Chapter Summaries

Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and other senators opposed Palpatine’s growing power and chose to submit a joint petition rather than risk another failed impeachment. The Petition of 2000 reached Palpatine, who reacted with fury.

• Krueya Vandron defended the Sub-Adult Group against accusations of anti-non-Human bias, while senators Chi Eekway Papanoida, Bana Breemu, Mon Mothma, and Bail Organa worried about Palpatine’s growing power.
• Bail Organa persuaded the senators to petition Palpatine instead of launching another impeachment, arguing they had to put their constituents’ safety ahead of their anger.
• On August 15, 20 BBY, more than 2,000 senators led by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma delivered the Petition of 2000 to Chancellor Sheev Palpatine.
• The petition called for an end to the war’s escalation, the return of emergency powers to the Senate, and reforms informed by the Republic’s wartime failures.
• Palpatine read the petition and became furious.

After the Petition of 2,000 prompted Sheev Palpatine to summon an emergency Senate session, Phineas Valorum warned Bail Organa that Palpatine would crush his opponents and secretly removed Bail’s signature from the petition. The next day, Bail joined Mon Mothma and the other senators before the session, urging them to prepare for Palpatine’s response.

• Sheev Palpatine called an emergency Senate session after reading the Petition of 2,000.
• Phineas Valorum secretly visited Bail Organa and warned that Palpatine would never surrender power and was implicated in the war.
• Valorum revealed that he had removed Bail’s signature from the petition, but Bail objected to being separated from his fellow senators.
• Valorum left after warning Bail that Palpatine would destroy everyone who stood in his way.
• At the Senate Building, Bail warned Mon Mothma, Bana Breemu, and the others to prepare, and they contacted their supporters.

Sheev Palpatine used a Senate speech to blame the Republic’s weakness on its lack of unity and defend his seizure of authority, while attacking the Two-Thousand Declaration. He ended by announcing that Dawn Star Planet had returned to the Republic, as the Senate listened to his increasingly forceful address.

• Sheev Palpatine argued that the Republic was weak because its citizens and institutions lacked unity and commitment.
• Palpatine tore up the Two-Thousand Declaration and accused its signers of demanding that he surrender power during the war.
• When Fang Zar tried to interrupt, Palpatine used the Force to choke him until he collapsed.
• Palpatine condemned the Senate, the Jedi Order, and the Republic’s past failures, citing the invasion of Naboo and the Separatists’ secession.
• Palpatine declared that he had unified the Republic by taking responsibility into his own hands and announced that Dawn Star Planet had returned to the Republic.

Palpatine announced that Dawn Star Planet had left the Separatists and then declared the Galactic Republic reorganized into the First Galactic Empire. Bail Organa and Mon Mothma applauded under pressure as the Republic ended, while Tang Xiao watched the speech from the Duchy of Dawn and mocked its promises.

• Palpatine projected a document bearing Tang Xiao’s seal that said Dawn Star Planet would leave the Confederacy of Independent Systems and accept the Coruscant government’s leadership.
• Bail Organa and Mon Mothma recognized that the document addressed Palpatine’s government rather than the Galactic Republic and exchanged grave looks.
• Palpatine accused the Jedi Order and its Senate allies of treason, proclaimed the Republic reorganized into the First Galactic Empire, and promised a New Order.
• Bail Organa and Mon Mothma joined the Senate’s applause despite their despair as Palpatine’s proclamation ended the Galactic Republic.
• Tang Xiao watched Palpatine’s speech with Francis Underwood and Helmut Zemo, called it a perfect speech, and said Palpatine never intended to keep its promises.

Tang Xiao and his advisers weighed the Duchy of Dawn’s decision to accept a ceasefire and agreement with the Galactic Empire, concluding that their battered forces and strained industry could not sustain another war. The chapter left the Duchy preparing to rebuild and stabilize its devastated territories while studying Palpatine’s speech for hidden meaning.

• Tang Xiao dismissed Palpatine’s speech as a political lie, while Francis Underwood explained how Palpatine had used a humble image to gain support as Chancellor.
• Qi Jian lamented that the Duchy could not strike while the Galactic Empire was vulnerable, and Helmut Zemo and Francis Underwood argued that the Duchy was in even worse shape and had gained what it could through diplomacy.
• Tang Xiao watched clerks transcribe Palpatine’s speech for experts to analyze, noting that his senior officials had supported the ceasefire despite his expectation of opposition.
• The Battle of Yag'Dhul had cost the Duchy twenty-seven capital ships, more than eighty smaller warships, and the Agonev-class star base, while Yag'Dhul Planet’s production capacity had fallen sharply.
• The Modell Sector campaign had cost the Duchy twenty-nine capital ships and more than sixty smaller warships, left its surviving fleet badly damaged, and devastated Annaj Planet.

The Duchy of Dawn suffered immense civilian, military, and economic losses in its war with the Galactic Republic, leaving it unable to continue fighting. Tang Xiao sought peace with Sheev Palpatine, who readily agreed, bringing two Sith Lords to the negotiating table.

• Annaj Planet endured devastating bombardments and ground fighting, with more than 45 million civilian casualties and much of its capital region and fourteen cities destroyed.
• Tang Xiao’s forces destroyed Cassio Tagge’s fleet over Dawn Star Planet but lost more than 800 warships, severely disrupting the Duchy of Dawn’s transport routes and creating debts to its allies.
• The Duchy of Dawn’s public endured years of war, Republic sanctions, and shortages, while the government lacked the strength to continue a full-scale conflict.
• One day after the Battle of Yag'Dhul, Tang Xiao contacted Sheev Palpatine and offered to make peace.
• Palpatine accepted without hesitation, and the two Sith Lords prepared to discuss a peace accord.

Tang Xiao offered to surrender the Duchy of Dawn to Palpatine, using the proposal to negotiate for concessions while Palpatine weighed his worsening political and military position. The chapter left Palpatine facing a choice as his plan to declare an empire became increasingly urgent.

• Palpatine rejected Tang Xiao’s suggestion that they talk, but Tang Xiao revealed he knew Palpatine was preparing to establish the First Galactic Empire.
• Palpatine threatened to attack the Dawn Star Planet again, and Tang Xiao challenged him to name when the attack would come.
• Tang Xiao abruptly offered to surrender the Duchy of Dawn and its territories to Palpatine’s government, including a future Galactic Empire.
• Palpatine recognized that Tang Xiao’s offer was designed to secure benefits and stared at him without answering.
• Tang Xiao assessed that Palpatine’s military failures, mounting costs, and impeachment threats left him little choice but to seize power and declare an empire.

Tang Xiao offered Palpatine the Duchy of Dawn’s submission as a political justification for transforming the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, then began negotiating the price. Palpatine accepted a ten-year peace and the lifting of several blockades, but reacted coldly when Tang Xiao demanded that the Rendili trade route be reopened.

• Tang Xiao’s offer of Dawn Star Planet’s surrender gave Palpatine a way to explain past defeats and claim a major political victory.
• Tang Xiao proposed a ten-year Peace Accord, and Palpatine agreed, believing the Republic would grow stronger during the truce.
• Tang Xiao demanded that Palpatine lift the blockades on the Rendili, Kato Neimoidia, and Balmorra-Neimoidia systems, and Palpatine accepted.
• Tang Xiao clarified that he also wanted the blockade on the Rendili trade route lifted, revealing his aim to access Rendili StarDrive’s industrial capacity.
• Palpatine understood that opening the trade route would greatly strengthen the Duchy of Dawn and turned cold.

Tang Xiao and Palpatine negotiated the Dawn Accord, under which the Duchy of Dawn nominally submitted to Palpatine's government in exchange for recognition of its territory and the reopening of the Rendili Trade Route. The accord enabled Tang Xiao to begin evacuating Rendili's people and industrial assets, while Palpatine used the political victory to declare the Galactic Empire.

• Tang Xiao and Palpatine negotiated alone and settled the agreement's terms, leaving the remaining talks to Mas Amedda and Francis Underwood.
• On August 9, 20 BBY, the Duchy of Dawn and Palpatine's government signed the Dawn Accord, recognizing Tang Xiao's rule and opening the way for trade and Rendili's inclusion in Dawn territory.
• The agreement sidelined Count Dooku and dealt a major political blow to the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
• The Galactic Republic lifted its blockade, and Tang Xiao began moving Rendili StarDrive's materials and space docks while organizing the relocation of Rendili Planet's 600 billion inhabitants.
• On August 10, 20 BBY, Palpatine convened the Senate and announced that the Galactic Republic would be reorganized into the Galactic Empire.

Tang Xiao defended his separate ten-year peace accord with Palpatine to an enraged Count Dooku, promising continued aid while privately dismissing Dooku as a loser. On Empire Day, Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, leaving the Imperial Senate as little more than a façade.

• Count Dooku accused Tang Xiao of betraying the Confederacy by making peace with Palpatine, while Tang Xiao said Dawn Star Planet could not survive another campaign and promised to support Dooku from Lothal.
• Count Dooku ended the transmission, and Tang Xiao privately called him a loser.
• On August 10, 20 BBY, Palpatine crowned himself Emperor as the Galactic Republic became the First Galactic Empire.
• The new Empire renamed Coruscant and its institutions, reorganized the Galactic Senate, and arrested more than three hundred signers of the Petition of 2000.
• Mon Mothma and Bana Breemu escaped punishment by showing loyalty, while Bail Organa, who had not signed the petition, apologized to Palpatine and was kept in the Imperial Senate as a public example.

After founding the Galactic Empire, Palpatine reorganized its military and intelligence services, purged officers he distrusted, and expanded surveillance and repression to secure his rule. With the Empire’s foundations still unstable, he used parades and violent crackdowns to intimidate the galaxy.

• The former Republic military was divided into the Imperial Navy, Imperial Army, and Stormtroopers, while Palpatine planned mass recruitment and strengthened his direct control over the armed forces.
• Palpatine purged officers he considered untrustworthy and consolidated the Republic’s four intelligence departments into the Imperial Intelligence Bureau under Armand Isard.
• The Commission for the Protection of the Republic became COMPNOR, and its Imperial Security Bureau was established as a secret police force to monitor the Empire and check the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.
• Wullf Yularen left the Navy and joined the ISB as a colonel because of his ties to the Jedi Order, though officials judged him loyal to the Empire.
• Palpatine converted the former Jedi Temple into his palace, expanded the Chancellor’s residence into the Imperial Palace, and sent Stormtroopers and fleets on parades and bloody crackdowns across the Empire.
• Palpatine moved to stabilize the Empire’s unstable rear, a priority that had led him to make an agreement with Tang Xiao to open the Rendili Trade Route.

Six months after the Empire’s founding, Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer watched Naboo while Padmé Amidala remained unconscious and heavily pregnant at Dormé’s manor. As Dormé tried to appease Imperial officials and feared the Empire’s reprisals, Padmé went into labor.

• Queen Jamillia ordered Naboo’s security chief to ignore Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer as it made its fourth silent visit to the planet.
• Darth Vader choked an officer who questioned why Naboo was spared, demanded stricter security, then ordered the fleet to move on.
• C-3PO told Dormé that the Star Destroyer had left, while she explained that Imperial surveillance and the threat of punishment still made Naboo unsafe.
• Dormé agreed to prepare an application to keep Naboo’s tax rate and offer a gift to the Imperial officer reviewing it.
• Dormé recalled that Darth Vader’s fleet had bombarded Planet Ursus after it failed to pay its full taxes.
• A handmaiden rushed out of the manor and told Dormé that Padmé was going into labor.

Padmé Amidala gave birth to twins, Luke and Leia, while Darth Malthael searched for them and tried to track down A'Sharad Hett. Leia was placed with the Organa family as Leia Organa, while Dormé left for Dagobah and Darth Malthael ordered his agents to keep searching Tatooine.

• Padmé's medical droids delivered a healthy boy and girl, and Dormé named them Luke and Leia as R2-D2 secretly transmitted a message.
• Queen Breha Organa and Bail Organa welcomed Leia and agreed to raise her as their daughter, Leia Organa, while Dormé departed for Dagobah with an aged guide.
• Darth Malthael arrived in orbit above Naboo, sensed nothing, and angrily declared that the twins would ultimately be his.
• Darth Malthael ordered Madam M to investigate Owen Lars's family and find A'Sharad Hett, then told her to stop closely surveilling Owen while ensuring he stayed on Tatooine.
• Madam M confirmed Leia Organa's birth and title as Princess of Alderaan, and Darth Malthael ordered only minimal surveillance there.
• Madam M instructed her agents to leave Jing Fang alone and continue searching Tatooine, including among the Jawas and Tusken Raiders, for A'Sharad Hett.

The Duchy of Dawn relocated Rendili’s shipyards and population while expanding Victory II-class production, as the Ulan family rose to prominence. Six months after a surprise attack, Annaj Planet had rebuilt much of its infrastructure, but its material and psychological wounds remained.

• The Duchy of Dawn moved Rendili’s orbital shipyards to industrial zones across its sectors while the remaining yards began mass-producing Victory II-class Star Destroyers.
• Bangjila Ulan demonstrated the Ulan family’s loyalty to Tang Xiao, who preserved some of its privileges as the family became the Duchy’s foremost noble house.
• The relocation plan called for Rendili’s population to fall to 200 billion over at least ten years, with 400 billion people and most orbital shipyards moved elsewhere.
• By April 16, 19 BBY, Annaj Planet had rebuilt homes and begun reconstructing its cities, preparing to house migrants from Rendili.
• Annaj’s material and psychological wounds from the surprise attack six months earlier remained unhealed.

As unrest grew in the Modell Sector, Tang Xiao blamed Governor Volgograd-Kanidi for failing to address its residents’ political demands and ordered him to stop separatist sentiment from spreading. Kanidi faced the prospect of acting against his own people, while a hidden figure offered to intervene if he failed.

• Anger over Annaj Planet’s destruction and reconstruction spread, while opposition to the costs of supporting it strengthened separatist sentiment in the Modell Sector.
• Tang Xiao told Volgograd-Kanidi that his lack of political understanding had allowed discontent and demands for autonomy to grow.
• Kanidi insisted the Modell Sector would not break away while he remained governor, but Tang Xiao warned that his death could leave rebellion and civil war to follow.
• Tang Xiao ordered Kanidi to resolve the crisis while his authority was still strong, warning that delay would cause greater bloodshed.
• A woman hidden behind Kanidi laughed and threatened to take care of the Modell Sector for Tang Xiao if Kanidi failed.

Volgograd-Kanidi faced pressure from Tang Xiao and Darth Lilim as Modell Sector’s growing autonomy movement took shape around an announced victory celebration. He decided to use the event to identify and arrest the movement’s most extreme supporters, recognizing that Tang Xiao would never permit independence.

• Tang Xiao assigned Darth Lilim to monitor Kanidi and push him to act against Modell Sector’s autonomy movement, while Kanidi warned her not to harm Jin Chen or He Yuan.
• After the sector’s victory over the Galactic Republic, Kanidi announced celebrations across Modell Sector, prompting liberals to expect an autonomy declaration and circulate a flag design.
• Kanidi met secretly with seven political figures, who argued over whether autonomy was feasible and how Tang Xiao might respond.
• Kanidi declared that Tang Xiao would never allow Modell Sector to become autonomous and said liberalism had no future under the Duchy of Dawn.
• Kanidi revealed that the celebration was intended to draw out extreme liberals for a mass arrest, and admitted he had underestimated how far the autonomy movement had grown.

Volgograd-Kanidi’s allies agreed to support his decision to end Modell Sector’s autonomy movement and pledge loyalty to Tang Xiao, while Pikara condemned the plan. Pikara’s protest ended when a Twi’lek woman with a red Lightsaber appeared after killing his assistant.

• Volgograd-Kanidi’s allies warned that Tang Xiao would make him hated, but Kanidi insisted obedience was the only way to prevent Modell Sector’s destruction.
• Madam Krassis and the other leaders agreed to support Kanidi, who declared that loyalty must shift to the Duchy of Dawn and Tang Xiao.
• Pikara denounced Kanidi’s plan to lure liberal opponents to a celebration and arrest them, arguing that Modell Sector should seek autonomy before war with the Galactic Empire.
• A Twi’lek woman appeared beside Pikara after killing his Rodian assistant, leaving Pikara terrified as she held a blood-red Lightsaber.

Darth Lilim and the Ghost Agents secretly crushed dissent in the Modell Sector as Tang Xiao moved to end its liberalism. Three days later, Governor Volgograd Kanidi prepared to use the Victory Celebration to determine the sector’s fate, while Tang Xiao watched from afar.

• Darth Lilim killed Pikara for speaking Tang Xiao’s name and ordered the Ghost Agents to conceal his death.
• The Ghost Agents made their first mission in the Modell Sector, while Darth Lilim attacked the industrial district until it fell silent by dawn.
• The Modell Sector held a public Victory Celebration with performances, subsidies, and military parades across its major cities.
• Volgograd Kanidi stood before a crowd and more than 20,000 armed soldiers, resolved to make a sacrifice for the sector’s future.
• Tang Xiao and Adele Ulan watched Kanidi’s live broadcast, and Adele understood the celebration was an execution of traitors engineered by Tang Xiao.

At the Modell Sector’s victory celebration, Volgograd-Kanidi praised the sector’s growth before rejecting calls for autonomy and declaring its dependence on the Duchy of Dawn. After Lieutenant General Jin Chen denounced Kanidi and prepared to address the public, two armed figures appeared and arrested him.

• Volgograd-Kanidi celebrated the Modell Sector’s survival and recalled its development, battles, and victories.
• Kanidi credited Tang Xiao and Dawn Star Planet with supplying the sector and protecting it, then argued that the Modell Sector should remain part of the Duchy of Dawn.
• Jin Chen condemned Kanidi’s speech as a betrayal and ordered the soldiers to prepare for possible riots.
• Jin Chen announced plans to hold a press conference and publicly confront Kanidi.
• Two armed figures suddenly appeared at the military base and arrested Jin Chen.

Ghost Agents arrested Jin Chen and abducted He Yuan and her infant as Governor Volgograd Kanidi declared the Modell Sector’s continued place in the Duchy of Dawn. The declaration sparked mass protests, and soldiers charged into the crowd to arrest the demonstrators.

• A Ghost Agent carried Jin Chen out of his office, and Jin ordered the surrounding soldiers to lower their weapons and let him go with them rather than risk civil war.
• Darth Lilim killed staff at He Yuan’s villa, used the Force to take her infant from her arms, and dragged He Yuan and the child onto a spacecraft.
• Governor Volgograd Kanidi reaffirmed that the Modell Sector would remain part of the Duchy of Dawn and warned that separatists would be arrested as traitors.
• Protesters in the square shouted against Kanidi and Tang Xiao and demanded Modell autonomy.
• Soldiers charged the crowd as Kanidi ordered everyone to return home and warned that anyone remaining outside would be treated as guilty.