Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao met Hego Damask II, resisted his attempt to force him into loyalty, and accepted a dangerous job for 200,000 credits. Hego ordered him to raid a hidden space station near Kothlis, kill everyone except one leader, and bring that leader back.

• Tang Xiao entered Hego Damask II’s dark residence with Kunto and Cun Te and resisted Hego’s offer of wealth, power, and strength.
• Hego choked Tang Xiao with the Force when he refused to pledge loyalty, then released him after a brief struggle.
• Hego acknowledged Tang Xiao’s role as director of the Fourth Group and offered support for the colony if Tang Xiao submitted to him.
• Hego assigned Tang Xiao a raid on a hidden space station near Kothlis, giving him a jamming device that would block outside contact for sixty minutes.
• Tang Xiao demanded more than 200,000 credits for the mission, but Hego told him to negotiate after completing it and sent 11-4D to deliver a bag of credit ingots.

Tang Xiao received Hego Damask II’s mission to capture Samir Sahad alive and left with Kunto, while Hego tortured a survivor from Iron Tooth Kuken’s crew for information. Hego sent the survivor to alert Black Sun and discussed his plans concerning Phineas Valorum with a cloaked associate.

• 11-4D showed Tang Xiao the 100,000-credit deposit and identified Samir Sahad as the target Hego wanted captured alive.
• Tang Xiao questioned 11-4D about Hego’s motives and the organization behind Samir, but was told his authorization was insufficient, then left with Kunto.
• Hego Damask II tortured a surviving crewman from Iron Tooth Kuken’s ship until the man revealed that Kuken had captured two people who knew something about the Endor system.
• Hego ordered the crewman to tell Black Sun about Kuken’s disappearance, then had 11-4D give him food and water, implant a tracker, and release him.
• Hego spoke with a cloaked associate, who said he had arranged for the Nebula Front to rob a shipment and route the stolen funds to Chancellor Phineas Valorum through an unstable trust fund.

Hego and his apprentice advanced their plans to inflame a dispute on Malastare, while Tang Xiao accepted that the Fourth Civilization needed Hego’s help and prepared to act on Coruscant. Tang Xiao, Kunto, and Cun Te found Hego’s hidden asteroid station near Kothlis and prepared to carry out a mission to kill its occupants.

• Hego praised his apprentice for blocking Bill No. 0Y9893 and provoking conflict over fuel surcharges, then ordered him to focus on the dispute on Malastare rather than the army he was planning.
• Tang Xiao told Kunto he had been controlled aboard Hego’s ship and decided the Fourth Civilization needed Hego’s help to survive the coming war.
• Tang Xiao said he would awaken a conspirator and politician after the mission and that they should begin making moves on Coruscant.
• Tang Xiao, Kunto, and Cun Te traveled to Kothlis and detected a secret station concealed inside an asteroid.
• Cun Te warned Tang Xiao that the mission involved killing people and offered to go in his place.

Tang Xiao launched alone in the Red Comet to attack the space station and discovered that the enemy’s Nubia bombers connected the assault to Hego’s investigation and a wider plot. He began fighting the outnumbering pirate fleet among the asteroids, determined to prove his worth to Hego.

• Tang Xiao refused Cun Te’s offer to join the mission, entered the Red Comet, and waited for Cun Te to activate the signal jammer.
• Tang Xiao flew toward the station as eighteen assembled fighters and five Freefall-class bombers launched to intercept him.
• Kunto identified the bombers as Nubia products, prompting Tang Xiao to connect Nubia, Naboo, Hego-Damask II, Gaddula, and Jabba to a wider conspiracy.
• Tang Xiao inferred that Hego’s commission targeted the channel linking Gaddula to Broderick-Shale’s group and that a hidden alliance threatened Hego.
• Tang Xiao used the asteroid field and the Force to lock onto two enemy fighters and destroy them with paired Gemini missiles.
• Tang Xiao evaded blaster fire behind an asteroid, then destroyed two more pirate fighters as the surviving attackers regrouped around him.

Tang Xiao used the Red Comet Wraith fighter’s speed and his ability to anticipate enemy movements to break through the pirates’ defenses and attack their asteroid-built space station. The pirates’ fighters were trapped between his attacks and their own point-defense fire, while the station’s leaders faced Sahad’s deadly discipline and the crew had no way to escape.

• Tang Xiao evaded the pirate fighters while destroying several of them, and the pirate leader ordered the bombers to destroy the asteroids and prepared to evacuate.
• Sahad killed the pirate leader for attempting to flee and ordered the remaining pirates to attack Tang Xiao even if they had to ram him.
• The dive bombers blasted apart asteroids, forcing Tang Xiao to dodge debris, so he turned toward the space station and destroyed a bomber with four Gemini missiles.
• Tang Xiao exploited gaps in the station’s point-defense coverage to fly through its barrage, while the pursuing pirate fighters were hit by friendly fire.
• The pirate pilots’ morale collapsed, but they could not escape because the station’s few hyperspace-capable shuttles were controlled by the pirate leaders.

Tang Xiao led the assault on the pirate station, destroying its hangar and advancing with Cun Te, Kunto, and four T-850s. As the pirates considered surrender, Samir Sahad appeared with the Bando Gosa and began turning on them.

• Tang Xiao destroyed the pirates’ fighters and jammed the Hangar Platform doors before attacking the hangar from inside the Red Comet Wraith.
• Cun Te and Kunto arrived aboard the Lancer, and Tang Xiao ordered them to kill the station’s pirates and capture Samir Sahad alive.
• Tang Xiao, Cun Te, Kunto, and the four T-850s advanced through the station as the T-850s shot pirates near the hangar.
• The pirates in the command center considered surrendering, but Samir Sahad arrived with more than a dozen Bando Gosa and called them Children of Death.
• The Bando Gosa attacked the pirates, who scattered and opened fire, while the terrorists kept advancing despite being hit by blaster bolts.

Samir turned subdued pirates into undead-looking fighters, while Tang Xiao's group fought through the station and discovered the command center was surrounded by them. Tang Xiao and the T-850s held the doorway as the attackers charged and fired.

• Samir injected the subdued pirates with Death sticks and performed a ritual that revived them as helmeted figures with scarlet eyes.
• Tang Xiao's group fought through the station, and Tang Xiao shot several black-skinned attackers who stood back up after being hit.
• Tang Xiao identified the attackers as possibly connected to Samir-Sahad, then learned the command center was empty and ordered Kunto to secure the hangar and locate Samir.
• Kunto reported dozens of helmeted attackers charging toward the command center, leaving the group trapped with only one way out.
• Tang Xiao used the Force to block the doorway with a table as the T-850s opened fire on the charging attackers.

After a brutal battle in the space station, Tang Xiao felt the Dark Side’s intoxicating pull and resolved to resist it for the sake of the Fourth Civilization. He followed Kunto to Samir Sahad’s hiding place and confronted him, but Samir’s followers moved to shield him as the attack began.

• Tang Xiao, Cun Te, Kunto, and the T-850s killed the attackers in the corridor, though one T-850 was destroyed and Kunto began vomiting.
• Tang Xiao gave in briefly to the bloodlust stirred by the Force, then regained control and reaffirmed his resolve not to let the Dark Side destroy the Fourth Civilization.
• Tang Xiao left Kunto behind with a damaged T-850 and went with Cun Te toward the station’s central hall.
• Kunto told Tang Xiao that Samir Sahad was hiding in a surveillance-free hall, and Tang Xiao found a skull-decorated wooden door there.
• Tang Xiao demanded Samir Sahad surrender, but Samir invoked the Moon of Borden and his blue-eyed followers rushed to shield him from the T-850s’ gunfire.

Tang Xiao and his droids defeated Samir Sahad’s followers, but Hego Damask II demanded that Tang Xiao fight Samir unarmed to earn his reward. Tang Xiao accepted, and the fight began with Samir resisting his Force push and knocking him down.

• Tang Xiao and Cun Te took cover as the T-850s killed Samir Sahad’s armed subordinates.
• Hego Damask II contacted Tang Xiao, refused his requested payment, and demanded that he defeat Samir in an unarmed fight without killing him.
• Hego revealed that he was Darth Plagueis and urged Tang Xiao to prove his potential.
• Tang Xiao accepted the challenge, discarded his rifle, and used the Force to shove Samir into a wall.
• Samir resisted Tang Xiao’s next attack, struck him hard, and charged past him as Tang Xiao rolled out of the way.

Tang Xiao survived the hall’s chaos and discovered the extraordinary power of his Force potential, while resisting the urge to kill Samir. He secured Samir and looted the station, then prepared to take his prisoner to Tatooine and negotiate with Darth Pregas for a higher reward.

• Tang Xiao saw the people around him as monstrous threats after the Death sticks’ contents spread through the hall, and he unleashed a shockwave that devastated it.
• Tang Xiao lifted Samir with the Force and began choking him, but stopped himself and slammed him into a wall instead of killing him.
• Tang Xiao reminded Darth Pregas that he needed Samir alive and demanded a higher price because Pregas had violated their agreement and endangered him.
• Tang Xiao ordered Cun Te to restrain Samir, and the T-850s tied him up and sealed him in carbonite.
• Tang Xiao and his group looted the station, finding over 80,000 Upiupi coins and nearly fifty kilograms of spice.

Tang Xiao returned from the station with weapons and a Republic computer, then traveled to Tatooine amid escalating violence between rival Hutt factions. After delivering Samir Sahad to Hego Damask II, Tang Xiao asked for resources for his colony, and Hego revealed that he wanted Tang Xiao himself.

• Tang Xiao ordered the T-850s to dismantle the station's main computer and told the mothership to prepare for a possible visit from the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
• Feng Yongwang reported that the SCV prototype was undergoing live tests and could soon enter mass production.
• Tang Xiao and Cun Te traveled to Tatooine, where they saw fighting around Mos Espa Port and a Hutt warship patrolling overhead.
• Tang Xiao brought the carbonite-encased Samir Sahad to Hego Damask II's residence in Mos Eisley.
• Tang Xiao overheard Hego end his support for Gaddula after Gaddula failed to control Tatooine's unrest.
• Tang Xiao asked Hego for resources to develop his Endor system colony, and Hego said he wanted Tang Xiao himself.

Hego drew Tang Xiao into the darkness and demonstrated how the Force could control, create, and destroy life. He forced Samir Sahad to reveal Bando Gora’s plans, then began torturing him for information about the Moon of Borden.

• Hego urged Tang Xiao to embrace the Dark Side and promised to teach him how to become powerful.
• Tang Xiao followed Hego through the dark building, sensing the immense darkness surrounding the Sith Lord.
• In the dungeon, Hego questioned Samir Sahad about his organization, Kothlis, and Broderick Shale.
• Hego used the Force to make Samir reveal that Bando Gora planned to receive weapons and create Brainless Ones with Death sticks.
• Hego caused painful pustules to cover Samir’s body, withered and tore off his arm, and demanded to know whether the Moon of Borden could save him.

Tang Xiao swore allegiance to Hego-Damask II, who revealed his Sith name as Darth Plagueis and set him a three-day trial. Before leaving with Plagueis, Tang Xiao entrusted Cun Te with the colony’s future in case he did not return.

• Hego questioned Samir about weapons from Kothlis, learned that Samir knew nothing, and threw him against a wall with the Force.
• Hego offered to teach Tang Xiao the Dark Side, and Tang Xiao swore loyalty to him while secretly plotting to use their alliance for the Fourth Civilization.
• Hego revealed that his Sith name was Darth Plagueis and warned Tang Xiao never to disclose it.
• Plagueis gave Tang Xiao three standard days to complete his first trial, threatening to send him back to the Endor system or return his corpse.
• Tang Xiao told Cun Te that he was gambling his life for the colony and gave him instructions for managing it if he died.
• Cun Te rejected the idea of successors, punched Tang Xiao’s shoulder, and left with Kunto as Tang Xiao followed Plagueis.

Darth Pregas forced Tang Xiao to face three armed-with-melee-weapons mercenaries as his first trial, threatening to destroy the colony if Tang Xiao defied him. Tang Xiao emerged badly wounded after defeating them, but Pregas mocked him for taking too long.

• Darth Pregas told Tang Xiao that three mercenaries had a bounty on his head and ordered him to kill them within a standard day.
• Tang Xiao entered the abandoned building and faced a Gamorrean, a Tusken, and a Nikto without any firearms.
• Tang Xiao used the Force to hurl furniture at the mercenaries, escaped to the second floor, and fought them using the building's terrain.
• A standard day later, Darth Pregas and 11-4D found the building devastated and the Tusken dead by the entrance.
• Tang Xiao emerged wounded with the Nikto's chipped Scimitar and declared the trial complete, but Darth Pregas criticized him for taking too long.

Tang Xiao survived Pregas’s brutal trial and resisted his attempt to manipulate him, then followed him to the Endor system. Pregas saw the Fourth Civilization’s thriving infrastructure, including its enormous mothership.

• Pregas berated Tang Xiao after he killed three mercenaries, then ordered him to follow to Endor without offering rest or medical treatment.
• Tang Xiao endured a scorching trek through Tatooine’s desert and collapsed only after Pregas ordered 11-4D to treat him and change his clothes.
• Pregas tried to win Tang Xiao’s wholehearted submission by promising him strength, but Tang Xiao resisted the suggestion and hid his true ambition.
• A Neimoidian Scyk-class shuttle carrying Pregas and Tang Xiao arrived in the Endor system.
• Pregas surveyed the Fourth Civilization’s shipyards, research stations, mines, and gigantic mothership between Dawn Star Planet and Dor.

Tang Xiao showed Hego Damask II the Fourth Civilization’s mothership and colony, then offered its hidden army as a tool in Hego’s rise. Hego agreed to connect Tang Xiao with San Hill for development assistance and promised to teach him to conceal his power.

• Tang Xiao and Daphne Clement hid sensitive research and Semir before Hego arrived, while Tang Xiao arranged for a selected politician to watch the tour footage.
• Tang Xiao told Hego that the Fourth Civilization had awakened aboard the Glory mothership with little memory and claimed the vessel could not travel through hyperspace.
• Tang Xiao toured the mothership and Dawn City with Hego, showing him the colony’s industrial capacity, shipyards, and sleeping residents.
• Tang Xiao offered Hego an undisclosed army and asked for a planetary shield, warships, industrial expansion, laborers, machinery, markets, and a battlefield.
• Hego said he would teach Tang Xiao to conceal his power and introduce him to San Hill to arrange development assistance.
• Tang Xiao urged Hego to have Damask Holdings Group deal directly with the colony, and Hego challenged him on what he expected to gain.

After securing Hego Damask II’s support and learning to conceal his Dark Side Force, Tang Xiao awoke and met Francis Underwood, whom he had awakened to help challenge Sheev Palpatine in the Senate. Tang Xiao offered Francis the future position of Imperial Chancellor, but Francis asked why he should believe him.

• Hego agreed to connect Tang Xiao with Damask Holdings Group and encrypt information about the Fourth Group on Coruscant.
• After enduring Hego’s trials and instruction, Tang Xiao slept for several days and woke with the InterGalactic Banking Clan’s support secured.
• Tang Xiao recognized the newly awakened Francis Underwood as a dangerous politician who could trouble Sheev Palpatine in the Galactic Republic Senate.
• Francis said he had accepted awakening because he believed he could find what he wanted in the Fourth Civilization.
• Tang Xiao told Francis he would become the future Imperial Chancellor, and Francis challenged him to explain why.

Tang Xiao tried to recruit Francis Underwood by revealing his vision of the Galactic Republic’s future and promising him the role of Imperial Chancellor in a future Fourth Empire. Francis accepted a provisional duty to help the Fourth Civilization and listened as Tang Xiao began outlining the events ahead.

• Tang Xiao offered Francis power and said the Fourth Civilization would give him a position no one else could: Imperial Chancellor.
• Francis doubted Tang Xiao’s promise and argued that the Galactic Republic offered a larger stage, while warning that becoming Hego Damask II’s apprentice would be a trap.
• Tang Xiao revealed that he foresaw the Naboo crisis, Palpatine’s rise, and a galaxy-wide civil war, and said the Fourth Civilization would grow strong enough to seize its opportunity.
• Francis shook Tang Xiao’s hand and agreed to help the Fourth Civilization for now, though he remained unconvinced that an empire could become reality.
• Tang Xiao told Francis their discussion must remain secret and began explaining the Republic’s political system and the events leading to the blockade of Naboo.

Tang Xiao persuaded Francis Underwood to work for the Fourth Civilization by promising him power and resources as they prepared for the future Galactic conflict. After Francis left, Tang Xiao arranged to awaken Francis’s allies and began organizing his own training, then learned Daphne Clement needed him to review some items.

• Tang Xiao explained to Francis Underwood that he planned to use the coming civil war and the Confederacy of Independent Systems to gain influence, while Francis questioned how much of their future Tang Xiao could see.
• Tang Xiao and Francis agreed to work together, and Francis asked him to awaken Claire Underwood and Douglas Stamp and provide funding and support through Rosana Goodes on Coruscant.
• After Francis left, Tang Xiao reflected that he would have to secure Francis’s loyalty by offering him power, including the prospect of becoming Imperial Chancellor.
• Tang Xiao asked the Mainframe for Hego’s training plan and learned he had to meet demanding fitness targets, so he arranged daily workouts supervised by the T-850.
• The Mainframe told Tang Xiao that Daphne Clement was waiting for him to review items he had brought back.

Tang Xiao reviewed the colony’s administrative needs and selected two Master Class candidates to help establish its economic system and improve its computers. He left the Administrative Department’s new projects underway and sent both candidates to Human Resources for awakening.

• Tang Xiao visited Daphne Clement’s expanded Administrative Department and discussed the need for a currency, foreign exchange reserves, an economic department, and a state-owned bank.
• Tang Xiao assigned Cun Te to sell the spice through proper channels and arrange for proceeds to reach Francis Underwood through a trust fund.
• Luo Feng explained that the recovered mainframe contained extensive encrypted records and software that his team could not yet crack, and Tang Xiao told Clement to assemble a team.
• Tang Xiao reviewed the Master Class candidates and selected computer specialist Tremi Brad and economics and currency expert Marvin Hitz for awakening.