Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao studied Darth Pregas’s forbidden research into the Force, Chlamydiae, and the creation of life, learning how Pregas’s theories shaped his experiments. A failed attempt to create life had occurred around the time Anakin Skywalker was born, leaving Tang Xiao to consider whether the two events were connected.

• Tang Xiao read Pregas’s manuscripts and learned that Pregas believed Chlamydiae could be used to understand and control the Force.
• Tang Xiao learned Pregas divided the Force into the infinite, the soul, and the spirit, and hoped to use them to create life and achieve immortality.
• Tang Xiao discovered that Pregas and Darth Sidious had tried to create a life-form of the Force by resonating with Chlamydiae across the galaxy, but they thought the experiment had failed.
• Tang Xiao realized the experiment had taken place around the time Anakin Skywalker was born and recalled Anakin’s extraordinary Chlamydiae density and fatherless conception.
• Tang Xiao read Pregas’s view that prophecy was based on observable patterns and that mastering Chlamydiae would make the Chosen One insignificant.

Tang Xiao read Darth Pregas's research on resurrection, Essence Transfer, and Sith spirits, noting how Pregas's experiments with Darth Venamis had advanced his understanding of Chlamydiae. The manuscripts also described Pregas's visit to Korriban, where Marka Ragnos answered him only to curse him, leaving Tang Xiao intrigued by the possibility of Essence Transfer but wary of seeking Darth Andeddu's holocron.

• Tang Xiao considered Pregas's interpretation that the Jedi Order itself, rather than the Dark Side, had caused the Force's imbalance.
• Pregas had repeatedly killed and resurrected Darth Venamis while studying Chlamydiae, blood, and the transfer of Force abilities.
• Pregas had pursued Essence Transfer as a route to Immortality, while Sidious had later withdrawn from their research to focus on the Galactic Senate.
• Tang Xiao recognized that Sidious remained obsessed with Essence Transfer and considered seeking Darth Andeddu's holocron, but feared his Death Force could provoke ancient Sith souls.
• Pregas had explored the tombs of Hakkagram Graush and Sorlzus Syn on Korriban before Marka Ragnos appeared and berated him.
• Pregas concluded that Marka Ragnos was only a remnant of will incapable of communication after the Sith Emperor ignored his questions and kept cursing him.

The Fourth Civilization rapidly expanded Dawn Star Planet, increased food production, and launched new population, trade, and computing initiatives. It left the civilization preparing to expand the Saria City model while testing an antimatter engine and building a planetary supercomputer.

• Dawn Star Planet’s population reached two million, and its forty residential areas were organized into the Ursus and Kjerag Regions.
• Chief Executive Officer Daphne Clement prepared a pilot in Saria City, where robots cared for fifty thousand cryo-embryos while five thousand humans staffed their school and city.
• The Agriculture Department raised quarterly crop output above five hundred million tons, enabling exports that Claire Underwood used to gain political influence and support Cerea.
• The Fourth Civilization established an independent foreign trade company and gained access to Homeworld technologies through joint warship projects with other factions.
• Chi Jianjun’s team focused on Sins of a Solar Empire technologies as scientists tested an antimatter engine and built a space-station supercomputer.
• The Fourth Civilization completed a preliminary planetary energy network that enabled long-distance wireless power transmission across Dawn Star Planet.

The Fourth Civilization expanded its robotics and scientific capabilities while preparing for future military growth without building large spacecraft. Tang Xiao kept the focus on strengthening the civilization’s industrial foundations, and its army adopted new combat suits.

• The Fourth Civilization modified its B-1 robots, created the G-Project, and began building a Synaptic Node to share their computing power.
• Guan Yan’s energy department developed ultraviolet laser weapons, while Qu Xuewen’s team investigated producing Tritanium from available substitute materials.
• The Fourth Civilization equipped its scientists and technicians with Omni-tools, improving research and manufacturing efficiency.
• Tang Xiao forbade the development of large spacecraft and kept the Fourth Civilization focused on expanding its population, resources, and industrial capacity.
• The Fourth Civilization replaced its army’s uniforms with Mass Effect light combat suits that could protect soldiers in harsh environments.

The Fourth Civilization added new weapons, vehicles, aircraft, and small warships to its growing military forces. Tang Xiao’s combined-arms arsenal took shape as a potential counter to the Galactic Republic, while the Banshee Fighter remained in testing.

• The Fourth Civilization completed development of the M-5 Phalanx Pistol, M-29 Mantis Sniper Rifle, and M-41 SSR Dual Rocket Launcher, and began producing Vulture Vehicles and Goliath Mechs.
• The Fourth Civilization Army expanded to ten thousand personnel, with millions of battle droids also listed in its order of battle, while Army Commander Xiao Guanghua remained unaware of Tang Xiao’s secret Fourth Legion.
• Xiao Guanghua welcomed the Banshee Fighter’s test flights, which promised to give the army air-ground strike capabilities once the aircraft entered service.
• The Fourth Civilization Navy commissioned Stilat and Shriken light corvettes, whose speed and specialized weapons made them suited to attacking capital ships.
• The navy also commissioned Javelin heavy missile frigates armed with Fusion Nuclear Missiles and Valkyrie light missile frigates equipped for atmospheric combat.
• Tang Xiao relied on the complementary strengths of the Fourth Civilization’s new equipment as his means of competing for control of the galaxy.

Padmé Naberrie was crowned Queen Amidala and began reforms and diplomatic efforts to address Naboo’s crises. The Trade Federation refused to renegotiate its treaty, leaving Naboo facing the prospect of continued exploitation and conflict.

• Padmé Naberrie won Naboo’s election and was crowned Queen Amidala after King Ars-Veruna abdicated.
• Queen Amidala amended Naboo’s constitution to limit monarchs to five-year terms and one consecutive re-election.
• Queen Amidala sent envoys to the Gungans and promised to protect their environment by ending excessive plasma ore mining.
• Queen Amidala opened talks with Nute Gunray, offering equal cooperation and warning that an unequal treaty could lead to war between humans and Gungans.
• Nute Gunray rejected negotiations and went to Golden Nyss Shipyard, while Rune Haako insisted the Trade Federation would accept no terms that reduced its profits.

Tang Xiao trained with Darth Pregas in using the Force and Chlamydiae to manipulate life, while they discussed the coming Trade Federation invasion of Naboo. Pregas urged Tang Xiao to capture more Force-sensitives for experiments and master his lessons before the war began.

• Darth Pregas told Tang Xiao that Nute Gunray was expected to attack Naboo in half a year, and Tang Xiao expressed interest in field-testing Fourth Group ships in the conflict.
• Pregas questioned Tang Xiao about the Hiigaran-class battlecruiser designs, and Tang Xiao claimed he wanted to investigate his origins beyond the galaxy.
• Pregas taught Tang Xiao to use Chlamydiae and the Force to control cell growth, and Tang Xiao sealed a test subject's mouth shut with growing tissue.
• Tang Xiao continued experimenting until the subject died, then tried to revive him, but Pregas said the man's consciousness had dispersed.
• Tang Xiao offered to capture Force-sensitives employed by Black Sun, and Pregas told him to return quickly and continue training before the Naboo war.

Nute Gunray revealed to Darth Sidious that Hask Monchar had stolen records of the Naboo blockade plan and Sidious’s conversations, prompting Sidious to send Darth Maul after the merchant Lorn Pavan. Darth Pregas also ordered Tang Xiao to hunt Pavan, and Tang Xiao recognized the situation from a plotline he remembered.

• Nute Gunray told Darth Sidious that he had delayed the Naboo blockade because the warship conversions and droid army were not ready.
• Darth Sidious showed Gunray that Darth Maul had captured Hask Monchar and learned that Monchar sold a storage device to Lorn Pavan.
• Gunray revealed that the device contained the Naboo blockade plan and records of conversations with Darth Sidious.
• Darth Maul killed Hask Monchar, and Darth Sidious ordered him to capture Lorn Pavan and recover the device.
• Darth Pregas ordered Tang Xiao to hunt down Lorn Pavan, and Tang Xiao recalled a related plotline from his memories.

Tang Xiao planned to make Darth Pregas’s death inevitable by ensuring Darth Sidious saw the Fourth Group as a threat, and he found a new chance to deepen their mistrust. On Coruscant, information broker Lorn Pavan discovered that the Sith had killed the people involved in the stolen storage device and fled to warn his son, Jedi Knight Jax Pavan.

• Tang Xiao recalled that Darth Pregas was meant to die after the Battle of Naboo and planned to keep fueling Darth Sidious’s suspicions of Pregas.
• Tang Xiao recognized the Fourth Group’s repeated interference in Sith schemes as a way to make Sidious believe Pregas was secretly building power against him.
• Lorn Pavan watched firefighters put out a blaze that had destroyed several residences and killed bounty hunters and Trade Federation officials.
• Lorn Pavan recognized the cauterized wound on Haas Monchar’s body as a Lightsaber wound and concluded that the Sith were real.
• Lorn Pavan slipped away with I-5, intending to sell the storage device and warn his son, Jedi Knight Jax Pavan.

After discovering that a Sith had killed bounty hunters and a Neimoidian, Lorn Pavan planned to send evidence of the Sith’s return to his son, Jax Pavan, through I-5. At the secret holomemory sale, Lorn found the buyer Yanth dead and was confronted by a Sith.

• Lorn Pavan and I-5 concluded that the holomemory could reveal the Trade Federation’s plans against Naboo and that a Sith had killed the bounty hunters.
• Lorn decided to copy the holomemory into I-5 and send the droid to Jax Pavan so the Jedi Order could learn of the Sith’s return.
• Lorn drove to the abandoned factory to sell the holomemory to Yanth, taking precautions in case the deal went wrong.
• Lorn found Yanth and his bodyguards dead, with lightsaber wounds, and tried to flee.
• A cloaked figure with a crimson lightsaber confronted Lorn and remarked that he knew much about the Jedi and had a good son.

Darth Malthael killed Lorn Pavan after allowing him to record a message for his son, Jax, and reported the completed mission to Darth Pregas. Darth Maul arrived at the factory, where a cloaked figure lured him into an explosion before escaping.

• Darth Malthael told Lorn Pavan that he had recovered I-5 and gave him time to record a message for Jax Pavan.
• Lorn Pavan recorded his message, and Darth Malthael killed him with a Lightsaber and took his head.
• Darth Malthael reported to Darth Pregas that Lorn Pavan, Yanth, a Jedi Temple procurement officer, and their companions were dead, and Darth Pregas ordered him to return to Abola Island for his final trial.
• Darth Maul arrived at the abandoned factory and found Yanth and Lorn Pavan dead, along with the destroyed holographic storage device.
• A cloaked figure ambushed Darth Maul and detonated the factory, then escaped as Darth Maul survived the blast.

Darth Sidious learned that a mysterious man had destroyed Lorn Pavan’s holocron, while setbacks on Alaris Prime and new sanctions forced the Trade Federation to postpone its invasion of Naboo. Meanwhile, the Cerean civil war worsened, and Sylvn was assassinated during an anti-war march, driving Ki-Adi-Mundi toward the Dark Side.

• Darth Maul reported that a mysterious man had killed Lorn Pavan and destroyed the holocron, and Darth Sidious ordered him to leave while he considered the matter.
• Chewbacca led the Wookiees to capture the Trade Federation’s main base on Alaris Prime, while Pekkt fled and the Federation faced reports of atrocities and an illegal droid factory.
• Chancellor Phineas Valorum announced new investigations and sanctions, forcing Newt Gunray to postpone the Naboo invasion until its planned date six months later.
• The Cerean civil war intensified as Elder Dor Femi Bomi’s forces and Elder Leyton’s troops fought to a stalemate, while Sylvn campaigned for peace.
• An assassin shot and killed Sylvn during an anti-war march, and Ki-Adi-Mundi’s grief and fury brought a trace of the Dark Side into the Force around him.

Darth Malthael and Tang Xiao moved to exploit Ki-Adi-Mundi’s family tragedy, while Cerea’s civil war left Elder Leyton desperate for weapons and money. Darth Malthael appeared to Leyton and used the Force to make him keep his identity secret.

• Darth Pregas told Darth Malthael that Ki-Adi-Mundi’s daughter Sylvn had been killed and that he had sensed the Dark Side on Cerea; Darth Malthael agreed to target Yifent Mon as a trial.
• Tang Xiao ordered Baron Helmut Zemo to investigate Ki-Adi-Mundi’s family, and Zemo endorsed striking at the Jedi Order and its relatives.
• Elder Leyton struggled to defeat Elder Dor’s forces, bought weapons from Watto Tambor, and coerced residents into purchasing war bonds after his funds ran low.
• Darth Malthael appeared at Elder Leyton’s window, introduced himself by name, and compelled Leyton to promise not to reveal it.

Darth Malthael manipulated Elder Lydon into blaming Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi for his losses and persuaded him to target Mundi’s family. Lydon agreed to capture Mundi’s wives and children, but Malthael disappeared before he could act.

• Darth Malthael planted a suggestion in Elder Lydon’s subconscious and frightened him with visions of defeat.
• Malthael convinced Lydon that Watto-Tanber had sold him defective tanks and that Ki-Adi-Mundi was secretly aiding Elder Dor.
• Lydon grew furious at Mundi for ignoring his pleas and releasing Yuri Orlov, and Malthael claimed Mundi wanted to become Grand Elder.
• Malthael proposed that Lydon capture Mundi’s wives and children so he could kill Mundi while distracted.
• Lydon agreed, crushed his wineglass, and looked up to find Malthael gone.

Yuri Orlov and Elder Dor-Femi-Bonmi agreed to a plan with a mysterious man in black to kill Master Ki-Adi-Mundi and seize control of Cerea. As the plot advanced, Elder Leyton declared Mundi a traitor and ordered the arrest of his family.

• Yifent Mon and Elder Dor discussed their need for tanks and the obstacle Ki-Adi-Mundi posed to Dor becoming Grand Elder.
• Yuri Orlov revealed that Mundi’s daughter had been assassinated, and the man in black appeared and said someone else would take the blame for what came next.
• The man in black told them Elder Leyton would send troops to arrest Mundi’s family and promised weapons after Mundi was killed; Elder Dor and Yifent Mon accepted the plan.
• Yuri said he would not join a war, but the man in black warned that the war had already begun.
• Elder Leyton declared Mundi guilty of treason for refusing an honorary post and issued a warrant for the arrest of his entire family while Mundi meditated in seclusion.

Elder Leyton imprisoned Master Ki-Adi-Mundi’s family and arranged an attack on Mundi, who fought back and was found by Master Yoda kneeling among the dead. Yoda turned Mundi away from the Dark Side and promised to rescue his family, while suspecting that someone had planted the information that led Mundi to his attackers.

• Elder Leyton used secret reports to capture two of Master Mundi’s sons and two wives, then demanded that Mundi come to Tekav City.
• Master Mundi agreed to meet Leyton, but a gang of bounty hunters attacked him in the woods, and he killed more than a dozen assailants.
• Master Yoda arrived at the castle and found Mundi kneeling beside the bodies, grieving for Sylvn and fearing for his family.
• Yoda used the Force to calm Mundi and promised to rescue his family, while Mundi agreed to return to the Jedi Temple and leave the galaxy.
• Yoda asked who had identified Yifent Mon as Sylvn’s killer, and Mundi said a bounty hunter had revealed it during the attack.

Elder Dor-Fermi-Bonmi used Titan Security’s assault to overthrow Elder Leyton and secure control of Cerea, then led the planet toward reunification and entry into the Galactic Republic. As Cerea began rebuilding, Ki-Adi-Mundi returned to the Jedi Temple and chose lifelong seclusion.

• Darth Malthael told Elder Dor that Yifent-Mon’s death completed the plan to legitimize his regime, then ordered him to negotiate with Titan Security before attacking Tekav City.
• Hakimi’s Titan Security mercenaries attacked Tekav City, seized the Elder Council Hall, and beheaded Elder Leyton while Elder Dor’s forces advanced.
• Hakimi returned Ki-Adi-Mundi’s rescued family to Master Yoda and said Titan Security had fought only as a hired force in Cerea’s internal conflict.
• After seven months of civil war, Dor-Fermi-Bonmi became Grand Elder, announced Cerea’s entry into the Galactic Republic, and appointed Blon as its representative to Coruscant.
• Tang Xiao, Claire Underwood’s aid fund, Fourth Group, and the Republic supported Cerea’s reconstruction and recognized Dor-Fermi-Bonmi’s government.
• Master Yoda brought Ki-Adi-Mundi to the Jedi Temple, where Mundi entered seclusion and vowed never to leave again.

San Hill became the InterGalactic Banking Clan’s new co-chairman and hosted a gathering of powerful business, political, and criminal leaders. Tang Xiao met Dooku and Poggle the Lesser as Dooku advocated a new authoritarian Republic, while San Hill asked Tang Xiao to compare droids with living soldiers.

• San Hill won the election to become the InterGalactic Banking Clan’s new co-chairman and invited influential figures to celebrate.
• Tang Xiao reunited with Dryden Vos and Madam Proxima, then met Poggle the Lesser, who proposed cooperation between Geonosis and Dawn Star Planet.
• Dooku urged the guests to join a transformation that would establish a new Republic ruled by efficient authoritarian power.
• San Hill asked Tang Xiao what he thought of the Caladanian mercenaries and whether droids or people made better soldiers.
• Tang Xiao replied that droids were useful depending on their type, leaving San Hill’s question unresolved.

Tang Xiao allowed San Hill to pursue his plans and drew close to the drunken Glosse Shelbia, while Ailiya Isabel spent the night alone. On Sarabin Planet, Grievous complained about his battle droids until San Hill sent him twenty powerful IG-100 guard droids.

• San Hill agreed with Tang Xiao that robots were excellent tools, and Tang Xiao chose not to interfere with his plans.
• Glosse Shelbia drunkenly told Tang Xiao about her deal with Newt Gunray, leaned into him, and later vowed to belong to him.
• Ailiya Isabel sat alone in her villa, understanding that Glosse would spend the night with Tang Xiao and that their relationship had changed.
• Grievous berated his B-1 battle droids after a failed ambush and argued with San Hill about the robots' shortcomings.
• San Hill informed Grievous that the IG-100 guard droids had arrived, and a Muun engineer described their speed, strength, and weapons.

Grievous tested the IG-100 MagnaGuards, then used them to massacre mercenaries while the InterGalactic Banking Clan collected debts. On Hook Planet, Fourth Group exploitation and Yamrii raids intensified, ending with armed demonstrations against Fourth Group in rebuilt cities.

• Grievous ordered the IG-100 MagnaGuards to destroy B-1 battle droids and a tactical robot, then signed the Muun's report.
• Grievous led the MagnaGuards after escaped mercenaries and killed the entire convoy while the Banking Clan captured debtors.
• Glosse Shelbia told Tang Xiao that Hook Planet's treasury was empty, reconstruction had stalled, and Yamrii were eyeing Caladan Planet again.
• Tang Xiao explained that the Caladanians had lost their strength after the Republic's withdrawal and Grievous's departure, and said Fourth Group's interests came first.
• Yamrii suffering from taxes and debt resumed raiding nearby worlds while their government covertly tolerated the plunder.
• Yamrii in cities rebuilt with Fourth Group aid escalated protests into armed demonstrations against the company.