Chapter Summaries

After King Ars Veruna abdicated and vanished, Naboo began preparing for an early royal election while its people moved on without him. Darth Pregas and Tang Xiao found Veruna hiding in a remote mountain home, where the terrified former king awoke to Pregas at his bedside.

• Seven standard days after Sojourn Planet was destroyed, Ars Veruna abdicated and disappeared without explaining his decision.
• The Naboo government formed a provisional administration and began choosing a new king two years ahead of schedule, with a young woman from the Naberrie family as the favorite.
• Darth Pregas and Tang Xiao flew past Naboo's defenses and landed at a secluded mountain settlement where Veruna was hiding.
• Pregas cleared the clutter and stench from Veruna's house, then sat beside the sleeping former king.
• Veruna woke, panicked at the sight of Pregas, and begged for help as Pregas gently addressed him.

Darth Pregas revealed his identity and his plan to overthrow the Galactic Republic to Arles Veruna, then used Veruna as a subject for Tang Xiao’s Force experiments. As they left Naboo, Padmé Naberrie became Princess Amidala and governor of Theed City.

• Darth Pregas reminded Veruna how he had helped him become king through the Trade Federation and explained his plans against the Republic and Jedi Order.
• Darth Pregas introduced Tang Xiao as the owner of the Fourth Group and praised the Wraith fighter developed by the group.
• Darth Pregas had Tang Xiao use the Force to create germs inside Veruna and taught him how to make them devour Veruna’s life force.
• Darth Pregas and Tang Xiao left Naboo by shuttle as dawn broke.
• Sheev Palpatine congratulated Padmé Naberrie on becoming Princess Amidala and governor of Theed City.

In 33 BBY, crises across the galaxy deepened as Sith conspirators Darth Pregas and Darth Sidious secretly manipulated the Republic and corporate powers toward collapse. On Coruscant, Sheev Palpatine persuaded Chancellor Phineas Valorum to broaden a planned Commerce Summit and take Vice Chancellor Bota along to help organize it.

• Conflicts and disasters spread across the galaxy, while Chancellor Phineas Valorum lost influence and the Rim Faction Senators and Sheev Palpatine grew more powerful.
• The chapter revealed that Darth Pregas, as Hego Damask II, planned the unrest and Darth Sidious, as Sheev Palpatine, carried it out.
• Phineas Valorum asked Sheev Palpatine whether a Commerce Summit could secure agreement with the Trade Federation and the Corporate Alliance.
• Palpatine proposed inviting the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Merchant Guilds, and other organizations to the summit, and Valorum accepted his plan.
• Valorum asked Vice Chancellor Bota to travel with Palpatine to help arrange the summit, hoping its success would ease Bota's path to retirement.

Sheev Palpatine, as Darth Sidious, arranged for the Nebula Front to seek legitimacy at the Commerce Summit. On Nal Hutta, an Indjori reached the Fourth Group’s headquarters and saw its weapons advertisement featuring Wraith fighters destroying a Galactic Republic fleet.

• Sheev Palpatine told the Nebula Front’s leader that he had put the group’s name before Phineas Valorum and promised protection if the group caused trouble at the summit.
• An Indjori crossed Nal Hutta while fleeing pursuers and killed a drunk who tore away his disguise.
• The Indjori reached the Fourth Group’s new headquarters, presented identification bearing the Damask Holdings Group emblem, and was admitted.
• The Indjori watched a Fourth Group advertisement showing Wraith fighters and warships defeating the Galactic Republic’s forces.

An Indjori tried to buy weapons with a two-million-credit guarantee, while Hego-Damask II explained to Tang Xiao why Indjori were unsuitable for the Clone Army. Hego revealed that their plan was to make the Galactic Republic defeat itself, leaving the path forward unclear.

• A client manager showed an Indjori Wraith fighters, warships, and rifles, but the Indjori grew furious when he learned his guarantee covered only two million credits.
• Hego-Damask II examined an Indjori corpse aboard the Glory mothership and explained how the species’ biology resisted the Force and energy weapons.
• Tang Xiao observed that Indjori seemed ideal as soldiers, but Hego said Kaminoan cloning experts had found them unsuitable for an army.
• Hego explained that the Republic could not openly recruit soldiers because the Senate would oppose conscription.
• Hego told Tang Xiao that their goal was to make the Galactic Republic defeat itself rather than rebuild a Sith Empire and wage another long war.

Tang Xiao learned that Hego was planning a Clone Army using human genes while abandoning the failed Indjori cloning project. He approved a larger weapons guarantee for the Indjori despite Hego’s objections, leaving their usefulness and the costly Titan warship project unresolved.

• Hego explained that a Clone Army would serve as their military force and help push the Republic into war.
• Lama Su reported that humans were the best species for mass cloning, and Hego ordered the Indjori project discarded after its success rate proved too low.
• Hego told Lama Su to find a non-Force-sensitive human warrior as a genetic template and promised to help him become Kamino’s Prime Minister.
• Glosse Shelbia told Tang Xiao that an Indjori on Nal Hutta wanted weapons despite holding only a two-million-credit guarantee.
• Tang Xiao raised the Indjori’s guarantee to twenty million credits in exchange for future spoils, while Hego warned him about the project’s cost and their other funding needs.

Darth Pregas forced Tang Xiao to confront his weakness by attacking him and ordering him to carry out solo massacres with a Jedi Knight’s Lightsaber. Tang Xiao accepted the Sith path, then returned to the Glory mothership and reviewed the Fourth Civilization’s affairs, where he questioned a proposed light cruiser project.

• Darth Pregas defeated Tang Xiao in a Lightsaber duel, warned him against arrogance, and gave him a Jedi Knight’s Lightsaber.
• Darth Pregas ordered Tang Xiao to kill everyone at a Black Sun or Bando Gosa stronghold alone, threatening to kill him and destroy the Fourth Group if he resisted.
• Tang Xiao accepted Darth Pregas’s demands and resolved that he would become a stronger Sith Lord rather than return to the light.
• Tang Xiao returned to the Glory mothership and reviewed the Fourth Civilization’s reports and proposed warship designs.
• Tang Xiao questioned why the Engineering Science Department had submitted an Apocalypse-class light cruiser plan despite his suspension of large-vessel construction.

Tang Xiao disciplined Kals Walton for proposing warship projects that contradicted the established plan, then discussed the Eriadu trade summit and Palpatine’s efforts to win support from major industrial worlds. He directed Francis Underwood to pursue official industrial orders and use Corellian contacts, while learning Yuri Orlov remained imprisoned but might be freed within half a year.

• Tang Xiao ordered Kals Walton confined for a week after learning he had submitted proposals for new warships against the plan to halt capital-ship development.
• Francis Underwood told Tang Xiao that Phineas Valorum planned a trade summit on Eriadu, and Tang instructed him to seek looser restrictions on their industrial capacity through official channels.
• Tang and Francis discussed Palpatine’s efforts to gain Senate votes from industrial powers including Kuat, Rendili, and Corellia, and Tang explained their differing political interests.
• Tang approved Francis’s plan to use Dryden Voss and Madam Proxima to lay groundwork on Corellia, where influential leaders favored independence.
• Francis reported that Yuri Orlov had received a life sentence under Ki-Adi-Mundi’s pressure, but said Baron Zemo’s plan could secure Yuri’s release within half a year.

Baron Helmut Zemo stirred up Jabba’s unpaid bounty hunters and mercenaries on Tatooine, exploiting their anger over receiving only a quarter of their promised rewards. After buying everyone a round, Zemo hinted that Tatooine was no longer safe for them and walked away, leaving them eager to learn what had happened.

• A cloaked man entered a Mos Eisley tavern, smashed his drink, and revealed that Jabba had paid only one-quarter of the bounty money.
• The bounty hunters and mercenaries cursed Jabba for withholding payment after their costly campaign against Gaddula.
• The chapter explained that Jabba’s war against Gaddula had devastated his own territory without capturing Gaddula, prompting him to dodge the enormous bills.
• Baron Helmut Zemo had spent months posing as an ordinary mercenary and encouraging the bounty hunters’ resentment toward Jabba.
• Zemo paid for the group’s drinks, told them to disperse because Tatooine was no longer their world, and left the tavern.

Baron Zemo persuaded the mercenaries to unite against Jabba by maintaining the blockade of Tatooine until they were paid. Meanwhile, a second cloaked figure reached a home on Cerea and diagnosed an elderly woman who urgently needed surgery.

• Baron Zemo explained to the mercenaries how Jabba, Gaddula, and their backers had become entangled in a struggle over the farm and its debts.
• Redfang Barry and the other mercenaries protested leaving without their wages, so Baron Zemo proposed keeping Jabba trapped by continuing the blockade of Tatooine.
• Baron Zemo showed the mercenaries the Black Ship's emblem, winning their support for the blockade and treating them to drinks.
• On Cerea, a second cloaked figure evaded Yalix patrols and entered a wooden house after knocking twice short and once long.
• Mr. K examined the elderly woman and told her son that she had acute cholecystitis and needed immediate surgery.

Vitaly Orlov secretly brought a Cerean woman to an underground hospital for lifesaving surgery while carrying out Baron Helmut Zemo’s plan to draw Cerea into war and free Yuri Orlov. After Master Ki-Adi-Mundi returned to Coruscant with Yuri, radical elders began pushing the Elder Council toward a complete anti-technology movement.

• Vitaly took the old woman from her village to a hidden hospital, where doctors operated and placed her in a Bacta tank for recovery.
• The woman’s husband thanked Vitaly, who warned him to keep the treatment secret from the Elder Council.
• Vitaly recalled how Baron Helmut Zemo had devised a plan to save Yuri by drawing Cerea into war, and how Vitaly had begun smuggling medical and industrial supplies instead of weapons.
• Master Ki-Adi-Mundi rescued his daughter from Yifent-Mon with help from Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, then took Yuri to Coruscant and ensured he received the maximum punishment.
• After Master Mundi left Cerea, several elders mobilized the families of fallen soldiers to pressure the Elder Council into pursuing a complete anti-technology movement.

Baron Zemo’s manipulation drove Cerea into a brutal technological purge while Vitaly Orlov unknowingly helped move the planet toward war. On Ord Mantell, a cloaked man approached the Blazing Sun casino and ignited a blue Lightsaber.

• The Elder Council outlawed technology, arrested residents and Technology Movement members, and turned overcrowded towns into prison cities.
• Baron Zemo’s schemes came to light as he used the families of the fallen and radical elders to fuel the purge and expand his influence.
• Vitaly Orlov returned to Cerea with medical supplies and other goods, while his aid unknowingly brought the planet closer to war.
• A third cloaked man watched the Blazing Sun casino in Worlport before approaching its guarded entrance after dark.
• The cloaked man drew a metal hilt and ignited a blue Lightsaber when a guard challenged him.

Darth Malthael, Tang Xiao, attacked Black Sun’s Blazing Sun Casino and slaughtered its guards and owner, Vego Sedonian. He escaped as the casino exploded, leaving the building engulfed in flames.

• Casino guards recognized Tang Xiao as a Jedi Knight, but he killed them with his Lightsaber and sent drones inside to record the casino.
• Tang Xiao set off the alarm and fought through the arriving guards, deflecting blaster fire and hurling rockets and debris with the Force.
• Tang Xiao killed the casino’s Force-sensitive guards, absorbed the black smoke from the dead, and collected their Kyber Crystals.
• Tang Xiao rode the elevator to the top floor, killed the guards there, and confronted Vego Sedonian in his office.
• Tang Xiao killed Sedonian, ordered his drones to attach to the casino’s load-bearing pillars, and escaped by Speeder as the building exploded.

An elderly man massacred the Bando Gora’s Brainless Ones and placed a five-million-credit bounty on Komari Vosa, while Darth Maul killed a Black Sun Vego for Darth Sidious. Sidious planned to seize control of Black Sun and contacted Trade Federation executive Nute Gunray to discuss cooperation.

• The elderly man used his green Lightsaber to kill the Brainless Ones in a castle, then offered bounty hunters five million credits to kill Komari Vosa, specifically sending the bounty to Jango Fett.
• Darth Maul killed Vego Tafares and destroyed the repair yard’s mainframe, then reported to Darth Sidious that he had left no survivors.
• Darth Sidious said Black Sun’s nine Vegos had been reduced to four and ordered Darth Maul to eliminate more targets so Sidious’s allies could rise through the organization.
• Darth Sidious revealed that Black Sun leader Alexi Garin’s fortress on Raltir was under surveillance and said he intended to take control of Black Sun.
• Darth Sidious contacted Nute Gunray and proposed cooperation.

Darth Sidious coerced Nute Gunray into cooperating by demonstrating his power and promising him leadership in the Trade Federation. On Yinchorr, the chapter described how the fierce Indjori rose from a primitive society to become mercenaries across the galaxy.

• Darth Sidious exposed Nute Gunray’s attempt to trace their transmission and revealed that he had sent Gunray the rare Pilat bird.
• Darth Sidious crushed the bird and briefly choked Nute Gunray, then confronted him about the death of Vidal King.
• Nute Gunray began to believe Sidious and agreed to consider cooperating in exchange for a place in the coming empire.
• Darth Sidious ended the transmission after calling Nute Gunray the Trade Federation’s new Viceroy.
• The chapter described Yinchorr’s harsh conditions and the Indjori’s rise from a slave society to an interstellar civilization.
• The Indjori joined the Galactic Republic, then left Yinchorr to work as mercenaries and bounty hunters while saving to buy ships and weapons.

Zam welcomed Fourth Group representatives Johnson and Shen Yuanhao to Yinchorr, where he explained the Indjori’s plans to seize fertile territory. He revealed that Hego-Damask II had advised them that the Galactic Republic would overlook their conquests long enough for them to establish themselves.

• An Auro class freighter carrying weapons landed in Tol-Kachorn, and Indjori looters swarmed aboard until Zam and the Claw Guard beat them back into order.
• Zam rebuked the looters for damaging the cargo, then ordered them to restore the weapons and honored Johnson and Shen Yuanhao for Fourth Group’s support.
• Zam told the representatives that he was the son of Yinchorr’s Great Chieftain and was personally handling the arms purchase.
• At a banquet, Shen Yuanhao warned Zam against raiding powerful organizations or seizing planets because the Galactic Republic would intervene.
• Zam said the Indjori planned to seize territory and revealed that Hego-Damask II had told him the Republic would not interfere right away.

Shen Yuanhao negotiated an arms deal with the Indjori, but the Verma Brothers undermined his standing with Zam and appeared to be stirring the Indjori toward war. Tang Xiao identified them as Darth Sidious’s agents and ordered Shen Yuanhao to defeat them and win the Indjori’s trust.

• Shen Yuanhao reviewed the weapons and ships the Fourth Group had sold to Zam, while Zam demanded more land and argued that the Indjori respected strength above laws.
• Zam introduced the Devalonian brothers Holma and Vilma, who had helped the Indjori leave their planet and enter the Galactic Republic.
• Vilma mocked Shen Yuanhao over the Fourth Group’s credit limit and pressured him to offer the Indjori more money, then persuaded Zam that the Fourth Group would keep paying as long as the Indjori grew stronger.
• Shen Yuanhao withdrew to his hut and reported the Verma Brothers’ hostility to Tang Xiao after Johnson drank himself unconscious.
• Tang Xiao concluded that the Verma Brothers served Darth Sidious and ordered Shen Yuanhao to defeat them and secure the Indjori’s trust, promising reinforcements.

Tang Xiao and his allies devised a way to gain influence over the Indjori while Yinchorr and Cerea moved closer to war. The Galactic Republic remained distracted by mounting crises as Chancellor Valorum announced a galaxy-wide commerce summit on Eriadu.

• Ni Yongxiao warned Tang Xiao that the Indjori were dangerous and untrustworthy, but Tang refused to abandon their potential military strength.
• Francis proposed backing a weaker Indjori tribe, and Ni suggested exploiting the Indjori’s susceptibility to addictive drugs; Tang requested a list of biologists.
• Fourth Group limited its funding to Yinchorr, while Shen Yuanhao and Cun Te continued operations there and Zam grew resentful of the company.
• The Indjori built three space stations, expanded their military, and used Fourth Group’s weapons to recruit nearby tribes without drawing Republic attention.
• The Cerean Elders’ Council intensified its crackdown on technology users, while propaganda eroded Ki-Adi-Mundi’s standing on Cerea.
• Phineas Valorum announced a commerce summit on Eriadu to address commercial disputes and seek support for taxing the Outer Rim Territories.

Preparations for the Eriadu Commerce Summit drew the Galactic Republic’s major powers, while Francis Underwood maneuvered to bring the Jedi into its security detail. On Dawn Star Planet, Tang Xiao balanced political integration and Force training as the Fourth Civilization expanded its research and deployed its first armored units.

• Francis Underwood secured support for Senator Orn Free Taa to propose Jedi involvement in summit security, and the Jedi High Council assigned Master Ki-Adi-Mundi to lead a team.
• Tang Xiao worked to prepare Dawn Star Planet for its Galactic Senate bid while carrying out Darth Pregas’s orders to attack Black Sun and Bando Gosa strongholds.
• Tang Xiao used meditation on Dawn Star Planet to counter the murderous aura he had gained through repeated slaughter.
• Professor Chi Jianjun began developing antimatter engines at the newly completed scientific research space station.
• The Fourth Civilization Army received its first armored units, the Vulture hoverbike and the Goliath Mech.

Tang Xiao equipped the Fourth Civilization with new vehicles and established Tyran Heavy Industries to manufacture them. After Rory Swann awakened, Tang Xiao made him the company’s chief engineer, while Swann remained wary of his new leader.

• The Fourth Civilization ordered Vulture hoverbikes and Giant Battle Mechs, and Xiao Guanghua slept in a Goliath Mech after receiving the first batch.
• Tang Xiao founded Tyran Heavy Industries to produce military equipment and gave it data for the Hellfire vehicle, Warwolf walker, and Siege Tank.
• Tyran Heavy Industries’ creation triggered the awakening of Rory Swann, whom Tang Xiao personally welcomed.
• Swann questioned Tang Xiao about the coming war and his history of killing, while Tang Xiao explained that the Fourth Civilization had to choose a side to survive.
• Swann rejected management work but agreed to inspect Tyran Heavy Industries, and Tang Xiao appointed him its chief engineer.