Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao confronted Gali-Ulan about Rendili StarDrive’s worsening position and demanded that he face the risks of leaving the Galactic Republic without guarantees. Gali-Ulan revealed that Republic control and internal divisions were eroding Rendili, leaving its vast industrial foundation vulnerable to Kuat Drive Yards.

• Tang Xiao told Gali-Ulan that Palpatine had deliberately maneuvered Rendili into its predicament and challenged him to decide whether he could act without guarantees.
• When Gali-Ulan tried to invoke the Archangel of Death, Tang Xiao used the Force to choke and throw him, then warned him not to approach or discuss that identity.
• Tang Xiao cruelly demanded that Gali-Ulan kill his daughter Adele if he wanted the Archangel of Death's personal help, and Gali-Ulan pleaded with him to stop.
• Gali-Ulan reported that a Jedi Master and apprentice had taken over Rendili's defense fleet, Republic Intelligence activity had increased, and many shipyard directors opposed him.
• Gali-Ulan explained that Rendili's contracts and production had declined despite Willix Blythex designing the Victory-class Star Destroyer, while its leadership mistook the crisis for a temporary slump.
• Tang Xiao recognized that Palpatine was slowly weakening Rendili until Kuat Drive Yards could absorb its industrial base.

Cun Te bribed a Republic patrol pilot to let his Gozanti-class transport carry medical equipment and 120 unconscious clones into the tightly controlled Rendili system. Tang Xiao revealed that his impending marriage to Rendili’s sixteen-year-old daughter was tied to the brewing crisis.

• A Republic fighter intercepted Cun Te’s Gozanti-class transport near Corellia and demanded identification, scans, and an explanation for its destination.
• Cun Te bribed the pilot and claimed the ship carried medical equipment and clones for a Rendili StarDrive medical escort ship project.
• The pilot reported the shipment to his superior, and the transport was cleared to proceed toward Rendili.
• Tang Xiao appeared beside Cun Te and remarked on the cost of the bribe and his upcoming marriage to Rendili’s daughter.

Tang Xiao and Cun Te joked about Tang Xiao’s arranged marriage as their ship approached Rendili, where Tang Xiao planned to confront the Republic’s control. He revealed that he would rather turn the planet into a world of the undead than let Palpatine hand its industrial power to Kuat.

• Tang Xiao and Cun Te joked about Tang Xiao marrying Adele Ulan, while Yarno realized they were both accommodating each other to preserve their friendship.
• Cun Te asked why Tang Xiao had brought so many medical pods, and Tang Xiao said they were for turning the situation around on Rendili.
• Tang Xiao explained that he had brought his real body in case he needed to destroy Rendili and turn it into a world of the undead rather than let Palpatine strengthen Kuat.
• Tang Xiao, Cun Te, and Yarno watched as their ship exited hyperspace and approached Rendili Planet.
• The chapter described Rendili StarDrive’s flexible network of spherical shipyards and contrasted its loose alliance structure with Kuat Drive Yards’ centralized organization.

Tang Xiao secretly arrived on Rendili to exploit the planet’s political turmoil and expose the decay behind its proud legacy. He brought Darth Malthael’s true body in a stasis pod and refused Gali Ulan’s invitation to meet Adele.

• Tang Xiao and Cun Te discussed Rendili StarDrive’s decline and Bangjila Ulan’s failure to control the planet.
• Cun Te used a Republic patrol’s clearance code to guide their disguised medical transport past Rendili’s defense fleet.
• Tang Xiao landed at a hidden estate and watched medical pods, including Darth Malthael’s stasis pod, being moved into an underground base.
• Gali Ulan greeted Tang Xiao and explained that Adele Ulan was waiting in the reception hall, but Tang Xiao refused to see her.

Tang Xiao met with Bangjila Ulan at the Urlan estate and learned how Palpatine had infiltrated Rendili StarDrive and its Planet Defense Fleet. Bangjila revealed that a bounty hunter he had hired to purge Republic sympathizers had betrayed him, leaving his own allies dead and Rendili’s leadership in crisis.

• Gali Ulan led Tang Xiao to the estate’s reception hall, where Adele Urlan said she had been named the Urlan family’s first-in-line heir.
• Tang Xiao asked Bangjila Ulan about Rendili’s situation and who controlled the Planet Defense Fleet.
• Bangjila said the Galactic Republic’s infiltration had left his life at Palpatine’s mercy.
• Bangjila explained that he had hired a bounty hunter to assassinate fleet commanders and help him replace Republic sympathizers with his own allies.
• Bangjila said the planned mutiny had erupted, but all the dead were his confidants, and he accused the bounty hunter of being Palpatine’s spy.

Bangjila Ulan explained how betrayal, lost support, and the rejection of the Victory II-class Star Destroyer had left Rendili on the brink, then entrusted the Ulan family's succession and Rendili StarDrive to Adele Ulan and asked Tang Xiao to take Rendili out of the Galactic Republic. Tang Xiao refused to abandon Rendili, while Cun Te left with a quiet farewell that suggested it might be their last time together.

• Bangjila Ulan told Tang Xiao that leaked intelligence and shifting loyalties had undermined his plans to rebel, while Rendili's investors, shipyard owners, and employees fled after the Victory II-class order was rejected.
• Bangjila Ulan revealed that Adele Ulan had received the Ulan family's first right of succession and become Rendili StarDrive's Chief Executive Officer.
• Bangjila Ulan urged Tang Xiao to take Rendili out of the Galactic Republic, promising Adele and Rendili if he succeeded, while Adele broke down in tears and Gali Ulan comforted her.
• Cun Te and Yarno warned Tang Xiao that Rendili StarDrive and the planet's population were deeply tied to the Republic, and that the Ulan family had little control over the company.
• Tang Xiao rejected Cun Te's suggestion to kidnap Adele and leave, explaining that he wanted Rendili and feared the Republic's full wartime potential.
• Cun Te agreed to leave Tang Xiao to his plans, then murmured a desolate farewell as he exited; Tang Xiao drank from the bottle Cun Te had left behind.

Tang Xiao revealed his plan to break Rendili’s deadlock by using the Rebirth Plan to replace or alter the memories of influential Republic loyalists. He left Yarno and Cun Te weighing the risks of the operation and the limits of the available clone bodies.

• Tang Xiao told Yarno and Cun Te that Rendili’s ties to the Republic made conventional solutions impossible, so he planned to flip the table.
• Tang Xiao explained that Republic loyalists were easier to identify than people whose support for the Separatists had changed.
• Tang Xiao revealed that the Rebirth Plan could restore people in new bodies while he replaced their memories and consciousness.
• Tang Xiao said the prepared clones were intended for Republic-loyal shipyard owners and senior Rendili StarDrive executives, whose DNA had been collected in a secret operation.
• Yarno worried that the little more than a hundred clones could not influence Rendili overall, and Tang Xiao said other targets could undergo less complete memory alteration in medical pods, though it risked exposure.

Tang Xiao planned to recruit Jorgen City mayor Daman Lopez to help establish safe houses, while Daman secretly conspired against the Ulan family in exchange for a governorship. After returning home, Daman was confronted by what appeared to be reanimated corpses, including his own bodyguards.

• Tang Xiao proposed sending out the Rebirth Plan medical pods and creating safe houses to alter people's memories, then named Daman Lopez as a potential helper.
• Daman Lopez agreed to help an associate undermine the Ulan family by inciting factory strikes and demonstrations and investigating their taxes.
• Daman returned to his estate drunk and ordered his two gate guards to take paid leave because they smelled of sweat.
• His bodyguards recognized the smell as that of corpses and rushed Daman inside, but they suddenly dropped their weapons and shields.
• Three corpse-like figures entered the estate, and Daman saw that the bodyguards beside him had also become dead, rotting faces.

Darth Malthael abducted Jorgen City Mayor Daman Lopez and brought him to Cun Te’s apartment for an experiment with a regeneration medical pod. Daman woke to find an exact duplicate of himself standing before him.

• Darth Malthael used walking corpses to capture Daman Lopez and take him from his mansion in his luxury speeder.
• Darth Malthael brought Daman to Cun Te’s apartment, where Spade had prepared the regeneration medical pod.
• Darth Malthael used the Force to knock Daman unconscious for the procedure.
• Daman woke in a hospital gown and saw another Daman Lopez greeting him with his familiar official smile.

Darth Malthael replaced Mayor Daman with a clone carrying a new, loyal personality and kept the original alive as a backup. A week later, Jedi Master Ploo Koon arrived at Rendili StarDrive’s headquarters with Jedi Knights Jax Pavan and Jing Fang to investigate a possible rebellion.

• Darth Malthael’s clone taunted Mayor Daman with plans to exploit his office and family, prompting the real Daman to attack before Malthael restrained him.
• Darth Malthael declared the clone to be the real Daman and left the original alive as a backup for the Rebirth Plan.
• Darth Malthael explained how Death Force mastery let him split off part of a person’s soul and implant a loyal personality in a cloned body.
• One week later, Jedi Master Ploo Koon arrived at Rendili StarDrive’s headquarters with Jedi Knights Jax Pavan and Jing Fang to address a possible rebellion.

Ploo Koon, Jing Fang, and Jax Pavan investigated Rendili’s political maneuvering and headed to meet Fleet Commander Jesse Darlen, while Arden Lyn and Darth Sidious discussed their control of the planet’s defense fleet. The Jedi gained access to the fleet flagship, and Arden planned to investigate signs that Rendili’s situation was changing.

• Ploo Koon explained that the Jedi needed conclusive evidence before they could act against Bangjila-Ulan and advised investigating the Separatists’ plans.
• Jing Fang, Jax Pavan, and Ploo Koon traveled to the defense fleet flagship Mersel Kebir to question Jesse Darlen and investigate a recent mutiny.
• Arden Lyn watched the Jedi shuttle approach and told Darth Sidious that Darlen did not want to meet them, but the flagship eventually let them aboard.
• Arden Lyn told Darth Sidious that the defense fleet was under their control but that its crew had grown relaxed and were taking leave on Rendili.
• Darth Sidious ordered Arden Lyn to stop the fleet’s crews from abandoning their warships, and she suspected Bangjila-Ulan was secretly resisting their plans.

Darth Sidious urged Arden Lyn to intensify efforts to push Rendili toward the Separatists, but resistance to their plans was growing. As Arden investigated the cause, Captain Jesse Darlen and Mayor Daman Lopez both acted against the pressure campaign, leaving Arden uneasy about what was happening on Rendili.

• Darth Sidious told Arden Lyn to stir up unrest and force Rendili to join the Separatists, while Arden criticized his schemes.
• Jesse Darlen agreed to keep the Rendili Planet Defense Fleet with the Galactic Republic, and Ploo Koon asked whether Bangjila Ulan planned to hand Rendili to the Separatists.
• Arden Lyn confronted Jesse Darlen over giving the fleet leave, but he insisted that he would hand it over to the Republic despite her threats.
• Arden Lyn sensed a warning in the Force and sent agents to check their contacts and investigate why attacks on Rendili StarDrive had declined.
• Mayor Daman Lopez told a HoloNet interviewer that he was looking beyond Rendili StarDrive to the larger causes of the planet’s troubles, and a man in a bar reported that Daman had slipped out of control.

Darth Malthael’s plan to stabilize Rendili Planet through replacing influential figures drew the Galactic Republic’s attention. He discovered that the bounty hunter exposed as a Republic mole was Arden Lyn, a powerful Dark Side Force user, and warned Bangjila Urlan of the threat.

• Officials and activists across Rendili Planet abruptly stopped targeting Rendili StarDrive after Darth Malthael’s replacements shifted public blame for the planet’s decline onto the war.
• Darth Malthael learned that Republic agents had infiltrated Rendili Planet to investigate the sudden changes among influential figures.
• Darth Malthael recognized the bounty hunter and Republic mole’s name as Arden Lyn.
• Darth Malthael told Bangjila Urlan and Adele Urlan that Arden Lyn had lived for more than twenty thousand years and could rival him in strength.
• Bangjila Urlan reacted with alarm upon learning Palpatine had sent Arden Lyn to infiltrate his circle.

Darth Malthael decided to handle Arden Lyn himself and warned Bangjila Ulan to prepare to seize control of Rendili Planet and its Planet Defense Fleet. He planned to reveal their hand in about a week, when Count Dooku’s forces would arrive and Rendili would become a battlefield.

• Darth Malthael reasoned that Arden Lyn had awakened early because of his changes to the storyline and that Darth Sidious was exploiting her desire to revive Xendor.
• Darth Malthael told Bangjila Ulan he would deal with Arden Lyn and said Count Dooku would send help to protect the Urlan family’s leaders.
• Darth Malthael told Bangjila Ulan to prepare a military government framework so they could take over Rendili Planet and the Planet Defense Fleet in about a week.
• Bangjila Ulan warned that taking control would expose every force opposing them, and Darth Malthael declared that a direct battle would follow.
• Darth Malthael revealed that General Sefrans Tann’s fleet would soon depart, and Adele Ulan grew pale at the prospect of Rendili becoming a battlefield.

Republic Intelligence suspected that people on Rendili had been brainwashed, but Arden Lin redirected the Jedi Knights toward investigating Mayor Daman Lopez. Daman learned Darth Malthael had arranged the investigation to give him one chance to regain control of himself and obey.

• A Republic Intelligence officer told Ploo Koon, Jing Fang, and Jax Pavan that hundreds of people on Rendili had suddenly changed their positions, possibly because they had been brainwashed.
• Jax Pavan and Jing Fang accused Republic Intelligence of pushing Rendili toward betrayal, and Arden Lin explained that Rendili had intended to betray the Republic first.
• Arden Lin assigned the Jedi Knights to investigate Daman Lopez, who had abruptly changed his position and shown unusual behavior.
• Daman watched his clone discuss his daughter on a holo-TV interview, then panicked and demanded that the clone reveal what had happened to her.
• Darth Malthael appeared and promised Daman one chance to become himself again if he cooperated when the Jedi Knights investigated him.

Mayor Daman discovered that his daughter was safe and, terrified by a mysterious threat, delayed a Jedi Knight’s visit. Meanwhile, Armand Isard grew convinced that Daman had been compromised and ordered a full investigation, including cooperation with the Jedi.

• Mayor Daman found his daughter resting at home and, reassured she was safe, told his assistant to make the visiting Jedi Knight wait.
• Armand Isard rejected the Jedi Knights’ report that Daman was himself and ordered his staff to investigate the people around him.
• An official told Isard that the Rendili Planet Defense Fleet remained under Republic control and had been kept at combat readiness for three days.
• Isard noticed that two women and six security personnel connected to Daman had disappeared shortly before Daman changed his attitude.
• Isard ordered his staff to investigate Daman with every available resource and told them to enlist the Jedi Knights’ cooperation.

Armand Isard’s investigation suggested that Mayor Daman Lopez had been replaced, so Ploo Koon and two Jedi pursued him when an arrest operation went wrong. Daman escaped, and a HoloNet broadcast accusing the Republic of conspiring against Rendili StarDrive left the Jedi facing a public crisis.

• Armand Isard’s agents found that Daman’s DNA matched his own, but his recent meals did not match the contents of his fecal sample, while people around other suspicious officials had disappeared.
• Armand ordered agents to arrest Daman Lopez and alerted Ploo Koon, but the agents were attacked and nearly all lost contact.
• Ploo Koon, Jing Fang, and Jax Pavan charged into City Hall, where Daman fled after a Force-user delayed the Jedi.
• Jing Fang recognized a guard as Tang Xiao, and Ploo Koon revealed that Tang Xiao was secretly the Archangel of Death.
• Ploo Koon and the Jedi set out after Daman, but a HoloNet broadcast showed Daman accusing the Republic of creating unrest and bribing officials to undermine Rendili StarDrive.

Mayor Daman exposed his collusion with the Galactic Republic and implicated other Rendili officials, setting off a chain of public confessions. As the Jedi raced to respond, Republic Intelligence realized Tang Xiao’s plan had pushed Rendili Planet toward chaos, with 600 billion people caught in the stakes.

• Mayor Daman publicly confessed to working with Galactic Republic spies and named other corrupt officials, drawing a swarm of reporters.
• Jing Fang, Jax-Pavan, and Ploo-Koon pursued Daman while Master Yoda decided to travel to Rendili Planet and confront the Archangel of Death.
• Jax-Pavan warned that Daman’s confession was meant to inflame anti-Republic sentiment across Rendili Planet, and Jing Fang vowed to bring Tang Xiao to justice.
• Another high-ranking official publicly admitted to colluding with Galactic Republic commercial spies, escalating the crisis.
• Jax-Pavan and Ploo-Koon recognized that the public confessions were spiraling beyond control, while Armand-Assad ordered Republic Intelligence agents to stop them.
• Republic Intelligence realized Tang Xiao and the Urlan family had made a desperate gamble with Rendili Planet’s 600 billion people at stake.

Darth Malthael revealed himself as Tang Xiao during the Jedi attempt to arrest Mayor Daman, then escaped after Ploo Koon was wounded. Across Rendili Planet, officials began publicly exposing their own and one another’s misconduct, laying the planet’s troubles at the Galactic Republic’s feet.

• Ploo Koon and the other Jedi arrived to arrest Mayor Daman, who used their appearance to accuse the Jedi and Republic before the press.
• Tang Xiao revealed himself as the Archangel of Death and ordered Jing Fang to help Mayor Daman leave, but Jing Fang joined Jax Pavan and Ploo Koon in attacking him.
• Darth Malthael parried the trio’s attacks, and Ploo Koon pulled Jing Fang back and raised a Force barrier, suffering a severe wound in the process.
• Darth Malthael escaped in a prepared Speeder after proclaiming that the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order were responsible for the war, while Mayor Daman stayed behind and offered to be arrested.
• Senior officials across Rendili Planet began admitting and expanding on allegations of corruption, and their revelations blamed the Galactic Republic for the planet’s condition.

Bangjila Urlan used the scandals exposed by replaced officials to turn public opinion against the Galactic Republic, announce Rendili’s secession, and establish a Provisional Military Government. As Republic officials and Darth Sidious scrambled to respond, Captain Jesse Darlen put the defense fleet on combat readiness, disrupting Arden Lyn’s plan to reach him.

• Replaced senior officials revealed evidence of corruption between Rendili and the Galactic Republic, stirring public anger and helping identify people who could be trusted.
• Bangjila Urlan condemned Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, declared Rendili StarDrive and Rendili Planet would leave the Republic and remain neutral, and imposed a lockdown and strict information controls.
• Bangjila Urlan formed the Rendili Planet Defense Force and a Provisional Military Government, while troops seized city administrative centers and some officials and cities pledged support.
• Armand Assad ordered the Republic Intelligence Department to protect the defense fleet from Bangjila Urlan, but Captain Jesse Darlen refused to act without direct orders from the Chancellor; Armand then learned Master Yoda was heading to Rendili.
• Darth Sidious ordered Arden Lyn to investigate the defense fleet, and she set out to visit Jesse Darlen under the cover of repairing machinery.
• The warship broadcast announced Level One combat readiness and suspended communications and departures, leading Arden Lyn to realize Jesse Darlen was about to act.