Chapter Summaries

Lord Hydra assigned Jerec and High Inquisitor Halmere to investigate the Twilight Covenant after Darth Vader killed Granit and warned the Inquisitorius. Tang Xiao learned that the Grysk Hegemony was trying to influence him and heard that two Dark Templars might have been captured or killed.

• Darth Vader killed Granit, reprimanded Lord Hydra over the Inquisitorius's failures, and warned her against further mistakes.
• Lord Hydra ordered Jerec and High Inquisitor Halmere to investigate the Duchy of Dawn and uncover the Twilight Covenant, even if Jerec had to be sacrificed.
• Tang Xiao woke from another dream in which a Grysk will urged him to accept its influence, and he told Rosales that it had formed a channel through Jikstus.
• Tang Xiao said he would accelerate the Togot Swarm's evolution and expansion, while Rosales warned him about Abathur and the risk of losing control of the Kilik Swarm.
• Rosales reported that Aura Khan and Sola Ah had lost their psionic links, and suggested that the Grysk Hegemony might have controlled them.

The Togot Swarm invaded Korb Planet to destroy the Les Swarm and harvest its essence. The battle began with the Togot Swarm’s bugs charging into a powerful venom barrage.

• Abathur criticized the Kilik Swarm’s food-nest farming and described the Togot Swarm’s primitive, biomass-filled fleet.
• The Togurt Mother Nest explained that food nests kept weakened swarms alive and pledged loyalty to Lord Tang Xiao.
• The Togurt Mother Nest and Abathur planned to destroy the Les Swarm, gain its essence, and eventually attack the Kilik Core Nest.
• Abathur dissected Les Swarm bugs to study their venom glands and muscle structures.
• The Togot Swarm dropped hundreds of millions of bugs onto Korb Planet, where they charged toward the Les Swarm’s forces and Mother Nest.
• The Les Swarm met the advancing Togot bugs with a long-range barrage of high-pressure venom.

The Togot Swarm overwhelmed the Les Swarm with a massive assault, using burrowing troops and Fire-spitting Insects to break through its defenses. After the slaughter, Abathur began tearing apart the Les Mother Nest and absorbing its essence.

• The Les Swarm’s Spitter Insects sprayed corrosive venom at the advancing Togot Swarm as both sides committed millions of creatures to battle.
• Togot Swarm creatures tunneled beneath the Les Swarm’s formation and burst out among its Spitter Insects.
• Togot Swarm Scythe Drones, armored beetles, and Fire-spitting Insects devastated the Les Swarm and helped break its defensive line.
• By nightfall, the Les Swarm’s forces had been massacred and its Mother Nest was surrounded.
• Abathur crawled before the Les Mother Nest, tore into its body, and drove a spike into its core to absorb its essence.

Tang Xiao decided to unleash the Togot Swarm against the Grysk Hegemony despite Sherry Birkin’s warning that the Kilik Swarm could not be contained. After learning how the Grysk used the Agbui to undermine target populations, he ordered an immediate campaign toward the Dark Templar’s last known direction and demanded the Agbui reveal their homeworld.

• Sherry Birkin warned Tang Xiao that the Zerg could not be safely raised or contained, and Tang Xiao said he would deploy the Togot Swarm against Grysk-controlled systems.
• Tang Xiao resolved to attack the Grysk Hegemony urgently because of his connection to a powerful unknown presence and the disappearance of Oola-Khan and Sola-A.
• Rosales explained that the Grysk used Agbui telepathy to gather information and amplify a species’ anxieties until its psychological defenses collapsed.
• Rosales said the Agbui did not know their homeworld’s location, and Tang Xiao ordered them to find it or be sealed in insulating material that blocked their telepathy.
• Tang Xiao summoned Rassidan and declared the decisive campaign against the Grysk Hegemony underway as cargo ships carrying the Swarm gathered outside.

Tang Xiao unleashed the Togot Swarm across Grysk-controlled worlds, where new insect strains and Joiners helped the swarm overwhelm Senka Planet. He left after deploying insects on four planets in half a month, while the invasions continued.

• The Togot Swarm invaded Senka Planet with Spine Insects and Poison Bugs, quickly crushing its defenses and capturing the capital.
• The swarm built a nest in the capital, consuming the dead to sustain its growth and hatch more insects.
• Grysk-controlled natives became Joiners, breaking free of Grysk psychic control and coordinating uprisings with the swarm.
• Under Tang Xiao's guidance, the Hive Mother used tactics as the swarm and Joiners gradually overran Senka Planet's cities.
• Tang Xiao left Senka Planet after deploying more than ten million insects there and sent the Togot Swarm to four Grysk-controlled planets within half a month.

Tang Xiao led the Togot Swarm and his fleet against Grysk-controlled planets, despite Abathur’s objections, hoping to force the Grysk Hegemony to reveal a weakness. The Grysk launched a surprise attack three days later, but Tang Xiao’s forces destroyed their fleet with minimal losses, leaving Rassidan to warn that the assault may have been a test.

• Tang Xiao’s battered fleet returned to orbit around Senka Planet as B-1 Battle Droids and Joiners loaded Zerg into transport ships for future invasions.
• Abathur warned Tang Xiao that the Togot Swarm lacked the strength for interstellar warfare and urged him to attack the Kilik Core Nest first, but Tang Xiao refused and ordered him to develop stronger Zerg strains.
• Tang Xiao asked High Templar Rassidan about the Dark Templars, and Rassidan reported that they had come but that Oola-Khan and the others remained undetected.
• Three days later, as Tang Xiao’s fleet began an orbital drop on a fifth Grysk-controlled planet, a fleet of three capital ships and more than forty cruisers attacked from hyperspace.
• Tang Xiao’s warships destroyed the Grysk fleet in two hours, losing more than twenty cargo ships while suffering only light damage to one Kohl-class Battlecruiser.
• Rassidan warned Tang Xiao that the Grysk fleet had likely been sent to test his forces, signaling that the Grysk Hegemony intended to act.

Tang Xiao and Rassidan waited for the Grysk counterattack, then chose Aberla Planet as a random target to avoid a possible ambush. When their fleet arrived, they found a massive enemy fleet already waiting in battle formation.

• Tang Xiao waited more than a week for the Grysk counterattack while his forces consolidated control of the fifth planet.
• Tang Xiao interrogated a captured Grysk and reviewed what he knew about Grysk ranks, their controlled worlds, and their hidden core forces.
• Tang Xiao decided to strike Aberla Planet at random, suspecting Oola-Khan and the others might have been controlled and the remaining known planets could be traps.
• Rassidan approved Tang Xiao's plan, and the fleet made more than ten hyperspace jumps to reach Aberla Planet.
• Tang Xiao rushed to the command center when the Luukri-Hok-class battleship's alarms sounded and saw a massive fleet waiting outside the planet.

Tang Xiao’s fleet was ambushed by the Grysk Hegemony’s overwhelming main fleet after a battle plan known to only three people was apparently exposed. With his ships scattered and cargo vessels being destroyed, Tang Xiao and the High Templars tried to form a spearhead and escape, but he suddenly sensed something in the distant void.

• Tang Xiao saw more than two thousand Grysk warships and angrily questioned High Templars Rassidan and Rosales about a possible leak or control.
• Rassidan suggested the Grysks might have influenced Tang Xiao’s judgment, and Tang Xiao ordered his forces to prepare for battle.
• The Grysk fleet attacked while Tang Xiao’s ships were scattered after their hyperspace jump, and cargo vessels were destroyed in droves.
• Tang Xiao ordered his fleet to abandon the cargo ships, reform its formation, and break through the Grysk encirclement.
• Rassidan and Rosales used cargo ships carrying Togurt bugs as shields while organizing the ten warships into a counterattack formation.
• Tang Xiao suddenly sensed something and turned toward the distant void.

Tang Xiao sensed Black Star through the void and became consumed by the urge to kill him, despite warnings that the Grysk were luring him into a trap. Rassidan found Tang Xiao aboard his battleship and learned that their clash of wills had injured them both, while the Dark Templar were also in the void.

• Tang Xiao sensed Black Star trying to control him and insisted on going to kill him, while Rosales and Rassidan warned that it was a trap.
• Rassidan left Rosales in command of the fleet and flew to Tang Xiao's battleship.
• Rassidan found the bridge filled with dead Joiners and Tang Xiao surrounded by an overwhelming Dark Side Force.
• Tang Xiao gave Rassidan a bracer that raised a Force barrier and explained that he and Black Star had injured each other when their wills touched.
• Tang Xiao pointed toward Black Star and the Dark Templar in the void, rejected Rassidan's offer to accompany him, and said only the sleeping Tassadar might be strong enough to join the confrontation.

Tang Xiao escaped the Togot Swarm’s pursuit with Rassidan’s help, then reached a remote moon where he found the Dark Templar and an injured Grysk. The Grysk addressed Tang Xiao, leaving the reason for his presence and the fate of the Dark Templar unresolved.

• Rassidan left Tang Xiao to rescue the Dark Templar and returned to his battlecruiser.
• Rassidan ordered his ships to cover Tang Xiao’s damaged Luukri-Hok-class battleship as it broke through the pursuing fleet and jumped to hyperspace.
• Tang Xiao brought the battleship to a remote system and docked beside a moon near an orange-red gas giant.
• Tang Xiao flew to the moon, entered an ancient ruin, and found Oola-Khan and Sola-A within the shadows.
• A black spherical aircraft descended, and an injured Grysk asked Tang Xiao if he was Tang Xiao.

Tang Xiao and Black Star clashed in a psychic battle on a secret moon, each badly wounding the other as Black Star’s plan to control Tang Xiao unraveled. Their linked minds revealed their locations, and two hidden Dark Templars began to stir while the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Tang Xiao resisted Black Star’s amplified mind control with his will and Death Force, and the two staggered away from their clash badly injured.
• Black Star recalled how he had planned to control the Duchy of Dawn through Tang Xiao, after Jikstus’s death and the Kilik Swarm’s attacks threatened Grysk interests.
• Black Star had lured Tang Xiao’s fleet to Aberla Planet and used a secret weapon on a nearby moon to amplify his psychic attack.
• Black Star’s assault collided with a mental wall Tang Xiao had built against Darth Pregas, causing severe damage to both men and linking their minds.
• The psychic link exposed their locations, and the fingers of two concealed Dark Templars twitched in the shadows.

Tang Xiao used Black Star’s psychic control against him by linking him to the resurrected Togot Mother Nest, destroying Black Star’s consciousness. Tang Xiao then lost control as the mother nest, Black Star’s lingering will, and the Dark Side Force fought within him, and Oola-Khan and Sola-A prepared to stop him.

• Black Star tried to recruit Tang Xiao to help kill Darth Sidious, but Tang Xiao rejected him and summoned a Luukri-Hok-class battleship carrying a mass of rotten flesh.
• Black Star used the Relics to amplify his psychic power and took control of Tang Xiao, but discovered the rotten flesh was a resurrected Togot Mother Nest connected to Tang Xiao through Death Force.
• The Togot Mother Nest eroded Black Star’s mind, and his consciousness dissipated as Tang Xiao laughed.
• Oola-Khan and Sola-A emerged from their shadow state, recognized that Tang Xiao had lost control, and clasped hands to unleash Void Energy and crimson flames.

Oola-Khan and Sola-A fused into a Dark Archon to confront Tang Xiao’s chaotic power, but the blast destroyed the Archon and left Tang Xiao’s fate unclear. As the surviving forces regrouped, the Priestess warned Qi Jian that Tang Xiao might be dead and ordered the Duchy of Dawn to prepare for the worst.

• Oola-Khan and Sola-A became a Dark Archon and tried to suppress Tang Xiao’s chaotic will, but the resulting surge scattered the Archon’s flames and shattered his armor.
• On Taris, the Priestess collapsed, while all fifteen Duchy of Dawn Consul-class carriers lost their Force-sensitive operators, whom Tang Xiao had killed and resurrected with Death Force.
• Rassidan and Rosales prepared to withdraw after the Grysk fleet abruptly abandoned its pursuit; Rassidan planned to search for Tang Xiao, while Rosales planned to gather Chiss fleets.
• The Priestess contacted Qi Jian and ordered the Duchy of Dawn to its highest alert while concealing the change from the Galactic Empire.
• The Priestess told Qi Jian she had lost her Force connection with Tang Xiao, which could mean he was dead.

A mysterious alarm aboard the Glory mothership led Li Bo to see seven strange figures that no one else could perceive, while his comrades believed he was hallucinating. At Dawn Star Planet, Qi Jian placed the Duchy of Dawn on concealed combat readiness as its leaders debated Tang Xiao’s disappearance and a temporary regent.

• The Glory mothership’s alarm traced back to the hibernation bay, and Li Bo ordered forces to investigate and lock down the vessel.
• Li Bo saw seven cloaked figures and two fallen Ghost Agents, but his soldiers could neither see the figures nor remember the agents.
• The seven figures vanished from Li Bo’s sight before appearing directly above him as his company commanders restrained him.
• Qi Jian announced concealed combat readiness, and the Priestess said she would head to the Unknown Regions to search for Tang Xiao.
• Francis Underwood proposed appointing himself Temporary Regent, but Helmut Zemo objected to choosing a regent by vote.

After Tang Xiao disappeared, Adele Ulan made Tang Yun regent and organized a Secret Council to govern the Duchy of Dawn. A crisis aboard the Glory mothership then drew the leaders’ attention to a dangerous awakened prisoner, whom Fenix identified as the Protoss Olegar.

• Helmut Zemo and Francis Underwood argued over who should become regent, until Adele Ulan named Tang Yun regent and appointed the two men as regency ministers.
• Adele Ulan formed a Secret Council with Tang Yun holding final authority and planned to conceal the Grand Duke’s absence with a clone.
• Qi Jian reported that the Glory mothership had sent a distress signal despite reporting normal operations, and the leaders suspected someone in its stasis pods had awakened.
• The Mainframe disabled the mothership’s engines but refused to reveal details, identifying the awakened person only as a prisoner.
• Fenix told the Priestess and Judgment that the prisoner was a Protoss who had once threatened his people and the universe, then named him Olegar.

Fenix and the Priestess arrived in the Endor system after the Glory mothership’s Mainframe stopped responding normally, and learned that the powerful Protoss Olegar had taken control of it. Fenix led a small team aboard the mothership to find Olegar and retake control, while the defense fleet prepared to destroy the ship if he failed.

• Qi Jian reported that the Mainframe had been unreachable for seven hours and that an investigation team sent aboard the mothership had returned and was being questioned.
• Fenix ordered the National Security Bureau offices sealed and warned Qi Jian to bombard the mothership if he did not return.
• Nova and Ling Liang discussed Olegar’s mind-control abilities while Francis Underwood regretted pushing to send the investigation team.
• Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment boarded the empty Glory mothership and headed toward the bridge, avoiding its rail elevators.
• Judgment pointed out a sealed warehouse as the team continued through the mothership.

Priestess, Judgment, and Fenix fought their way through the Glory mothership’s battle droids as they tried to reach the bridge. Judgment transformed the crew into Rakghouls to create an opening, but Olegar struck back with overwhelming psychic force, leaving her badly injured.

• Priestess discovered that the warehouse was full of battle droids, which activated and attacked as the group approached.
• Fenix led Priestess and Judgment through the mothership’s buildings and maintenance routes while they evaded pursuing droids.
• Priestess identified the bridge as their target, and Fenix said Olegar had likely mind-controlled nearly all 450,000 crew members.
• Judgment unleashed the Muur Talisman’s power and began transforming the crew into Rakghouls under her control.
• Olegar’s psychic force struck Judgment, making her spit blood and stagger as Priestess caught her.

The Priestess, Judgment, and Fenix used a Rakghoul attack to infiltrate the mothership’s data center, where Super Lotus restored their connection to the Mainframe. The Mainframe reported that Olegar had occupied the upper structure and was heading toward the laboratories, leaving his objective unclear.

• The Priestess devised a plan to distract the battle droids with Rakghouls and reach a data processing center.
• Judgment sent the Rakghouls toward an elevator and had them destroy surveillance cameras, while the Priestess and the others slipped through maintenance passages into the data center.
• The Priestess contacted Super Lotus, who hacked the mothership’s systems, redirected a battle droid patrol, and restored access to the Mainframe.
• The Mainframe reported that Olegar had occupied the upper structure, was heading toward the laboratories, and had left the bridge under attack by battle droids.

Commander Li Bo’s forces held the Glory mothership’s corridors against battle droids and Rakghouls while Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment tried to determine Olegar’s plan. When Olegar warped psionic energy through the mothership’s Kyber Crystals, the Priestess realized she knew where he was.

• Commander Li Bo ordered his soldiers to hold the defensive lines and reinforce Elevator Thirteen against Destroyer droids.
• Rakghouls joined the battle, broke through the first defensive line, and forced Li Bo’s forces to face a growing threat.
• Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment watched the battle and concluded that Olegar was stalling for time.
• Olegar warped psionic energy throughout the mothership, turning everything purple and causing a thunderous sensation in everyone’s heads.
• Fenix identified Kyber Crystals as the source of Olegar’s power, and the Priestess said she knew where he was.

Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment fought their way toward Laboratory Seven, where Olegar planned to use a modified Kyber Crystal to regain Dark Archon form. Olegar succeeded in merging into a towering Dark Archon and drove the three back with devastating Void lightning, but the Priestess spotted a chance to strike at his remaining allies before a strange black-bladed Lightsaber blocked her attack.

• The Priestess identified Laboratory Seven as Olegar’s likely destination, and Fenix led her and Judgment through controlled Fourth Legion soldiers while they battled toward it.
• Olegar sent illusions of Protoss Zealots against the trio, but the Priestess disrupted the energy sustaining them and revealed seven cloaked Protoss, including Olegar split among several bodies.
• Four Dark Templar fought Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment as Olegar and two allies began drawing power from a Kyber Crystal he had transformed into a Void Crystal.
• The Void Crystal swallowed Olegar and the two Dark Templar, allowing Olegar to emerge as a giant Dark Archon who blasted Fenix, the Priestess, and Judgment with purple lightning.
• The Priestess sensed that Olegar’s attacks lacked staying power and feinted toward his remaining allies, but Olegar intercepted her Lightsaber with a black-bladed weapon.