2667. Darkest hour
Garm-Bail-Iblis, Council Representative of Corellia, he served in Corellian Defense Forces in his early years, which also created his firm character.
But unlike his fiery appearance, his behavior is very cautious.
For example, this time Rebel Alliance planned to subvert Galaxy Thirteenth Imperial Army's action, but he has always expressed opposition. However, this operation was launched under the direct instruction of the 'leader'. Garm-Bail-Iblis had no choice but to cooperate with the plan.
However, Ukio's campaign suffered a disastrous defeat.
And Iblis was also implicated because of this fiasco.
As Council Representative of Corellia, he has extremely high prestige in a series of areas including Corellian system, Corellia Engineering Company, and Corellian Corridor. Therefore, Iblis has been quietly asking Corellia Engineering Company to build battleships for the Rebel Alliance.
In this uprising, one of the fleets was used - K Fleet.
K Fleet is not a very powerful fleet. It is mainly composed of Light Cruiser and frigates. There are more than 100 warships in total. Such a force might not even make a splash on the battlefield between Kingdom of Dawn and Galactic Empire. However, for the Rebel Alliance, it is a very precious power.
Generally speaking, if Garm-Bail-Iblis wants to hand over a fleet to the Rebel Alliance, it must go through a series of 'whitewashing' procedures. This involves dismantling the warships under disguised civilian orders, exporting and selling them as parts, and then assembling the warships through maintenance orders. This is the simplest method.
The other option is to hand over some warships to the Rebel Alliance by scrapping them, or go to the black market and hand them over as mercenaries.
However, these methods cannot be used continuously in a short period of time, which will lead to the Galactic Empire and Intelligence Bureau finding clues.
But this time, K Fleet is the fleet that hasn't had time to clean up!
Many battleships in this fleet should still be nominally built by Corellia Engineering Company for Galactic Empire Navy. This is not a problem at ordinary times, but once it enters the combat state, Galactic Empire fleet and IFF transponder are scanned, and you will immediately find that something is wrong.
K Fleet, in the battle that broke out outside Ukio, 12 warships were locked by the identification friend or foe system of Dath-Vader. Then, fleet intelligence personnel immediately sent these abnormal identification codes to Imperial Navy Headquarters for verification.
The result of the verification was that these spaceships, which were supposed to be lying on the Corellia shipyard, now appeared in Ukio and were in a hostile state with Galactic Empire Navy!
Director of Imperial Intelligence Bureau Isanne-Isard immediately sent someone to summon Garm-Bail-Iblis, requiring him to go to the Intelligence Bureau immediately for questioning.
However, Iblis ignored it at all. He quickly left Imperial Center and returned to Corellia.
At this moment, in the Imperial Center, capital of the Galactic Empire, Imperial Intelligence Bureau Headquarters building.
In a very sparsely decorated but neat and exquisite room, Chandrila Councilor Meng-Mothma, wearing a councilor's robe, was sitting at the table in the middle.
She took a sip of the juice on the table with a look of disgust on her face, then took out a handkerchief and covered her mouth, spit out the juice, and threw the soiled handkerchief at the door. "Can you please stop fooling me with this overnight juice? Director Isanne."
Although this is Imperial Intelligence Bureau Headquarters, because of the identity of Meng-Mothma, Intelligence Bureau dare not do anything to her. This room is already the lower limit. If the conditions are even worse, then Meng-Mothma can even directly propose impeachment.
And with Senator Mothma's appeal, Imperial Senate will have a large number of MPs on her side to make Imperial Intelligence Bureau look good.
At the very least, don't think too hard about next year's budget.
Isanne-Isard smiled, sat across from Meng-Mothma, and said coldly, "I'm really sorry. Our departments rely on the Empire's financial expenditure, so we must ensure that every expenditure is necessary."
"Are you trying to say that it is not necessary to entertain the congressman Chandrila?" Mothma sneered.
"I didn't say that, Senator Mothma." Isanne-Isard waved his hands, "At least compared to you, our spending is much more cautious. For example, I will never spend tens of millions of credit points every year to buy those so-called... antiques that are useless. Let me see..."
She opened a piece of information, "On July 19 last year, you purchased a sculpture said to be Taung from ancient times through an antique store... Oh, 1.2 million credits. But according to my investigation, the market price of Taung's treasure is around 400,000. Can you tell me why?"
"That is an orphan, and it is the Relics of Taung Shanluo Dynasty that is very precious. It is more than 50,000 years old." Meng-Mothma said lightly, "In order to get this relic, I had to raise the price."
"Then can you tell me why almost every antique you buy is at a premium?"
"I think maybe poverty has limited your imagination, Mr. Director." Meng-Mothma's tone was full of sarcasm, "It seems that in your opinion, such a million-dollar transaction is very expensive? You may not know how much our family's annual income is. Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know either."
Bang! Isanne-Isard no longer wanted to play tricks with her. She slapped her hand on the table, stood up and said through gritted teeth, "Then do you know what we found in that antique shop? And you, with tens of millions of credit points in economic transactions. Don't forget, Senator Mothma, you are in the period of economic supervision! And if you add these tens of millions of accounts together, I will have enough reasons to arrest you!"
"I don't care what those antique dealers are doing behind the scenes. I only care about what I can get from them." Meng-Mothma said lightly.
Although her expression remained calm, at this moment, her toes were tightly clenching the soles of her shoes, and she was extremely nervous. She knew that she couldn't explain the financial problem no matter what, and this was what she was most worried about.
Isanne-Isard shook her head and sighed softly, "Senator Mothma... It seems that you don't understand your situation." She walked around the table, then sat directly on the table, raised a finger and lightly tapped the tabletop in front of Mothma.
"The reason why His Majesty the Emperor tolerates you Imperial Senate criticizing his policies, opposing his motions, and speaking out against the Empire's policies, do you really think this is His Majesty the Emperor "Is His Majesty the Emperor afraid of your family?" She shook her head, "To be honest, I really envy you many times, because His Majesty the Emperor has a very clear positioning of you - a cute doll."
"You should play your role well and show your resistance, your freedom, and your tenacity in the parliament. This is also what His Majesty the Emperor expects. Because only people like you exist, can we show the Empire to the outside world 's democracy, freedom, equality... So, you only need to continue to live your luxurious life, indulge in money all day long, and then go to the parliament to curse, that is enough... You said, how can you not make me envious of such a life?"
Isanne-Isard stood up from the table, walked around behind Meng-Mothma, grabbed the back of her seat with both hands, pressed her ear from behind, and said slowly, "But... why do you always want to change something? Don't you know that you actually Nothing can be changed? His Majesty the Emperor has one vote and one vote to decide. And we... have the power to directly implement it. Do you still remember the bill you proposed last year to reduce the intensity of Planet Trassos's taxes and help them survive the famine?"
A ferocious smile appeared on her face, "Actually, this is what we did... We did reduce the intensity of labor and exempted taxes. But we used the most scarce food as labor remuneration, increased the price of food, and limited the supply... After starving more than 70 million people to death, wow, you don't know Planet Trassos are so motivated to work. Hahahaha... They even asked us to extend their working hours, hahahaha! But according to Senator Mothma, how much food can they get if they work for eight hours a day?
"You guys... you are such bastards who violate human ethics! Butcher!" Meng-Mothma gritted his teeth.
"It's you who starved them to death." Isanne-Isard patted Mothma's shoulder, but the latter opened it with a wave of his hand. She looked at the red back of her hand, shook her head and sneered, "And your ex "Imperial Reconstruction Act" was proposed shortly. You proposed to reduce the power of the emperor, let the Empire gradually transition to a virtual monarchy, strengthen the power of the parliament, and discuss various proposals as openly as possible. But... is it useful?"
"Everyone knows that the power in their hands comes from the emperor. His Majesty gave them the power, do they dare to take it away? Oh, indeed they dare, but after taking over this huge power, they still have to ask His Majesty for instructions on every detail. Ah, they are so smart, because they always understand that this power comes from His Majesty, not the Parliament... What about you? Do you understand?"
Meng-Mothma's face darkened, and she slowly lowered her head.
"It seems that you understand." Isanne-Isard laughed with satisfaction, "No matter what you do, what you say, or what kind of motion is passed, for the Empire, it will always be the left hand before the right hand. We will always have a way to turn every word you say into a favorable result for the Empire. So... isn't it good? You don't even need to be responsible for what you said. Because, we will take responsibility for you."
"With people like you, we can dispel people's illusions bit by bit and strengthen the Empire's centralized power bit by bit. In the repeated quarrels, more and more people will support power." Isanne-Isard said, "Do you know a creature called Rice Frogs on Planet Kratooine? If you put them in warm water and heat them slowly, they will be unresponsive and won't struggle until they are cooked. Isn't it very vivid?"
She returned to her seat, sat opposite Meng-Mothma, stared into her eyes, and said word for word, "But this time, you made a mistake. You shouldn't be involved with the Rebel Alliance. Because... this is more than just talk."
"For this kind of baseless accusation, you'd better have actual evidence in your hands. Because once it is confirmed that you are trying to frame a Imperial Senator, you should know what results you will face." Meng-Mothma said.
"Frankly speaking, we have a very complete chain of inferences, including your behavior, motives, results, etc., very complete. But there is no direct evidence." Isanne-Isard shook his head.
Meng-Mothma snorted, "A waste of time." She stood up and wanted to leave.
However, Isanne-Isard's iron-like right hand grabbed her shoulder without any courtesy! Isanne, who was born as an intelligence agent, has a physical quality far beyond that of Meng-Mothma, the Noble House aristocratic lady. This time she showed her true strength, and Mothma was pushed back to the seat without any resistance.
"How dare you use force against Imperial Senator!"
"Oh, I seem to have forgotten to remind you just now." Isanne-Isard said coldly, "Under the current situation, the inferred results are enough."
Two Intelligence Bureau agents walked in from outside the door, one on the left and one on the right holding Meng-Mothma's shoulders.
"Remember what I said? Whatever you do, we will turn it into a beneficial result for the Empire." Isanne-Isard said, "So, before we really start to do something and let the results completely escape your imagination, I suggest you tell us honestly, how much can you save us some money?"
"You are trampling on Imperial law!!" Meng-Mothma scolded angrily.
"His Majesty the Emperor, that is Imperial law." Isanne-Isard said coldly, "Now, you are officially arrested. Senator Mothma, in the name of dereliction of duty and corruption... Before I accuse you of treason, you should think carefully about what you have to add to me."
"You'd better do this! Isanne! Then you will understand that you are challenging the bottom line of the entire Core Worlds!" Meng-Mothma said through gritted teeth.
"Take it away." Isanne smiled coldly, waved his hand and walked out.
This storm is still going on. After Bail-Organa learned that Meng-Mothma was formally arrested, he immediately gathered a group of members to formally impeach Imperial Intelligence Bureau for his unfounded arrest.
At the same time, he also threatened that if the matter is not resolved, the star district they represent will refuse to pay taxes and directly withdraw investment in the Galactic Empire!