Recaps

Tang Xiao reviewed Ghost Academy’s brutal training program and warned his ministers that the Rebel Alliance posed a greater future threat to the Duchy of Dawn than the Galactic Empire. He left the Duchy’s strategy unsettled after meeting Hari Seldon, while Palpatine discussed the Empire’s future with his advisers.

• Gabriel-Tosh trained Spectres with condemned prisoners and Beast Legion fighters, while the Ministry of the Interior delayed the Population Census that could supply more recruits.
• More than six months after the Galactic Empire’s founding and the Duchy of Dawn’s peace negotiations, both powers built their strength amid ongoing wars and unrest.
• Tang Xiao recognized that the Duchy of Dawn remained vastly weaker than the Empire and believed liberalism and the coming Rebel Alliance could ultimately destroy the Empire.
• Tang Xiao warned Francis-Underwood, Helmut-Zemo, and other officials that the Rebel Alliance would become the Duchy of Dawn’s main focus.
• Tang Xiao spoke privately with Hari Seldon for an afternoon, while Palpatine discussed the Empire’s future with Blackhole, Dunn-Vesex, and Wilhuff-Tarkin.

The Duchy of Dawn began exploring the dangerous Unknown Regions, where chaotic hyperspace routes had thwarted earlier expeditions. The SSV Normandy approached an asteroid emitting an anomalous signal, with Captain Shepard reporting its discovery.

• The chapter described how the Unknown Regions’ tangled hyperspace network made travel and exploration exceptionally dangerous.
• The Galactic Republic’s Outer Rim Exploration Program disappeared, including Jedi Master Jorus Tholme and its 200,000 crew members.
• After reaching a Peace Accord with the Galactic Empire, the Duchy of Dawn launched its own Unknown Regions exploration program.
• The SSV Normandy approached an asteroid over ninety kilometers wide after locating an anomalous signal.
• Captain Shepard transmitted that the ship had found the signal point and was approaching.

Shepard led Senluo and Reaper on a covert reconnaissance mission to an asteroid outpost, where they found evidence of an technologically advanced species unknown to the Milky Way. Unable to read the outpost’s computer system, they decided to take its terminal back for analysis, risking that its owners would interpret the act as an attack.

• Shepard received approval to investigate a suspected outpost and took Senluo and Reaper instead of Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams.
• The Normandy and its landing craft approached the asteroid under stealth, and the three scouts crossed the terrain on foot toward the base.
• Shepard, Senluo, and Reaper observed the base and found no living people, but spotted seven quadrupedal robot guards.
• The team disabled all seven robots with EMP grenades, then entered the central building and shut down its surveillance system.
• Shepard found an unreadable alien language on the main terminal and ordered Senluo and Reaper to dismantle it and take it back for analysis.

While Shepard and the Ghost Agents dismantled the outpost mainframe, three unidentified Light Cruisers arrived and destroyed the base before attacking the Normandy. The Normandy could not escape immediately, and Shepard prepared to draw the enemy’s fire when a blinding light and enormous figure appeared ahead.

• Shepard left a first-contact message at the outpost, explaining the crew’s actions and offering compensation, while Senluo and Reaper argued over their approach.
• Jeff Moreau warned Shepard that ships were approaching, and the Normandy went to combat readiness as three Light Cruisers emerged from hyperspace.
• The Light Cruisers fired on and destroyed the outpost, then targeted Shepard’s shuttle as it approached the Normandy.
• The Normandy dropped its cloak and attacked the cruisers while Shepard piloted the shuttle into its hangar under fire.
• Shepard learned that the Normandy needed ten minutes to calculate a hyperspace jump and prepared to draw the cruisers away, but a blinding light revealed an enormous figure ahead.

Eternity rescued Shepard’s team, destroyed the three attacking light cruisers, and investigated the wreckage and outpost. The recovered data identified their attackers as the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium, leaving the expedition facing the possibility of a larger conflict.

• An Endless-class Super Carrier, Eternity, arrived and destroyed the three light cruisers attacking the Normandy.
• Jeff Moreau docked the Normandy aboard Eternity, where Shepard met Lieutenant General He Ru and recounted the attack on the outpost.
• Shepard and He Ru considered possible reasons for the attack, then ordered an analysis of the recovered mainframe.
• After salvaging the cruisers and outpost, Eternity left the star system and spent three days analyzing the data.
• A scientist reported that the attackers and the outpost belonged to the same civilization, the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium.

Shepard and He Ru investigated the Xilu people, learning about their suspected Muggal-Muggal epidemic, biology, and unusual technology. After Haseck examined their reactor, Shepard judged peaceful coexistence unlikely and proposed finding the Xilu people’s core planet and destroying their regime.

• Shepard and the scientist found that Xilu communications described Muggal-Muggal as a contagious disease and suggested the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium was xenophobic and hostile to outsiders.
• The scientist reported that the Xilu people were reptilian, with apparent male and female forms, while Ashley noted their disease-prevention measures were deployed beyond their borders.
• He Ru and Shepard traveled to the engineering laboratory, where they found Haseck and the other Engineers studying wreckage and an unexplained corpse inside a Xilu reactor.
• Haseck’s report revealed that the Xilu used organisms to generate reactor energy, while their hyperspace technology appeared to have come from outside their civilization.
• Shepard summarized the Xilu findings and recommended locating their core planet, launching a landing operation, and destroying their regime.

Shepard and Huang Yehao planned to lure the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium into revealing itself by repeatedly broadcasting “Mnggal-Mnggal,” while preparing the Eternity for combat. The Imperium answered their transmission, and the chapter left the Eternity’s escorts deployed as the fleet entered Level 1 combat readiness.

• Haseck assessed the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium’s weapons as weaker than the Duchy of Dawn’s and assembled a communications center from wreckage.
• Shepard proposed broadcasting a report about Mnggal-Mnggal to draw the Imperium out, and Huang Yehao suggested repeatedly transmitting only the creature’s name.
• After more than an hour, the Eternity received an open-frequency message asking for its location and the degree of Mnggal-Mnggal infection, but the Engineers continued broadcasting the name instead of replying.
• Shepard ordered combat preparations, and He Ru placed the ship at Level 1 readiness and launched five Steadfast-class Cruisers and four Twinblade-class EW light cruisers.
• Shepard returned to the Normandy and joined the escort formation around the Eternity.

The Duchy of Dawn’s Eternity battle group ambushed a Xilu fleet sent to investigate the missing cruisers. After the Xilu fleet refused to surrender and attacked, Eternity and its escorts began overwhelming the enemy, leaving one of its battlecruisers with breached shields.

• Shepard and the Eternity battle group hid among the asteroids while they waited for the Xilu fleet to arrive.
• Jeff Moro detected the fleet’s hyperspace arrival, and Shepard ordered the Normandy into stealth mode and prepared for battle.
• Lieutenant General He Ru broadcast a demand for the Xilu ships to lower their shields, but the Xilu fleet insulted the Duchy of Dawn and opened fire.
• Shepard sent the Normandy around the enemy formation to attack its rear auxiliaries as Eternity destroyed one Xilu battlecruiser with its Particle Beam Lances.
• Eternity deployed its defenses, fighters, weapons, and missiles while five Steadfast-class Cruisers and four Twinblade-class EW Light Cruisers emerged from the asteroids.
• The Xilu fleet’s second battlecruiser was battered by missiles and gunfire until its shields failed within two minutes.

The Duchy of Dawn Exploration Fleet overwhelmed the Xylosian warships but was surprised by the Xilu drones’ uncanny coordination, agility, and ability to detect cloaked ships. After Senluo and Shepard sensed suffering souls inside the drones, Shepard called off the Normandy’s carrier raid and ordered it back to the Eternity.

• The Exploration Fleet destroyed several Xylosian cruisers and badly damaged a battlecruiser within ten minutes, while the Twinblade-class jamming fields failed to disrupt the enemy’s communications.
• The Xilu drones outmaneuvered the Wraith and Viking fighters, shot down more than a dozen, and forced the remaining fighters to retreat toward the Eternity.
• Shepard sent the Normandy on a detour toward the Xylosian carriers, but more than a hundred drones pursued it and battered its shields with repeated laser fire.
• Senluo said he sensed suffering souls inside the drones, and Shepard sensed their agonized cries as well.
• Shepard canceled the raid and ordered the Normandy to return to the Eternity and use long-range attacks against the Xilu warships.
• The Normandy reached the Eternity’s air defense circle, where defensive fire tore apart more than a dozen pursuing drones.

The Exploration Fleet defeated the Xilu fleet and began boarding its ships to capture the commander. As salvage crews examined the wreckage, they discovered a horrifying cargo of corpses.

• He Ru ordered the Eternity and the Exploration Fleet to destroy the Xilu warships while holding the Particle Beam Lances in reserve.
• After the Xilu drones and most of their warships were destroyed, He Ru fired a warning shot and demanded surrender, and the surviving ships shut down their engines and lowered their shields.
• Huang Yehao and Cummings led boarding parties onto the Xilu ships, where Huang Yehao found that the supposed Xilu people aboard the battlecruiser were all smaller and thinner than expected.
• A corridor turret killed a Xilu guide, so Huang Yehao destroyed it and ordered the remaining guides to show the way to the bridge.
• A salvage ship investigating a damaged cruiser found compartments full of naked, shriveled corpses with tubes inserted into them.

Huang Yehao and the Marines seized a Xilu battlecruiser and forced its captain to open the chambers powering the ship. They discovered living captives, including humans, wired into the chambers and tortured to generate energy.

• Huang Yehao learned that the chambers aboard the battlecruiser were called batteries and ordered the Marines to the bridge to open them.
• Huang Yehao's warriors stormed the bridge, killed twenty-six Xilu ambushers, and made the surviving crew surrender.
• Huang Yehao threatened the Xilu captain until he ordered a technician to open the battery chambers, cutting the ship's power.
• Huang Yehao returned to the chambers and found captives from many species, including Pia'ek people and humans, restrained and wired into the machinery.

Huang Yehao discovered that the Xilu people powered their warships by extracting life energy from enslaved people, prompting the Fourth Legion to arrest the crew and destroy the ship. After interrogating captured Xilu officers, the Exploration Fleet learned about the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium and resolved to go to war against it.

• Huang Yehao found people imprisoned in bio-battery chambers and learned that the Xilu people used their life energy to power their ships.
• Huang Yehao struck a Xilu officer who attacked a Pia'ek person, and a Fourth Legion warrior killed the officer.
• Huang Yehao ordered the crew arrested and the warship destroyed, while the Pia'ek people were brought aboard the Endless-class Super Carrier.
• Captain Shepard, Lieutenant General He Ru, Huang Yehao, Cummings, and other fleet leaders interrogated captured Xilu officers and learned about their ships, caste system, and bio-battery technology.
• The fleet learned that the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium controlled roughly a dozen planets and had a Xilu population of about fifteen billion, and its leaders resolved to go to war.

Shepard and the others learned that the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium depended on biological batteries made from abducted intelligent beings, driving its endless wars and hostility toward outsiders. They concluded that peace was unlikely and began considering how to defeat the Imperium, with Shepard proposing a decapitation strike.

• Shepard and the others learned that the Xilu people used biological batteries to power their society and warships, and invaded other worlds to capture more people.
• Huang Yehao realized the Xilu captain had sincerely believed that people connected to batteries felt no pain because Xilu society had built a faith around the practice.
• Shepard and the others reasoned that biological batteries drew on the Force and that humans produced more power and lasted longer than other species.
• Lieutenant General He Ru described the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium's population, fleet, and hostility, and asked the group whether peace remained possible.
• Shepard rejected the idea that his earlier actions had caused the conflict, while Ashley Williams warned against killing billions of innocents and Senluo cautioned that the fleet had to be dealt with first.
• Shepard proposed a decapitation strike against the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium.

After destroying the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium fleet, Lieutenant General He Ru prepared Eternity to strike Levik planet, the Imperium’s capital, rather than bombard it indiscriminately. The Great Xirithut ordered the Imperial fleets to return and defend the planet as an invasion approached.

• Shepard chose a decapitation strike, and Huang Yehao proposed using the attack to give the Pia'ek people hope to rebel against the Xilu.
• Lieutenant General He Ru decided to ignore the secretive Manga-Manga and attack the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium directly.
• He Ru ordered Haseck and the engineering teams to repair a captured Xirui-class battlecruiser’s navigation system, then used its calculations to prepare Eternity’s hyperspace jump to Levik planet.
• He Ru ordered the captured Xilu warships destroyed, and the damaged battlecruiser used for navigation calculations exploded after Eternity departed.
• The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium declared martial law on Levik planet after learning its outer patrol fleet had been annihilated.
• The Great Xirithut ordered all Imperial fleet forces to return to Levik planet and prepare for the coming invasion.

Great Xirithut and General Lepix prepared Levik for an expected invasion after a Ssi-ruuvi fleet vanished, while Great Xirithut and the bishop performed a Consecration Ceremony. The chapter ended with Lepix wondering whether the invaders would come at all.

• Great Xirithut ordered the Ssi-ruuvi fleet to gather at Levik and prioritized Kriyak Palace over the Imperium’s borders.
• The bishop warned that abandoning the borders left the Imperium vulnerable to the God of Decay, but Great Xirithut said the missing fleet’s attacker posed the more urgent threat.
• General Lepix ordered Xirui-class battlecruisers and red forces to defend Kriyak Palace while slave fleets patrolled other regions.
• Lepix traced the lost Ninth Fleet’s distress signal to an outpost and strengthened surveillance along the suspected invaders’ route.
• Great Xirithut and the bishop conducted the Consecration Ceremony as fleets returned to Levik, but the invaders did not appear.
• After the ceremony ended and several more days passed without an attack, Lepix questioned whether the invaders would come at all.

The Eternity’s crew waited near Levik while the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium feared that Manga-Manga had destroyed its fleets and gathered its defenses. After ten days of fruitless searching, Great Xirithut ordered two fleets to advance toward the Ninth Fleet’s last known location.

• Shepard challenged Kaidan Alenko to spar, and he reluctantly entered the ring after she smashed a barbell rack with one punch.
• Huang Yehao and Cummings waited aboard the Eternity as He Ru explained that their plan was to wait half a month before an intensive assault.
• Great Xirithut and the Golden Bishop held an eighty-hour Consecration Ceremony, but no enemy appeared, and General Lepix reported that the Ninth Fleet had been annihilated.
• After ten days of waiting and reports of two more silent outposts, the Golden Bishop, the First Elder, and General Lepix warned that the fleets were losing morale.
• Great Xirithut ordered two fleets to advance toward the area where the Ninth Fleet had gone missing.

The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium struggled with fear and exhaustion as three fleets remained missing, until enemy hyperspace fluctuations appeared near Planet Five. The invaders began striking the planet with unexplained beams of light, leaving Great Xirithut and General Lepix without answers.

• Great Xirithut and the Empire's officials debated lifting the alert after prolonged tension and the disappearance of three fleets, then ordered soldiers to rest in shifts while keeping two-thirds on duty.
• A red-skinned Xilu officer reported massive hyperspace fluctuations at Planet Five, and General Lepix ordered the fleets to prepare for battle.
• General Lepix learned the enemy had entered the Siskat system thirty light-minutes away, and he ordered the fleets to assemble toward Planet Five and ready their defenses.
• Three beams of light struck the planet and destroyed Mount Silokas, according to a terrified report to General Lepix.
• Another report of an attack on the planet arrived ten minutes later.

The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium came under repeated light-speed bombardment from a single Duchy of Dawn warship, which demanded the end of Biological Battery Technology and the release of its human captives. General Lepix led the main fleet toward Planet Five to confront the attackers, while He Ru rejected Great Xirithut’s defense of the batteries.

• Levik was bombarded every ten minutes, and General Lepix learned that three laser beams were striking from 550 million kilometers away.
• After another attack destroyed a town and killed more than 20,000 residents, General Lepix ordered the fleets to assemble and attack once reconnaissance scans returned.
• The scan revealed that a single warship over 5,600 meters long was bombarding Levik with three main guns.
• Lieutenant General He Ru demanded that the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium end Biological Battery Technology, destroy its production facilities, release the captives, and submit to Judgment within two days.
• General Lepix led the main fleet toward Planet Five, leaving less than a quarter of the warships behind for defense.
• Great Xirithut argued that Xilu people would starve without the batteries, and He Ru called their deaths retribution for capturing and draining people from neighboring species.

Lieutenant General He Ru ordered the Endless to bombard Levik planet while the Normandy secretly relayed targeting intelligence to the Eternity. As General Lepix’s fleet closed in on the giant warship, it stopped firing and began activating a hyperspace jump.

• Great Xirithut threatened He Ru, who then ordered the attack on Levik planet to continue.
• The Endless bombarded Levik planet for a day before its Particle Beam Lances entered a cooling and maintenance cycle.
• The Normandy reported Levik’s surroundings to the Eternity, which used the intelligence to precisely destroy a spaceport.
• Great Xirithut sent Lepix to destroy the enemy ship, and Lepix led thirty Xirui-class battlecruisers and one hundred cruisers toward it.
• The Particle Beam Lances destroyed several Xirui-class battlecruisers as Lepix’s fleet advanced, then the enemy ship began activating a hyperspace jump.

The Eternity used its Forerunner engine to jump directly to the Levik planet, leaving General Lepix’s main fleet stranded far away. After crushing the planet’s orbital defenses, it launched an assault on Kriyak Palace, where Huang Yehao and the Fourth Legion began their orbital drop.

• General Lepix learned from Great Xirithut that the Eternity had jumped beside the Levik planet and was positioned over Kriyak Palace.
• The Eternity deployed cruisers and fighters, disrupted communications, and destroyed the planet’s space stations, satellites, and remaining defenses.
• The Eternity moved into geosynchronous orbit above Kriyak Palace and prepared its Orbital Drop pods as fighters attacked the palace from the air.
• Huang Yehao and three hundred Fourth Legion warriors launched toward the planet in assault pods, shouting that they were the Calamity as anti-air fire converged on them.

The Duchy of Dawn forces seized air superiority over Kriyak Palace, landed troops, and pushed through the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium’s defenses while its fleet engaged the Endless-class Super Carrier. General Lepix’s main fleet remained two and a half days away, and Great Xirithut sensed the approaching end.

• Wraith and Viking fighters, backed by the Endless-class Super Carrier, destroyed Levik’s air defenses and cleared the way for an assault on Kriyak Palace.
• Three hundred Fourth Legion warriors descended in orbital drop pods, with Huang Yehao wiping out an anti-aircraft missile position and the other soldiers securing landing zones.
• Pelican transports brought in more troops and Scorpion tanks, while Hercules Dropships deployed six mass-production Thor Mechs to support the advance.
• Xilu Red Caste warriors counterattacked but were driven back by the Duchy of Dawn Army’s heavy fire, orbital bombardments, and fighter strikes.
• The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium fleet returned and engaged the Endless-class Super Carrier and its escorts; the carrier’s Particle Beam Lances destroyed four Xirui-class battlecruisers before the fleets exchanged fire.
• General Lepix’s main fleet remained 550 million kilometers away after failed hyperspace attempts, while Great Xirithut grew increasingly volatile as he foresaw disaster.

The Duchy of Dawn forces battered the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium’s defenses on Levik, trapping Great Xirithut in Kriyak Palace as Imperial Guard fought the landing troops. Shepard and her elite squad infiltrated the palace to find the emperor, while the Spectres vanished to scout ahead.

• Great Xirithut learned that Uroka’s Seventh Battle Group had been bombed and rejected advice to abandon Kriyak Palace, instead demanding reinforcements from the green-skin troops.
• The Endless-class Super Carrier and its fighters devastated the Ssi-ruuvi forces around Kriyak Palace, leaving the roads blocked by wreckage and bodies.
• The Xilu Imperial Guard regrouped inside the palace and fought the Duchy of Dawn Navy Marines, slowing their advance despite the Marines’ Thor Mechs and Scorpion tanks.
• The Normandy landed Shepard, Senluo, Reaper, Ashley Williams, Kaidan Alenko, and their squads near Kriyak Palace to locate the Ssi-ruuvi Emperor.
• Senluo, Reaper, and the other Spectres disappeared, while Shepard and the remaining squad advanced toward the palace’s busiest communications area.

Shepard Squad and the Ghost Agents broke through the Xilu Imperial Guard and reached Kriyak Palace as Great Xirithut ordered the destruction of records about the God of Decay and the deaths of everyone at Research Institute 101. After the palace fell, Huang Yehao and Shepard found the Emperor and more than two hundred officials dead, along with the planetary computer and its databases destroyed, marking the end of the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium.

• Shepard led her squad through the Xilu Imperial Guard, using her Force sense and precise tactics to advance toward Kriyak Palace.
• Ghost Agents disabled a tank formation with Force shockwaves and explosives.
• The Golden Bishop urged Great Xirithut to flee, but Great Xirithut refused and ordered border closures, the deletion of God of Decay records, and Research Institute 101 sealed with its occupants inside.
• Huang Yehao and Shepard joined the final assault, and the Eternity extinguished fires at the Central Palace with suppression shells.
• Shepard's forces entered the Central Palace and found Great Xirithut and more than two hundred officials dead, with the planetary computer and databases destroyed.
• The Eternity announced across Levik planet that Kriyak Palace had fallen and the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium had ended.

After the Duchy of Dawn seized Kriyak Palace and Great Xirithut died, Lieutenant General He Ru tried to stabilize Levik planet, free the Pia'ek, and prepare an experimental hyperspace stargate. General Lepix formed a Ssi-ruuvi government in exile, while Pia'ek uprisings spread and the Vasari engineers began adapting Kriyak Palace’s factories.

• Lieutenant General He Ru proclaimed the abolition of the caste system, granted the Pia'ek equal civil rights, and distributed captured weapons to them.
• General Lepix regrouped his fleet at Kruda planet, declared himself Acting Emperor, and established the Ssi-ruuvi Restoration Army as a government in exile.
• Lieutenant General He Ru and Vasari engineer Grandison began preparing to convert Kriyak Palace’s production lines to build an experimental hyperspace stargate.
• As Xilu rebellions and riots spread across Levik planet, Lieutenant General He Ru used Eternity’s firepower and support for Pia'ek resistance to counter them.
• Pia'ek at Keda Port killed their Xilu overseers and founded the first Pia'ek Independence Army; within days, seven cities had been occupied and more than five million Pia'ek had joined the revolt.
• Vasari engineers started repairing Kriyak Palace factories, but estimated that stargate construction would take over a year, so the fleet needed Pia'ek assistance.

Tang Xiao reviewed the Vasari’s Stargate plans and Adele Ulan’s report on Rendili Planet’s relocation, learning that the project could link Rendili directly to Dawn Star Planet while easing pressure on the Duchy of Dawn’s strained economy. The chapter left the Duchy facing a vulnerable period of reduced industrial and military production as it prepared for possible war with the Galactic Empire.

• High Priest Shadi Li told Tang Xiao that the Eternity Exploration Fleet had activated the prototype Stargate core, and Tang Xiao ordered the Vasari to secure the connection while keeping Stargate construction secret from the Galactic Empire.
• Tang Xiao attended Adele Ulan’s report on the relocation effort, where she described rising pressure on receiving planets, unrest among immigrants, and Rendili Planet’s continuing loss of population and industry.
• High Priest Shadi Li presented a plan to build a Stargate between Rendili Planet and Dawn Star Planet while developing Rendili’s Star Ring and slowing relocation; Adele Ulan agreed to cooperate and redirect Rendili StarDrive’s production.
• Adele Ulan reported that the Duchy’s industrial capacity had fallen to about 80 percent of its postwar level and military production to 40 percent, leaving it vulnerable until growth resumed in three to five years.