Recaps

Admiral Gillard Perine launched an attack on Ansion Planet, aiming to capture the Malarian Alliance’s strategic center before Admiral Mar Tuuk could reinforce it. After a day of brutal fighting, the Imperial fleet had nearly overwhelmed Ansion’s defenders when sensors detected massive hyperspace-jump fluctuations.

• Gillard Perine judged that Mar Tuuk would need at least seven days to reach Ansion, so he placed defenses along the route and planned to seize the planet first.
• On September 23, Perine divided his fleet into eight formations and sent them toward Ansion Planet; the first formation arrived the next day and found the planet shielded and defended by Alliance and Geth warships.
• The Imperial fleet attacked, while the Alliance defenders fought fiercely and the Geth fleet tried to outflank the Imperial Star Destroyers and strike their vulnerable rear sections.
• After four hours of battle, Perine believed his fleet would win and demanded Ansion surrender, but the planet refused.
• After another day of fighting left Ansion’s defense fleet near collapse, a radar officer reported massive hyperspace-jump fluctuations to Perine.

Admiral Gillard Perine discovered that Mal Tuuk’s Commerce Guild Fleet had arrived behind Ansion Planet and launched an immediate attack on the Imperial fleet. Mal Tuuk ordered his forces to strike before the Imperials could regroup and told the Geth to flank them from behind.

• Gillard Perine detected massive hyperspace fluctuations behind Ansion Planet and ordered his fleets to halt and turn toward the new threat.
• Mal Tuuk’s Commerce Guild Fleet emerged behind Ansion Planet, with the Endless-class Super Carrier Neimoidia leading its arriving forces.
• Gillard Perine identified Mal Tuuk’s fleet and was stunned that it had arrived from a direction he believed was a dead end.
• Mal Tuuk ordered the Commerce Guild Fleet to attack immediately and directed the Geth to flank the Imperial-class Star Destroyers from behind.

The Commerce Guild Fleet attacked the Imperial fleet under Mal-Tuk’s command, and Gillard Perine discovered that its cruisers gave it far more firepower than its capital-ship count suggested. The battle continued as the Imperial commander faced a fleet full of unfamiliar warship designs.

• Mal-Tuk ordered the Commerce Guild Fleet to attack before its reinforcements arrived, while Geth and Malarian Alliance forces maneuvered around the Imperial flanks.
• Gillard Perine ordered a probing engagement and sent the Light Cruiser Squadron back to counter the Geth ships, avoiding the inflexible Peren Ring formation.
• Scans revealed the Commerce Guild Fleet had 200 Minotaur-class Heavy Cruisers, more than 1,000 Light Cruisers, and several other powerful cruiser designs.
• The Minotaur-class ships fired Yamato Cannons, battering the Imperial-class Star Destroyers’ Deflector Shields as the Commerce Guild Fleet attacked from four directions.
• Gillard Perine recognized the fleet’s unfamiliar scaled-down battlecruisers and exclaimed in alarm at the Separatists’ designs.

Admiral Gillard Perine recognized that Mal Tuk's upgraded Commerce Guild Fleet could match his Imperial force, and he ordered his ships toward open space while considering retreat. Mal Tuk halted his pursuit because his fleet could not risk heavy losses and its reinforcements were delayed, leaving Gillard to wonder whether the fleet was waiting for them.

• Gillard Perine saw that the scaled-down Kohl-class battlecruisers carried powerful new weapons and realized the Kingdom of Dawn was upgrading its warships.
• Gillard ordered his fleet to leave Ansion Planet's gravity well, accepting that he could not achieve his strategic objective.
• Mal Tuk considered pursuing the Imperial fleet but stopped when his tactical robot warned that his cruiser-heavy force could suffer substantial losses.
• Mal Tuk asked a Chiss Skywalker about reinforcements, and she reported that the Entanglement remained too chaotic for passage.
• Mal Tuk recalled his ships to Ansion Planet's gravity well and wondered how Gillard Perine would react to his deliberate show of weakness.
• Gillard learned that the Separatist fleet was not at Old Mantell and suspected Mal Tuk was waiting for reinforcements.

Admiral Gillard Perine withdrew to Glee Anselm Planet to refit after fighting the Separatists, then faced Mar Tuuk’s full fleet when it arrived. The two forces began a massive battle around the planet’s spaceport.

• Gillard Perine ordered the Imperial fleet to withdraw from Ansion Planet to Glee Anselm Planet and prepare for battle.
• The Imperial fleet seized Glee Anselm Planet’s spaceport, and Governor Darsana supplied the fleet with fuel, food, medicine, parts, and other resources.
• Mar Tuuk’s main fleet arrived with the Malarian Alliance defense fleet, bringing its capital ships to 250 and joining thousands of other warships.
• Mar Tuuk attacked in a Claw Formation while Gillard Perine formed a defense around the spaceport.
• The fleets clashed in a battle involving nearly ten thousand warships, engulfing Glee Anselm Planet’s surrounding space in explosions and wreckage.

Admiral Mar-Tuk sent the Commerce Guild Fleet’s massed forces against the Imperial fleet, while the Kingdom of Dawn’s unconventional ship composition shaped the assault. As Gillard Perine struggled to contain the charging cruisers, Gler-Anselm activated its defenses and explosions erupted inside Imperial Star Destroyers, leaving the battle suddenly transformed.

• Admiral Mar-Tuk deployed the Commerce Guild Fleet in a four-pronged Claw Formation, using Undertaker-class Light Cruisers as the vanguard and other ships for missile and support fire.
• Ling Liang had previously rebuked Nute Gunray and San Hill for building excessive numbers of Undertaker-class and Osprey-class ships, then sent experts to oversee the development of newer destroyers and modifications.
• The Undertaker-class cruisers charged through heavy Imperial fire, while Gillard Perine ordered his Light Cruisers forward to block them and protect the Imperial formation.
• Gler-Anselm activated its Planetary Shield, and its orbital and spaceport defenses opened fire on the Imperial warships.
• Transport ships that had delivered supplies from Gler-Anselm self-destructed inside the hangar platforms of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, causing violent explosions.

Glee Anselm’s governor, Darsana, revealed that her surrender had been a trap, briefly disrupting the Imperial fleet before Gillard Perine restored order. The Imperial fleet resumed fighting the Separatists, but more than fifteen hundred Undertaker-class Light Cruisers had reached its formation, leaving the battle in a dire state.

• Darsana’s sabotage damaged two Imperial warships and threw the fleet into confusion, giving Admiral Mar Tuuk an opening to order his forces to charge.
• Gillard Perine confronted Darsana, who said she had risked everything to resist the Galactic Empire’s discrimination and exploitation of the Nautolans.
• After Darsana was knocked unconscious, Gillard Perine ordered her imprisoned for trial and directed the fleet to ignore Glee Anselm and focus on the Separatists.
• Gillard Perine’s ships destroyed more than four hundred Undertaker-class Light Cruisers, but over fifteen hundred reached the Imperial formation and their reinforced armor let them press the attack.

Admiral Mar Tuuk’s Reaper-class Light Cruisers disrupted the Imperial fleet with close-range fire and remote repairs, allowing the Commerce Guild Fleet to press its attack. Gillard Perine ordered a retreat, but the Geth fleet appeared behind the Imperials.

• Reaper-class Light Cruisers charged into the Imperial formation, using Nanobots to repair damaged ships and Ion Rapid-Fire Cannons to attack at close range.
• A group of ten Reaper-class ships breached a Victory II-class Star Destroyer’s shields, forcing its captain to withdraw.
• Admiral Mar Tuuk ordered the Reaper-class formations to keep charging and firing despite losses.
• Gillard Perine judged that continuing the battle would cause severe Imperial losses and ordered his ships to disengage and retreat.
• A radar operator reported that the Geth fleet had appeared behind the Imperial fleet.

The Geth fleet warped behind the Imperial fleet, turning the battle into a pincer attack and forcing Gillard Perine to order a retreat. Luminara Unduli and two Jedi prepared to strike the Empire alongside the Kingdom of Dawn and the Commerce Guild Fleet.

• Gillard Perine learned that more than 2,000 Geth warships had appeared behind the Imperial fleet and ordered his ships to turn and attack them.
• The Geth revealed that Luminara Unduli had guided their precise warp voyage aboard a specially prepared Dreadnought.
• Luminara Unduli accepted her fighter and ordered the Geth to follow the plan to destroy the Galactic Empire's fleet.
• Mal Tuck declared the Imperial fleet trapped and summoned two Jedi Knights to join the attack.
• The two Jedi told Mal Tuck they had already watched the battle, and he demanded that they prove their sincerity by acting.

Ferus-Olin and Jax Pavan launched with Viking fighters as the Commerce Guild Fleet began its final assault on the Galactic Empire’s fleet. The battle intensified on the front and rear as both sides fought to the death.

• Ferus-Olin and Jax Pavan confronted Mal-Tuk before leaving to prepare their fighters.
• The chapter recounted Ferus-Olin’s history of seeking revenge and Jax Pavan’s role in uncovering proof that Palpatine was Darth Sidious.
• Ferus-Olin and Jax Pavan launched their Eta-2 fighters from the Neimoidia alongside two squadrons of Viking fighters.
• Mal-Tuk provided the Jedi with support as Commerce Guild warships and Geth fighters joined the attack.
• Commerce Guild ships unleashed a layered assault on the Imperial fleet while Geth forces struck from behind.

Admiral Gillard Perine forced the Second Sub-fleet into a suicidal charge to slow the Kingdom of Dawn fleet and buy the Imperial fleet a chance to escape. Ferrus Olin and Jax Pavan led Viking fighters through the battle, destroying an Imperial-class Star Destroyer’s bridge as the Jedi Knights continued their attack.

• Gillard Perine ordered the Imperial fleet to hold formation and resist while he sought a way to cover its retreat.
• Gillard Perine ordered the Second Sub-fleet to charge the enemy, threatening its commander with execution and having Clone Troopers hold him at gunpoint.
• The commander of the Second Sub-fleet ordered more than seventy capital ships to charge the Kingdom of Dawn fleet to the death, drawing its fire away from other Imperial ships.
• Ferrus Olin and Jax Pavan led Viking fighter squadrons through enemy fire, using Force precognition to attack an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
• Ferrus Olin and the Viking pilots destroyed the Star Destroyer’s bridge with Proton Torpedoes after Yamato Cannons broke its shields, then continued toward new targets.

Jedi-led fighter squadrons pierced the Imperial fleet’s defenses and targeted Gillard Perine’s flagship, threatening to decapitate the fleet. Jerec arrived with reinforcements, ordered his ships into a suicidal charge, and sent black TIE fighters to intercept the Jedi.

• Luminara Unduli located the Imperial flagship, and Jax Pavan and Ferus Olin urged the attack.
• Gillard Perine ordered the Fourth Sub-fleet to assault the Geth fleet while his warships concentrated fire on the Undertaker-class Light Cruisers.
• Three Jedi-led fighter formations broke through the Imperial fleet’s defenses and headed for Gillard Perine’s flagship.
• Gillard Perine ordered the fleet to retreat when possible, but over one hundred and eighty Imperial Light Cruisers and frigates arrived as reinforcements.
• Jerec identified himself as High Inquisitor, told Gillard Perine he would face Judgment, and ordered black TIE fighters to attack the Jedi while the other ships charged the Kingdom of Dawn fleet.

Gillard Perine escaped the combined Kingdom of Dawn and Geth fleets and regrouped the Imperial remnants at Bilbrin Planet, but the Inquisitorius arrested him and removed him from command. After the Malarian Alliance Battle inflicted severe losses on both sides, Mal-Tuk berated his commanders for letting the Imperial fleet escape, while Jax Pavan and Ferrus Olin left the meeting.

• Gillard Perine led more than 200 capital ships and over 800 smaller warships to Bilbrin Planet, where he began organizing the system's defenses.
• High Inquisitor Jerec had Gillard Perine taken to the Imperial Center for interrogation and stripped of his military posts, while the Inquisitorius arrested more than seventy officials, including Darsana.
• The Malarian Alliance Battle left the Galactic Empire with over 270 Imperial-class Star Destroyers, more than 210 other Star Destroyers, and over four million naval personnel lost.
• The Kingdom of Dawn also suffered heavy losses, including more than 30 capital ships and over 1,500 medium and small warships.
• Mal-Tuk angrily blamed his squadron commanders for letting the Imperial fleet escape, and Jax Pavan left the meeting with Ferrus Olin while Luminara Unduli stayed behind.

Luminara Unduli agreed to support the Commerce Guild’s assault on Bilbrin Planet as Admiral Mal-Tuk prepared to attack. In Chiss territory, defeated Admiral Ziyala was demoted but retained her administrative post, then joined Shien Morabito to discuss Thrawn and meet someone at a temple.

• Luminara Unduli warned Admiral Mal-Tuk that his fleet could not destroy the entire Imperial force and said an assault on Bilbrin Planet required more capital ships; she agreed the Jedi would help.
• Admiral Mal-Tuk announced he would send undamaged warships on a probing attack, and on September 28 the Commerce Guild Fleet began invading Bilbrin Planet by way of Dorin Planet.
• Admiral Ziyala returned to Csilla and told Shien Morabito that Thrawn had defeated her fleet through decoy signals, EMP shockwaves, and a surprise attack that sank her flagship.
• Admiral Ziyala requested punishment and was stripped of her admiral rank, demoted to major general and Deputy Chief of Staff, but kept her position as chief representative.
• Shien Morabito asked Major General Ziyala to advise him on dealing with Thrawn, then led her toward a temple to meet someone she had known for a long time.

Admiral Qiyala visited the Holy Advent Cult with Governor Shien-Morabito and witnessed its influence over Chiss territory, including its conversion of Minister Formbi and its new Skywalker navigation method. The visit ended with Anita revealing two enormous spacecraft, leaving Qiyala to confront the cult’s growing power.

• Qiyala arrived at the Holy Advent Cult temple with Shien-Morabito and feared that the cult would spread its control across Chiss territory.
• Anita offered to resolve Qiyala’s resentment, then summoned Formbi, who confessed to passing information to the Galactic Empire and begged to return to The Unity.
• Shien ordered Formbi to bring him Thrawn’s head as a trial, while Anita told Formbi to cleanse himself and await judgment.
• Anita led Shien and Qiyala to a shrine-shaped spacecraft, where three young Chiss Skywalkers demonstrated a navigation method that shared the harm among them.
• Qiyala realized the cult’s method could attract Skywalkers to The Unity, and Anita pointed out two enormous spacecraft docked outside.

Anita showed Admiral Qiyala and Shien Morabito two Aeria Drone Hosts, explaining how their Unmanned Bombers were controlled by priest groups through psionic links. She handed both ships over to Qiyala, who remained skeptical of their ability to defeat Thrawn's fleet.

• Qiyala recognized the ships as possible aircraft carriers, and Anita identified them as Aeria Drone Hosts built after Tang Xiao's divine revelation.
• Shien Morabito explained that Red Comet III was away from Chiss territory, and Anita said each drone carrier held 120 Unmanned Bombers.
• Anita led Qiyala and Shien Morabito through a chapel-like upper deck to the bombers and described the priest groups that remotely controlled them through psionic perception.
• Anita claimed the gathered psionic power could destroy a warship, prompting Qiyala to call the followers lunatics.
• Anita gave the two Aeria Drone Hosts to Qiyala, saying they could help her defeat Thrawn's fleet.

Thrawn explained to Colonel Taremi that the Fourth Civilization’s history revealed a deep fear of extinction and a desire for living space, which had led it to regard the Galactic Empire as an existential enemy. The chapter ended with Thrawn insisting that the civilization had believed it could defeat the Galactic Republic from the very beginning.

• Colonel Taremi urged Thrawn to leave the Kam-Co system before Chiss forces arrived, but Thrawn questioned him about the Fourth Civilization’s history.
• Thrawn argued that the history presented by the Fourth Civilization served a purpose, much like the legends of Coruscant’s thirteen tribes.
• Thrawn identified fear of extinction and hunger for living space as the forces behind the Fourth Civilization’s expansion.
• Thrawn told Taremi that the Fourth Civilization had always viewed the Republic, and now the Empire, as its ultimate enemy.
• Taremi questioned how a small colony could have planned to defeat the Republic, and Thrawn replied that it had believed it could.

Thrawn explained to Taremi that the Fourth Civilization possessed a vast technological inheritance and belonged among the legendary powers of the Chaos, while questioning whether the Empire could truly control Chiss territory. Their discussion was interrupted when Formbi called to report Ziyala’s demotion, and Thrawn angrily defended her service and honor.

• Thrawn told Taremi that the Fourth Civilization had survived galaxy-scale disasters and retained technology that surpassed the Galactic Republic and Galactic Empire.
• Thrawn described the Chaos as a prison for gods filled with legendary races, and said Dawn Star Planet might rank among them or higher.
• Taremi warned that the fleet was in danger, but Thrawn chose to repair and refit it in place while confirming his plans for a longer fight.
• Taremi predicted that incoming Imperial reinforcements would help overthrow the Chiss government, but Thrawn said the Stargate made lasting control of Chiss territory impossible and that the Kingdom of Dawn could remove its old ruling families.
• Formbi contacted Taremi to boast that Ziyala had been demoted, and Thrawn rebuked him for insulting the general and praised her decades of service.

Thrawn recognized that Formbi was feeding him a trap and ordered his fleet to withdraw from Chiss territory. After a tense, winding retreat, a Dark Jedi Knight gave the wrong hyperspace coordinates and brought the fleet into an enemy ambush near Celwis.

• Formbi reported that the Kingdom of Dawn fleet was reinforcing Chiss territory and offered routes to transport fleets, but Thrawn deduced that the intelligence network had been uprooted.
• Thrawn ordered an immediate withdrawal into the Empire, and Taremi began preparing the warships to depart.
• Thrawn personally planned a cautious route through hyperspace, leading to a fierce argument with the Dark Jedi Knight over another detour.
• The Dark Jedi Knight entered coordinates against Thrawn's orders, and Thrawn warned that the fleet had been led into an encirclement.
• The fleet emerged near Celwis, where more than a dozen warships waited in battle formation.

Egri’s unauthorized navigation brought Thrawn’s Imperial fleet into an ambush by a Chiss territory fleet, though Thrawn ordered a breakout rather than a direct engagement. The battle began as Lin Nanyi prepared to let the Holy Advent Cult’s forces attack the Imperials.

• Egri realized the Chiss fleet had caught them near Celwis and feared the consequences of his disobedience.
• Egri urged Thrawn to concentrate fire and destroy the outnumbered enemy force, but Thrawn identified it as the main fleet he had been avoiding and ordered a rapid breakout.
• Thrawn judged that the two unfamiliar ships were central to the enemy formation and ordered the Imperials to open fire.
• The Chiss fleet returned fire as bombers poured from the two strange vessels.
• Lin Nanyi dismissed Thrawn’s reputation and told his staff to let the Holy Advent Cult’s priestesses sortie against the Imperial fleet’s weak anti-aircraft defenses.

The Aeria Drone Hosts launched 240 Holy Spirit Bombers, whose extreme acceleration and firepower overwhelmed the battered Imperial fleet. Egri sent two Dark Jedi Knights to intercept them while the bombers tore through Imperial ships.

• The two Aeria Drone Hosts launched 240 bombers as Lin Nanyi's fleet stayed back and fired from long range.
• The Chimaera Star Destroyer's crew reported the bombers accelerating beyond 1000G, leaving Imperial fire-control systems unable to track them reliably.
• Thrawn sent the Imperial fleet's remaining forty TIE fighters to intercept, but the bombers evaded them and split into twenty squadrons.
• Egri ordered two reserve Dark Jedi Knights to engage the bombers while he completed navigation sensing.
• The Holy Advent Bombers attacked the Imperial fleet, overwhelming its defenses and blasting apart the bridge of a shieldless Victory-class Star Destroyer.
• Egri concluded that the bombers carried the power of the Force and that more than two hundred Jedi Knights were piloting them.

Thrawn escaped Lin Nanyi’s interception in the Unknown Regions after losing much of his fleet, then returned to the Northern Territory and took command of the Imperial defense line. At Bilbrin Planet, Kendal Ozzel’s defenses faced a sudden large-scale assault by the Commerce Guild Fleet.

• Thrawn ordered the Imperial fleet to withdraw from Lin Nanyi’s forces, and most of his ships escaped through hyperspace while three Imperial-class Star Destroyers were left behind.
• Lin Nanyi’s fleet destroyed more than half of the Imperial force, including five Imperial-class Star Destroyers, and turned its attention to unrest within Chiss territory.
• Dunn Vesex appointed Kendal Ozzel to organize Bilbrin Planet’s defenses while Gillard Perine remained in Inquisitorius custody.
• Ozzel divided his forces into ten rapid-response formations and later destroyed Commerce Guild light cruisers harassing the defensive line.
• Thrawn returned to the Northern Territory, and Dunn Vesex placed him in full command of the Northern Defense Line.
• The Commerce Guild Fleet assembled its forces and launched a surprise attack on Bilbrin Planet, where Ozzel met them in battle.

Darth Vader launched a massive Imperial offensive against Yag'Dhul, forcing the Kingdom of Dawn to abandon its advance toward Saleucami and race to reinforce the system. General Ling Liang's First Task Force struggled to hold off the Imperial fleet as the Third Battle of Yag'Dhul began.

• General Sefrans Tann captured Klatooine, defeated an Imperial Defense Fleet at Boonta, and advanced toward Saleucami before Darth Vader's attack forced her to withdraw.
• Darth Vader led Death Squadron from Fondor and attacked Yag'Dhul on October 6, while General Ling Liang's First Task Force prepared to defend the planet.
• The Imperial fleet emerged above Yag'Dhul, and its first wave committed more than three hundred Imperial-class Star Destroyers to the assault.
• Darth Vader brought the Executor to the front of the attack and concentrated its heavy turbolaser fire on the Xuanwu Titan warship.
• General Ling Liang sent ten Doomsday Battlefield-class battlecruisers to weaken Executor, but after three hours Xuanwu's shields had collapsed and it endured the barrage with its Fleet Shield and armor.

Darth Vader’s Death Squadron overwhelmed the Kingdom of Dawn fleet at Yag'Dhul Planet, forcing General Ling Liang to withdraw the damaged Xuanwu Titan warship. Admiral Sefrans Tann faced a choice between pressing the attack on Fondor Planet and returning to reinforce Yag'Dhul.

• The Executor-class Super Star Destroyer battered the Xuanwu Titan warship, while General Ling Liang and five Durov-class Battlecruisers helped sustain its Fleet Shield and repairs.
• The Kingdom of Dawn fleet held off the Imperial advance, but by October 7 the battle involved 550 Imperial-class Star Destroyers and had inflicted severe losses on both sides.
• Darth Vader committed his Imperial-class Star Destroyers as a vanguard, using his 2,100-ship Death Squadron to strike with overwhelming force.
• General Ling Liang ordered the heavily damaged Xuanwu Titan warship to withdraw as the damaged Executor-class Super Star Destroyer also retreated, leaving the other Kingdom of Dawn ships under increased pressure.
• Dawn Star Planet rushed warships to reinforce the battle, while Admiral Sefrans Tann weighed attacking Fondor Planet against returning to save Yag'Dhul Planet.

Sefrans Tann chose to leave Ling Liang to defend Yag'Dhul alone while she attacked Fondor, but Darth Vader's bombardment failed to damage the planet's deep, fortified defenses. Vader ordered a costly ground invasion as his fleet maintained the blockade.

• Sefrans Tann refused to send Ling Liang reinforcements and led the Second Task Force toward Fondor Planet.
• Ling Liang's First Task Force held near Yag'Dhul's Titan shipyard, harassing the Imperial fleet while repairing its damaged warships.
• Sefrans Tann captured Bestine Planet and brought her fleet into the Fondor System.
• Darth Vader's fleet bombarded Yag'Dhul for two days, but the planet's underground defenses continued firing and its surface fortifications remained intact.
• Darth Vader ordered his fleet to blockade Yag'Dhul and begin landing operations to conquer it.