Chapter Summaries

Protoss and Fourth Empire fighter waves overwhelmed the Death Star’s defenses, nearly destroying Tarkin’s TIE force while transport aircraft slipped through the shield. Tarkin prepared to jump to hyperspace, but the navigator discovered that the transports carried Hyperspace Inhibitors.

• Skrand Sharpbeak’s Interceptors entered the Death Star’s Equatorial Trench and nearly annihilated its four thousand TIE fighters, losing just over 2,400 drones.
• The surviving Interceptors attacked the Death Star’s surface installations while Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the navigator to prepare a hyperspace jump.
• Ander Viking sent Wraith fighters and APOD-33 transports toward the Death Star, and the remaining Interceptors and Wraiths shielded the transports from Imperial fire.
• More than 380 transports entered the Death Star’s Deflector Shield, and the navigator warned Tarkin that they carried Hyperspace Inhibitors.

The narrator argued that recent Star Wars works suffered from protagonists who felt untouchable, making their victories and enemies unconvincing. The rant ended by calling for protagonists who could make mistakes, get hurt, struggle, and take wrong paths.

• The narrator criticized The Mandalorian and Grogu for lacking meaningful plot, character development, and danger, despite Grogu being cute.
• The narrator pointed out how enemies in Mando’s fights lacked weapons and how his sniper rifle seemed far more powerful in his hands than it should have been.
• The narrator said the untouchable-protagonist problem appeared across several Star Wars works and made battles feel like predictable executions.
• The narrator contrasted those stories with memorable struggles and sacrifices, including Qui-Gon’s death, Skywalker’s fall, Rogue One, and Maul’s series.
• The narrator argued Star Wars itself was not outdated and called for protagonists to make mistakes, suffer injuries, struggle, and choose wrong paths.

Wilhuff Tarkin struggled to free the Death Star from the Hyperspace Inhibitors while the Galactic Empire’s forces tried to counter the Fourth Empire’s attacks. As the jump delay fell, Skrand Sharp-Bick’s final strike crippled Imperial Star Destroyers with a newly identified stealth fighter, the Asteria, Spectre fighter.

• Wilhuff Tarkin ordered his staff to clear the drones and Interdictors so the Death Star could leave within half an hour.
• The Galactic Empire deployed anti-air ships around the Death Star’s Equatorial Trench and sent Vigil-class corvettes to hunt the Interdictors, while engineers struggled to find those hidden in complex areas.
• The Death Star’s hyperspace jump delay gradually decreased as the Vigil-class corvettes destroyed some Interdictors, but many remained concealed.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick’s fourth airstrike wave attacked the Imperial escort fleet with Proton Torpedoes, crippling several Imperial-class Star Destroyers by targeting their engines.
• Imperial sensor technicians detected three hundred stealth fighters using gravitational-wave detection and identified them as an unfamiliar model called the Asteria, Spectre fighter.

Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to destroy Chardaan Planet, while Skrand Sharp-Bick’s fleet could only watch and prepare to delay the station. After Chardaan’s government pledged allegiance to the Fourth Empire and called the galaxy to resist, Skrand ordered its message broadcast everywhere.

• Asteria Spectre fighters crippled the Death Star’s escort Star Destroyers, and Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star’s superlaser charged to fire on Chardaan Planet.
• Tarkin told his adjutant that Chardaan Planet would be punished for its supposed inaction, while Governor Tahir failed to contact him and tried to reach the Death Star in person.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick told Ander Viking that the Claw Fleet could only delay the Death Star, and Ander resolved to evacuate Paks Planet and keep fighting.
• A Vindicator-class heavy cruiser destroyed Tahir’s shuttle, and Chardaan Planet’s Chief Executive Officer ordered officials to conceal his death from the public.
• Chardaan Planet’s senate pledged allegiance to the Fourth Empire and issued a denunciation of Tarkin as the Death Star’s superlaser finished charging.
• Skrand received Chardaan Planet’s message and ordered it sent to every corner of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to destroy Chardaan Planet, killing 1.6 billion people and leaving the planet in fragments. Skrand Sharp-Bick vowed to pursue Tarkin toward Paks Planet, while the Fourth Empire branded Tarkin the galaxy’s greatest war criminal.

• Wilhuff Tarkin forced Captain Purga to fire the Death Star’s superlaser at Chardaan Planet, and the planet’s electromagnetic field failed as its people plunged into chaos.
• Captain Purga pressed the firing button under threat, and the superlaser destroyed Chardaan Planet and its 1.6 billion inhabitants.
• Wilhuff Tarkin dismissed the Death Star’s shortcomings and set course for Paks Planet, intending to continue toward Dawn Star Planet.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick ordered his forces to withdraw and delay Tarkin, declaring that they would make him answer for the dead of Chardaan and the earlier victims.
• The Asteria Spectre fighters returned to their carrier as the surviving drones were lost in the planetary shockwave.
• The Fourth Empire branded Wilhuff Tarkin the Milky Way Galaxy’s Number One War Criminal and broadcast Chardaan’s destruction across the HoloNet.

After the Death Star destroyed Chardaan and killed 1.6 billion people, Galen Erso secretly prepared to pass the superweapon’s fatal weakness to the Fourth Empire but remained trapped under Imperial surveillance. A mysterious visitor named Zangakkar appeared in his laboratory and said he had come on the Fourth Empire’s behalf to discuss Death Star data.

• Imperial personnel on Scarif celebrated the Death Star’s successful destruction of Chardaan, while an intelligence officer recorded that 1.6 billion people had died.
• Galen Erso rejected an assistant’s invitation to celebrate and agonized over his role in designing the Death Star and its superlaser.
• Galen resolved to send the Death Star’s hidden pressure critical point to the Fourth Empire, but knew Scarif’s security and surveillance prevented him from making contact.
• Galen approved a mission to collect samples from Chardaan’s remains and suspected the Fourth Empire might act after the planet’s destruction.
• The lights in Galen’s laboratory flickered, and an unseen visitor identified himself as Zangakkar of the Sali-Gal tribe and offered to discuss Death Star data on behalf of the Fourth Empire.

Galen Erso gave Zangakkar the Death Star’s hidden weakness, his authorization, and the location of its structural schematics for the Fourth Empire. Zangakkar retrieved the data disk, then gave Galen until four o’clock to reach the tower roof and escape with him.

• Zangakkar revealed that Tang Xiao knew about Galen Erso’s fatal flaw in the Death Star and asked him for the station’s data.
• Galen explained how explosives in a critical energy conduit could trigger a chain reaction, then gave Zangakkar the flaw’s coordinates, the schematics’ storage location, and his Password Cylinder.
• Zangakkar said the Fourth Empire would disable the Death Star’s defenses so Tang Xiao could destroy it with his Death Force, while Galen stayed behind to maintain his cover.
• The chapter described Scarif’s defenses and the obstacles to accessing its Data Bank.
• Three hours later, Zangakkar returned the data disk for Galen to verify and told him to reach the tower top before four, when a Messenger Ship would leave.

Galen Erso left the Scarif base with Zangakkar after stealing the Death Star data disk and carrying the weapon’s hidden weakness. They escaped through the Planetary Shield Gate just before it closed, taking Galen’s hope of bringing down the Death Star with them.

• Galen Erso decided to trust Zangakkar and headed for the base tower’s rooftop, concealing his fear from Imperial personnel.
• Galen reached the rooftop and waited for Zangakkar’s invisible ship as Imperial forces began searching for him and the missing data disk.
• Imperial Stormtroopers confronted Galen, but an unseen blade killed the soldiers as Zangakkar’s ship remained hidden.
• Zangakkar’s ship revealed itself and took Galen aboard while the Messenger Ship passed through Scarif’s Planetary Shield Gate.
• The ship accelerated past the Messenger Ship and escaped through the closing Shield Gate with Galen, the Death Star’s weakness, and the data disks.

Skrand Sharp-Bick delayed the Death Star’s advance but could not prevent Wilhuff Tarkin from destroying Paks Planet and killing more than seventy million people left behind. He regrouped at Kira planet to defend it as Tarkin’s next likely target, where he found Arroyo Barlow’s newly completed Eternal II-class Super Carrier awaiting him.

• Skrand Sharp-Bick’s fleet delayed the Death Star for three days and enabled the evacuation of more than twenty million people from Paks Planet, but Tarkin’s forces repelled attacks on the superlaser.
• Skrand ordered his fleet to retreat, and the Death Star destroyed Paks Planet with its superlaser on June 2.
• Skrand predicted that Tarkin would target Kira planet before Eriadu, while Qi Jian remained cautious and gathered fleets to defend Eriadu.
• Skrand arrived at Kira planet on June 3, where the Claw Fleet prepared for battle and the planet began evacuating its population.
• Skrand discovered that Arroyo Barlow had delivered the completed Eternal II-class Super Carrier, which was operating as a mobile spaceport beside Kira’s spaceport.

Skrand Sharp-Bick prepared Kira’s defenses aboard a new Eternal II-class carrier as the Death Star neared, while Zangakkar and Galen Erso were pursued by Imperial fighters near Riss. The chapter left Kira’s fate unresolved and introduced a Protoss Carrier arriving to aid the fleeing pair.

• Skrand Sharp-Bick boarded the Eternal II-class Super Carrier, which would be named after him if he played a crucial role in destroying the Death Star.
• Skrand surveyed Kira’s evacuation and defenses, then vowed that he would not let the Death Star destroy the planet, which it was expected to reach in fifty-four hours.
• The Fourth Empire deployed space mines and studied Phase missile tactics, but neither approach offered a reliable way to defeat the Death Star.
• Near Riss Planet, Zangakkar piloted the Nerazim Shuttle while two Imperial TIE Avenger fighters pursued him and Galen Erso.
• A Protoss Carrier emerged from hyperspace, and two of its fighters launched toward the pursuing TIE Avengers.

Olof and Janna bel Arde were defeated by Protoss Phoenix fighters, and Zangakkar brought their captured escape pods back to the carrier with Galen Erso’s Death Star data disk. Tang Xiao dreamed that Son warned he would become darkness itself, then Daughter told him that inheriting Darth Sidious’s legacy had brought him dangerously close to Son.

• Olof and Janna bel Arde attacked the Phoenix fighters, but the fighters’ impossible maneuvers let them outfly the TIE Avengers.
• A Phoenix fighter destroyed Janna’s TIE Avenger, and Zangakkar’s shuttle captured her ejected cockpit with a tractor beam.
• The Phoenix fighters trapped Olof with a gravity beam and destroyed his fighter, then approached his ejected cockpit.
• Galen Erso watched the battle as Zangakkar returned to the carrier with the Death Star data disk and the two captured Inquisitors.
• Darth Malthael dreamed that Son warned he would become Son and that Luke Skywalker killed him in the vision.
• Daughter appeared in Tang Xiao’s bedroom and warned him that inheriting Darth Sidious’s Dark Side legacy had brought him close to becoming Son.

Tang Xiao formed the Death Star Squadron and sent it aboard Red Comet III to fight the Death Star. As the Death Star arrived in the Kira system, Skrand Sharp-Bick prepared the Claw Fleet for a final defense of the planet.

• After learning that Galen Erso had been found, Tang Xiao ordered Elite Squadron to assemble.
• Tang Xiao boarded Red Comet III and addressed two hundred veteran pilots, threatening them with death if they failed to destroy the Death Star and naming them the Death Star Squadron.
• On June 5, Year One of the Empire, the Death Star emerged from hyperspace in the outer orbit of Kira.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick ordered the Claw Fleet to launch unmanned craft in waves and attack the Death Star's main cannon.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick declared that the battle was the fleet's final fight as Kira's defenses stood ready.

The Fourth Empire’s scientists struggled to understand the Galactic Empire’s patched-together Death Star while waiting for Galen Erso to provide its design data. As the Death Star advanced toward Kira planet, Skrand Sharp-Bick’s drone attack began probing its defenses and tearing into its escort fleet, with heavy Unmanned Bombers launching toward the Vindicator-class Anti-Air Heavy Cruisers.

• The Death Star Laboratory’s technicians discussed why they could not reproduce the Death Star’s improvised structure and waited urgently for Galen Erso’s data.
• Galen Erso arrived at the laboratory with Zangakkar, and scientists immediately crowded around them to obtain the Death Star information.
• The scientists took Galen Erso away to study the data, while Zangakkar departed after reminding them that telepathy was not mind-reading.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick launched more than 30,000 Swarm Drones to probe the Imperial fleet’s defenses as the Death Star approached Kira planet.
• Interceptor drones attacked the Imperial escort fleet’s weak points, destroying DP-20 gunboats and inflicting heavy losses on anti-air ships.
• Purifier carriers launched heavy Unmanned Bombers targeting the Vindicator-class Anti-Air Heavy Cruisers.

Skrand Sharp-Bick’s Claw Fleet devastated the Imperial escort fleet but could not damage the Death Star, while Wilhuff Tarkin pushed the battle station toward Kira and prepared to destroy the advancing carriers. The Claw Fleet charged closer to shorten the time before its next drone assault, as both sides prepared for the next exchange of fire.

• Skrand Sharp-Bick unleashed nearly four thousand Protoss Purifiers Unmanned Bombers, whose coordinated attacks destroyed fifty-seven Star Destroyers and more than six hundred ninety smaller warships.
• Wilhuff Tarkin pulled his remaining anti-air ships toward the Death Star, accelerated its advance, and ordered the fleet to hold out until it could fire on Kira.
• Skrand learned the Death Star would cross the asteroid belt in about seven hours and twenty minutes and named that passage the Claw Fleet’s next opportunity to attack.
• Skrand ordered the carrier fleet to advance toward the Death Star so its drones could return, rearm, and launch again sooner, while Tarkin ordered his ships to lower their shields and fire on the approaching carriers.
• Skrand ordered the carriers to reinforce their forward shields and prepare for the Imperial fleet’s first volley, after which the formation would spread out and Sova-class carriers could return fire.

Skrand-Sharp-Bick’s Claw Fleet destroyed the Death Star’s escort fleet and launched a massive assault on the Death Star, but its armor remained largely intact. With the station still advancing toward Kira, Qi Jian sought a way to bring siege cruisers inside its shields, while scientists on Eriadu continued examining Galen-Erso’s data.

• Skrand-Sharp-Bick advanced the Claw Fleet under heavy fire until the returning drones were serviced and launched alongside elite fighters.
• Eight hundred Asteria Spectre fighters emerged from tactical jumps and devastated the escort fleet with cloaked attacks.
• More than one hundred thousand drones and thousands of fighters annihilated the Death Star’s escort ships, then attacked the station itself.
• The bombardment damaged the Death Star’s cooling system and reduced its sublight speed by twenty percent, but barely affected its armor or systems.
• Qi Jian struggled to find a way for two hundred Ogre-class Siege Cruisers to pass the Death Star’s shields and bombard it directly.
• He Keyou and other Fourth Empire scientists continued verifying Galen-Erso’s data in the Death Star Laboratory on Eriadu.

Skrand Sharp-Bick committed the Fourth Empire’s forces to a final assault to stop the Death Star before it could fire on Kira planet. As Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the station to accelerate and ram the planet, Ogre-class cruisers breached its shield and launched their torpedoes, leaving the Death Star shaking from the explosions.

• Skrand Sharp-Bick ordered every available drone, fighter, and weapon to attack the Death Star, damaging its armor but failing to stop the superlaser from charging.
• Qi Jian arrived from Eriadu with one hundred capital ships and fired on the Death Star, but its Deflector Shield blocked their attacks.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick sent two hundred Ogre-class Siege Cruisers to slip inside the Death Star’s shield and launch Super-heavy Proton Torpedoes.
• Wilhuff Tarkin rejected surrender and ordered the Death Star to accelerate, fire its superlaser, and ram Kira planet.
• The sixty-first Ogre-class cruiser entered the shield and launched its torpedoes before crashing into the Death Star, triggering a series of violent explosions.

Galen Erso watched the Fourth Empire successfully test a Proton Torpedo against a Death Star model, then realized the Empire was too powerful and centralized to support. As the real Death Star continued toward Kira, Tang Xiao arrived with an undead squadron to make the shot through its exhaust conduit, but wreckage blocked the approach.

• Galen Erso saw the scientists confirm that a miniature Proton Torpedo could destroy the Death Star model, and concluded the Fourth Empire could build the weapon without his help.
• Two Salarians escorted Galen Erso to the Emperor’s victory banquet instead of letting him leave to collect his daughter.
• Seventeen Super-heavy Proton Torpedoes damaged the Death Star, but Skrand Sharp-Bick realized Wilhuff Tarkin was still steering it toward Kira and warned Qi Jian.
• Tang Xiao arrived beside Kira aboard Red Comet III and led 200 undead ace pilots toward the Death Star’s Equatorial Trench.
• He Keyou sent Tang Xiao the coordinates for Galen Erso’s exhaust conduit, while the undead pilots cleared the trench of defending ground units.
• Tang Xiao reached exhaust port E-7722 and found the wreckage of a Vindicator-class heavy cruiser blocking it.

Darth Malthael cleared the wreck from exhaust port E-7733 and launched a Proton Torpedo as the Death Star fired on Kira. The planet’s shield briefly held against the weakened superlaser, but the Death Star exploded before its final impact, leaving the torpedo’s result unresolved.

• Darth Malthael used the Death Force to lift a 1.8-million-ton Vindicator-class cruiser wreck off exhaust port E-7733 and fling it away from the Death Star.
• Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to fire before it reached effective range, and its superlaser struck Kira’s planetary shield.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick learned that Kira’s shield could hold for about nine minutes and thirty-seven seconds and focused on Darth Malthael and Tang Xiao.
• Darth Malthael and Tang Xiao synchronized their resolve and launched a Proton Torpedo toward the exhaust port.
• Wilhuff Tarkin laughed as the Death Star’s energy core erupted, destroying the station and killing him.

Darth Malthael destroyed the Death Star, but its scattered mass created a vast debris cloud headed toward Kira planet. Skrand Sharp-Bick ordered an emergency interception, including a concentrated fleet bombardment of a massive fragment, while the planet’s shield remained disabled.

• Darth Malthael fired a Proton Torpedo into the Death Star’s energy core, triggering a chain reaction that destroyed the station and killed Wilhuff Tarkin and its crew.
• Darth Malthael escaped toward Kira planet aboard Red Comet I, while Death Star Squadron was stranded behind the expanding debris cloud.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick learned that Kira planet’s shield needed at least 27 hours to recover, while debris would begin arriving in about eight hours.
• A T-series tactical robot reported that roughly 200,000 tons of debris could reach Kira planet and that a 370-million-ton fragment would pass within 2,700 kilometers.
• Skrand Sharp-Bick ordered immediate interception operations and directed Chief of Staff Qi to lead a fleet bombardment of the giant fragment.

After the Death Star’s destruction, the Galactic Empire tried to distance itself from Wilhuff Tarkin and requested a ceasefire with the Fourth Empire. Tang Xiao approved peace talks and left Harry Seldon in charge while he went to his Dark Altar on Muunilinst.

• The Fourth Empire publicized the Death Star’s destruction, causing liberal activity within the empire to quiet as its military power appeared overwhelming.
• Isanne Isard’s Imperial Loyalty Committee condemned Wilhuff Tarkin for the Death Star’s destruction and stripped Gideon Tarkin and Garrosh Tarkin of their military status and honors.
• Sate Pestage requested a ceasefire and submitted diplomatic credentials, blaming the Rebel Alliance for the war and offering peace talks on terms involving concessions.
• The Fourth Empire’s officials agreed to negotiate leniently so the Galactic Empire could focus on fighting the Rebel Alliance, then submitted their proposal to Tang Xiao.
• Tang Xiao approved the proposal without reading it, gave Harry Seldon full authority over the talks, and went to Abola Island on Muunilinst.