Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao hired General Trench as a long-term mercenary and pressured him into serving the Fourth Civilization’s plans. The chapter ended with an armored attacker descending on a factory on Planet Askaji and shooting its guards.

• Tang Xiao reflected on the Fourth Civilization’s growing independence and the need to develop its own technologies.
• Tang Xiao learned that Trench had recovered from his injuries and met him in the medical bay.
• Tang Xiao offered Trench long-term employment, used the Dark Side Force to intimidate him, and secured his agreement to serve the Fourth Civilization.
• Tang Xiao paid Trench one million credits and called him a future Admiral of the Navy.
• A Fire-breathing class ship attacked a factory on Planet Askaji, and an armored figure leaped into the miners’ residential district and killed guards.

Jango Fett destroyed a Bando Gora spice cache on Planet Askaji, while Master Dooku secretly watched before returning to Serenno. There, Tang Xiao met Dooku and Sifo-Dyas under Hego Damask’s protection as they discussed the Fourth Group’s role in preparing for military training on Kamino.

• Jango Fett cleared the mine on Planet Askaji, found a large supply of inferior spice, and reported that the Bando Gora had no other people there.
• Jango received five hundred thousand credits from his cloaked employer, and rival bounty hunters arriving afterward backed down when they recognized Slave I.
• Master Dooku watched Jango depart, then traveled to Planet Serenno aboard his solar sailer.
• Hego Damask introduced his disciple Tang Xiao, a core figure in the Fourth Group, to Dooku and Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, while Tang carefully concealed his Dark Side Force.
• Hego said the Fourth Group would manufacture droids and weapons for military training on Kamino, and Dooku argued that Indjori soldiers would fare terribly in equal numbers against human soldiers.

Master Dooku, Hego, and Tang Xiao debated creating a secret human clone army for the Galactic Republic, while Master Sifo-Dyas remained uneasy about the plan. Sifo-Dyas left to consult other Jedi, but Hego and Dooku decided to proceed without him and hinted that he might be silenced.

• Hego reported that the Kaminoans had evaluated more than 3,000 species and concluded that humans were the most adaptable choice for mass cloning, with Jango Fett selected as the leading candidate.
• Master Dooku argued that the Galactic Republic was nearing war and needed an army, condemning the Senate, the Judicial Fleet, and Tang Xiao's use of Malastare battle footage in advertising.
• Sifo-Dyas said he would consult Master Windu and Master Yoda and try to influence the Jedi Order before agreeing to establish an army in secret.
• Hego warned that the Judicial Fleet could not defend the Galactic Republic alone and that preparations had to begin before war broke out.
• After Sifo-Dyas left, Hego ordered the Fourth Group to begin producing equipment and Damask Holdings Group to raise funds, while Dooku and Hego discussed using Sifo-Dyas to conceal the plan and implied he could be eliminated.

Tang Xiao attacked Bando Gosa’s last stronghold on Nal Hutta and fought his way through its fanatics. He confronted Komari Vosa, who drew her Lightsabers to face him.

• Hego Damask II sent Tang Xiao to destroy Bando Gosa’s stronghold on Nal Hutta and promised to help build a Generous-class Communications Escort if he succeeded.
• Tang Xiao descended into the stronghold and killed the Believers who attacked him.
• Tang Xiao fought the stronger Bando Gosa fanatics, unleashed the Dark Side Force when one seized him, and killed his way through the stronghold.
• Tang Xiao found Komari Vosa in a circular hall and learned she was still obsessed with Master Dooku and the Moon of Borden.
• Komari Vosa drew two curved-hilt Lightsabers and ignited their red blades as Tang Xiao prepared to fight her.

Tang Xiao fought the mad former Jedi Komari Vosa in a desperate lightsaber duel, struggling against her superior skill and his dwindling strength. He finally spotted a weakness in Vosa, leaving the outcome of the battle unresolved.

• Komari Vosa charged Tang Xiao with two lightsabers, and he recognized her Jar'Kai style combining Soresu defense with Ataru offense.
• Tang Xiao shattered a window with the Force and attacked Vosa, then met her twin blades with his Juyo-driven assault.
• Vosa blasted Tang Xiao into a wall and nearly struck him, but he pinned one of her lightsabers beneath the floorboards and pressed his attack.
• Vosa's hidden lightsaber burned through the floor and returned to her hand, restoring her dual-blade stance as Tang Xiao grew exhausted.
• Tang Xiao noticed Vosa's scars and sewn wounds, then discovered what he believed was her weakness and his only chance to survive.

Tang Xiao fought Komari Vosa, overcame her frenzied attacks, and severed both her hands, but Darth Pregas stopped him from killing her. Afterward, Tang Xiao struggled to suppress the Dark Side’s pull and recognized Pregas’s attempt to push him further toward it.

• Komari Vosa’s madness made her abandon Soresu and attack Tang Xiao wildly with both lightsabers, while he used the Force and nearby objects to stall and recover.
• Tang Xiao lured Vosa outside and absorbed Death Force from the corpses of cultists killed earlier, restoring some of his strength.
• Tang Xiao used Juyo to sever both of Vosa’s hands, but a sudden gale threw them both into a wall before he could kill her.
• Darth Pregas ordered Tang Xiao to leave Vosa for Master Dooku and told him to prepare a production line for the Generous-class Communications Escort outside the Endor system.
• Tang Xiao ignored Pregas and later demanded that the mainframe make his shower colder, trying to calm his urge to kill Vosa and recognizing Pregas’s scheme to deepen his fall to the Dark Side.

Dooku killed Komari Vosa, destroyed Bando Gora’s stronghold, and offered Jango Fett a new job overseeing a clone army after denying him the bounty. Two months later, Eriadu prepared to host a major Commerce Summit as the Republic Judicial Fleet deployed a powerful fleet to protect it.

• Dooku found Komari Vosa mutilated at Bando Gora’s stronghold, killed her, and took her two curved-hilt Lightsabers.
• Dooku destroyed the stronghold and told Jango Fett he would not receive the five million credit reward, then offered him a job as the Primarch of a clone army.
• Bando Gora was wiped out, and Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas was removed from the Jedi High Council after a dispute with other Masters.
• Two months later, Chancellor Phineas Valorum initiated a Commerce Summit on Eriadu with major commercial and political powers attending.
• The Republic Judicial Fleet deployed five Prosecutor-class battlecruisers, two Governor-class Dreadnoughts, and its 8,000-meter Commander-class flagship to the summit.

Delegations and fleets gathered around Eriadu for the Commerce Summit while Darth Sidious arranged for the Nebula Front to enter despite being barred. At Eriadu City, a shipment of B-1 battle droids bypassed a broken scanner after a deliveryman bribed an officer.

• Commercial delegations arrived in orbit around Eriadu with powerful escort fleets, while Shelbia recalled Tang Xiao's warnings to prioritize safety and follow the Trade Federation's lead.
• A furious Nebula Front leader complained that Phineas Valorum had rejected her organization's summit application, and Darth Sidious agreed to help her enter the venue for a price.
• Eriadu City prepared for the summit under heavy military security as a freighter delivered a large shipment of B-1 battle droids.
• The cargo officer accepted a bribe from the deliveryman and waved the droids through without scanning them.

The Commerce Summit on Eriadu began with Phineas Valorum proposing that major commercial groups help the Republic census and tax the Outer Rim in exchange for relaxed shipbuilding restrictions. The Trade Federation rejected the offer as a hollow bargaining chip, leaving the summit at an impasse.

• Representatives and security forces gathered at Sesenna Hall for the Commerce Summit, with 100,000 B-1 battle droids assigned to security.
• The summit seated the major political and commercial delegations, while Claire Underwood attended as an observer and Francis Underwood was not invited.
• Phineas Valorum proposed that commercial entities conduct an economic census and impose taxes in the Outer Rim in return for permission to build larger warships.
• The Trade Federation representative argued that lifting the Rusan Treaty restrictions was inevitable because of rising piracy and rejected Valorum’s offer.
• Phineas Valorum insisted that the Rusan Conference agreement could only be changed by an executive order of equal authority.

At the Commerce Summit, Phineas Valorum struggled to defend the Rusan Treaty and the Republic’s ability to protect Outer Rim trade routes as corporate representatives challenged him. The first day ended amid political maneuvering, and the next day’s meeting began with a violent explosion that tore away the Republic’s last pretense of stability.

• The Trade Federation threatened to avoid planets it considered risky, while Passel Argente mocked Valorum by citing Fourth Group’s advertisement and the Corporate Alliance’s purchase of Revenge-class destroyers.
• Fod Tonis questioned whether the Judicial Fleet could secure the Outer Rim, prompting an angry rebuke from a Stark Old Veterans Association representative.
• Sheev Palpatine calmed the chamber, warned that violating the Rusan Treaty would violate the Republic Constitution, and pressured the Trade Federation to keep trade routes running.
• Palpatine demanded that Fourth Group withdraw its advertisements, and Glosse Shelbia bowed without arguing, pleased that the controversy had made the company widely known.
• After the first day ended, representatives returned to their residences to plot and prepare for further conflict.
• The next day’s meeting began with a violent explosion that tore away the Galactic Republic’s final fig leaf.

Nebula Front operatives used tampered B-1 battle droids to attack the Commerce Summit in Eriadu, destroying the fourth convoy and launching a massacre inside Sesenna Hall. Republic forces struggled to contain the violence as an explosion blocked the route for armored reinforcements.

• A Nebula Front leader confirmed that Phineas Valorum was in the fourth convoy and that fifteen thousand tampered B-1 droids were positioned near Sesenna Hall.
• As the fourth convoy arrived, the operatives triggered the droids, which fired rockets and blasters at the vehicles.
• The droids destroyed the convoy, then entered Sesenna Hall and attacked representatives, staff, and other droids.
• The venue's guards could not identify the attackers as enemies because the rogue droids had valid IFF codes, while the tactical command droid self-destructed after issuing its orders.
• Republic Army troops rushed to the venue, but a powerful explosion collapsed buildings and blocked the street, delaying armored units.
• A Republic officer ordered all mobilizable droids to assemble on the outskirts as the fighting continued.

The droid uprising at the Eriadu Commerce Summit left over ten thousand dead, exposed the Republic army’s weakness, and prompted the Nebula Front to claim responsibility and call for resistance to Republic taxes. As the city remained in chaos, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi defied orders to investigate, convinced the real culprit was still nearby.

• Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers and Jedi defenders helped eliminate the rampaging droids, but three Jedi apprentices died and five Jedi Knights were injured.
• Phineas Valorum demanded an investigation, while Gross Shelby watched the massacre footage, fled to a garden, and vomited.
• The summit ended after fifteen thousand B-1 battle droids attacked Sesenna Hall, killing over ten thousand people and causing more than three thousand Republic Army casualties.
• Havoc, speaking for the Nebula Front, claimed responsibility and urged Outer Rim planets to resist the Republic’s taxation.
• Qui-Gon Jinn rejected Obi-Wan Kenobi’s concerns about disobeying Mace Windu’s orders and set out to find the culprit in Eriadu City.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn tracked the malice behind the Eriadu attack while the Nebula Front discovered it had been betrayed and abandoned. Sheev Palpatine and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin discussed using the attack to weaken the Republic and bring about war.

• Qui-Gon Jinn sensed deep malice among the ruins and led Obi-Wan Kenobi to investigate.
• Havoc learned that her extraction ship would not arrive and saw Chancellor Phineas Valorum announce a manhunt for the Nebula Front.
• Havoc realized Sheev Palpatine had used her as a disposable pawn, then Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi entered to arrest the terrorists.
• Havoc and her subordinates fired at the Jedi, and Qui-Gon Jinn deflected a blaster bolt into one attacker.
• Sheev Palpatine and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin discussed exploiting the attack to isolate Valorum, weaken the Republic, and provoke a war.

After the Eriadu Commerce Summit attack, the Republic’s investigation stalled while Phineas Valorum’s response deepened its conflict with the Jedi and the Outer Rim. Corporate upheaval elevated Newt Gunray and brought the major corporations into open defiance of the Republic, which answered with Kuat Drive Yards’ announcement of the Acclamator-class assault ship.

• Phineas Valorum blamed the Nebula Front for the attack, but investigators failed to uncover the military and political forces behind it, and the Republic blamed low-level operatives instead.
• Bota resigned as Vice Chancellor and later died; Sheev Palpatine declined to replace him, and Mas Amedda took the position.
• Phineas Valorum barred the Jedi Order from Republic affairs without a formal Senate request, then ordered taxation and economic censuses in the Outer Rim, prompting the Rim Faction Senators to walk out.
• Kuat Drive Yards withdrew from the Trade Federation and later the Technological Alliance, while Newt Gunray defeated his rivals and became Governor of the Trade Federation with Rune Haako’s support.
• The Trade Federation, InterGalactic Banking Clan, Corporate Alliance, Merchant Guilds, Technological Alliance, and Fourth Group rejected the Republic’s taxation policy and the Rusan Reforms’ warship limits.
• Kuat Drive Yards announced the Acclamator-class assault ship as the Republic’s pointed response to the corporations’ defiance.

Kuat Drive Yards and the Trade Federation announced major warship projects that openly defied the Rusan Reforms. The Fourth Group moved fastest by unveiling the Revelation-class light cruiser, and Chancellor Phineas Valorum watched commercial powers dismiss the treaty restrictions he had hoped to use as leverage.

• Kuat Drive Yards revealed that its Acclamator-class assault ship had entered testing, presenting a heavily armed troop carrier that blatantly violated the Rusan Reforms.
• The Trade Federation announced plans to convert cargo vessels into warships and develop the larger Providence project with Rendili StarDrive and Quarren shipbuilders.
• The Fourth Group unveiled the 344-meter Revelation-class light cruiser, a fast, heavily armed ship built for attacking capital ships.
• The Fourth Group announced that it was laying production lines, accepting preorders, and would begin building the first Revelation-class within a year at a price of 3.5 million credits.
• Industrial and commercial giants continued announcing warship plans and disregarded the Rusan Reforms, leaving Phineas Valorum's hoped-for negotiating leverage in tatters.

After the Eriadu Commerce Summit failed, the Republic and corporate powers abandoned the Rusan Treaty, setting off an arms race that pushed the Fourth Civilization to prepare for a full-scale war. Tang Xiao set population and military goals for the coming conflict, and Professor Chi Jianjun presented a list of potential warships for discussion.

• The failed summit prompted the Republic, Kuat Drive Yards, corporate giants, and Outer Rim representatives to pursue their own interests, escalating the galaxy-wide arms race.
• The Fourth Group’s Apocalypse-class light cruiser and other ships drew heavy black-market demand, earning more than 100 million credits in orders in one month.
• Tang Xiao warned his military leaders that the galaxy would undergo major changes within a year and that the Fourth Civilization needed to prepare for full-scale war.
• Tang Xiao set a goal of reaching a population of two billion before war broke out, while Daphne Clement agreed to work toward it.
• Tang Xiao called for plans for the future fleet and ground forces, and Professor Chi Jianjun displayed a list of hundreds of possible warships.

Tang Xiao and the Fourth Civilization’s military leadership presented a ten-year plan to build shipyards, sell warships, and develop a carrier-centered fleet using several technology trees. Tang Xiao aimed to prepare the civilization to resist the Galactic Republic in a localized Clone Wars conflict, while the chapter ended with the revelation that many cryo-embryos were nonhuman, including Protoss, Sangheili, and Vasari.

• Tang Xiao and the Fourth Civilization’s military leadership outlined a three-stage ten-year plan, beginning with mass-producing Homeworld ships for domestic use and export.
• Professor Chi Jianjun proposed linking Dawn Star Planet’s shipyards into a Star Ring that could function as a vast warship factory.
• The plan designated Sova-class Carriers, Kohl-class and Durov-class Battlecruisers, and Martha-class Dreadnoughts as the core of the future fleet, alongside the Ragnarok-class Titan.
• Tang Xiao argued for pursuing Amarr Empire technology because its energy systems could work with Star Wars blaster weapons, while the UNSC tech tree could broaden the military’s capabilities.
• Tang Xiao said the Fourth Civilization needed to prepare for the Galactic Empire’s rise and hoped to gain enough strength to challenge the Republic locally during the Clone Wars.
• Tang Xiao revealed that about five hundred million of the five billion cryo-embryos belonged to other species, including Protoss, Sangheili, and Vasari.

The Fourth Civilization formed Fleet A around the newly refitted Homeworld light carrier, and Tang Xiao appointed Matt Hona to command it. He then went to inspect the biological laboratory’s Indjori research and was knocked down by a young blonde girl.

• The Captor-class cruiser was refitted as the Homeworld light carrier, which became the flagship of the newly assembled Fleet A.
• Tang Xiao awakened Matt Hona and ordered him to command Fleet A and coordinate its campaign against Black Sun with Ni Yongxiao.
• The Mainframe told Tang Xiao that the biological laboratory had made preliminary progress studying the Indjori and asked him to inspect it.
• Tang Xiao arrived at the research station, where a young blonde girl ran into him and fell to the floor.

Tang Xiao confronted William Birkin over his experiments and learned that ordinary cigars acted as stimulants to the Indjori. After secretly obtaining Sherry Birkin’s blood for analysis, Tang Xiao suspected that William had implanted her with the G-Virus.

• Tang Xiao entered the laboratory and found William Birkin and Annette Birkin examining Indjori corpses.
• Tang Xiao choked and reprimanded William for ignoring him, then learned cigars could affect the Indjori like potent stimulants.
• Tang Xiao explained that he had awakened William along with Annette and Sherry, despite William’s dangerous history and personality.
• Tang Xiao persuaded Sherry to give him blood by showing her how he healed a cut with Life Force.
• Tang Xiao ordered a T-850 to send Sherry’s blood for sealed, secret analysis and suspected she had been implanted with the G-Virus.

Tang Xiao oversaw the Fourth Civilization’s resource expansion and received a covert proposal from San Hill involving Caladan Planet. The chapter ended with San Hill explaining that the Galactic Republic wanted to replace Caladan’s unfriendly regime with a more enlightened leader.

• Tang Xiao received Sherry Birkin’s test results, found that her virus healed her injuries without harming her tissues, and ordered Zemo to monitor William Birkin around the clock.
• Tang Xiao summoned Cun Te back to the Endor system to help with plans involving the Indjori, then traveled to Dor Planet to inspect mining operations.
• United Mining Group expanded mining with Charger-class mining frigates and Delusion-class mining barges as the Fourth Civilization’s shipyards continued producing vessels.
• Tang Xiao meditated on Dawn Star Planet until San Hill contacted him and proposed cooperation concerning Caladan Planet.
• San Hill told Tang Xiao that Caladan’s warriors were formidable but its regime opposed the Republic, which wanted to install a more enlightened leader.