The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

2094. Visitor in the dark

"Dunn..." Palpatine's gloomy and distorted voice sounded.

Dunn Wessex hurriedly rolled out of the queue, bowed and said, "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"

"The Geth was released by Tang Xiao. I am very convinced of this." Palpatine said slowly.

"The defense line in the north is now as solid as a rock, Your Majesty. Not only that, I am also constantly looking for the geth's home planet. As long as I can find it, it will be crucial to unlocking the secrets of the geth." Dunn-Wei Sykes said.

"I strongly believe that you can stop the geth invasion, Dunn." Although Palpatine's tone was extremely gloomy, his words revealed his trust and love for Dunn, "But the key to the matter is that Tang Xiao is How to release the geth."

Dunn-Wessex frowned and pondered, "Among the countless pieces of information and stories, one thing that is relatively certain right now is that Tang Xiao and the others come from the Unknown Star Territory. And in the era when our history has not yet been recorded, the Unknown Star Territory A huge war may have broken out, and Tang Xiao and the others are war refugees. My Seventh Army has been responsible for the exploration of the unknown star field for a long time, and a lot of information has been received. We are convinced that in the unknown star field, except for the Chiss, There are countless races, some powerful and some weird. The evolution of species in the unknown star field is probably completely different from what we usually know. The Geth may be one of them."

"So since Tang Xiao can find the geth and control the geth, what about us?" Palpatine asked, "If there are still weird and powerful races in the unknown star field, find them and let them be used by the empire!"

"As you wish, my lord." Dunn Wessex responded quickly.

"Wilhuff!" Palpatine looked in Tarkin's direction again, "Can the completion date of the DS-1 combat platform be confirmed?"

Wilhuff Tarkin stood up and said very confidently: "Although the construction process of DS-1 was difficult, we have eliminated many problems. Recently, Krennic found a talented energy scientist Galen Er. So, he will help us solve the most difficult technology of DS-1 - the crystal energy focusing problem. "

He raised his hand and said with his head held high: "Five years! Five years later, while our fleet is getting ready, the DS-1 battle space station will also complete the final construction! With the combination of DS-1 and our invincible fleet, Under the attack, Dawn Principality will not have any chance to struggle!"

"Hahahahaha! Very good! Very good! Very good!!" Palpatine said several good words in succession, and he seemed to be in a very good mood now, "Remember, don't bomb Dawn with DS-1 Planet. I want to keep Tang Xiao alive... I want him to watch everything he has built be destroyed by me bit by bit... Hehehehe... men are killed and women are ravaged. , his home was burned, and his land was trampled. I want him to wail in pain and despair for ten thousand years! Hahahahaha..."

Laughing, he stepped down from the throne and passed through the imperial power core. They were also very sensible and automatically arranged into two teams headed by the currently favored Dunn Wessex and Wilhuff Tarkin, following Palpatine.

"Is there anything we can do about the recent political turmoil in the Dawn Principality?" Palpatine asked again.

The Minister of Imperial Intelligence, Black Hole, immediately replied: "I am arranging for someone to get close to Francis Underwood. I believe that with the power of our empire, Francis will definitely not be able to refuse the price offered."

"Haha... can you get close to the Prime Minister of the Dawn Principality?" Palpatine asked coldly, "Since you can get close to him, you can naturally assassinate him, right?"

"This is indeed impossible to do at the moment." Black Hole shook his head, "But Francis' close confidant, Douglas Stamp, was forced to resign due to a scandal today. I think he will be our most suitable breakthrough point. Magistrate Mas Sirrah has already led his team to carry out this mission."

"Very... good... (Goooood), hehehehe. As long as you can instigate rebellion against the Chancellery of the Principality of Dawn, I will reward you heavily, hahahahaha." Palpatine laughed proudly again.

…

Douglas Stamp threw his head back and drank the entire glass of wine. Even the bartender at the bar was shocked by the amount of alcohol he drank.

"One more drink! The rain and dew wine from Planet Seria is indeed... delicious..." Douglas Stamp said drunkenly.

"My suggestion is, don't. My friend, you have already drunk too much. The stamina of the Rain Dew Wine is very strong. If this continues, you may not even be able to find the door home." Some elderly bartenders shook their heads.

"Don't you think I can't pay you?" Douglas roared angrily, raised his wrist to open the payment tool on the universal tool, and punched the bartender in the face with his drunkenness, "I have plenty of fucking money!"

"That's not what I meant, friend. I run this bar, and I really don't want to make money like you." The bartender sighed, "Have a glass of juice, it's my treat. Then go home, or stay in the back How about taking a nap on the sofa?”

"Wow! Is this drunk guy the one who apologized on TV yesterday?" A drinker next to him seemed to recognize Douglas and pointed here.

"Obviously you are wrong! George is the younger brother of my wife's cousin! Get away from me, this guy is drunk!" The old bartender waved his hand to drive away the curious drinkers.

"Alas..." After the drinker left, he sighed, leaned on the table while washing the glasses, and whispered to Douglas, "Listen, friend, people like you shouldn't appear here. It's both public and private. No matter what, go back and find your assistant, bodyguard, bodyguard...anything, don't stay here."

"Who am I? I am a civilian now. I don't have any job, civilian." Douglas said drunkenly, "How can a civilian have a bodyguard? No, no. I only have my coat... Oh, by the way, If I don’t have the money to pay the bill, this coat is worth 5,000 yuan.”

"I won't accept your coat. It's in our best interest to go back to where you belong and do what you're supposed to do." The old bartender shook his head and said.

"That's enough, I'll send him back." A man in a black trench coat suddenly came over from nowhere, sat in front of the old bartender, and pushed a credit ingot worth 1,000 No. 4 coins in his hand.

"Who are you? I've never seen you in this bar." The old bartender became alert.

"Obviously you remembered it wrong. It doesn't matter, I'll take him away." The black windbreaker said.

The old bartender was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Ah, okay. I understand. Take him back quickly, this guy is drunk."

The black windbreaker helped Douglas Stamp up and led him outside.

After he had just walked out a few steps, he saw several burly men in plain clothes walking over and whispered to him: "Put him down!"

"So you are his family? Anyway, before you take this drunkard away, pay for my coat first! This guy vomited all over me!" The black windbreaker looked annoyed. The previous gloominess was completely gone, and now he looked completely philistine.

As expected, he was covered in Douglas's vomit.

"Okay, here's the money for you. It's enough for you to buy ten coats. Thank you for taking care of my... uh, distant cousin!" One of the big men said nothing, took out a handful of credit ingots and stuffed it in, "I'm sorry. . So you should go home and wash your clothes and go to bed.”

"I want to fucking... Oh, okay, no problem." After the black windbreaker clearly saw the face value of the credit ingot in his hand, he immediately smiled and turned around happily.

The big man breathed a sigh of relief, touched the invisible intercom on his Adam's apple, and whispered: "This is the blue team, we found Douglas...Yes, he is drunk. But everything around him is normal....Okay, I will arrange for the green team to follow that person for a while."

…

Douglas Stamp opened his eyes and found that it was already morning, and he had been cleaned and placed on the bed. A warm fragrance hit his face, and he realized that there was a naked young girl lying next to him. And judging from the current state of the bed, it was obvious that at least 20,000 words of drama had occurred between them.

He sat up suddenly, his movement startling the girl. She smiled and leaned over, kissed Douglas Stamp on the cheek, then dropped a communicator and said: "I hope you had a good time last night, sir. Now, you should listen to this communication."

After saying that, she grabbed the clothes on the bed and left without looking back.

Douglas Stamp turned on the communicator, and Francis Underwood appeared in the holographic projection. He was wearing glasses and seemed to be working on documents.

"You're awake, Doug. I hope this woman can let out some of your excess anger and help you regain your composure. Don't worry, your wife doesn't know about this." Francis said without raising his head. , "But you made another serious mistake last night. You drank too much and fell out of your protection. It made me reconsider whether it was appropriate for me to continue to have you around."

"I swear this will never happen again, absolutely not!" Douglas Stamp quickly got up.

"How do you expect me to trust you, Doug?" Francis Underwood was still reading the documents without raising his head. "I have made all the appropriate arrangements, but you are so angry because of your inner resentment. Sneaking out to get drunk? Tell me, which of these things are you not asking for?"

"No! It's just an accident! I don't have any other ideas!" Douglas shouted.

"Now, go home. Calm down and stay away from the hustle and bustle of politics. I will come back to you at the right time." Francis finally raised his head and said.

"Have you given up on me? After I took the blame for you, your first reaction was to abandon me! Fuck!!" Douglas was still drunk and cursed angrily, grabbing the water bottle next to him and smashing it with a crash. .

"Standing in our position, the first thing you shouldn't have is such an emotion, Doug." Francis said seriously: "Go back and calm down for a while."

"Don't always be so condescending Frank!" Douglas pointed at Francis's nose in the holographic projection and said loudly, "Don't you think I don't know? You are afraid! Afraid that Hari Seldon will get revenge for 'that thing' Tang Xiao's appreciation! Then he will take away your position as the Imperial Prime Minister! Once 'that thing' is carried out, he will be the Imperial Prime Minister! Do you think you are calm in this matter? You are equally crazy!"

However, Francis Underwood just looked up at him, said nothing, and turned off the communication.

With a snap, the communicator in Douglas's hand shattered on the wall.

At this time, there was a polite knock on the door.

...

Back in the villa he bought in the suburbs of Dawn Planet, Douglas Stamp turned on the holographic projection and stared at the news that was constantly broadcasting.

The news was all about recent events, about the Prime Minister's Office promoting new economic policies, but being criticized for disregarding national security and blindly flattering ignorant people. Some even said that Francis took this opportunity to flatter those civilian companies that were neglected during the preparations for war.

"You know shit!" Douglas waved his hand, and the universal tool automatically sensed and turned off the projection.

That's right, these guys know shit!

The struggle between Francis Underwood and Helmut Zemo's party is not a struggle of ideas at all, nor a struggle between pacifism and war, but a struggle for the throne of the future Prime Minister of the Empire!

Tang Xiao wanted to go one step further from the position of Grand Duke of Dawn. Helmut Zemo had been laying the groundwork for this for a long time, and Tang Xiao himself did not explicitly refuse it.

As we all know, if the ruler does not refuse on such a topic, it means agreement.

So after going one step further, what about others? Will they continue to rise with the tide, or will they be washed down by the waves? It is difficult to guarantee. Because Tang Xiao is now very emotional, no one can guess it.

But one thing is more obvious, that is, Tang Xiao's attention to Hari Seldon. He has always focused on cultivating this new generation of young people in the political arena, and Hari Seldon has also handed in an excellent answer.

If this continues, and the Zero Operation Plan proposed by Hari Seldon is implemented, and even succeeds in the end, then no one knows whether Francis will still be the prime minister!

So, Francis was also forced to the wall.

Douglas sighed, he stood up and subconsciously walked towards the wine cabinet. However, after just a few steps, his steps hesitated...

That's right, I shouldn't drink.

But at this time, another voice suddenly sounded in the room, "If you want to have a drink, go ahead. Although they have confiscated all your wine collection, I still brought you a bottle. It's in the first grid of the second row of the wine cabinet...very conspicuous."

Thanks to Dangkongshan for the 100 starting coins! !