Chapter Summaries

Aierfei explained to the captured Lavoisier how the Federation won over the eight civilizations and offered the Blue Radiance Republic the same favorable subordinate agreement. Lavoisier agreed to help persuade his leader, and Tarz finally received a call from him.

• Lavoisier asked Aierfei how she had persuaded eight civilizations to betray the Blue Radiance Republic, and explained how he had identified them as the likely traitors.
• Aierfei showed Lavoisier the Federation's Subordinate Civilization Agreement, revealing why the eight civilizations had switched sides.
• Aierfei offered to recruit Lavoisier and the Blue Radiance Republic, warning that he had only minutes before their fleet reached the Federation's defensive line.
• Lavoisier confirmed that the Blue Radiance Republic would receive the agreement's terms and agreed to help, asking Aierfei to establish communications.
• Tarz's secretary reported that communications with Commander Lavoisier had been established, and Tarz ordered the call patched through.

Lavoisier persuaded Tarz to order the Blue Radiance Republic fleet to defect, and six other civilizations followed them through hyperspace to join humanity. With Lavoisier imprisoned and the United Fleet in disarray, Aierfei began attacking as enemy crews tried to flee.

• Lavoisier contacted Tarz and urgently instructed him to send specific orders and coordinates to the fleet.
• Tarz trusted Lavoisier, ended the call, and had his secretary transmit the orders to the fleet.
• The Blue Radiance Republic fleet and fleets from six other civilizations entered hyperspace and reappeared beside the human fleet.
• Aierfei ordered the Federation fleet to attack the confused United Fleet while Lavoisier remained her prisoner.
• Some United Fleet crews tried to escape, and some killed officers who attempted to stop them.

After the United Fleet collapsed, Lavoisier learned that an unknown civilization had invaded the Blue Radiance Republic and conquered the systems defending its capital. Tarz stayed behind to face the invasion, appointed Lavoisier the new leader, and entrusted him with the Republic’s evacuation and future.

• The United Fleet panicked and was destroyed over five hours, after which Aierfei released Lavoisier to return to his warship.
• Tarz asked Lavoisier about his agreement with humanity and learned that the Blue Radiance Republic had become a subordinate civilization.
• Tarz revealed that an unknown civilization had annihilated the Republic’s fleet at the Cosmic Current and captured five systems around the Capital Sphere.
• Lavoisier urged Tarz to evacuate, but Tarz chose to stay and ordered Lavoisier to become the Republic’s new leader.
• Tarz told Lavoisier that the Kindling Plan had been activated and its selected citizens were being sent to him, then asked him to save as many others as possible.

After learning that a powerful civilization had invaded the Blue Radiance Republic, Lavoisier asked Aierfei to help evacuate as many people as possible. Aierfei reviewed the enemy data and realized the invaders might be a Ninth Order Civilization with strength comparable to the Zilun Empire, far beyond the Federation fleet’s ability to defeat.

• Lavoisier studied Tarz’s reports and decided he had to rescue the Blue Radiance Republic’s people despite the enemy’s overwhelming strength.
• Lavoisier invoked the Federation’s duty to protect subordinate civilizations and contacted Aierfei to request help with evacuating his people.
• Aierfei received reports of a distant battle and Dark Energy impacts near the Cosmic Current in Blue Radiance Republic territory.
• Lavoisier explained the invasion and sent Tarz’s data to Aierfei, who identified the enemy as a likely advanced Ninth Order Civilization.
• Aierfei concluded that the invaders’ combat power was comparable to the Zilun Empire and that her 25 billion warships could not defeat them.

Aierfei decided to abandon the Holter Supercluster and asked Lavoisier about his plan, while Arno's Moy Union forces advanced toward the Terra Empire. After learning that humanity was involved, Arno ordered his forces to crack Tarz's hyperspace interference and capture the civilization's leader alive.

• Aierfei judged that her conventional Elf Fleet could not oppose the vastly larger, more powerful enemy and decided to evacuate the Holter Supercluster while helping Lavoisier.
• Arno questioned why the Blue Radiance Republic's forces had been so weak, regretted ordering that no survivors be left, and told Sarna to preserve survivors and investigate the supercluster.
• Sarna's fleet attacked the Lampe System, defeated its three Terra Empire patrol fleets, and captured three disabled warships after Sarna ordered her subordinates to rein in their attacks.
• Arno received Sarna's intelligence that humanity was behind the weakness of the local Eighth Order civilizations, but found the information insufficient to assess humanity's strength.
• Arno learned that Tarz's hyperspace interference would take about half an hour to crack and ordered his forces to limit planetary damage and capture the Terra Empire's leader alive.

Arno prepared to attack the Blue Radiance Republic’s capital while Lavoisier’s rescue plan reached Lin Fan and the Federal commanders. Lin Yu argued that Aierfei needed authorization to use a Doomsday Bomb during the withdrawal to deter the Moy Union until reinforcements arrived.

• Arno ordered his fleet to preserve the capital’s facilities and capture the Republic’s leader while rapidly cracking the hyperspace interference.
• Lavoisier sent Aierfei a rescue and withdrawal plan designed to evacuate at least twenty percent of the Republic’s population while minimizing Federal casualties.
• Lin Fan presented the plan to the Federal commanders, who learned that Lavoisier, a commander from a newly affiliated civilization, had devised it and was recommended as commander-in-chief of affiliated fleets.
• Lin Yu warned that Aierfei’s fleet would remain vulnerable after retreating to the Renos Supercluster and proposed authorizing a Doomsday Bomb to deter the Moy Union.

Lin Fan ordered the Doomsday Bomb prepared to deter pursuit as the Federation withdrew toward the Renos Supercluster, and sent Zi Ling and Wang Hai ahead with Zi Luo to follow as reinforcements. When the generals objected to leaving the Viers Supercluster without an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator, Lin Fan revealed that he was the Federation’s fifth.

• Lin Fan backed Lin Yu’s proposal to use the Doomsday Bomb and warned that the Federation could not risk losing the Renos Supercluster.
• Lin Yu said it would take at least a year to gather and deploy the Second Headquarters’ scattered fleets to the Renos Supercluster.
• Lin Fan ordered Zi Ling and Wang Hai’s Nether Fleet to depart immediately and rendezvous with Aierfei, then arranged for Zi Luo to join the main fleet as a reinforcement.
• The generals protested that moving all known S-Class Dark Energy Manipulators would leave the Viers Supercluster vulnerable to the Zilun Empire.
• Lin Fan revealed that the Federation had a fifth S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator and identified himself as that person.

Aierfei approved a revised battle plan to use one Doomsday Bomb against the enemy fleet attacking the Terra Empire’s border trade hub, aiming to deter the invasion while limiting future damage. As Tarz warned Lavoisier that the enemy had reached the Capital Sphere, Lavoisier received the plan and wondered what the Doomsday Bomb was.

• Aierfei chose the roughly fifty-billion-warship fleet near the Terra Empire’s border as the target for a Doomsday Bomb, intending to conserve the weapon and avoid devastating future Federal territory.
• Aierfei ordered her forces to prepare for the operation within an hour and told Lavoisier to use the time gained to evacuate as many people as possible.
• Tarz saw enemy warships enter the Capital Sphere less than two hours after they breached its interference network, and he warned Lavoisier that the enemy could rapidly crack the interference parameters.
• Lavoisier learned that the administrative districts were evacuating civilians and ordered governors to execute anyone obstructing the evacuation.
• Lavoisier received Aierfei’s encrypted battle plan, recognized most of it as his own work, and questioned the unfamiliar changes, including the Doomsday Bomb.

After the Moy Union captured the Blue Radiance Republic’s capital, Arno studied recordings of humanity’s forces and ordered two detached fleets to rendezvous with his main fleet after completing their missions. Meanwhile, Aierfei began evacuating six Federal affiliate civilizations from Holtair, but only three committed to leaving entirely.

• The Blue Radiance Republic’s forces destroyed their facilities and leader’s residence rather than let Arno’s troops capture them, leaving him without the intelligence he sought.
• Arno studied Terra Empire combat recordings and found that humanity’s Dark Energy technology seemed to exceed what its overall technological level should allow.
• Arno ordered Sarna and Ramni to finish their current attacks on two capitals, then bring their fleets to rendezvous with him.
• Aierfei offered six affiliate civilizations territory in the Renos Supercluster and future help reclaiming their homelands if they evacuated Holtair.
• Three civilizations chose to evacuate fully, while the other three sent only elites with the Federation and left their main populations in Holtair.

Sers accepted Lavoisier’s plan to lure the invading fleet into a trap at Koseqin Outpost, where Aierfei’s forces waited with Doomsday Bombs. The Sarna Fleet arrived with fifty billion ships, while the Terra Empire’s Garrison Fleets surrendered immediately, leaving the Federation’s commanders waiting for the bomb’s kill zone to fill.

• Sers agreed to Lavoisier’s request to withdraw the Terra Empire’s main fleets while leaving its Garrison Fleets at Koseqin as bait.
• Lavoisier joined Aierfei aboard the Thersus, where they waited with the Federation’s five attack groups and a Doomsday Bomb planted at Koseqin.
• The Sarna Fleet arrived at Koseqin with an estimated fifty billion warships, and Aierfei held back until more of them entered the bomb’s kill zone.
• The Terra Empire’s Garrison Fleets abandoned their weapons and propulsion systems and sent surrender signals as Sarna’s fleet approached.
• Sarna held back from attacking the surrendered fleets and prepared to search their officers for useful intelligence.

Aierfei detonated a Doomsday Bomb against Sarna’s fleet, spreading lethal Knox Particles across the battlefield and leaving most of the fleet incapacitated. Sarna escaped with a fraction of her forces, while Aierfei and Lavoisier discussed the weapon’s limited deployment options.

• Aierfei detonated the Doomsday Bomb, and Knox Particle detectors showed its crimson spread engulfing much of Sarna’s fleet.
• Sarna and her crew began suffering worsening symptoms, and many officers collapsed as the Knox Particles took effect.
• Sarna ordered the fleet to retreat, then piloted her flagship into hyperspace while fewer than seven billion ships escaped with it.
• Aierfei asked Lavoisier’s opinion of the weapon, and he compared its power favorably to the Blue Radiance Republic’s Zero-Point Armament.
• Aierfei agreed that the Doomsday Bomb’s deployment limitations made it less dangerous to Eighth Order Civilizations and above in conventional battles.

After most of Sarna’s fleet vanished and its crews became inexplicably lifeless, Arno sent Cheyina’s assault teams aboard the remaining ships. They found Sarna alive but barely conscious, and Arno ordered them to locate and rescue other surviving high-level Dark Energy Users.

• Arno authorized Cheyina to send assault teams aboard Sarna’s warship and took control of the teams’ command system.
• The assault team entered the warship and found the crew dead without visible injuries, with no signs of life elsewhere aboard.
• The team found Sarna alive at the helm, confirmed the ship’s treatment pods were working, and took her to the medical bay.
• Arno concluded that high-level Dark Energy Users might resist the deadly incident after reviewing records from the ships that escaped.
• Arno ordered assault teams to search the remaining warships for high-level Dark Energy Users and rescue any survivors.

After Sarna survived the destruction of most of her fleet, she told Arno that she had found no trace of the enemy. Arno learned that the Blue Radiance Republic was evacuating toward the Renos Supercluster, suspected the humans were behind Sarna’s defeat, and ordered a search for their fleet before discovering that the Yeripok Fleet had gone silent.

• Sarna awoke in a medical pod and recounted her fleet’s defeat to Arno, reporting that she had found no enemy ships.
• Arno’s adjutant reported that the Blue Radiance Republic was evacuating toward the Renos Supercluster, including its main fleet.
• Arno suspected the humans had caused Sarna’s losses and might be sheltering the Blue Radiance Republic, so he ordered contact with them and a search across one million light-years.
• Arno learned that the Yeripok Fleet had missed its scheduled response and ordered the nearest fleet to investigate its situation in the Brant Empire.

Yeripok’s fleet was trapped in the Lanster System, where mysterious interference disabled most of his warships and communications. The Brant Empire attacked alongside a human fleet, while Aierfei held back and waited for the enemy fleet to weaken.

• Yeripok discovered that the Lanster System was empty and that hyperspace and spatial transmission were being jammed.
• Mysterious deaths and Ghost Ships left Yeripok unable to contact nearly ninety percent of his fleet, while the Dark Energy Network was also jammed.
• Yeripok learned that 95 billion enemy warships had arrived, including 70 billion Brant Empire ships and 25 billion human ships.
• The Brant Empire launched a close-range assault on Yeripok’s remaining five billion warships as Aierfei’s human fleet waited three AU away.
• Lavoisier negotiated human support for the Brant Empire, whose Sester System garrison agreed to obey human command during the campaign.

Aierfei lifted the communications blockade so Yeripok would learn the Federation was behind the attacks and be deterred from pursuing it. Yeripok contacted Arno’s main fleet, but the chapter ended just as the communication request arrived.

• Aierfei explained that the Federation needed to reveal its role in the attacks for them to serve as deterrence, then ordered all battlefield communications jamming lifted.
• Yeripok’s fleet continued fighting the Brant Empire’s forces, suffering heavy losses while the human fleet waited on the perimeter.
• Yeripok learned that long-range communications had been restored and ordered his adjutant to contact General Arno immediately.
• Arno’s main fleet remained unable to reach Yeripok and awaited reconnaissance ships, which were still hours away.
• Arno’s communications officer announced that the Yeripok Fleet had sent a communication request.

Arno learned that Yeripok’s fleet had suffered the same catastrophic losses as Sarna’s and ordered Yeripok to hold out until the main fleet could arrive. Yeripok shifted to an all-defense strategy to stall for time, and Aierfei sent the human fleet in to stop him.

• Arno connected with Yeripok and learned that more than ninety percent of Yeripok’s fleet had been destroyed, with the remnants surrounded by the Brant Empire and a human fleet.
• Yeripok reported that a small explosion had preceded the anomaly, and Arno suspected humanity was behind the fleet’s sudden losses.
• Arno ordered Yeripok to hold out for at least four hours and speed up the effort to crack the Hyperspace Interference.
• Yeripok shut down the fleet’s weapons and diverted nearly all available energy to its shields, reducing losses while leaving the Brant Empire fleet to slaughter the defenseless ships.
• Aierfei and Lavoisier realized Yeripok was stalling for Arno’s main fleet, so Aierfei ordered the Brant Empire fleet to withdraw and the human fleet to attack.

Yeripok abandoned his fleet’s defensive formation to pursue the retreating Brant Empire ships, but the Federation trapped both fleets in a chaotic battlefield and destroyed them with indiscriminate fire. As Yeripok ordered a final attack, a Dark Energy Attack pierced his flagship’s shields and struck its bridge.

• Yeripok ordered his fleet to charge the Brant Empire fleet after the humans began firing on his defensive formation.
• Aierfei and Lavoisier ordered the Brant Empire to leave two attack groups behind while the rest of its fleet withdrew.
• Yeripok’s fleet became entangled with the Brant Empire rear guard, and the Federation attacked both fleets with concentrated and area fire.
• Yeripok realized his defeat was inevitable and ordered his fleet to activate its weapons for a final attack on the humans.
• A Dark Energy Attack pierced Yeripok’s flagship shields and struck its bridge.

After destroying Yeripok's fleet, Aierfei cleared the Hyperspace Interference so the Federal Fleet could withdraw before the enemy's main force arrived. With the Blue Radiance Republic's evacuation far behind schedule, she prioritized its professional specialists as the seeds of its future and prepared to head for the Brant Empire's Sander System.

• After Yeripok died, the leaderless Yelipok Fleet was annihilated by the Federal Fleet and Brant Empire forces.
• Aierfei ordered her fleet to locate and destroy the enemy's Hyperspace Interference Devices, then confirmed that hyperspace travel was possible again.
• Lavoisier told Aierfei that the Blue Radiance Republic had evacuated only two percent of its population because it lacked spacecraft.
• Aierfei explained that the evacuation prioritized scientists, engineers, medical specialists, and other professionals as the Blue Radiance Republic's seeds.
• Aierfei ordered the fleet to set course for the Brant Empire's Sander System and wait for her command.

Aierfei’s Federal Fleet escaped the Sester System just before Arno arrived, then left hyperspace interference to delay his pursuit. Arno abandoned his gamble on reaching the human fleet first and ordered his forces to destroy the Brant Empire fleet while the interference was cleared.

• Aierfei ordered the Federal Fleet to enter hyperspace before Arno’s fleet arrived, then activated interference devices across the Sester System.
• Arno learned that the human fleet had escaped, and his adjutant explained that its destination could not be identified among three possible systems.
• Arno ordered two attack groups to destroy the Brant Empire fleet and sent the rest of his fleet toward Target A, gambling that the humans had gone to Target C.
• Arno’s fleet could not depart because 127 hyperspace interference devices were scattered across the Sester System, and clearing them would take at least two hours.
• Arno ordered his fleet to crack the interference and destroy the Brant Empire fleet as quickly as possible.

After the Brant Empire fleet was overwhelmed, Arno halted the attack on its remaining forces and used them to investigate humanity’s Doomsday Bomb. He estimated the weapon’s death zone could persist for thousands of years and concluded that preventing humanity from deploying it was the key countermeasure.

• Arno stopped his fleet from attacking the nearly 30 billion Brant Empire warships and ordered them driven into the area affected by the Doomsday Bomb.
• Arno used the deaths of Brant crews to estimate that the weapon’s lethal range extended 10,000 light-years and killed exposed personnel within a minute.
• Arno ordered more fleets into the death zone at intervals to measure how long its effects lasted.
• Arno’s officers estimated that the death zone could persist for 5,000 to 50,000 years.
• Arno concluded that humanity likely had limited ways to deploy the weapon and resolved to cut off those means.