Recaps

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.

Volgograd-Kanidi used the Victory Celebration to launch a brutal crackdown on liberals across the Modell Sector, then expanded it into household searches and a population census. Armed resistance spread despite air attacks, and Kanidi ended the chapter by ordering the entire sector sealed off.

• Volgograd-Kanidi’s loyal soldiers and B-1 battle droids attacked the celebration crowds, killing and arresting thousands across the Modell Sector.
• Authorities sent prisoners to Thonner and screened the families of the dead, injured, and arrested, detaining relatives who failed ideological checks.
• Volgograd-Kanidi ordered household searches and a new census, while soldiers arrested residents for keeping Sixteen-Star Flags or promoting autonomy.
• As millions were arrested, liberals formed armed groups and fought back, prompting Banshee Fighters from Grey Horse-class escort carriers to bombard resistance gatherings.
• Corporations and industrial districts secretly armed and organized the rebels, who used urban terrain to evade air attacks and strike government targets.
• Volgograd-Kanidi ordered the Modell Sector sealed off, halting all starship traffic except for officially authorized vessels.

Volgograd-Kanidi crushed the Modell Sector’s autonomy movement through mass arrests and assassinations, while Tang Xiao’s government planned stricter education and immigration controls. Hari Seldon warned that liberalism could threaten the Duchy of Dawn and asked how the Modell Sector’s uprising differed from future resistance elsewhere.

• Volgograd-Kanidi used the Beast Legion and Darth Lilim’s Ghost Agents to arrest or kill liberals and their backers, leaving the movement suppressed after three days of terror.
• The purge devastated the Modell Sector, and Kanidi reported to Tang Xiao that the unrest had been eliminated and pledged loyalty to the Duchy of Dawn.
• Tang Xiao’s ministers discussed the economic and social costs, and Tang Xiao approved Francis Underwood’s plan to place new immigrants in cities for six months of civic education.
• Hari Seldon argued that liberalism could threaten the Duchy of Dawn, but that the Modell Sector’s disorganized and reckless uprising differed from the pattern he had calculated.

Tang Xiao explained to Hari Seldon and his leaders how liberalism could threaten the Duchy of Dawn, distinguishing the Modell Sector’s power struggle from future ideological conflicts. He ended the meeting by ordering restraint in the next phase of operations and a gradual, secret handling of the political prisoners on Sonell Planet.

• Tang Xiao argued that liberalism lacked a coherent governing theory and that the New Republic’s weak central authority had made it prone to collapse.
• Hari Seldon explained that Modell Sector power brokers had rebelled because they feared the Duchy of Dawn would grow stronger and because Governor Kanidi’s speech had disrupted their autonomy plans.
• Francis Underwood worried that Tang Xiao was grooming Hari Seldon to succeed him as Prime Minister.
• Tang Xiao told Qi Jian that the Rebel Alliance could treat the Duchy of Dawn as an enemy because its ideals differed from theirs.
• Tang Xiao ordered the Modell Sector operations to remain low-key, directed officials to focus on propaganda and education, and ordered them to conceal news of the political prisoners on Sonell Planet while dealing with them gradually.

Rendili Planet intensified its immigration campaign as the Duchy of Dawn transported millions of residents and industrial assets through the reopened Rendili Trade Route. Most people remained willing to leave, though about 60% had not registered, and the Duchy expanded its propaganda to persuade them.

• The Duchy of Dawn broadcast advertisements promising jobs, benefits, education, and healthcare, drawing long lines to Rendili Planet's Immigration Bureau.
• Rendili Planet's blockade, unemployment, and shortages made many residents eager to immigrate after the planet lost the Galactic Republic's support.
• The Immigration Bureau collected applicants' skills and family details so the Duchy of Dawn could prioritize needed workers and arrange their relocation.
• After Tang Xiao and Palpatine made peace and reopened the Rendili Trade Route, daily immigration rose from roughly 1.2–1.5 million people to five to seven million, and industrial facilities could also be transferred.
• Officials estimated that about 60% of residents had not registered, as many feared moving or expected life to improve once others left.
• The Duchy of Dawn increased broadcasts about its history, policies, and Tang Xiao to build support for immigration and prepare residents for life after relocation.

A wary young man traveled through the overcrowded Hammer Port, where passengers were preparing to leave for the Duchy of Dawn. After reacting strongly to a projection of Grand Duke Tang Xiao, he reached the hall where his flight to Annaj Planet was boarding.

• The young man nervously made his way through Hammer Port while soldiers and drones managed the crowds.
• He shuddered when he saw Tang Xiao praised in a projection about the Duchy of Dawn.
• A towering man carrying a boy and a girl on his shoulders joined the young man's route through the spaceport.
• Soldiers diverted able-bodied passengers away from the overcrowded electromagnetic walkway, and the young man and the big man continued on foot.
• After crossing the corridor, the young man reached a hall with a massive spacecraft and saw passengers split toward their boarding gates.

Carl Kestis boarded an immigrant ship after passing security checks despite being undocumented and carrying something he feared would be discovered. As the ship entered hyperspace for Annaj Planet, he lay in his seat uncertain about his future.

• Carl Kestis followed his ticket to the checkpoint on the enormous ship and worried that officials might discover he was undocumented.
• A staff member questioned Carl about his name and mechanical-repair experience, then let him pass after confirming his registration.
• Carl passed a security scan while fearing it would reveal something hidden in his backpack.
• Carl boarded the ship, found Seat 68 in Compartment 06, and used his backpack as a pillow.
• The ship left the atmosphere and entered hyperspace toward Annaj Planet in the Modell Sector.

Willix Blythex celebrated the successful first voyage of the Leviathan-class passenger liner, which he designed to help evacuate civilians, and went home to sleep. As he rested, a covert group watched his residence and prepared to act.

• The Leviathan-class passenger liner lifted off from Rendili Planet, beginning its first official journey to the Annaj system.
• Willix Blythex’s colleagues applauded him for designing an affordable ship that could improve immigration efforts and save civilians during wartime.
• Willix Blythex explained that he had rejected a modular military-conversion design to keep costs low, while reserving interfaces for a possible medical-ship conversion.
• After the liner successfully entered hyperspace, Willix Blythex celebrated with his colleagues, returned home, and fell asleep.
• A covert group watched Willix Blythex’s residence and checked the status of his nearby bodyguards and the surveillance system.

Clone Force 99 prepared a covert operation on Rendili to extract Willix Blythex, exploiting the planet’s busy traffic and weak security. The team took up positions and awaited Hunter’s order to begin.

• Hunter coordinated the teams as they prepared to infiltrate Willix Blythex’s residence and secure their escape routes.
• Crosshair and the other snipers positioned themselves to eliminate the sentries, while Tech’s team prepared to disrupt the network.
• Echo waited with a modified speeder, and Beard’s team secured a nearby landing platform and ship.
• The chapter explained that Clone Force 99 consisted of twenty genetically modified clones whose weakened biochips had allowed them to remain loyal to the Empire while avoiding missions against Jedi.
• Dunn Vesex pulled Clone Force 99 from training at Lila Blythex’s request, and the team began its operation after infiltrating Rendili disguised as civilians.

Clone Force 99 kidnapped Willix Blythex from Rendili, escaped a massive pursuit, and delivered him to their ship. After Tang Xiao learned of the abduction, he ordered Adele Ulan to bring Willix back to the Fourth Civilization, treating the matter as a challenge to his authority.

• Hunter's team abducted Willix Blythex while Crosshair and Tech disabled security, but arriving coworkers discovered the intrusion and alerted the authorities.
• Clone Force 99 fought through police and Rendili Security Forces, used Tech's communications virus and a false target to evade pursuit, and escaped Rendili in hyperspace.
• Tang Xiao reprimanded Madam M over the security failure and asked Adele Ulan about Willix's role at Rendili StarDrive.
• Adele Ulan explained that Willix's kidnapping could slow research but would not prevent the new technologies from being developed.
• Tang Xiao ordered Adele Ulan to recover Willix Blythex to defend the Fourth Civilization's standing against Palpatine.

Tang Xiao decided to restructure the intelligence agencies after repeated security failures and growing pressure on the Military Intelligence Department. He chose Solomon Lane to lead the expanded Intelligence Department and planned to appoint Gabriel Tosh as its deputy minister, leaving the identities of other agency leaders unresolved.

• Tang Xiao reviewed the Intelligence Department's failures, including losing track of Luke Skywalker and allowing Galactic Republic special forces to kidnap Willix Blythex.
• Tang Xiao concluded that the Military Intelligence Department was overburdened, Ni Yongxiao's department had drifted into spice-trade matters, and Helmut Zemo's National Security Bureau was not using its authority effectively.
• Tang Xiao decided to remove Ni Yongxiao and Helmut Zemo from intelligence work, expand the Intelligence Department's authority and resources, and make it report directly to him.
• Tang Xiao planned to place the Internal Affairs Department under the Intelligence Department and divide it into the Internal Affairs Department and the Secret Police.
• Tang Xiao chose Gabriel Tosh as Ghost Academy's dean and Deputy Minister of the Intelligence Department, and selected Solomon Lane as the department's minister.