Chapter Summaries

At the Confederacy summit on Raxus Prime, Count Dooku celebrated General Grievous’s victory at Kamino and announced sweeping military reforms and new warships. Merchant Guilds leader Shu Mai challenged the plans after learning they excluded her organization’s Defiant-class destroyer, leaving their dispute unresolved.

• Republic and Geonosian forces fought fiercely on Rishi, while fleets battled amid the dangerous gravity and magnetic fields of the Yago-Dur system.
• Count Dooku announced that General Grievous had destroyed Kamino’s clone production facilities and obtained the clones’ DNA data.
• Count Dooku unveiled new warships and reforms that included recruiting soldiers from member planets in exchange for relief from wartime taxes.
• Passel Argente, Watto Tambor, Shu Mai, and Poggle the Lesser noticed that some corporate factions appeared to know more about the reforms than they did.
• Shu Mai demanded an explanation for the Defiant-class destroyer’s exclusion from the new naval plans, and Count Dooku argued that the Merchant Guilds should design a newer warship.

At the Confederacy summit, Shu-Mai fought to preserve the Merchant Guilds’ costly Defiant-class contracts, but the other leaders backed military reform. Tang Xiao’s plan was to sacrifice old fleets, rely on droid armies to hold occupied planets, and rebuild the Confederacy’s forces for a later decisive battle.

• Count Dooku told Shu-Mai that battlefield results made replacing the Defiant-class necessary, while she protested and offered to lower its price.
• Francis Underwood suggested the Merchant Guilds produce Behemoth-class components, and Shu-Mai accidentally admitted that she wanted to keep making money from the orders.
• Glosse Shelbia displayed Kuat Drive Yards’ Commander II-class Star Dreadnaught proposal and mocked the Defiant-class’s poor strength against it.
• Shu-Mai appealed to Wat Tambor, Passel Argente, and Poggle the Lesser, but they stayed silent while Tang Xiao observed.
• Tang Xiao planned to send old warships into the Delon system offensive, then reform the Confederacy’s military and industry while droid legions held its planets.
• Tang Xiao’s strategy depended on General Grievous sabotaging Clone Trooper production during a surprise attack on Kamino, buying time to build a modern fleet for a decisive Outer Rim battle.

At the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ second summit, Count Dooku pushed through reforms that strengthened the Core Council and shifted corporate fleets and shipbuilding under centralized control. The new standardized naval program handed major contracts to Fourth Civilization, the Salarians, and other favored producers, while older production lines were allowed a gradual transition.

• On July 22, 21 BBY, the Confederacy’s second summit concluded after Count Dooku forcefully advanced reforms that would turn corporate giants into state-owned entities over time.
• Count Dooku announced that corporations would transfer their offensive private fleets to the Confederacy Navy in exchange for compensation, and that naval procurement and ship designs would be standardized.
• The Confederacy canceled production of several unreliable warships and selected new models, awarding major orders to the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Trade Federation, Salarians, and Fourth Group.
• Confederate experts favored Dawn Star Planet’s Viking fighter and Gray Horse-class escort carrier, while the Wraith fighter was passed over; Fourth Civilization secured at least half of the Navy’s orders through its partners and public products.
• The Confederacy centralized shipbuilding orders and factory conversion, gave the Corporate Alliance limited work on Diamond-class transport cruisers, and allowed Dawn Star Planet, the Salarians, and Fourth Group to gradually phase out Kohl-class and Sova-class production.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems reformed its military and war-tax policies, while Tang Xiao and Count Dooku prepared to undermine Shu Mai’s opposition. The chapter ended with the Freedom Dark Volunteer Engineering Corps withdrawing from the Merchant Guilds, exploiting the Quarren Isolation League’s newfound political legitimacy on Dak Planet.

• Tang Xiao oversaw plans to refit the fleet and established new Confederate departments while postponing army reforms.
• The Confederacy allowed member planets to pay war taxes with supplies or factory capacity and to offset taxes by sending troops, while the Fourth Civilization supplied NCO instructors.
• Shu Mai opposed the military reforms, left the summit early, and threatened to take the Merchant Guilds out of the Confederacy and back to the Galactic Republic.
• The Freedom Dark Volunteer Engineering Corps announced its withdrawal from the Merchant Guilds after the Dak Planet Civil War made the Quarren Isolation League’s political demands obsolete.

The Merchant Guilds’ Shu Mai tried to secure support from both the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems as a Salarian fleet watched Felucia. Tang Xiao and Count Dooku moved to undermine the Guilds, and Salust broke away from them to join Dawn Star Planet’s jurisdiction.

• A Salarian fleet arrived over Felucia and ignored Shu Mai’s attempts to contact it, while Shu Mai sought aid from the other corporate giants and the Galactic Republic.
• The Galactic Republic offered Shu Mai incentives to defect, but she secretly communicated with it while publicly pressuring the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
• Tang Xiao and Count Dooku considered how to seize the Merchant Guilds’ assets without alarming the Confederacy’s other corporate giants.
• The Merchant Guilds raised employee benefits, launched unrelated projects, bought companies at premiums, and manipulated their share value to protect themselves.
• Tang Xiao’s allies in the InterGalactic Banking Clan targeted the Merchant Guilds’ employees and controlled planets, while Count Dooku reassigned Salust to Dawn Star Planet’s jurisdiction.
• Salust withdrew from the Merchant Guilds and transferred its debts to Dawn Star Planet, whose forces had helped the Celestians against Tarkin’s 18th Army.

The Merchant Guilds lost control of Celestia and Kastel as Count Dooku’s military reforms stripped Shu Mai of her power. Tang Xiao hired Cad Bane to kill Soergg Vosadii Bezhin and told Ni Yongxiao that he planned to end the Hutt civil war with neither the Besadi nor the Desilijic kajidic victorious.

• Workers on Kastel rose up against the Merchant Guilds, with Yuri Orlov secretly supplying weapons to industrialists fighting the robot garrisons.
• Shu Mai asked Count Dooku to preserve the Merchant Guilds’ profits and return Celestia and Kastel, but he refused and ordered inspectors to oversee the Guilds’ factories.
• Sothropp Corporation accepted the Confederacy’s military reforms, while rival corporate giants began acquiring Merchant Guilds industries.
• Tang Xiao hired Cad Bane to assassinate Soergg Vosadii Bezhin, explaining that Shu Mai needed to remain alive as a smokescreen.
• Tang Xiao told Ni Yongxiao that the Hutt civil war should end with neither the Besadi kajidic nor the Desilijic kajidic as victor.

Master Windu joined Palpatine and Lama Su at Republic Supreme Strategic Command to assess the Republic’s worsening war situation and Kamino’s catastrophic losses. The meeting ended with Palpatine declaring that, without the Clone Army, the Republic had lost the war, leaving Windu unable to challenge him.

• Master Windu arrived at Republic Supreme Strategic Command and found the galaxy-wide conflict spreading across multiple regions.
• Palpatine identified the battles near Eriadu and Antar-Delon and the expanding Geth problem as grave threats to the Republic.
• Lama Su reported that the Separatist attack had devastated Kamino, killed more than four million people, and left only four thousand Clone Troopers available in the next batch.
• Lama Su explained that most clone factories had been destroyed, millions of embryos had been lost or endangered, and Kamino’s surviving third-generation factory had limited output.
• Lama Su warned that the Separatists had stolen clone DNA data and might develop genetic weapons targeting Clone Troopers.
• Palpatine said the Republic had no idea how to continue the war without its Clone Army, leaving Master Windu unable to test or confront him.

Palpatine proposed loosening restrictions on orbital bombardment, deepening Master Windu’s despair about the Republic’s war and the Chancellor’s growing power. Meanwhile, the Confederacy of Independent Systems began carving up the weakened Merchant Guilds, and Master Yoda wondered whether Obi-Wan Kenobi was the Jedi’s last hope.

• Palpatine told Master Windu that the Republic lacked the strength to occupy Separatist worlds and proposed permitting limited orbital bombardments under Jedi supervision.
• Master Windu challenged Palpatine over the bombardment proposal and his Senate power, then stormed out in fury and despair.
• Master Yoda sensed Master Windu’s despair and wondered whether Obi-Wan Kenobi was the Jedi Order’s last hope.
• The Confederacy of Independent Systems took control of most Merchant Guild factories as the company’s poison pill strategy disrupted its operations.
• An unidentified assassin killed Solgoh Vosa D. Bakin in his Nal Hutta lair, prompting Tang Xiao, Count Dooku, San Hill, Nute Gunray, and others to move against the Merchant Guilds.

Dawn Star Planet, Fourth Group, and other powers expanded their influence while the Confederacy of Independent Systems began military reforms. After the Confederacy suffered a catastrophic defeat at Delon, the Galactic Republic launched a counteroffensive into the Mid Rim, where droid armies resisted its advance.

• Dawn Star Planet placed Celestia under its Western Reaches war zone, while Sothropp Corporation joined the Trade Federation and partnered with Fourth Group.
• The Quarren Isolation League reclaimed the Freedom Dark Volunteer Engineering Corps, and the InterGalactic Banking Clan acquired Forge World Kastel after ending its inhabitants’ slave status.
• The Merchant Guilds halted their poison pill operation and surrendered their fleet after corporate rivals took advantage of unrest to acquire its holdings.
• On July 25, 21 BBY, the Confederacy of Independent Systems lost more than 300 large warships at the Battle of the Delon system, with fewer than twenty escaping.
• Sheev Palpatine announced a full-scale counteroffensive, and General Grievous concentrated the Confederacy’s remaining fleets to slow the Republic’s advance.
• Droid armies destroyed the surrendering governments of unprotected Mid Rim planets and began killing Republic soldiers and local civilians who resisted.

The Republic’s counteroffensive stalled as natural-born troops failed against droid armies and Jedi refused to authorize orbital bombardment. On Eriadu, Wilhuff Tarkin’s defenders faced the Fourth Civilization’s overwhelming air power, while a troop train carrying soldiers toward Eri-Xiang City came under rocket attack.

• On Charra, poorly trained natural-born soldiers routed under droid fire and exposed the Clone Army’s flanks, forcing Republic forces to stabilize the front through fighter bombardment.
• The Republic’s counteroffensive ran into entrenched droids, dwindling Clone Army production, and Jedi unwilling to approve orbital bombardment that could kill civilians.
• On Eriadu, Wilhuff Tarkin armed more than one hundred million civilians and commanded local troops and Clone Troopers against the Fourth Civilization’s landing force.
• Fourth Civilization aircraft and bombers relentlessly attacked Eriadu’s defenders, making survival the soldiers’ greatest hope.
• A hovertrain carrying hungry local troops from Valto City toward Eri-Xiang City passed a city devastated by orbital bombardment, then came under attack by Separatist rockets.

Newly trained recruits from Valto City reached a Separatist-held spaceport and were forced into a bloody assault by Republic commander Wilhuff Tarkin. As the recruits charged under fire, one soldier breached a wall and came face to face with a B-2 super battle droid.

• Banshee Fighters attacked the hover train, and V-19 Torrent fighters arrived to drive them off as Vulture droids joined the fight.
• The train reached its destination, where terrified recruits rushed out and Republic troops shot those who tried to flee.
• Governor Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the recruits to attack the spaceport, claiming only a few hundred Separatist robots were defending it.
• The recruits advanced under heavy fire, while Republic E-WEB gunners shot soldiers who tried to escape.
• An officer threatened the recruits into charging, and a soldier hurled a grenade through a broken wall, revealing a B-2 super battle droid.

Governor Wilhuff Tarkin recorded a forceful mobilization speech while Republic recruits were sent to retake Eri-Xiang City’s spaceport and were slaughtered by the Fourth Civilization’s droids. As Eriadu’s defenders continued retreating, Indjori and Caladanians struck Republic positions in other districts.

• Wilhuff Tarkin criticized the recorded speech and ordered civilian staff to revise future mobilization speeches to make them more forceful.
• Ten thousand Republic recruits attacked the spaceport, where B-2 battle droids, Siege Tanks, and other droids inflicted devastating casualties.
• Republic blocking troops killed fleeing recruits until a Siege Tank shell destroyed their position, triggering a rout and attempted surrenders that the droids met with gunfire.
• Fourth Civilization forces continued capturing Eriadu positions as Indjori cleared a Republic-held high-rise and marked its anti-aircraft guns with green smoke.
• Caladanians slipped through the darkness into an industrial district and attacked Republic soldiers.

Fourth Civilization’s forces closed in on Eri-Xiang City while the out-of-control Enlightener terrorized its residents. Wilhuff Tarkin prepared to endure the coming assault from a hidden position, having already left the city but remaining trapped on Eriadu.

• Fourth Civilization surrounded Eri-Xiang City and bombarded it with Siege Tanks and Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers as Eriadu’s defenders retreated.
• The Enlightener wandered through the city, devouring corpses and killing survivors after its mutation made it uncontrollable.
• Master Ovarle had sacrificed his life to drive a Lightsaber into the Enlightener’s heart, but the monster mutated instead of dying.
• Wilhuff Tarkin ordered Eri-Xiang City’s defenders to hold out until the hyperspace storm ended and demanded that his evacuation route and false location remain secret.
• Wilhuff Tarkin told Palpatine that he had already left Eri-Xiang City but could not escape Eriadu while the Separatist fleet surrounded the planet.

Palpatine and Tarkin discussed the Republic’s plan to send warships into Eriadu rather than aid its civilians as the hyperspace storm ended. On Eriadu, Ling Liang began the Nightfall Plan to capture Eri-Xiang City by blinding the defenders with black fog and using Givin calculations to direct the Fourth Civilization’s assault.

• Palpatine told Tarkin that the Republic fleet in the Darkknell system would attack Eriadu after the hyperspace storm ended, and Tarkin vowed to reclaim what he had lost.
• On July 31, 21 BBY, the Fourth Civilization committed over 700,000 troops to assault Eri-Xiang City while leaving more than 500,000 to hold off incoming reinforcements.
• Ling Liang ordered the Nightfall Plan to begin after dividing the city into more than 13,000 zones and preparing a detailed battle plan with Givin mathematicians.
• The Fourth Civilization blanketed Eri-Xiang City in black fog that blocked visibility and most electronic signals, turning the city into a blind zone.
• Givin mathematicians used Zero-Modal Probability Theory to predict defender positions and movements, while Ling Liang ordered selective bombardments to guide them.
• Hundreds of thousands of Fourth Civilization soldiers entered the fog-covered city and began systematically clearing buildings according to Ling Liang’s calculated orders.

General Hakimi’s Caladanian squad ambushed Republic defenders in Eri-Xiang City, while General Ling used the battle’s casualty count to predict a Republic breakout and plan a trap. The Republic army’s likely escape route was identified, and Ling prepared to encircle it.

• General Hakimi led Caladanian soldiers through the darkness toward a building marked as a Republic defensive position.
• Hakimi signaled the squad and opened fire, and the Caladanians killed defenders and destroyed two TX-130 Saber assault tanks in a coordinated ambush.
• The Caladanians stormed the building and eliminated 614 people, more than headquarters had estimated were present.
• A Givin mathematician told General Ling that Hakimi’s battle had revealed a larger-than-expected Republic presence in that sector.
• General Ling marked out a pocket on the map, and the mathematician calculated that about 180,000 Republic soldiers would attempt a breakout between J-1004 and JU-827.

Ling Liang used Zero-Modal Probability Theory to guide the Fourth Civilization’s assault on Eri-Xiang City during the Nightfall Plan, leaving the defenders isolated and suffering heavy losses. After a failed breakout, Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Republic military to accelerate his evacuation before the Separatists discovered his location.

• Ling Liang used calculations developed with Baher Banach to direct the Fourth Civilization’s forces despite the black smoke blocking visibility and communications.
• The Fourth Civilization advanced ten kilometers into Eri-Xiang City overnight as Dreadnought-class cruisers and Caladanians prevented the Republic defenders from coordinating.
• Wilhuff Tarkin ordered a breakout operation, and a 160,000-man Republic force advanced from the city on the fourth day.
• Ling Liang and the Givin mathematicians had predicted the breakout, and the Indjori slaughtered the Republic force in the open wilderness.
• Wilhuff Tarkin stopped watching the battle footage and ordered the Republic military to move up his evacuation.

Ling Liang identified the Enlightener as the cause of errors in her battlefield calculations and ordered the final assault on Eri-Xiang City. After the city was nearly captured, Darth Malthael subdued the out-of-control Enlightener and ordered it sent to Kessel, then headed toward the administrative center where Republic forces still resisted.

• A staff officer told Ling Liang that the Enlightener had lost control and wiped out several droid squads, and she ordered its influence added to the army’s calculations.
• Ling Liang learned that Tarkin had escaped Eri-Xiang City, prioritized capturing Eriadu, and ordered the final offensive to begin in five hours.
• By August 22, the Fourth Civilization controlled more than 80 percent of Eri-Xiang City, where over twenty million soldiers and civilians had died amid the fighting.
• Darth Malthael found the Enlightener feeding on corpses, used Murakami orchids to subdue it, and ordered it transported to Kessel to guard the mines.
• Darth Malthael walked toward the administrative center, where more than twenty thousand Galactic Republic soldiers continued their final stand.

Darth Malthael praised Ling Liang for capturing Eri-Xiang City and left her in charge of the Eriadu system, while the Republic concealed the city’s fall and debated how to respond. As the hyperspace storm neared its end, Master Yoda decided to open a route to Eriadu despite the cost to his health.

• Darth Malthael told Ling Liang she would be promoted to Army General and assigned her control of the Eriadu system while he entered seclusion.
• The Fourth Civilization captured Eri-Xiang City, announced that Eriadu’s cities must surrender, offered a reward for Wilhuff Tarkin, and sent transports to evacuate famine-stricken residents.
• A Republic officer ordered a communications officer to report that Eriadu was still resisting and to cut off all communications from the system.
• Sheev Palpatine urged Mace Windu to support sending a fleet to Eriadu, and Windu objected to the possibility of asking Yoda to force open a hyperspace route.
• Master Yoda announced that he would open a hyperspace route to return to Eriadu, accepting the cost for the people there.

Darth Malthael reassigned Matt Hona and Sefrans Tann after the Fourth Civilization’s victory on Eriadu, while the Republic launched a surprise counterattack. The chapter ended with Darth Malthael meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi at a secret safehouse on Cerea.

• At Yag'Dhul, Master Sha Koon ordered an assault after learning a Separatist fleet had left the system.
• Darth Malthael left Ling Liang in charge of Eriadu, assigned Matt Hona to Hoth, and sent Sefrans Tann to Port Pament to take command of a new flagship.
• Master Yoda opened the hyperspace lanes, and eighteen Republic battlecruisers attacked Eriadu; Sefrans Tann fought them while Ling Liang encircled the landed Republic troops.
• A spacecraft escaped Eriadu under stealth during the fighting and entered hyperspace.
• Darth Malthael arrived at a safehouse on Cerea and recognized Obi-Wan Kenobi among the two people waiting for him.

After the hyperspace storm subsided, Fourth Civilization fought Republic reinforcements in the Eriadu system and reorganized its territories and military command. At Port Pament, Sefrans Tann received command of the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ new Conqueror-class battleship, Destruction.

• Republic reinforcements and Fourth Civilization’s construction and defense forces entered the Eriadu system and fought near the satellite, whose planetary shield remained operational.
• Xian Hui promoted Ling Liang to Army General, and Qi Jian appointed her governor of the newly established Sith Vena star sector, with its capital at Eriadu.
• Matt Hona became Commander of Fourth Civilization’s Navy and was assigned to rebuild Fleet A, while other officers received new commands, promotions, and training assignments.
• At Port Pament, Sefrans Tann met Count Dooku, who welcomed her aboard the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ second Conqueror-class battleship, Destruction.