's existence, then he has only two possibilities - the first is to die, and the second is to be in a place that cannot even be penetrated by the Force. Either one will mean that Darth Malthael will be dead in a short time. Nei will not appear, or in other words, he will never appear."
The Supreme Dark Prophet Kadan laughed sinisterly, "Without Darth Malthael, the threat of the Dawn Principality will immediately decrease. More than half. This is our best chance... We should send troops immediately to eliminate the Dawn Principality in one fell swoop! Arrest and publicly judge every one of their top officials, and then publicly execute them!"
Pa. Elpatin also laughed proudly, "Hahahaha! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Let our fleets start gathering immediately! Launch an attack on the Principality of Dawn in the shortest possible time!"
However, what he said After exiting, everyone else present was silent. Almost everyone kept their eyes and noses, their heads down, and did not dare to speak.
"I'm telling you, send troops immediately!" Palpatine said coldly, his voice extremely sinister. He was obviously very dissatisfied with the current atmosphere.
In this almost stagnant atmosphere, it was Sate Pestage, the supreme advisor of the Imperial Advisory Group, leader of the Imperial Loyalty Committee, and Imperial Grand Vizier, who mustered up the courage to answer: "Your Majesty... we are now , Where is the fleet that can attack..."
The venue fell into terrible silence again, the surrounding air seemed to solidify, and everyone felt that breathing became very difficult.
Everyone could feel Palpatine's brewing anger in the silence.
Black Hole is finally a man. He snorted and said sternly: "Our current navy has exceeded the size of the Galactic Republic by more than three times during the war! With more than 10,000 capital ships at hand, Now you say, we don’t have a fleet?”
He said this to give Sart a chance to explain quickly, otherwise if Palpatine asked, he might really want to kill someone. Got it! In that case, Sutter-Pestachi's long list of titles might not even be able to save his life!
Sartre-Pestach cast a grateful look at the black hole, and he quickly said: "The resistance forces in the empire have been intensifying recently, and the work of rebuilding the 14th Army has been stagnant. There are even rumors that the planet Rylos is also secretly brewing. Revolution. And a civil war is also breaking out on the planet Geonosis, which has even affected the construction progress of DS-1. We have sent out almost all the battleships."
"Then do you want to tell me. , we have to sit here and wait for this great opportunity when Darth Malthael disappears?" Palpatine asked sullenly, "Then what's the use of me raising you losers? Just tell me, there are still 1,000 battleships in mobile force, but now, there is not even one! Where have I spent the huge military expenditures?”
Ai Xin, leader of the New Order Protection Committee! -Il-Raz also said: "There are indeed many planets that have rebelled recently, and pirates are becoming increasingly rampant. This has caused our control over the outer ring star region and even part of the middle ring star region to continue to decline. In order to maintain the operation of the empire, we can only Send more fleets out to suppress it. With all due respect, considering the current territory of the empire, our fleet is still too small..."
Hei Dong, who is also the director of the Imperial Intelligence Agency, also said: "I have already. They have strengthened their intelligence penetration into the Principality of Liming, and it is obvious that they have strengthened their intelligence deployment after Tang Xiao disappeared. I strongly suspect that a considerable part of the rebellion is caused by the Principality of Liming, in order to distract us. Power, so that we can't attack them." "I need answers!" Palpatine roared, and he even brought the power of the dark side. This roar shocked everyone present, "Darth- Malthael is missing now! And we must take this opportunity to destroy the Dawn Principality in one fell swoop! I only need to hear when..."
"I think... we can plan an attack on the fourth group in the northern border of the Principality of Dawn. First attack the planet Oud-Mantel, rebuild the Eighth Army, and then directly threaten the planet Mu Linster and seek a decisive battle with the fleet. In this way "In the future, we will be able to encircle the planet Mequito after occupying the planet Murinster," Dunn-Wessex said.
He is the King of the North, so of course he hopes that the empire's offensive will be launched from his side. In this way, the power and military might in his hands will be greater.
Sart-Pestachi quickly echoed: "This should be possible. As long as we can occupy the planet Mequito, we will be able to obtain the huge wealth that the separatists of the Interstellar Banking Association have robbed before. This will be extremely beneficial. Greatly alleviate the current financial crisis of the empire. As long as we have enough money, we will expand the fleet faster!"
Wilhuff Tarkin said coldly: "Your company is raging in the north! You still want to send a fleet deep into the hinterland to attack the planet Mechitor, even if you can't handle it? Dunn-Wessex."
He turned again. Palpatine said seriously: "Your Majesty, the rebellions that are happening now are because the Star Destroyers are not powerful enough. The Imperial Navy reconstruction plan proposed by Dunn Wessex is wrong... We need The absolute power of DS-1 is an absolute deterrent. Only by completing the construction of DS-1 as soon as possible, by then, no one in the empire will dare to resist, and all our warships will be freed for use as mobile forces. "< br>
He raised a finger and said: "Fear is the best way to rule the galaxy. If there is still rebellion, it can only be said that fear is not enough. And DS-1 is the biggest fear in this galaxy! Than Ten thousand Star Destroyers are more effective."
Palpatine interrupted Tarkin rudely this time. He said gloomily: "DS-1 can be dispatched now to destroy the Dawn Planet. If not, what's the point now..."
He looked at everyone again and said coldly: "If you can't come up with a plan, then let me do it within a month. Gather at least 4,000 battleships and launch an attack! No matter what the reason is, no matter what those battleships are doing, bring them back!"
"Your Majesty! This..." Sutter-Pestachi I quickly wanted to dissuade this crazy idea, "This is inappropriate..."
If 4,000 battleships are really transferred back, I am afraid that at least half of the empire will start to fight for independence! If something goes wrong, it is not impossible for a second independent galaxy confederation to be born from those places!
And once these planets begin to fight for independence, the 4,000 battleships sent out will immediately become rootless and completely defeated due to lack of supplies.
At that time, will the Galactic Empire still be the Galactic Empire?
At this time, an extremely low and dull voice suddenly sounded, "Trade Federation."
Everyone immediately looked at the source of the voice - who had been standing behind Palpatine. Stay still, Darth Vader! The most powerful general in the Galactic Empire, Palpatine's disciple and confidant.
"Hehehehe... tell me, what are your plans." Palpatine let out a twisted laugh.
"Declare the Trade Federation as treason and all their activities as illegal. Then attack the planets controlled by the Trade Federation, including Cato-Neimoidia and Balmorra-Neimoidia, and completely wipe them out of the empire. "Except." Darth Vader said coldly, "We will get huge funds and resources from the Trade Alliance, and at the same time, we will also deter the evil forces of other teams."
Everyone present looked solemn. Get up, they are thinking about this seriously.
But this matter is really not easy to handle.
Although the Trade Federation was one of the main core members of the Confederation of Independent Systems in the previous Clone Wars. But in fact, the Trade Federation is still doing business with the Galactic Republic, and they always insist that Newt Gunray is just a part of the radical faction of the Trade Federation, and the Trade Federation is actually loyal to the Galactic Republic.
In fact, even during the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation was indeed like this. They served both sides of the war at the same time. The wealthy Neimoidians also contributed a lot of revenue to the finances of the Galactic Republic, which made it difficult for the Galactic Republic and later the Galactic Empire to deal with them.
The key to the matter actually lies in the Principality of Dawn!
Because in the original plot, Newt Gunray, who was bewitched by Palpatine, surrendered directly at the end of the war. He shut down all the battle robots and waited stupidly for Palpatine. to fulfill the promise. But what he was waiting for was Darth Vader's blazing lightsaber.
In the environment at that time, the Galactic Empire had no enemies at all and the war was over, so you could do whatever you wanted. Palpatine directly declared several major corporate giants, including Newt Gunray, as the number one war criminals, and then directly plundered and confiscated all their industries and wealth in the name of treason, bringing the first huge sum to the empire. financial revenue.
But it is different now. The Principality of Dawn is still there, and for the Trade Alliance, a company that is betting on both sides, if the pressure on them is too great, then they might just go to the Principality of Dawn. Went. Just like the previous Interstellar Banking Association, the split of the Interstellar Banking Association at that time dealt a fatal blow to the finances of the Galactic Republic.
The Trade Alliance is going to do it again, and the blow will definitely not be small!
Because the Trade Federation has monopolized the logistics and transportation industry of the entire galaxy for thousands of years, once they have a problem, transportation in many places within the Galactic Empire will be paralyzed.
Once transportation and logistics are paralyzed, famine and material shortages will occur on many planets, and then more rebellions will follow!
But...Palpatine thought about it...
It seems feasible! (End of this chapter)