Chapter Summaries

As Fourth Civilization Fleet C and the Republic fleet fought over access to Blade Fleet, Tang Xiao and Cun Te attempted a dangerous early hyperspace jump aboard a Luukri-Hok-class battleship. The ship entered hyperspace, and Darth Malthael took the helm and veered sharply to the right.

• General Trench and Octavian-Grant held their evenly matched fleets in a standoff while their crews searched for a navigable hyperspace link.
• Tang Xiao and Cun Te learned that a hyperspace route would open in about an hour, and Cun Te proposed entering hyperspace early using his experience with abnormal hyperspace.
• Tang Xiao persuaded Cun Te to attempt the maneuver aboard a Luukri-Hok-class battleship, and Cun Te reluctantly agreed.
• Cun Te ordered the ship's hyperspace engines pushed to maximum output within twenty seconds as the fleet battle intensified nearby.
• The Luukri-Hok-class battleship entered hyperspace, and Darth Malthael seized the helm and cranked it hard to the right.

Darth Malthael steered the damaged Luukri-Hok-class battleship into a collision with Plague, saving his crew while wrecking part of the ship and killing thousands. As Gran Marines launched to seize the Blade Fleet, Hunter and the surviving clones continued toward Plague’s bridge to complete their mission.

• Darth Malthael took control of the Luukri-Hok-class battleship during its unstable hyperspace jump and rotated it to avoid a direct collision with Plague.
• The Luukri-Hok-class battleship collided with Plague, losing at least a quarter of its ring-shaped hull as Darth Malthael rescued Cun Te and disappeared.
• Cun Te ordered the surviving Gran Marines to deploy and seize ships from the Blade Fleet.
• Hunter, Crosshair, Clearance King, Tech, Iron Box, and other surviving clones regrouped amid the wreckage and continued their mission to destroy Plague’s bridge.

Hunter Squad fought through the Gran Marines aboard the Plague while Darth Malthael’s forces seized Blade Fleet warships. Sefrans Tann killed Nute Rith with Kresh’s Gauntlet protecting her, and Darth Malthael defeated Shen-Jon by severing his right hand.

• Hunter Squad fought through Gran Marines aboard the Plague, and Tech found a route toward the bridge through a damaged elevator shaft.
• Darth Malthael heard reports that Gran Marines had boarded more than 120 Blade Fleet warships, leaving over half the fleet nearly under their control.
• Protected by Kresh’s Gauntlet, Sefrans Tann killed Nute Rith, driving Shen-Jon further into the Dark Side.
• Darth Malthael confronted Shen-Jon and offered to teach him the Dark Side and place the galaxy in his hands, but Shen-Jon attacked him.
• Darth Malthael fought Shen-Jon with Soresu and severed his right hand.

Darth Malthael defeated Shen-Jon and forced Sefrans Tann to submit, then brutalized her while raging over the destruction of the Plague. Shen-Jon was swept into space, and the warship remained under attack.

• Darth Malthael overpowered Shen-Jon’s Force lightning and gave Sefrans Tann the chance to act, but she removed Kresh's Gauntlet and offered it to him in submission.
• Darth Malthael mocked Shen-Jon and demanded that he submit, but Shen-Jon refused, so Malthael burned his face and engulfed him in Force lightning.
• The floor collapsed beneath Shen-Jon, and the breach sucked him and debris out into space before Darth Malthael sealed it with the Force.
• Darth Malthael learned that Clone Troopers had destroyed the Plague’s bridge, blamed Sefrans Tann, and beat her with a lightning-charged belt.
• Darth Malthael assaulted the badly wounded Sefrans Tann and declared that she would serve him and help him conquer the galaxy.

Octavian Grant and General Trench sent their fleets into the hyperspace tide, bringing both Republic and Separatist reinforcements to the Blade Fleet. Hunter Squad escaped the Plague and seized a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, but Hunter saw that more than half the fleet was likely to fall to the Separatists.

• Octavian Grant ordered the Republic fleet to jump as General Trench gave the same order for the Separatist fleet.
• Aboard the Plague, Eeth Koth treated Hunter Squad as the last Republic force and ordered the clones to take a shuttle and seize a Dreadnought-class cruiser.
• Eeth Koth drew Gran soldiers away while Hunter led the clones to the shuttle and left without him.
• Both fleets arrived as the shuttle crossed the battlefield, and Tech guided it into a Dreadnought-class cruiser whose engines were already warming up.
• Tech unleashed three AT-PT walkers, allowing Hunter Squad to break through the Gran defenders and reach the cruiser’s bridge.

The Fourth Civilization and the Galactic Republic fought a chaotic battle for the Blade Fleet, with the Separatists capturing most of its warships while Republic forces retreated. Darth Malthael captured Ith Koth, and Tang Xiao ordered his fleets to regroup and repair the crippled Plague.

• Cun Te's early arrival allowed Gran Marines to seize more than 150 Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers as the fleets of General Trench and Octavian Grant fought around the Blade Fleet.
• Darth Malthael disarmed Ith Koth, and Gran soldiers shackled the exhausted Jedi Master and took him prisoner.
• Octavian Grant ordered Republic Marines to disengage and retreat after learning they could not compete with the Separatists' superior troop numbers.
• General Trench ordered attacks on Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers that could not be retaken, while Octavian Grant ordered a full retreat.
• The Republic withdrew with fifteen Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers; the Fourth Civilization took 178, and seven were destroyed.
• Tang Xiao ordered the fleets to regroup and arrange repairs for the captured ships and the crippled Plague.

Tang Xiao oversaw repairs to the captured Blade Fleet and assessed the damage to Plague, then counted the enormous military gains from the 178 Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers. The discovery restored the Fourth Civilization’s fleet strength and raised the prospect of threatening Eriadu, while Tang Xiao began considering who else might covet the spoils.

• Tang Xiao ordered the 178 captured Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers repaired, disinfected, and fitted with new operating systems in the Halm system.
• Fourth Civilization scientists determined that Plague needed at least five years of overhaul after sustaining catastrophic damage.
• Tang Xiao blamed Sefrans Tann’s political misjudgment for Plague’s condition, though he recognized that her raid on Neimoidia had been an enormous gamble and credited her with finding the Blade Fleet.
• Tang Xiao saw the captured fleet as a chance to resume the offensive against the Galactic Republic 18th Army and threaten Eriadu.
• Tang Xiao counted the Blade Fleet’s additional spoils, including equipment for 320,000 Marines, more than 1,700 usable Z-95 Headhunters, and 5,340 AT-PT walker mechs.
• Tang Xiao began considering the other forces that might covet the Fourth Civilization’s newly acquired wealth.

Tang Xiao arranged for the damaged Plague to be repaired at Port Pament and prepared to deliver the captured Eeth Koth to Count Dooku. He then ordered another search for Shen-Jon's body and wondered who had taken it.

• Helmut Zemo told Tang Xiao that repairing the Plague required a shipyard, and Tang Xiao chose Port Pament while keeping the Givin's role separate.
• Tang Xiao reported to Count Dooku that the Confederacy had defeated the Blade Fleet, captured 178 Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers, and taken Jedi Master Eeth Koth prisoner.
• Tang Xiao told Count Dooku that the Plague needed repairs and offered to deliver its blueprints and Eeth Koth to Laxus Sub-planet.
• A Gran General told Tang Xiao that Shen-Jon's body had not been found, and Tang Xiao gave him three more days to search.
• Tang Xiao wondered who had taken Shen-Jon's body.

Darth Tenebrus secretly took the barely living Shen-Jon to a hidden Zann space station, while Tang Xiao prepared the captured Blade Fleet for battle and anticipated a move by Rendili. The chapter ended with Tang Xiao recognizing the identity of someone repeatedly trying to contact him.

• After the battle near Halm, Gran workers collected the dead and wreckage while Tang Xiao ordered Shen-Jon's corpse examined and identified.
• Darth Tenebrus revealed that Shen-Jon was still alive and took him aboard a garbage hauler, intending to cultivate him as a Sith Lord.
• Darth Tenebrus brought Shen-Jon to a concealed asteroid station marked with the ZANN emblem.
• Tovan told Tang Xiao that the 178 captured Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers needed extensive repairs, but Tang Xiao refused to dismantle any of them and said he would obtain parts from Rendili.
• Tang Xiao called the Blade Fleet bait and recognized the identity of the encrypted caller repeatedly trying to reach him.

Tang Xiao rejected Gali Urlan’s offer to buy the Katana’s navigation records and ended their call. He welcomed the Force-sensitive Ling Liang as a new general, while the man who had accompanied her to the medical examination remained in the Engineering Science Department.

• Tang Xiao activated an electromagnetic barrier before speaking with Gali Urlan, then mocked the aristocrat’s appearance and manners.
• Gali Urlan introduced himself and offered Tang Xiao one billion credits for the Katana’s navigation records and captain’s log.
• Tang Xiao refused, told Gali Urlan to stop dreaming, and terminated the communication.
• Ling Liang reported that the man who had gone with her to the medical examination had run off and was lingering in the Engineering Science Department.
• Tang Xiao recognized Ling Liang as Force-sensitive and welcomed her as General Ling Liang.

Tang Xiao recruited Force-sensitive General Ling Liang into the Fourth Civilization’s military leadership and arranged for her to train in the Force. He also summoned Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius, whose hunger for wartime scientific work led him to accept Tang Xiao’s offer.

• Tang Xiao told Ling Liang that her Force sensitivity could help her grow stronger and named her a future core commander.
• Ling Liang agreed to prove herself, and Tang Xiao assigned her as General Xian Hui’s adjutant and arranged Force lessons with Green Beatty.
• Tang Xiao sent Justin Levis and Fourth Legion soldiers to bring Doctor Otto back to his office.
• Doctor Otto explained that he wanted to restore his mechanical arms and pursue inventions through war.
• Tang Xiao revealed the Dark Side Force and recruited Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius to use his knowledge in the coming conflict.

Tang Xiao gave the newly awakened Doctor Octopus a research base and funding, then joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ leaders to discuss expanding the war into the Mid Rim. Count Dooku’s proposal gained corporate and political support, but General Grievous warned that the offensive could become an unsustainable gamble.

• Tang Xiao learned that Doctor Octopus had awakened because the Fourth Civilization met his research requirements and Tang Xiao’s leadership met his extremist tendency requirement.
• Tang Xiao assigned Doctor Octopus an experimental base, more than a dozen researchers, and one billion credits, leaving him free to pursue his own work.
• Tang Xiao attended Count Dooku’s victory banquet on Laxus Sub-planet as the Confederacy of Independent Systems continued to dominate the Outer Rim and connect its southern and eastern theaters.
• Count Dooku proposed consolidating occupied territory and launching a full-scale offensive into the Mid Rim, winning support from Shu Mai, Wat Tambor, Miraj Scintel, and Nute Gunray.
• General Grievous cautiously opposed the offensive, warning that Mid Rim worlds were harder to conquer and that the Confederacy’s debt-heavy proxy-war structure could collapse if the fighting became a quagmire.

Count Dooku pushed the Confederacy of Independent Systems toward a full-scale Mid Rim offensive despite General Grievous's concerns about supplies and transport. Tang Xiao recognized Darth Sidious's plan to draw the corporations and Republic oligarchs into a larger trap, then declined to commit Dawn Star Planet to the campaign.

• General Grievous opposed an attack on the Mid Rim because the Confederacy lacked the supplies, transport capacity, and warships needed to sustain it.
• Count Dooku argued that the Confederacy had to threaten the Republic's Core Worlds before the Republic fully mobilized its industrial strength.
• Tang Xiao suspected Sidious intended the offensive to make Republic oligarchs rally behind Sheev Palpatine while exhausting the Mega-corporations that Sidious planned to claim as spoils.
• Count Dooku won support for his plan, and General Grievous changed his position to argue that the Mid Rim attack was feasible.
• Count Dooku asked Tang Xiao what he thought, and Tang Xiao said Dawn Star Planet would focus on Eriadu and lacked the strength for a Mid Rim campaign.
• Count Dooku praised Dawn Star Planet's 178 captured warships, but Tang Xiao replied that most could not yet enter combat.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems agreed to attack the Mid Rim, while Tang Xiao secretly reassured Nute Gunray and held talks with other corporate leaders. Count Dooku reported his capture of Jedi Master Ith Koth to Darth Sidious, who asked where the Plague was.

• The Confederacy of Independent Systems reached a consensus on a five-pronged offensive into the Mid Rim, and Tang Xiao secured support for Yag'Dhul and a role for Selurite agents on Mon Calamari.
• Count Dooku appointed Riff Tamson to guide the Mon Calamari operation after the Quarren Isolation League called for intervention.
• Tang Xiao told Nute Gunray that the Mid Rim campaign was a trap to weaken the Mega-corporations, then reassured him that he had made arrangements.
• Tang Xiao held private discussions with San Hill, Toonbuck Toora, the Givin representative, and Glosse Shelbia.
• Count Dooku visited the imprisoned Ith Koth, then contacted Darth Sidious, who praised the capture and asked about the Plague.

Darth Sidious ordered Count Dooku to destroy the Plague, while Dooku struggled to hide his frustration and anger. After San Hill reported that the Separatists had begun producing Behemoth-class battlecruisers, he revealed that the InterGalactic Banking Clan might delay its 39-billion-credit investment in the DS-1 project, shocking Dooku.

• Darth Sidious berated Count Dooku for failing to destroy the Plague and ordered him to arrange its destruction at Trogan, suggesting that leaked news would draw Jedi Knights to do it.
• Darth Sidious taunted the captive Eeth Koth about eventually falling to the Dark Side, while Dooku reflected on the Archangel of Death’s influence over the Plague’s glowing media coverage.
• Eeth Koth mocked Dooku as Sidious’s servant, and Dooku used the Force to injure him before ordering the interrogation droid to keep him alive.
• Count Dooku met San Hill, who reported that production lines for the Behemoth-class battlecruiser were ready and mass production would begin soon.
• San Hill told Count Dooku that the InterGalactic Banking Clan might delay the DS-1 project’s second-phase funding of 39 billion credits, and Dooku exclaimed that it was impossible.

San Hill told Count Dooku that the InterGalactic Banking Clan had ended its investment in the DS-1 project and would instead fund heavy industry in the Outer Rim Territories. At a secret Cooperative Alliance meeting, Darth Malthael celebrated the alliance’s growing influence and revealed that its investment would produce an Endless Class supercarrier.

• San Hill told Count Dooku that The Core Five had canceled funding for the DS-1 project and approved a 500-billion-credit investment in Outer Rim heavy industry.
• San Hill reported the decision to Darth Malthael and the Cooperative Alliance leaders, saying Count Dooku had reacted angrily.
• Darth Malthael declared that the alliance would steer the Confederacy of Independent Systems toward its own victory, and the members chanted “Equal Judgment.”
• Darth Malthael presented Nute Gunray with the design for an Endless Class supercarrier, funded by the new investment.

Darth Malthael revealed the complete blueprints for the Endless-class Super Carrier to Nute Gunray and the gathered Separatist leaders, turning their awe into fervent faith. He left them with a weapon suited to the Confederacy’s needs and the confidence to fight the Galactic Republic and Darth Sidious.

• Darth Malthael gave Nute Gunray the Endless-class Super Carrier blueprints and urged him to use the Eye of God to defeat the Republic, Darth Sidious, and his fear.
• The assembled leaders studied the carrier’s specifications and recognized that its size and capacity made it a warship capable of transporting a fleet and mechanized army.
• Darth Malthael’s gift inspired worship and fanaticism among the influential figures, gaining him faith rather than payment for the technology.
• Darth Malthael chose the carrier because the wealthy Trade Federation could build it and the Confederacy needed a powerful way to deploy ground forces through orbital defenses.
• Darth Malthael expected the carrier’s intimidating power to give the timid Toonbuck Toora, Nute Gunray, and San Hill the courage to resist the Republic and Darth Sidious.

Darth Malthael recruited Ziro Tiure Desilijic into the Cooperative Alliance by promising support for her bid to become patriarch of the Desilijic kajidic, while planning to use its internal conflict against Jabba and Darth Sidious. Meanwhile, the Jedi Council investigated the Geth attacks and sent Sass Tiin to Ord Mantell to address the threat amid growing military pressure on the Republic.

• Darth Malthael welcomed Ziro into the Cooperative Alliance and offered 10 billion credits if she secured Zorba's will and took control of the Desilijic kajidic.
• Ziro pledged to obtain Zorba's will and kill him, while Darth Malthael made her access to funding conditional on her gaining control of the kajidic's smuggling network.
• Darth Malthael explained that Aruk Besadi had consolidated control over the Besadi kajidic and that he intended to exploit Desilijic's internal divisions to eliminate Jabba, who had pledged allegiance to Darth Sidious.
• Mace Windu and the Jedi Council reviewed reports of the Geth, whose attacks created half-human, half-machine Corpse Puppets, and Shaak Ti suggested comparing their insect-shaped ships with known species.
• The Jedi discussed the Republic's strained position as the Blade Fleet, Dawn Star Planet, and Separatist forces threatened its fronts, and Sass Tiin agreed to travel to Ord Mantell to deal with the Geth.

Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano led an assault that destroyed the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ Titan warship Plague on Trogan, sparking political unrest. The Confederacy named its replacement Tenebrous as the galaxy entered a brief lull before a larger storm.

• Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano led the 501st Legion in an attack on Plague near Trogan, where Obi-Wan crashed into the warship and captured Quarren general Vessus Ando.
• Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano helped seize Plague’s control center, locked its steering, and sent the Titan warship crashing onto uninhabited Trogan before the Jedi escaped.
• The destruction of Plague provoked protests and calls for neutrality across the Confederacy, and Count Dooku suppressed opposition while promising victories in the coming Mid Rim offensive.
• Count Dooku commissioned a monument to Plague and announced a second Ragnarok-class Titan warship, but Francis Underwood and other senators fought over its name.
• Count Dooku and Francis Underwood settled on the name Tenebrous, with General Sefrans Tann promised command of the new warship.
• From late January into February of 21 BBY, the main fleets of the Confederacy and the Galactic Republic entered a rare period of calm.

After the Republic forced its way into Yag'Dhul, the Givin left the Republic and joined the Confederacy, bringing the Fourth Civilization to the brink of a new front. As both sides prepared for war, Tang Xiao received a call from Bangjila Urlan, the powerful patriarch of the Urlan family and head of Rendili StarDrive.

• The Senate approved an investigation of Yag'Dhul, but the Givin blocked Bail Organa's delegation and refused to open their borders.
• After the Republic attacked the Interdictors, the Givin withdrew from the Republic, joined the Confederacy, and mobilized for war.
• Octavian Grant's fleet entered Yag'Dhul, spotted a massive Agonev-class star base, and withdrew before preparing a larger assault.
• Tang Xiao assigned Ling Liang to advise the defense of Yag'Dhul and appointed Lin Nanyi as his adjutant.
• Tang Xiao accepted a long-awaited call from Bangjila Urlan, who introduced himself as the Urlan family patriarch and Chief Director of Rendili StarDrive.