Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao’s leadership discussed the Galactic Republic’s ability to rapidly field ships through Kuat Drive Yards and considered how to counter the threat. Ling Liang proposed drawing the Republic into a chosen battlefield by offering it a Titan warship.

• San Hill said the Galactic Republic lacked funds to pay Kuat Drive Yards and suspected it had provided collateral for the expanded production capacity.
• Madam M said the Republic’s supply transfers had begun about a month earlier, leaving too little information to estimate its warship production.
• Adele Ulan explained that shipyards kept surplus components and hull frames, allowing Kuat Drive Yards to assemble over a thousand ships quickly, including about two hundred kilometer-class capital ships.
• Qi Jian warned that a sudden Republic fleet of that size could overwhelm most fronts, while the Givin representative said the second Ankollon-class Titan warship was far from combat-ready.
• Ling Liang proposed choosing the battlefield at Yag'Dhul and giving the Republic a reason to attack there by offering it a Titan warship.

The Galactic Republic recovered its military strength after the Jedi Order’s destruction and launched counteroffensives across several fronts, while Palpatine advanced secret plans to conscript Force-sensitive people. The Republic’s leaders remained wary of the Duchy of Dawn and its Xuanwu Titan, but Sheev Palpatine was determined to attack it.

• Sheev Palpatine used state-controlled propaganda to turn public opinion against the Jedi Order and pushed a bill to conscript Force-sensitive people, despite opposition led by Bail Organa.
• The Ninth and Tenth Armies nearly cleared the Northern Sector, while Geth attacks on Faida Planet battered the Seventh and Eighth Armies.
• Republic forces renewed their assault on Saleucami Planet, but the Second Systems Army’s rebellion and Sefrans Tann’s victory over Master Windu had weakened the Republic and broken up the Neutral Systems Alliance.
• Pre Vizsla asked the Republic for reinforcements on Mandalore, but the Republic held back as the region’s political situation grew uncertain.
• The Republic planned to liberate Rynoth and rebuild the 14th Army, while postponing action against Christophsis.
• The Supreme Strategic Command hesitated to attack the Duchy of Dawn after the defeat at the Enarc system, but Sheev Palpatine remained determined to launch an assault.

Sheev Palpatine forced the Republic to prepare a surprise attack on the Modell Sector, while Darth Malthael turned his attention toward Sidious. On Kiffar, Republic forces subdued the planet, but an unidentified spacecraft escaped under Vulture droid escort as Republic fighters pursued it.

• Sheev Palpatine overruled the Supreme Strategic Command and ordered preparations for a surprise attack on the Modell Sector.
• Dunn Vesex told Palpatine that Kuat Drive Yards wanted to join the plan, and Palpatine agreed to let it bear much of the burden.
• The Republic military prepared to support Wilhuff Tarkin's march against Geth and reinforce the Saleucami system, despite the resources diverted to the raid.
• Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael focused on each other, with Kuat Drive Yards and the Modell Sector set to become their first blows.
• Republic forces captured Kiffar, arrested its prime minister, and deployed troops across the planet to crush resistance.
• An unidentified spacecraft took off from Kiffar with Vulture droid fighters escorting it, and the droids attacked pursuing Republic fighters to help it escape.

The Republic recovered a damaged data storage device from a downed spacecraft and discovered that the Xuanwu Titan warship had been built in the Yago-Dul system, where another Ankollon-class Titan warship was under construction. The intelligence reached Sheev Palpatine, forcing the Republic to reconsider its planned campaign against Christophsis and weigh an assault on Yago-Dul.

• Republic V-wing fighters shot down a spacecraft fleeing Kiffar Planet, and ground troops recovered its wounded Kiffar pilot and a damaged data storage device.
• Republic technicians decoded the device and learned that Duchy of Dawn researchers had used Kiffar scientists to process superconductive material for the Xuanwu warship’s group shield system.
• Republic Intelligence compared the data with earlier hyperspace readings and concluded that Xuanwu had been built in the Yago-Dul system and that a second Ankollon-class Titan warship was being built there.
• Sheev Palpatine convened a meeting to consider attacking the Yago-Dul shipyard, even though the Republic’s original plan had been to attack Christophsis.
• The Supreme Strategic Command recognized that its feint toward the 20th Army had become a real consideration of an attack on Yago-Dul, potentially revealing its intentions to the Duchy of Dawn.

The Galactic Republic Supreme Strategic Command decided to reinforce the Republic 20th Army and open a second front in the Yag'Dhul system, where it suspected the Duchy of Dawn was building an Ankollon-class Titan warship. Meanwhile, Mira Han raided a Republic transport convoy near Tatooine, and the captured heavy weapons drew the attention of the Duchy of Dawn Military Intelligence Department.

• Republic Intelligence Department assessed that the suspected Ankollon-class Titan shipyard was probably in Yag'Dhul, while warning that the intelligence could be a trap.
• Galactic Republic Supreme Strategic Command debated whether to attack Yag'Dhul or limit its feint to Christophsis.
• Chancellor Sheev Palpatine ordered the Republic 20th Army reinforced and a second front established in the Yag'Dhul system.
• On July 12, 20 BBY, Mira Han led Titan Security's pirate fleet in capturing a Republic convoy near Tatooine carrying over 4,000 Spaarti clone troopers and heavy equipment.
• Mira Han sent the clone troopers to mine on Kosher Satellite, while the Duchy of Dawn Military Intelligence Department took notice of the captured weapons.

The Duchy of Dawn discovered that the Galactic Republic had redirected a powerful force from Christophsis toward the Yag'Dhul system, likely to attack its Titan shipyard. Tang Xiao kept Ling Liang in command of Eriadu and began considering who could lead Yag'Dhul’s defense.

• Mira Han’s captured Republic transports revealed AT-TEs and SPHA-Ts, prompting the Duchy of Dawn to investigate a possible Republic buildup near Christophsis.
• Duchy of Dawn patrols captured Republic reconnaissance craft, and analysts found they had been tracking hyperspace fluctuations and communications.
• Reconnaissance detected a large fleet entering hyperspace near Christophsis, leading Military Intelligence to conclude that the Republic had shifted its attack toward Yag'Dhul.
• Madam M ordered more reconnaissance to search for the secret hyperspace routes the Republic appeared to be using.
• At the July 14 Supreme Military Command meeting, Qi Jian and others proposed Ling Liang to command Yag'Dhul, but Tang Xiao refused to move her or the Xuanwu from Eriadu.
• Tang Xiao considered the difficulty of finding a commander for Yag'Dhul, since Lin Nanyi lacked experience, Sefrans Tann was with the Neutral Alliance, and Trench was serving the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Tang Xiao forced Volgograd Kanidi to reaffirm Modell Sector’s loyalty while imposing surveillance and administrative purges, then sent Matt Horner to command defenses at Yago-Dur. The Second Battle of Yago-Dur began as a large Republic fleet under Gideon Tarkin arrived to bombard the planet and establish a prolonged campaign.

• Tang Xiao confronted Volgograd Kanidi about Modell Sector’s loyalty and admitted he had chosen war to pursue his ambition.
• Kanidi agreed to remain in command of Modell Sector, accept surveillance of He Yuan, and hold Jin Chen accountable, while asking Tang Xiao to let Matt Horner leave.
• Tang Xiao ordered Matt Horner to Yago-Dur, kept Kanidi in charge of the sector’s military affairs, and removed dozens of officials for investigation.
• Republic forces cleared routes near Yago-Dur, built a forward space station, and fought patrols as Duchy of Dawn and Gran reinforcements arrived.
• On July 21, thirty Hunter Class Battlecruisers emerged near Yago-Dur and began bombarding the planet, followed by Knight-class Star Destroyers and shield ships.
• Gideon Tarkin arrived with a Commander II-class Dreadnought and more than one hundred supporting vessels to command the Republic’s campaign.

Gideon Tarkin’s Republic 20th Army established a mobile logistics network near Yag'Dhul and adopted a strategy of prolonged warfare against the Separatist defenders. The fleet stayed at long range, countered the Calamity-class battlecruisers’ Particle Beam Lances, and prepared to sustain operations while seeking a way to attack.

• Several dozen logistics ships joined the earlier arrivals in Yag'Dhul, forming a repair and supply base protected by five shield ships.
• Twenty Particle Beam Lances struck and collapsed the shield ships’ shields, and Gideon Tarkin learned that the Separatists had at least twenty Calamity-class battlecruisers.
• Gideon ordered the shield ships to replace their capacitors and keep moving, while the fleet fired the discarded, superheated capacitors toward the planet.
• Gideon sent more than two thousand fighters to search for and destroy Separatist hyperspace detectors, and ordered Republic detectors deployed in their place.
• Gideon kept the fleet ten light-minutes from Yag'Dhul, established mobile supply transfer points, and chose a protracted-war strategy instead of launching an immediate assault.

Matt Horner weighed the risks of attacking the Republic fleet in the Yag'Dhul System and decided he needed to seize the initiative before enemy reinforcements arrived. He asked Baher Banak to calculate when the system’s three stars could best disrupt the Republic fleet.

• Matt Horner assessed the Republic fleet’s strength and suspected that hidden reinforcements would arrive if he attacked too soon.
• Matt Horner rejected his adjutant’s proposal for an immediate assault, recognizing that the Republic commander was using the fleet as a deliberate trap.
• Matt Horner concluded that the defense fleet had to take the offensive to prevent the Republic from gaining a foothold in the Yag'Dhul System.
• Matt Horner asked Baher Banak to identify the best time to attack based on the movements and interference of Yag'Dhul’s three stars.

Baher Banak explained to Matt Hona how Yag'Dhul's unstable three-star system threatened the Givin with eventual extinction and why they accepted General Ling's plan to make their planet a battlefield. He then began explaining why the Givin joined the Fourth Civilization.

• Baher Banak told Matt Hona that an approaching stellar orbit would close ordinary hyperspace access to Yag'Dhul for 17 hours, leaving only the Givin's secret route usable.
• Baher Banak showed the system's complex orbital paths and explained that the Givin calculated the stars would eventually collapse into a supernova and then a black hole.
• Baher Banak said the Givin accepted General Ling's plan despite making Yag'Dhul the main battlefield because they had long faced the prospect of their civilization's extinction.
• Baher Banak led the Givin mathematicians in another round of calculations and asked Matt Hona why the Givin had joined the Fourth Civilization.

Baher-Banak explained why the Givin identified with the Fourth Civilization: Tang Xiao could give them habitable planets and a future that the Galactic Republic denied them. He revealed that Yag'Dhul would soon be flung through space by a rare gravitational event, presenting Admiral Matt Hona with a possible battle opportunity at the risk of the Givin's extinction.

• Baher-Banak told Matt Hona that the Givin saw the Fourth Civilization as their path to a future on a habitable planet.
• Baher-Banak explained that Tang Xiao had given Planet Kaal to the Vasari, persuading the Givin that they too might earn a world from him.
• Baher-Banak showed Matt Hona that Yag'Dhul would be caught by two stars' gravity in about a month and flung along a trajectory near the Galactic Republic's 20th Army fleet.
• Baher-Banak said the Givin would shelter underground during the catastrophe and urged Matt Hona to consider exploiting it as a chance for battle.
• Baher-Banak estimated an 87% chance that his calculations were correct and warned that an error could cause a star to swallow Yag'Dhul and exterminate the Givin.

Admiral Matt Horner launched the Duchy of Dawn fleet’s attack on Gideon Tarkin’s Republic forces before they could establish a secure supply base in the Yago-Dur system. The battle left the Republic fleet under heavy fire as an enormous swarm of Dawn drones approached, though Tarkin dismissed the small fighters as harmless.

• Matt Horner ordered the Duchy of Dawn fleet to attack the Republic fleet and target its shield ships and logistics base.
• The Republic and Duchy of Dawn fleets exchanged heavy fire, and Republic shield ships and warships suffered damage.
• Gideon Tarkin ordered his fleet to hold position, called for reinforcements, and launched Republic fighter squadrons against the Duchy of Dawn’s first wave of Vulture droid fighters.
• Republic V-wing fighters destroyed the Vulture droid fighters, but radar detected a second wave of five thousand fast fighters and then an approaching swarm estimated at more than twenty thousand drones.
• Gideon Tarkin identified the 3,175-meter Consul-class carrier and ordered his fighter squadrons to engage the incoming drones, believing their small weapons could not harm his warships.

Gideon Tarkin’s Republic fleet faced the Duchy of Dawn’s Swarm Drones, whose speed, shields, firepower, and coordinated flight overwhelmed the Republic fighters. After a devastating retreat, the drones pressed their attack against the Republic warships, leaving Tarkin’s fleet exposed and its battle plans shattered.

• Gideon Tarkin’s commanders scanned the Swarm Drones and discovered their shields, while Tarkin ordered the third wave of fighters to stand by.
• The Swarm Drones accelerated into the Republic fighter formation, destroying fighters with coordinated plasma fire and evading their attacks.
• After the Republic lost more than seven hundred fighters, Gideon Tarkin ordered the remaining fighters to retreat under cover from the third wave.
• Matt Hona’s Duchy of Dawn fleet advanced as Calamity-class battlecruisers struck Republic warships with Particle Beam Lances and disrupted their formation.
• Tens of thousands of Swarm Drones pursued the retreating fighters and attacked the Republic fleet, overwhelming the defenses of a Hunter Class Battlecruiser.

Gideon Tarkin watched Swarm Drones pierce the shields of the Galactic Republic’s 20th Army and ordered the fleet to intensify its defenses. Aboard The Flash, Gale Squadron prepared to assist the Sky Green, then launched into a battlefield where Republic fighters were already being destroyed.

• Gideon Tarkin saw tiny Swarm Drones breach Hunter Class Battlecruiser shields and ordered more fighters launched and all anti-air weapons to fire.
• Pilots and ground crews prepared fighters aboard The Flash, loading missiles and checking weapons systems.
• The Flash Flight Control Center told Gale Squadron to assist the Sky Green against an estimated 470 drones and gave them a launch window.
• The Hangar Platform opened onto a battlefield filled with weapons fire, and Gale Squadron watched Republic fighters explode under the drones’ attacks.
• After the countdown, Galactic Republic fighters launched from The Flash and accelerated toward the battle.

The Republic fleet struggled against the Duchy of Dawn’s Swarm Drones and warships as Gideon Tarkin ordered The Will to advance until reinforcements arrived. One hour into the battle, 140 Republic warships emerged from hyperspace in the Yago-Dur system.

• Swarm Drones overwhelmed Republic fighters and inflicted heavy damage on the fleet before returning to their motherships to recharge and repair.
• Gideon Tarkin learned that the drones used powerful plasma beams, possibly amplified through remote energy transmission.
• With the Duchy of Dawn’s warships engaging the Republic fleet, Gideon Tarkin ordered The Will to advance and hold the front line until reinforcements arrived.
• The Will took three Particle Beam Lance hits, while the recharged Swarm Drones concentrated their attacks on the dreadnought.
• After an hour of fighting, 140 Republic warships—including forty Hunter Class Battlecruisers—arrived in the Yago-Dur system.

In the Yag'Dhul system, reinforcements allowed Gideon Tarkin to stabilize the Republic fleet and launch an assault on Matt Horner's flagship, but concentrated fire forced both fleets to withdraw without either commander achieving his strategic goal. Meanwhile, in a hidden Core Worlds system, an enormous fleet completed preparations around a vast star-powered device.

• Governor Octavian Grant sent forty Hunter Class Battlecruisers and one hundred other warships to reinforce Gideon Tarkin, whose fighters then joined the battle against the Swarm Drones.
• Gideon Tarkin ordered an assault on the Eridanus, believing the Consul-class carrier controlled the Swarm Drones, while Matt Horner ordered the Calamity-class battlecruisers to fire on The Will and his fleet to retreat toward the star bases.
• The Republic assault withdrew after The Will took heavy damage, and Matt Horner's fleet fell back to the star bases; seven Kohl-class Battlecruisers were heavily damaged.
• Gideon Tarkin and Matt Horner each recognized that the battle had failed to secure their intended advantage, leaving the fleets to continue fighting until Baher Banak's predicted astronomical phenomenon arrived.
• On the night of July 21, 20 BBY, a massive fleet finished preparing at a hidden Core Worlds base beside a completed disc-shaped device that gathered energy from a star.

Kuat Drive Yards assembled a 440-warship fleet in the T6652U7X8849L system to launch a surprise attack on Dawn Star Planet and seize its warship technology. Onana Kuat planned to hand the captured database to Chancellor Palpatine in exchange for the Republic’s favor.

• Kuat Drive Yards gathered 440 warships, including hundreds of capital ships, from its stockpiles and recent production.
• Onana Kuat and Lila Blythex oversaw the fleet’s deployment from a space station’s command center.
• Lila Blythex reported that a test of the hyperspace stabilizer had sent twenty escort ships through the route before Interdictors intercepted them.
• Onana Kuat said Dawn Star Planet’s strongest forces were occupied in other systems, leaving its home territory vulnerable to a surprise attack.
• Lila Blythex asked what Onana Kuat would do with Dawn Star Planet’s warship database, and Onana Kuat said she would give it to Chancellor Palpatine.

Onana Kuat and Lila Blythex launched the Scavenger Plan fleet with a Quatian ceremony and a colossal hyperspace stabilizer. Cassio Tagge led the first ships through the ring toward the Modell Sector.

• Lila Blythex recognized that Onana Kuat wanted her to praise Kuat Drive Yards’ loyalty to the Galactic Republic, and she played along.
• Cassio Tagge reported that the fleet was assembled, and Onana Kuat ordered the expedition to begin.
• Onana Kuat cut the golden rope tethering the decorated Lambda-class shuttlecraft and entrusted Cassio Tagge with the fleet.
• Lila Blythex activated the hyperspace stabilizer, which drew power from the star and Coaxium to open a route to hyperspace.
• Cassio Tagge ordered the first twenty Invincible-class battleships through the stabilizer toward the Modell Sector.

Annaj Planet had grown into the Modell Sector’s prosperous population center, but the arrival of a massive fleet brought the threat of war to its residents. The Duchy of Dawn imposed wartime control and began deploying troops and droids while ordering civilians to evacuate toward the suburbs.

• Annaj Planet’s population and industries expanded under the Duchy of Dawn, and humans became its dominant population while many Ayrou entered the entertainment industry.
• Residents spotted a large fleet of warships around Annaj Planet, including Behemoth-class and Calamity-class battlecruisers.
• The authorities halted interstellar communications and travel, placed the planet under wartime control, and rumors spread that Volgograd-Kanidi planned to declare independence.
• The Duchy of Dawn’s fleet blockaded the planet and declared that its main fleet would defend Annaj Planet, forbidding residents from fleeing.
• Transport ships delivered B-1 Battle Droids, soldiers, and armored vehicles, and the armies took control of the cities and organized the residents’ evacuation to the suburbs.

Annaj Planet’s residents were placed under military control and evacuated as the Duchy of Dawn suppressed protests against its rule. Governor Volgograd-Kanidi then publicly pledged the Modell Sector’s resistance to the Galactic Republic.

• The Duchy of Dawn rationed food, patrolled Annaj Planet, and began moving residents to shelters on the outskirts.
• Armed demonstrators gathered in several cities to oppose the Duchy of Dawn and demand that its troops withdraw.
• Duchy of Dawn forces opened fire after a rioter threw a Molotov cocktail, then deployed droids to suppress the protests.
• The military arrested more than a hundred thousand rioters and sent them for reeducation, while roughly four thousand people were killed.
• Governor Volgograd-Kanidi held a press conference at a star base and vowed that the Modell Sector would resist the Galactic Republic.