Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao learned that the InterGalactic Banking Clan wanted the Fourth Group to intervene in the war between the Caladanians and Yamrii. After hearing Yaso Kavei describe the Caladanians’ devastating counterattack and the return of Sheelal, now called Grievous, Tang Xiao offered military aid and asked whether the Yamrii could pay.

• Tang Xiao agreed to work with Sola, who offered an order for twenty Revelation-class light cruisers and help building two production lines.
• Tang Xiao contacted Yaso Kavei, who begged him to save the Yamrii homeworld, Hark Planet, from the Caladanians.
• Yaso Kavei claimed the Caladanians had destroyed Yamrii hatcheries and sacred temples, while Tang Xiao challenged his account of how the war began.
• Yaso Kavei said the Yamrii had killed Kummar, but Sheelal returned stronger and took command of the Caladanians as Grievous.
• Tang Xiao offered weapons, ships, fighters, supplies, and other aid, then asked whether the Yamrii had money.

Tang Xiao learned that the Yamrii had little money to pay for weapons and that the Caladan conflict had become a political bargain involving Francis Underwood and Lune Hako. After reviewing the history of the Yamrii-Caladanian war, Tang Xiao decided on his next move and opened a transmission.

• Yaso-Kavii offered Caladanian mines as collateral, but Tang Xiao realized the Yamrii expected weapons and help reclaiming occupied mines without paying and ended the call.
• Tang Xiao asked Francis Underwood about Caladan Planet, and Francis explained that he and Lune Hako had made a deal involving Yamrii bribes and the Trade Federation.
• Francis warned that the Yamrii had little money left after bribing Coruscant officials and said the conflict offered political leverage despite its poor commercial prospects.
• Tang Xiao reviewed how the enslaved Caladanians rose against the Yamrii under Qymaen jai Sheelal and Ronderu lij Kummar, later called Grievous.
• Tang Xiao concluded what he should do and connected the transmission.

Tang Xiao secured the Yamrii’s agreement to mortgage their homeworld’s mineral resources for weapons and supplies, while arranging to meet the Caladanians himself. On Coruscant, Francis Underwood and Toonbuck Toora advanced a shipyard partnership and Dawn Star Planet’s bid to join the Galactic Senate.

• Yaso-Kavii accepted Tang Xiao’s terms to use Yamrii mineral resources on Hook Planet as collateral for Republic-marked weapons and supplies.
• Tang Xiao ordered Fleet S withdrawn from Semirs planet, arranged a collateral-backed arms deal with the Yamrii, and planned a discreet convoy to meet the Caladanians.
• Glosse Shelbia warned Tang Xiao that the Yamrii could not reclaim mines in Caladanian-held territory, but he told her the Caladanians would withdraw and substituted M-8 Avenger pulse rifles for Type 21 rifles.
• Toonbuck Toora told Francis Underwood that Semirres Planet had approved cooperation on a 1,000-meter-class shipyard, while Francis promised support and free Revenge-class light destroyer blueprints.
• Toonbuck Toora pledged Semirres support for Dawn Star Planet’s Senate membership proposal, which was due the following month.

Francis Underwood secured a strategic partnership with Semirres Planet by offering Tu'enbak-Tula warship blueprints and a share of the profits. As the Galactic Republic moved to condemn the Caladanians despite their struggle against Yamrii aggression, the chapter ended with their victories being recast as crimes.

• Francis Underwood offered Tu'enbak-Tula the Revenge-class light destroyer blueprints and a personal share of the profits from the Revelation-class cruisers.
• Francis and Tu'enbak-Tula settled a strategic partnership between Dawn Star Planet and Semirres Planet over breakfast.
• Tu'enbak-Tula asked Francis about the Caladanian-Yamrii war, and he explained that the Caladanians had failed to make political moves within the Galactic Republic's rules.
• The Yamrii colluded with the Trade Federation and bribed Republic officials, who pushed a biased report favoring the Yamrii.
• A report portraying the Caladanians as aggressors reached Chancellor Phineas Valorum, despite their fight against enslavement and the losses they suffered under Sheelal and Kummar.

Phineas Valorum ordered the Jedi Order to mediate the war between the Caladanians and the Yamrii, while Tang Xiao arrived on Hook Planet with weapons and supplies. The Caladanians let him land, and he asked to meet their leader, Grievous.

• Phineas Valorum and Sheev Palpatine discussed the Caladanians’ invasion of Hook Planet, and Valorum ordered the Jedi to stop the war from spreading.
• Master Windu decided that the Jedi Order would send Master Chuka Dohn and Master Kimaal to mediate the conflict.
• Tang Xiao’s freighter landed in the Caladanian-occupied zone on Hook Planet after he offered the warriors weapons and ammunition.
• Caladanian warriors surrounded Tang Xiao, and he raised his hands and asked to be taken to Grievous.

Tang Xiao offered Grievous weapons, supplies, and a chance to trade, urging him to make an ally before the Galactic Republic crushed the Caladanians. Tang Xiao left Hook Planet after Grievous agreed to hear him out, while a Republic envoy arrived on Caladan with an order for the Caladanians to end the war and surrender Yamrii territory.

• Tang Xiao allowed Caladanian warriors to search his ship, then met Grievous, who revealed that Sheelal was dead.
• Tang Xiao offered Grievous the weapons and ammunition aboard his ship and proposed trading supplies for Caladanian resources and mercenaries.
• Tang Xiao warned Grievous that the Yamrii had appealed to the Galactic Republic Senate and laid out the choices of killing him, kidnapping him, or making a friend.
• Grievous questioned Tang Xiao about his identity and intentions, and Tang Xiao departed after telling him to seek help when needed.
• Jedi Master Chuka-Doorn and Kimal arrived on Caladan with fifty Jedi Knights and the Republic's order to end the war and return Yamrii territory.

The Galactic Republic demanded that the Caladanians withdraw from the Yamrii homeworld, dismissing their grievances and risking war. Grievous rejected the order and led the Caladanians in a desperate assault on Huk’s base at Patrol Hills to secure their people’s future.

• The Great Chieftain challenged the Republic diplomat over its failure to protect the Caladanians, while Chuka Doon urged him to withdraw and seek justice through the Senate.
• The Great Chieftain asked whether the Republic would send its fleet if the Caladanians refused to withdraw, and Chuka Doon said the Jedi envoy hoped to prevent that outcome.
• Grievous told his eight generals that obeying the ceasefire would leave the Caladanians vulnerable to Huk’s return and that their captured ships’ fuel would soon run out.
• Grievous announced a near-suicidal attack on Huk’s forces at Patrol Hills, hoping to win the Caladanians twenty years of peace.
• The eight generals marked themselves for a battle to the death, and Caladanian warriors charged toward the Yamrii base under heavy fire.

After the Yamrii-Caladanian war ended, Dawn Star Planet won approval to join the Galactic Republic Senate, and Tang Xiao returned home to take office as its governor. The chapter left Dawn Star Planet formally represented in the Republic as Tang Xiao began his governorship.

• The Republic imposed a trade embargo and a ten-million-credit fine on Caladan Planet after the Caladanians launched a final offensive against the Yamrii.
• Tang Xiao visited Coruscant and met Sheev Palpatine, other senators, corporate representatives, and Chancellor Phineas Valorum.
• The Galactic Senate passed Dawn Star Planet's membership proposal by an overwhelming majority, and Francis Underwood became its senator.
• Tang Xiao returned to Dawn Star Planet, celebrated its entry into the Republic Senate, and swore the oath of office as Governor.

Tang Xiao brought food and medicine to Caladan Planet and found Grievous grieving for Kummar while worrying about his people’s survival. He offered to arrange food and work for Caladanian veterans, and Grievous said he would remember him.

• Tang Xiao delivered supplies to Caladan Planet and flew alone to Abesmi Island, where Grievous’s family had taken refuge.
• A Caladanian woman told Tang Xiao that Grievous had been praying for the Water God to return Kummar’s body from the sea.
• Grievous told Tang Xiao how he and Kummar had led the resistance against Huk and how she disappeared after a battle, leaving him unable to find her body.
• Grievous explained that the Republic’s embargo and ten-million-credit fine threatened Caladan Planet with famine, and that he had been offered payment to work for someone.
• Tang Xiao offered to secure food through black-market channels and establish a security company to employ Caladanian veterans, then promised to teach the Yamrii a lesson when the time came.
• Grievous drove his rifle into the ground and told Tang Xiao that he would remember him.

San Hill showed Tang Xiao how Grievous had strengthened his standing by crushing resistance on Ord Mantell, then honored the order for twenty Revelation-class light cruisers. Tang Xiao and his allies forced the Yamrii to repay their weapons debt by taking over mines and trapping them in a costly reconstruction loan.

• San Hill told Tang Xiao that Grievous had led the Banking Clan's droid army to collect debts on Ord Mantell, destroying those who resisted and earning recognition from the Clan's officials and governors.
• San Hill declared the dispute between the Caladanians and the Yamrii over and agreed to honor Tang Xiao's order for twenty Revelation-class light cruisers.
• Glosse Shelbia demanded that the Yamrii pay the 1.5 million credits owed for weapons, but they made excuses and refused to pay.
• Tang Xiao instructed Shelbia to press the claim, and Fleet S remained in orbit around Hook Planet while Xu Yan occupied five mines that the Yamrii had offered as collateral.
• Tang Xiao and San Hill arranged a 200-million-credit bridge loan for the Fourth Group to lend to the Yamrii for reconstruction, with the money directed toward the Group's own machinery, workers, and projects.
• The Fourth Civilization's Public Health Department built sanitation facilities and imposed strict regulations, while the Yamrii faced mounting debt and penalties if they rejected the reconstruction deal.

Tang Xiao established Titan Security on Nashadda, recruiting Caladanian veterans and other fighters under Mira Han and Big Boss. As the company began taking work, Big Boss reacted strongly to the Caladanians’ treatment, while Tang Xiao warned that war was close.

• Tang Xiao founded Titan Security to employ discharged Caladanian soldiers, hiring two surviving Izvoshra generals, 1,000 Kolkpravis, 2,000 ordinary Caladanian soldiers, and other fighters.
• Titan Security bought a tower on Nashadda and began accepting protection, assassination, kidnapping, smuggling, and mercenary work.
• Tang Xiao awakened Mira Han as deputy commander and Big Boss as commander-in-chief, intending to use them to balance the company’s factions.
• Aboard the ship to Nashadda, Tang Xiao told Mira Han and Big Boss about the Caladanians’ resistance against the Yamrii and the Galactic Republic’s punishment of them.
• Big Boss described the Caladanians as people abandoned by war, and Tang Xiao replied that they fought so their families could eat before warning him that war was near.

Tang Xiao and Big Boss arrived at Titan Security's new base on Nal Hutta and found armed troublemakers attacking workers and harassing Caladanian warriors. Big Boss started a battle to defend them, while Tang Xiao stayed in the lobby and watched as the fighting began.

• Tang Xiao arrived at Titan Security's tower on Nal Hutta with Big Boss and Mira-Han, where Wang Bin reported that troublemakers had gathered outside.
• Big Boss saw the Caladanians being attacked and ordered Mira-Han to seal off the airspace while he went to confront the crowd.
• Big Boss rejected Wang Bin's decision to leave the Caladanians out of the response and shot a man threatening to desecrate Titan Security's entrance.
• Titan Security's warriors opened fire from the tower, and the Caladanians seized weapons and fought their way out of the crowd.
• Big Boss urged Wang Bin to capture the neighboring buildings and attack from three directions while Tang Xiao remained in the lobby, dodging a stray shot.

Tang Xiao’s forces routed the Rocru gang after it attacked Titan Security’s opening, and he learned the gang served Hutt Gorga. He arranged support for Big Boss’s troops and then contacted Baron Zemo on blockaded Tatooine.

• Titan Security’s trained soldiers ambushed the Rocru gang, while Tang Xiao dodged gunfire and asked Wang Bin who had sent the attackers.
• Wang Bin identified the Rocru gang as a local force working for Hutt Gorga, Jabba’s nephew and a member of the Hutt High Council.
• Tang Xiao declared that they would fight the gang, killed a hidden sniper, and watched the Rocru members flee, leaving more than a hundred dead.
• Big Boss asked Tang Xiao for funding, equipment, targets, and air cover, and Tang Xiao gave him contact frequencies for Ni Yongxiao and Matt Hona and offered help through the Besadi kajidic and Fourth Group.
• Big Boss said he would lead the soldiers and Caladanians, but warned Tang Xiao to ensure they understood what they were fighting for; Tang Xiao said the coming war would have no glory.
• On the shuttle back, Tang Xiao contacted Baron Zemo on Tatooine, where bounty hunters had blockaded the planet for months.

While Jabba struggled to settle the bounty hunters’ blockade, Gaddula’s forces seized Jawa Sandcrawlers to build a land carrier. After capturing the eighth Sandcrawler, Jason Statham said the carrier could be completed within a year, putting Jabba’s rule on Tatooine in danger.

• Jabba negotiated with the bounty hunters and agreed to pay part of Gaddula’s bounty first, with the remainder to be paid in installments.
• Magtan Scar and his Bosas attacked a Jawa Sandcrawler with six Pathfinder-class assault vehicles.
• Jason Statham tore into the Sandcrawler, and Magtan Scar led his men inside to defeat the Jawas.
• Jason told the Jawas that Gaddula had hired them and would buy their Sandcrawler for a construction project.
• The Jawas surrendered and drove the Sandcrawler to a secret location, completing the team’s eighth capture.
• Jason said the land carrier could be finished within a year and that Jabba’s days on Tatooine were numbered.

Magtan Scar and Jason Statham continued building a massive Land Carrier, but a shortage of high-strength alloy threatened to delay construction. Tang Xiao contacted Hutt Gaddula, exposed her secret ties to several fallen conspirators, and warned that the Land Carrier was her last chance to defeat Jabba and return to Nal Hutta.

• Magtan Scar and Jason Statham returned with captured Sandcrawlers and oversaw the Land Carrier’s construction at the transformed base.
• The factory processed four Sandcrawlers and began dismantling three more, while salvagers brought in materials from crashed ships.
• A commissioner told Gaddula that her personal needs consumed a quarter of transport capacity and that the project still lacked at least 90,000 tons of high-strength light alloy.
• Gaddula dismissed the commissioner and expected Santa Claus, but Tang Xiao contacted her instead, identifying himself as the Archangel of Death.
• Tang Xiao revealed that Hego Damask II survived the nuclear bomb and recounted the fates of Bando Gora, Arles Veruna, and Alexi Garin, frightening Gaddula.
• Tang Xiao warned Gaddula that the Land Carrier was her last chance to defeat Jabba before Jabba resumed hunting her.

Tang Xiao pressured Gaddula into opposing Jabba and Gorga Desilijic, then traveled to Semirres Planet to finalize an alliance with its government. The visit established the Hiigaran Aerospace Group and plans for shipyards capable of building capital ships.

• Tang Xiao ordered Gaddula to kill Jabba, destroy the Desilijic kajidic, obstruct Gorga's plans, and secure ninety thousand tons of high-quality metal.
• Gaddula persuaded Alok Besadi to provide the metal and interfere with Gorga's efforts against Titan Security.
• Tang Xiao left aboard the Homeworld with an escort of ten Revenge-class light destroyers to visit Semirres Planet.
• Matt Hona reported that Fleet A had helped Ni Yongxiao destroy a Black Sun convoy and capture three spice-laden transports, and Tang Xiao ordered him to take leave to see Mira Han.
• Tang Xiao, Francis Underwood, and Tunbak Tula joined Semirres Planet's leaders in finalizing cooperation between the planets.
• The two planets established the Hiigaran Aerospace Group to build and develop Homeworld-series warships and construct shipyards, including a 1,500-meter-class shipyard for capital ships.

As Cerea’s underground Technology Movement prepared to revolt against the Elder Council, Vitaly Orlov hesitated over the bloodshed his command could unleash. The soldiers raided the rebels’ secret base and arrested Vitaly, while Helmut Baron Zemo watched from afar.

• Hiigaran Aerospace Group expanded its warship and fighter production, while the Fourth Civilization prepared new ship classes for construction on Dawn Star Planet.
• Tang Xiao signed immigration and talent exchange agreements with Semirres Planet, which welcomed cooperation with Dawn Star Planet.
• On Cerea, underground technology spread as the Elder Council intensified its crackdowns and the prison cities filled with starving prisoners.
• Vitaly Orlov met with Technology Movement leaders who reported thousands of rebels ready to rise in three cities, and he struggled with the consequences of giving the signal.
• Elder Council soldiers burst into the secret base and arrested Vitaly and the other gathered rebels as Helmut Baron Zemo watched from a nearby rooftop.

Baron Helmut Zemo fueled Cerea’s unrest by arming an Elder Council member and allowing the conflict to escalate. In Noghnisell, villagers fired the first shot of the Second Cerean civil war as they marched to demand their village chief’s release.

• Baron Helmut Zemo captured Vitaly and other Technology Movement leaders, then ordered preparations to plunge Cerea into war.
• Zemo revealed an Elder Council member’s secret stockpile of rifles and offered him a map to ten thousand blasters in exchange for pursuing his own goals.
• After the Elder Council announced a public trial and hanging for Vitaly Orlov and other imprisoned leaders, resistance across Cerea grew.
• In Noghnisell, a villager showed his companions a revolver and led them toward City Hall to demand their village chief’s release.
• A villager fired a gunshot in Noghnisell, marking the beginning of the Second Cerean civil war.

Farmers in Noghnisell sparked a planetwide Cerean revolt, while Hakimi led Titan Security’s Caladanian force in a surprise assault on the Elder Council troops guarding Dor-Femi-Bonmi at Mount Mundi. The rebellion spread across Cerea as Hakimi’s warriors overwhelmed the defenders.

• Farmers stormed Noghnisell City Hall, and their gunfire sparked uprisings by Technology Movement groups across Cerea.
• Rebels seized castles and city halls in more than forty cities, using a few firearms to break through Elder Council defenses.
• Hakimi assembled two thousand Caladanians near Mount Mundi to attack the ten thousand soldiers guarding Dor-Femi-Bonmi.
• Hakimi’s drones scouted the Elder Council positions, and his snipers killed sentries before the Caladanians charged.
• The Caladanians broke through the defenders and slaughtered them despite being outnumbered five to one.

Elder Dor-Fermi-Bangmi was rescued as Cerea erupted into rebellion, while the Fourth Group freed Vitaly-Orlov and undermined the Elder Council. The chapter ended with the Fourth Group delivering food and medicine to Elder Dor at the castle, giving him supplies and support to challenge the Grand Elder.

• Hakimi and Titan Security rescued Elder Dor-Fermi-Bangmi from house arrest, and Hakimi ordered the residence burned.
• At Vitaly-Orlov’s public trial, the Chief Justice refused to convict him as crowds rebelled; a Fourth Group corvette attacked and extracted Vitaly.
• Riots and uprisings spread across Cerea as local officials and commanders joined the Technology Movement and Elder Council factions fought to expand their power.
• Elder Dor-Fermi-Bangmi arrived at the castle, denounced the Elder Council, challenged the Grand Elder’s authority, and called supporters to join him.
• The Fourth Group announced free food and medicine for Cerea and delivered the supplies to the castle through Vitaly-Orlov.