The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

466: Separatism

As time went by, the separatist movement started by Count Dooku also continued to grow and develop.

The speaker of the Galactic Republic, Sheev Palpatine, devoted all his energy to fighting dissidents and expanding his own power, and completely let the corrupt officials of the Republic do perverse things in the outer ring star region.

Under such circumstances, coupled with Earl Dooku's unparalleled reputation and eloquence, a large number of planets in the outer ring star sector joined the separatist movement and began to resist a series of policies of the Republic.

Since the 500 planets including the Dawn planet publicly announced their refusal to pay taxes for the Republic, more and more planets have also joined in. The Galactic Republic has painstakingly implemented the free trade zone since the former speaker Phoenix Valorum Tax policy has become a dead letter.

Next, Earl Dooku secretly reached a preliminary agreement with the cross-galactic super corporations headed by the Trade Federation, the Technology Union, the Interstellar Banking Association, the Enterprise Alliance, the Merchant Guild, and the Fourth Group, allowing them to join his cause against republic.

And the promise he gave was that once the republic was successfully forced to submit, these companies would have astronomical amounts of capital gains, and they could legally occupy a large number of galaxies, and at the same time, they would also receive unimaginable privileges.

That's right, what he said was never about launching a life-and-death war with the Republic, but telling these corporate giants that war is just a means, the purpose is to let the Republic sit on the negotiating table, and even overthrow the current government of the Galactic Republic. They take their place.

Each of these corporate giants has ulterior motives, such as the Trade Federation because Governor Newt Gunray was coerced and recruited by Darth Sidious, the Interstellar Banking Association was an arrangement left by Darth Plagueis before his death, and the Technology Alliance The base of the alliance with the enterprise was originally in the outer ring star area, and the ambitious business guild wanted to seize this opportunity to take it to the next level.

As for the fourth group, they hope that this war will be fought, and the bigger the better, it is best to fight all the brains.

But no matter what, Earl Dooku finally got funding from these companies, and his activities became bigger and bigger, and more and more blatant. In the Outer Rim sector, many planets have stopped broadcasting the Galactic Republic media, and instead broadcast Count Dooku's speech in large quantities.

This not only intensified the conflict between the planets in the outer ring star area and the planets in the inner ring and core circle, but also made the atmosphere of the Galactic Republic more tense.

Schiff-Palpatine has made public speeches more than once, stating that he cannot accept the act of splitting the country in any case, and called on the separatists to return to the negotiating table and not to be aggressive.

But having said that, he didn't take any substantial actions, he just kept persuading the outer ring star region through the media.

The slogan that the upper and lower lips touch the empty white teeth is naturally impossible to be accepted by the outer ring star region, but Palpatine also hopes so. The reason why he said this is just to create an image of himself Still loving peace, longing for the unified setting of the Galactic Republic.

As for Earl Dooku, because he already had enough support, he also quickly started preparations for the battle.

First and foremost is the industrial aspect. According to the report of the Governor of the Trade Federation, Newt Gunley, the Trade Federation was previously co-developing an upgraded version of the Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser with the Rendili Interstellar Power Company-the Providence-class carrier destroyer. /destroyer)【Note 1】.

The Shenyi-class destroyer is a multi-functional warship, equipped with an advanced command system and heavy armor, and adopts a modular design, which can easily replace the functional cabin. According to different configurations, the Shenyi-class destroyer can be used as a command ship, an aircraft carrier and battleships.

But in fact, in order to avoid suspicion, Rendili Interstellar Power Company outsourced this project to the Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps (Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps), which is a large-scale engineering company formed by the Quarren, mainly for Lun Dilley Star Dynamics conducts outsourcing and processing operations.

As the separatist movement intensified, Rendili Interplanetary Power Company could not sit still, and they were preparing to withdraw from this project. At the same time, Count Dooku intervened in the dispute between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren on the planet Mon Calamari, and got the support of the Quarren, and let the Free Dak Volunteer Engineering Corps separate from Lundili Come out and build warships specifically for the Separatists.

The project of the Shenyi-class destroyer was also brought over by the Freedak Volunteer Engineering Corps, and the Trade Federation continued to invest in preparing to complete this powerful warship.

The Freedak Volunteer Engineering Group secretly built a large-scale shipyard on the planet Parmante, the colonial world of the Quarren, for the construction of Shenyi-class destroyers.

And after he decided to go to war, the ambitious Earl Dooku even persuaded the Trade Federation to spend huge sums of money to design a more powerful invincible warship on the basis of the Shenyi-class destroyer-the Conqueror-class heavy cruiser (Subjugator-class heavy cruiser)!

These are not enough, Earl Dooku asked Shu Mai, the president of the Commercial Guild, and Passel Argent, the president of the Enterprise Alliance, to jointly fund and design a powerful The fire support ship, this project was named the Recusant-class light destroyer (Recusant-class light destroyer).

Hirsch-Kessel Dynamics is one of the oldest spacecraft design and construction companies in the galaxy, with a history of more than 4,000 years. However, in the subsequent competition, it was defeated by emerging super-industrial enterprises such as Kuat Power Shipyard, and became a subsidiary of the Trade Union, which was successively transferred to the Douro consortium and the Nimbanis consortium in Hutt Space.

But anyway, this is a company with a deep heritage, so it's okay to do some design and construction work. But after all, the company's scale is limited, and it is currently mainly engaged in the construction and reconstruction of Luke Hook class cargo ships, so the construction work of the Disobedient class is also scheduled to be handed over to the Freedak Volunteer Engineering Group.

In addition, the technology alliance is mainly to provide technical support in various aspects, including the research and development of army equipment, various robots, and fighter jets. Naturally, the Interstellar Banking Association pays for it.

And here, the main job of the fourth group is to cooperate with the trade alliance to build Higra-class battlecruisers and ghost fighters. This is the only thing that Earl Dooku has seen in the product line announced by the fourth group. .

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[Note 1: As always, the classification of warships in "Star Wars" is particularly fascinating. The Shenyi class alone has several names such as command ship, capital ship, dreadnought, cruiser, and destroyer...here is still based on the setting The official name is defined as a destroyer. 】