The time enters 29BBY, time flies by, and it has been 3 years since Darth Plagueis died and Sheev Palpatine became the Supreme Chancellor.
During this period of time, not too many things have happened to Dawn or the Galactic Republic, but in general, except for Dawn's real battle with the Ayrous, most of them are just minor storms, the tranquillity of before.
Palpatine has been working on consolidating his own power. He first showed his flaws and made Deputy Chancellor Mas Amedda think that he can influence himself to a large extent. Mas Amedda proposed several proposals, and all issues were passed by him.
Not only that, but the easygoing he showed in the early days of his administration also made some people from other political parties think that there was an opportunity to take advantage of him, so they began to approach him.
But in fact, Palpatine was just letting all this happen. He didn't care about the impact these people would have on the Republic through the issues he raised. What he cared about was only continuously improving his own secret strength.
He kept building good relations with those old, powerful industrial planets and used his rights to make deals. He initially used the project of the Clone Army to throw out this bait and tested large industrial enterprises such as Kuat Drive Yards, Rendili StarDrive, and Corellian Engineering Corporation.
It was the Kuat Drive Yards that finally bit the hook, and Palpatine also generously gave them their first gift-a Military Order for a full set of equipment needed by the Clone Army, worth 7 Billion Credits, and the Interstellar Banking Clan guarantee and paid this huge sum of money.
And what Palpatine got in exchange was the allegiance of Planet Kuat.
These industrial planets are eager for power and yearn for war because only war can allow them to get more benefits, so they hit it off with Palpatine's policies and became Palpatine's secret supporters.
After that, in the process of constant contact with Mas Amedda and those other political factions, he secretly searched for their weaknesses.
Palpatine is very clear that in his first term, he can't do too much. He is not the kind of person who wants a new official to take office. He wants more, taller, bigger ...
What he is doing now is to get more support.
Whether it is Mas Amedda or some other political factions, they regard him as a weak Supreme Chancellor. They think that they can use Palpatine to achieve more goals and seek more interests. In fact, They did, and all the black accounts were recorded by Palpatine.
On the other hand, Francis Underwood, Senator of the Dawn, is aggressive. He has a strong aura, is eloquent, and has a powerful planet behind him. Around him, many Outer Ring Planets are also united.
But it was precisely because of this that Palpatine knew that Francis would not become his real political opponent, and those swinging fools would not choose Francis.
At the beginning of the year 29BBY, the Senate of the Galactic Republic began to be busy and noisy as always, all for the election of the next year.
The term of the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate is 4 years, and the Constitution of the Republic stipulates that the Supreme Chancellor can be re-elected at most once.
As Sheev Palpatine, who was on the way to the position of Supreme Chancellor, still has too much to do, because without a complete election, it is difficult for him to know who his real supporters are, and everything is feeling like stones cross the river. It is true that there have been few examples of successful re-election of the Supreme Chancellor who ascended to the throne halfway through the generations.
But this is not a problem for a Political Master like Palpatine.
Francis Underwood has also become a candidate, but his actions are very strange. He has indeed canvassed votes and gained support, but more of them are targeting planets in the Middle Ring and Outer Ring Star Regions and doesn't want to win over the planets in the Inner Ring. Of course, those aristocratic lords in the Inner Ring would not be able to take such a young member of an emerging planet seriously.
Compared with canvassing for the Supreme Chancellor's election, Francis' behavior is more like dividing his own sphere of influence.
Palpatine looked at this with cold eyes. If such behavior is not stupid, then he is planning something more long-term.
From what he knew of Francis, Palpatine knew that it would definitely not be the former.
But something happened during this time. A Jedi Master named Jorus C'baoth began to lobby for a very grand plan-Outbound Flight.
This proposal is a proposal to explore, develop and colonize the Unknown Star Region of the Milky Way. The Unknown Star Region is a Star Field that occupies about one-third of the size of the entire Milky Way. According to estimates, the Unknown Regions contain 15% of the mass of stars in the Milky Way.
If the entire Milky Way is flattened as a map, and the coordinates are drawn according to the traditional Star Map of the Galactic Republic, the Unknown Star Region is located on the west side of the Milky Way.
Of course, there is no term for the Milky Way. The west side only refers to the west side of the Star Map. By the way, Dawn where Tang Xiao is located is roughly in the southwest corner of the Star Map.
The area of the Unknown Star Region is very vast. In fact, the territory of the Galactic Republic is equivalent to a two-thirds circle, and a large area of the Inner Ring Star Area close to this direction on the west side is the Unknown Star Region.
Therefore, in fact, the Middle Ring and Outer Ring of the Galactic Republic are not really a ring but are truncated in the Unknown Star Regions.
The Unknown Regions contain a large number of resources, and according to the judgment of scientists, there are likely to be countless Dark Matter energies disturbing here. In other words, if you want to study Dark Matter, you will get twice the result with half the effort in the Unknown Regions.
This is different from the Wild Space. There are not many habitable planets in the Wild Space, and the resources are scarce, so basically no one cares about it.
But the reason why the Galactic Republic's hegemony did not extend to the Unknown Regions, and the reason why the Unknown Regions are 'Unknown' is because this space is full of abnormal gravity traps and dark energy fluctuations.
And Hyperspace is a complete mess here, you enter the Hyperspace Channel at the same place, and the place you get out of is completely different, maybe a black hole, maybe an electromagnetic nebula, maybe directly plunged into a star.
Explorers call this messy Hyperspace Channel in the Unknown Regions the 'Tangle', which means a mess that can't be made out at all.
But now, Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth claims that he has the ability to travel in Hyperspace in the Unknown Regions.