Chapter Summaries

Ahsoka Tano resolved to return to the Rebel Alliance headquarters with Ezra Bridger, while General Grievous launched a surprise assault on Charos IV using captured Imperial warships. Lieutenant General Ramon scrambled to defend the planet as the attack began.

• Ahsoka Tano comforted Ezra Bridger after he confronted her about the Alliance’s strategy, then said she would return to Padmé’s side at Rebel Alliance headquarters.
• Sabine Wren and Talon Malicos remained prisoners on Lothal Planet after the Galactic Empire’s plans in the Eastern Territory were disrupted.
• Lieutenant Generals Hekto and Ramon covertly dealt with the Rebel Alliance while rebuilding the Imperial Twelfth Army and expected the Kingdom of Dawn’s forces to remain occupied.
• General Grievous arrived over Charos IV with 120 Imperial-class Star Destroyers and 9 golden aircraft carriers captured after the Battle of Saleucami.
• Lieutenant General Ramon ordered his garrison to form a defensive position, return fire, and request reinforcements.

General Grievous's fleet overwhelmed Charos IV's battered Imperial defenders while Governor Seben kept the elite fleet on Lantilis Planet. Grievous then bypassed Charos IV and reached Balamak Planet, leaving Lieutenant General Ramon ordered to hold out without reinforcements.

• General Grievous's 120 droid-operated Star Destroyers and nine Purifier aircraft carriers attacked Charos IV's weakened defenses.
• The Purifier Interceptor drones wiped out the planet's second-rate fighter formations as three damaged Imperial Star Destroyers were destroyed early in the battle.
• General Grievous led his Star Destroyers against Charos IV's orbital facilities while Lieutenant General Ramon repeatedly begged Governor Seben for reinforcements.
• Governor Seben refused to leave Lantilis Planet, fearing the Kingdom of Dawn fleet and the Purifier carriers.
• General Grievous transferred his flagship to a Purifier carrier and used Protoss hyperspace technology to reach Balamak Planet.
• Governor Seben ordered Lieutenant General Ramon to hold Charos IV and await reinforcements from Imperial Center.

After General Grievous’s victories at Charos IV and Balamak crippled the Twelfth Army, Wilhuff Tarkin cut off assistance and fortified Onderon. General Grievous seized Toglia and disappeared again, leaving Governor Seben to defend Lantilis and Kashyyyk while the Empire abandoned his army.

• Governor Seben raged over Charos IV’s defeat and threatened to send Lieutenant General Ramon before a military court, but Lieutenant General Hekto pointed out that Ramon was a prisoner and left in despair.
• General Grievous captured Balamak Planet after its surrender and gathered the Kingdom of Dawn’s main fleet there, while Balamak’s stores fell into his hands.
• Wilhuff Tarkin ended the Fourth Army’s assistance to the Twelfth Army, referred Charos IV’s loss to the Supreme Military Court, and built a defensive line on Onderon.
• General Grievous occupied Toglia Planet, whose governor destroyed more than half its supplies, and left Kashyyyk untouched because of the Wookiee resistance.
• Governor Seben continued the ground war on Kashyyyk and clung to Lantilis, fearing General Grievous’s sudden attacks as the Twelfth Army and its territory were abandoned by the Empire.

Darth Malthael went to Dagobah’s Dark Cave to use the Dark Reaper and drain the Dark Side Force threatening to overwhelm him. As the cave’s whispers challenged his memories and identity, he faced the doubts that had haunted him since his arrival in this galaxy.

• Darth Malthael recalled how the Dark Cave had gathered darkness over thousands of years and how he had previously used the Dark Reaper there to preserve his sanity.
• After battles with the Son, the Father, and Darth Sidious, Darth Malthael recognized that his growing Dark Side Force had brought him close to losing control.
• Darth Malthael left after making plans for the Battle of Palanci and traveled to Dagobah to restore himself before the coming final battle.
• Darth Malthael arrived at the Dark Cave, where his presence killed the surrounding plants and animals.
• The cave’s whispers questioned whether Darth Malthael was real, where he had come from, and whether his memories and technology were only part of a dream.

Darth Malthael entered the Dark Reaper chamber and nearly reversed the device to draw in life force, but Master Yoda ambushed him. Their battle revealed Yoda’s knowledge of the Dark Side and ended with Darth Malthael demanding to know where Luke Skywalker was as he gathered Crimson Lightning.

• Darth Malthael resisted the cave’s Dark Side influence and reached the Dark Reaper’s control console, intending to reverse its operating mode.
• Master Yoda attacked Darth Malthael with his green Lightsaber, forcing him away from the console.
• Darth Malthael and Yoda fought through the cavern as Malthael’s wounds healed with evolved Death Force.
• Yoda switched from Ataru to Form VII Juyo, severed Darth Malthael’s hand, and continued pressing his attack.
• Darth Malthael regenerated his hand and demanded that Yoda reveal Luke Skywalker’s location while gathering Crimson Lightning.

Darth Malthael killed Master Yoda, who died without revealing what he had seen on Mortis. Malthael then used the Dark Reaper to absorb more Dark Side Force, while Yoda’s spirit and Qui-Gon Jinn watched and discussed the possible destruction of the galaxy.

• Darth Malthael attacked Master Yoda with Crimson Lightning, but Yoda redirected it and told him he had seen his future on Mortis.
• Darth Malthael mortally wounded Yoda and demanded answers about Luke Skywalker and his conversation with Father.
• Master Yoda died and turned to ashes, while a faint azure glow rose from his remains.
• Darth Malthael raged at Father, then activated the Dark Reaper’s Absorption Mode and drew vast Dark Side Force into himself.
• Qui-Gon Jinn and Master Yoda watched as spirits, and Yoda told Qui-Gon that Malthael’s destruction of the galaxy was only one possible future.

Imperial Marshal Oswald Tessik rallied the First System Army as the Kingdom of Dawn’s Archangel Titan warship moved from the Northern Territory to the Eastern Territory. The Empire prepared for a renewed Northern offensive while its commanders debated the Archangel’s purpose, and Governor Seben pleaded unsuccessfully for help defending Lantilis Planet.

• Oswald Tessik awoke from his Bacta tank, learned that the Archangel had departed Bilbrin, and summoned the First System Army’s highest-level military conference.
• Dunn Vesex and Gillard Perine feared the Archangel’s movements signaled an attack, but learned it had returned to Makito and taken half the main fleet through a Stargate.
• Oswald ordered Dunn to probe Ord Mantell while the First System Army threatened Bilbrin, but Dunn refused and Oswald assembled forces near Palanci instead.
• The Archangel appeared at Lothal with a large fleet, prompting Governor Seben to plead with the Emperor for reinforcements to save the Twelfth Army.
• Imperial commanders debated the Archangel’s Eastern Territory objectives, with Miltin Taker arguing that it intended to break through the Fourth Army’s blockade and threaten Denon Planet.

General Grievous took command of the Eastern Territory fleet while the Empire prepared the Scavenger Plan to seize Bilbrin and nearby worlds. After a second Archangel-class Titan Warship appeared at Dawn Star, Oswald-Tessik launched the assault anyway, walking into the defense General Trench and Luo Huacheng expected to become a meat grinder.

• General Grievous assumed command of the Archangel and sent the Eastern Territory fleet to guard Boonta's stargate while the newly reinforced fleet rested before advancing toward Roche.
• Marshal Oswald-Tessik killed two officers who questioned his order to prepare the Scavenger Plan within five days.
• Imperial intelligence discovered a second Archangel-class Titan Warship nearing completion at Dawn Star, prompting Oswald-Tessik to order an immediate attack on Bilbrin.
• Oswald-Tessik committed the First System Army's first wave, led by the Reaper and its largest warships, to assault Bilbrin's asteroid defenses.
• General Trench and Lieutenant General Luo Huacheng prepared to defend Bilbrin, confident the Empire's advance into the Northern Territory would become a meat grinder.

Dunn Vesex struggled to carry out the Empire’s Scavenger Plan while Geth T-34-1 warships crippled his forces across the Northern Territory. Wilhuff Tarkin also faced a worsening dilemma: he could spare only limited forces to defend Umbara while protecting the Death Star project.

• Dunn Vesex and Admiral Gillard Perine reviewed urgent Imperial orders demanding an assault despite their warnings about the Northern Territory’s weakened mobile forces.
• Dunn Vesex feared the Geth’s hundreds of cheap, fast T-34-1 battlecruisers, which had overwhelmed Imperial patrol fleets and forced him to commit most of his mobile forces to defense.
• Wilhuff Tarkin concluded that the Kingdom of Dawn could break through Umbara and threaten the Inner Rim, making the planet’s defense essential to the Empire.
• Wilhuff Tarkin recognized that Umbara’s darkness, radiation, and questionable local loyalty made it difficult to defend, but losing it would trigger a political and military crisis.
• Wilhuff Tarkin could spare at most five hundred capital ships for Umbara because the Fourth Army was committed to protecting the Death Star’s Scarif supply route, and Seben had already taken another 150 ships.

Wilhuff Tarkin watched the Kingdom of Dawn build a stargate on Boonta while his forces remained tied down by Kashyyyk and threats to their supply lines. Meanwhile, Oswald Tessik’s forces launched a brutal assault on Bilbrin Planet, and Dunn Vesex attacked near Ord Mantell as the fighting intensified.

• Wilhuff Tarkin held back from attacking Boonta because his forces were insufficient and Kashyyyk’s defenses and Rebel Alliance raids threatened his fleet’s rear.
• General Grievous advanced toward Rohe Planet while Mojo’s nine Purifier aircraft carriers disappeared to harass supply lines behind Lantilis Planet.
• Oswald Tessik led the Reaper and five Bellator-class Dreadnoughts in a bombardment of Bilbrin Planet’s armed asteroid defenses.
• Luo Huacheng and General Trench positioned the Kingdom of Dawn fleet behind the asteroids and concentrated fire on Imperial formations while avoiding the Reaper’s firepower.
• Dunn Vesex attacked near Ord Mantell with a smaller force, but both sides held their positions as the fighting continued.
• By the third day, Oswald Tessik’s First System Army had fully entered the Bilbrin Planet theater, and the battle grew more brutal.

On Makito’s hidden moon, Vasari General Kelslak prepared a million genetically engineered soldiers for war alongside Ander Viking of the Kingdom of Dawn. The army boarded thirty giant warships and departed, leaving the Vasari forces ready to join Tang Xiao’s cause.

• Vasari forces gathered more than a million cloned soldiers on Satellite 1, where ten thousand human slaves were sacrificed to consecrate a vast altar.
• Kelslak led Ander Viking through the army and proclaimed victory for the Vasari, the Kingdom of Dawn, and Tang Xiao.
• The Vasari clone troopers boarded transport ships, leaving bloody tracks across the plaza.
• Kelslak and Ander boarded the final lavish transport ship and left Satellite 1’s atmosphere.
• Thirty Vasari warships, including twenty Keltu Destroyers and ten Waknos Destroyers, took in the transports carrying the army.

Ander Viking led a Vasari fleet through a hidden route to launch a surprise attack on Scipio while the Galactic Empire’s main forces were distracted at Bilbrin. Rear Admiral Kallic realized an invasion was underway, but Scipio’s Interdictors would not be disabled across the route for another nine hours.

• Ander Viking explained how the Kingdom of Dawn had drawn the First System Army’s attention toward Palanci and Bilbrin, leaving Scipio vulnerable.
• The Vasari fleet entered the secret Makito–Scipio route, using Stargates to accelerate its hyperspace journey to one day.
• Rear Admiral Kallic dismissed reports of abnormal hyperspace fluctuations and ordered engineers to deploy more Interdictors the next day.
• Kallic learned that Interdictors were going offline as an approaching force smashed through them toward Scipio.
• Kallic ordered every warship on Scipio to battle stations and learned that the outages were estimated to reach the planet in nine hours and twelve minutes.

Rear Admiral Kallic awaited reinforcements at Scipio, but the Kingdom of Dawn fleet arrived before Imperial Marshal Ruffan Digorinus could reach the system. Kallic's Guardian engaged the unfamiliar Keltu Destroyers, whose shields and Phase missiles devastated the Imperial flagship's defenses.

• Marshal Oswald Tessik told Kallic to hold Scipio until the Battle of Bilbrin ended, while Supreme Strategic Command organized reinforcements and Ruffan Digorinus headed for the system.
• Nine hours later, the Kingdom of Dawn fleet broke through the Interdictor blockade and appeared near Scipio before Ruffan Digorinus arrived.
• Kallic saw thirty enormous, unfamiliar warships and one hundred transports, then ordered the Guardian to advance and open fire.
• The Keltu Destroyers absorbed the Guardian's Turbolaser barrage with their shields and retaliated with laser beams, Wave cannons, and Phase missiles.
• The Phase missiles passed through the Guardian's shields and destroyed armor and main turret batteries, while the Keltu Destroyers' laser strikes triggered alarms in the ship's Energy Department.

Rear Admiral Kallic’s fleet was crippled by the Keltu Destroyers’ energy-disrupting beams while the Waknos Destroyers deployed Star Destroyer beam platforms over Scipio. The chapter ended with one hundred beams striking the planet’s shield in a synchronized bombardment.

• The Engine Department reported that strange quantum resonance was disrupting the Guardian’s reactor and reducing its energy supply efficiency by 20%.
• Kallic ordered the Guardian to retreat, but the reduced power left it unable to spare energy for its engines, and its heavy Turbolasers fired at half their normal rate.
• The Keltu Destroyers weakened the Imperial ships and engaged them one-on-one, leaving fifteen Imperial-class Star Destroyers in danger of destruction.
• Ten Waknos Destroyers approached Scipio and deployed one hundred beam platforms above the planet’s major cities.
• Kallic ordered the fleet to destroy the platforms and activate Scipio’s Planetary Shield, but the platforms charged and fired one hundred beams at the shield, then began charging a second barrage.

Rear Admiral Kallic's fleet could not withstand the Kingdom of Dawn's Keltu and Waknos Destroyers, forcing him to order a retreat from Scipio. Marshal Oswald Tessik received Kallic's report and began weighing whether to abandon the offensive at Bilbrin Planet to reinforce Scipio.

• Keltu Destroyers weakened the Guardian Super Star Destroyer while Star Destroyer Beam Platforms bombarded Scipio's planetary shield, leaving Kallic with no effective way to defend the planet.
• Kallic ordered his fleet to retreat toward the edge of the star system and wait for Marshal Ruffan Digorinus's reinforcements, but the Keltu and Waknos Destroyers pursued them.
• Phase missiles struck the Guardian's deck and targeted its main battery arrays as Kallic's Imperial-class Star Destroyers came under devastating fire.
• Kallic sacrificed six hundred small and medium warships to cover the retreat and ordered the Guardian to prepare for hyperspace, then reported the situation to Marshal Oswald Tessik.
• Ruffan led forty Imperial-class Star Destroyers through hyperspace, unaware that Kallic was retreating and still expecting to take command of the Guardian.
• Oswald received Kallic's report and considered whether to abandon the nearly fallen Bilbrin Planet to reinforce Scipio.

Marshal Oswald Tessik ordered a staged retreat from Bilbrin as unfamiliar Kingdom of Dawn warships overwhelmed Imperial forces at Scipio. A day later, he regrouped at Pantolomin and learned that Scipio had fallen to a Vasari invasion, leaving him convinced the Galactic Empire was nearing defeat.

• Oswald Tessik ordered part of his fleet to withdraw from Bilbrin while the remaining ships continued bombarding the planet.
• Rear Admiral Kallic fled Scipio in the Guardian, leaving Imperial ships exposed to the Keltu Destroyers.
• Ruffan Digorinus arrived with reinforcements, found Kallic gone, and was captured by the Kingdom of Dawn fleet.
• Oswald Tessik regrouped at Pantolomin with six hundred Star Destroyers and ten thousand frigates and destroyers, then learned Kallic had been arrested and Scipio was under attack.
• One million Vasari seized Scipio’s major cities, cut communications, disabled the Planetary Shield, and began attacking the vaults.

The Vasari army overran Scipio, breached the InterGalactic Banking Clan vaults, and devastated the Empire’s financial heart before Imperial forces could retake the planet. The Empire responded by sealing Coruscant and launching mass arrests and blockades to contain the crisis.

• The Vasari routed Scipio’s defenders, captured its major cities, and used a phase torpedo to blast open the vault entrance.
• Marshal Oswald-Tessik arrived to find the Imperial fleet destroyed and ordered his forces to land and retake Scipio.
• Vasari troops ambushed Imperial soldiers inside the vaults while destroying financial records, data, and stored resources.
• The Vasari fleet departed, but its ground army continued fighting across Scipio, leaving the vault mountain range under enemy control.
• The Empire raised Coruscant’s two-way Planetary Shield and sealed the planet as it blockaded worlds tied to the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
• The Empire arrested every InterGalactic Banking Clan employee, shut down the HoloNet, and deployed Gray Uniforms to occupy Coruscant’s media companies.

After the Scipio vault’s destruction paralyzed the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Galactic Empire’s financial system collapsed, leaving businesses, workers, and soldiers unpaid. On Scipio, Marshal Oswald Tessik’s forces kept assaulting the Vasari-held vault at enormous cost while destroying valuable evidence and struggling to hold their demoralized troops together.

• The Empire concealed the Scipio disaster, suspended financial settlements, and announced that account balances would be reassessed under the Emergency Fiscal Integration Act.
• Kuat Drive Yards, Sith Fleet Systems, Corellia Engineering Company, and other bond issuers refused to honor war bonds, while businesses rushed to withdraw deposits from banks.
• The collapse of banking and currency left the Empire unable to pay workers or soldiers, halted military-industrial production, and drove the Finance Department to mint counterfeit credit ingots.
• Marshal Oswald Tessik sent 1-H super-heavy hover tanks into the vault, where they blasted Vasari targets and destroyed surviving financial data as Imperial soldiers advanced behind them.
• The Imperial Army suffered massive casualties, used K-X security droids to block deserters, and issued IOUs and Scipio's Star Medals of Honor instead of proper pay and benefits.
• Imperial researchers dissected captured Vasari soldiers but found no weaknesses, while the Kaminoan specialists could not develop a gene-targeting weapon without the original clone template.

The Vasari turned the Vault Mountains into a deadly maze while the Imperial assault continued, and Oswald Tessik realized the Empire could not survive the war. As the Empire’s financial system collapsed and its territory began to fragment, the Kingdom of Dawn launched a currency operation to replace Imperial credit with Currency Number Four.

• Imperial forces captured the Vault Mountains’ main passages with 1-H super-heavy tanks, but Vasari fighters used the dark corridors to kill soldiers and Banking Clan employees sent to search for fragments.
• Oswald Tessik watched the battle and concluded that the Kingdom of Dawn had forged the Vasari into a terrifying war machine while the Galactic Empire had reached its end.
• The Imperial Seventh Legion declared independence and accepted Currency Number Four, while the Sixteenth Legion and Seventeenth Army secretly used it to pay troops amid mutinies and financial collapse.
• The Galactic Empire froze its bonds under the Emergency Fiscal Integration Act, sparking widespread anger, riots, and a shift toward state-controlled lending through the Imperial Credit Bureau.
• Ras Clovis mocked the Imperial Credit Bureau from prison, comparing the Empire’s money to scrap metal backed by threats.
• Hari Seldon, advised by San Hill and Semid Tang, directed secret trading points to buy Imperial currency and bonds with Currency Number Four in an effort to replace Imperial credit.

After the Battle of Scipio, Core World aristocrats and corporate leaders debated whether to keep supporting the financially collapsing Galactic Empire or back the Kingdom of Dawn. They rejected both centralized regimes and rallied around restoring the Republic, leaving Queen Borha Organa denouncing their hypocritical claims of freedom.

• Core World nobles discussed how the Kingdom of Dawn had breached Scipio’s defenses and seized its vaults, while the Empire concealed what had happened aboard the Guardian.
• The aristocrats condemned the Empire’s financial measures and argued over whether to resist it, negotiate with Tang Xiao, or join the Kingdom of Dawn.
• The gathering rejected the Kingdom of Dawn as foreign and feared its nationalization policies, while several speakers also doubted the Empire could defeat it.
• The nobles proposed using the Republic Restoration Alliance, also known as the Rebel Alliance, as their political alternative and offered it money, shipping lanes, shipyards, and media support.
• Queen Borha Organa denounced the aristocrats’ version of freedom as a cover for enslavement and discrimination, but the others laughed and toasted the Republic.