Chapter Summaries

The Imperial army at Black Mountain Base struggled to counter the Kingdom of Dawn’s Golden Mechanical Maggot, whose guided pale-blue projectiles destroyed fortifications and armored forces despite concentrated interception fire. General Maximilian Vels ordered a full-scale offensive, but as the battle escalated, the Maggot turned its weapon toward the AT-AT walkers.

• The Golden Mechanical Maggot fired pale-blue projectiles that bypassed Black Mountain Base’s Deflector Shields and annihilated Imperial positions.
• General Maximilian Vels identified the projectiles as Kamikaze Drones and ordered artillery and assault battalions to destroy the machine.
• The Imperial assault stalled under the Kingdom of Dawn’s artillery and air defenses, while the Maggot destroyed twelve 2-M Hover Assault Tanks on one flank.
• Imperial artillery weakened another projectile but failed to stop it from destroying nine more 2-M Hover Assault Tanks.
• After learning a second Golden Maggot had appeared, Vels mobilized Black Mountain Base’s hundred thousand troops for a full-scale offensive.
• As AT-AT walkers bombarded the Kingdom of Dawn’s positions, the Golden Maggot turned its weapon toward them, leaving Vels horrified.

General Maximilian Vels led the Galactic Empire’s assault against the Kingdom of Dawn, but the Marauders’ devastating attacks and rapid extraction frustrated his advance. Imperial forces eventually took the southern highlands at dawn, though Self-Destructing Spiders and newly deployed bunkers had badly disrupted their offensive.

• A Marauder’s Kamikaze Drone crippled an AT-AT, and General Vels ordered the Imperial forces to spread out and attack.
• The Galactic Empire and Kingdom of Dawn escalated the battle as Imperial troops stretched the defenders’ lines and began breaking through.
• A transport aircraft retrieved a Marauder in under five minutes, enraging Vels and prompting him to intensify the assault.
• Imperial 1-H Heavy Hover Tanks advanced onto the southern highlands, but Self-Destructing Spiders disabled several vehicles and threw the vanguard into disarray.
• Kingdom of Dawn bunkers descended and attacked, slowing the Imperial advance until the Galactic Empire reoccupied the southern highlands at dawn.

The Galactic Empire struggled to contain the Kingdom of Dawn’s attacks in the southern highlands as General Maximilian Veers ordered a desperate pursuit of its flying structures and Golden Beetles. Meanwhile, Bentilas San Skar led more than forty thousand Caladanians in a surprise assault on an Imperial landing ground, where they seized equipment and slaughtered its unprepared defenders.

• Imperial forces struggled to advance through the southern highlands, while flying Kingdom of Dawn structures began retreating toward friendly positions.
• General Maximilian Veers ordered his troops to destroy the flying structures and then to charge the Golden Beetles, despite the dangers posed by Self-Destructing Spiders and enemy fire.
• Bentilas San Skar led four Caladanian divisions through the wilderness and into position around the Imperial landing ground before dawn.
• San Skar gave the signal, and Caladanian teams silenced the watchtowers, destroyed the base’s defenses, and launched attacks across the landing ground.
• Caladanians seized dozens of armored vehicles, destroyed Imperial command and supply facilities, and overwhelmed the unprepared troops and security robots.

The Kingdom of Dawn and Caladanian forces destroyed the Galactic Empire’s landing field base on Dantooine, while local laborers joined the assault and Imperial General Maximilian Vels abandoned the southern highlands to respond. The Empire halted its counteroffensive and crowded reinforcements into orbit, where Kingdom of Dawn fighters attacked the space station as the Kingdom’s transports arrived.

• More than forty thousand Caladanian warriors and rebelling laborers overwhelmed the Imperial landing field base, capturing and turning its armored vehicles against Imperial troops as a transport pilot crashed into a fuel depot.
• Ten Saber-class fighters intercepted Imperial air reinforcements, forcing General Maximilian Vels to return to the base and leaving the southern highlands open for the Kingdom of Dawn to retake.
• After a day of slaughter, the Caladanians withdrew with their fallen, and Vels returned to find the base in ruins and fewer than a quarter of its roughly five hundred thousand soldiers escaped.
• The Galactic Empire suspected the Kingdom of Dawn had used a large stealth force, abandoned plans for an immediate counteroffensive, and kept arriving reinforcements aboard crowded orbital transport ships.
• Kingdom of Dawn fighter squadrons, including the Saber-class fighters, attacked the congested space station and hunted Imperial transports while Kingdom of Dawn transports began arriving in an unending stream.

The Kingdom of Dawn exploited the Empire’s strained defenses on Dantooine while General Dai Hongkui prepared a counteroffensive. On September 20, the Empire’s divided commanders argued over strategy before General Maximilian Vels’s shuttle was shot down, leaving the battle’s command situation in crisis.

• The Kingdom of Dawn reinforced its ground forces and sent a second industrial mothership to an asteroid belt, while General Dai Hongkui continued his plans without its support.
• General Maximilian Vels and Lieutenant General Zell Johnson argued in Garang over supplies, defenses, and who should lead a counteroffensive.
• A report of Separatist troop movements near Khoonda City prompted Vels to rush back to the front, while Johnson prepared to return as well.
• An engineer secretly signaled two Sabre-class fighters, which attacked Vels’s shuttle after it left Garang’s air-defense circle.
• The Dantooine command center received confirmation that Vels’s shuttle had crashed 300 kilometers south of Garang.

Zell Johnson took command of Dantooine’s ground forces and ordered reinforcements to defend Khoonda City and Black Mountain Base as the Kingdom of Dawn launched a prepared assault. Orbital-drop troops and attacking forces overwhelmed Black Mountain Base’s defenses, while a Kingdom of Dawn armored formation confronted Imperial tanks on the flank.

• Zell Johnson assumed command after General Maximilian Vels was attacked, appointed the Chief Operations Advisor as his Operations Adjutant, and ordered reserves to Khoonda City and Black Mountain Base.
• As General Dai Hongkui’s offensive began, Grey Horse-class escort carriers dropped six hundred Indjori Vengeance T-104s onto Black Mountain Base.
• Thousands of A-130 Predator Mechanical Wolves and battle droids attacked the base, while Indjori forces caused chaos inside its defenses.
• The Kingdom of Dawn’s artillery, including Thor Mechs, bombarded Imperial gun positions as its soldiers and Vulture Company units pressed the assault.
• Imperial armored forces advancing toward the flank encountered an opposing formation of super-heavy tanks.

Second Lieutenant Bynum’s 1-H super-heavy tank was destroyed by the Kingdom of Dawn’s M-850 Grizzly heavy tanks as the Galactic Empire’s armored forces were defeated. General Dai Hongkui reviewed the battle and the new weapons that helped his army break through the Imperial defenses.

• Second Lieutenant Bynum’s 1-H tank took turbolaser fire, forcing him and its crew to abandon it as armored forces clashed.
• Bynum watched a Grizzly tank withstand a 1-H heavy laser cannon and destroy Imperial vehicles, then received a booklet titled Quotations of Tang Xiao from a crewman.
• Bynum walked past wrecked Imperial tanks and burning AT-AT walkers, realizing the Imperial Army had been defeated.
• General Dai Hongkui reviewed the battle and noted that mechanical wolves and battle droids suffered heavy losses while powered armor, Thor Mechs, and Crucio II Siege Tanks supported the assault.
• Dai Hongkui praised the M-850 Grizzly, whose Neutron Steel armor, Voltage-Based Thermal Coating, and powerful turbolaser cannons had countered the Imperial 1-H tanks.

The Kingdom of Dawn captured Black Mountain Base after its Grizzly Tanks overwhelmed the Galactic Empire’s defenses, leaving the Imperial force on Dantooine in collapse. Dunn Vesex’s attempt to reinforce Dantooine and use the conflict to advance his position was upended when the Empire’s outer-space base there was devastated, cutting off ground reinforcements.

• The Kingdom of Dawn’s Grizzly Tanks broke through the Imperial flank and entered Black Mountain Base as infantry, the Fourth Legion, and Vulture Company completed the assault.
• Kingdom of Dawn troops captured Black Mountain Base, killed resisting Imperial soldiers, and seized its supplies.
• Zear Johnson requested reinforcements after the base’s fall threatened Khoonda City and its industrial zone.
• Dunn Vesex ordered another five hundred thousand troops, including two hundred thousand K-X series security robots, sent to Dantooine, then traveled to the Imperial Center.
• Thrawn defeated Demetrius Zaarin’s rebel fleet, destroyed his unfinished production lines, and recovered engineers from the TIE Defender project.
• On October 19, Dunn Vesex learned that the Dantooine outer-space base and escort fleet had been devastated, cutting off reinforcements for the ground war.

The Galactic Empire and the Kingdom of Dawn remained locked in a stalemate on Dantooine until two Kingdom of Dawn King of Kings-class Battlecruisers arrived and attacked the Imperial orbital space station and escort fleet. The battle left the Imperial transports and warships in chaos as the battlecruisers tore through their defenses.

• Lieutenant General Zel-Johnson sought stronger fighters and reinforcements but could not launch a counterattack against the Kingdom of Dawn on Dantooine.
• On October 18, the Galactic Empire's orbital space station detected two capital ships approaching and scrambled fighters, evacuated transports, and deployed its escort fleet.
• The station's commander identified the incoming vessels as two Separatist King of Kings-class Battlecruisers, which charged through the Imperial formation despite concentrated fire.
• The King of Kings-class Battlecruisers unleashed their Neutron Rapid-Fire Cannons, while Kingdom of Dawn fighters and frigates joined the attack.
• Imperial anti-aircraft fire struck fleeing transports, and the battlecruisers continued attacking as Imperial ships and transports suffered heavy damage.

Separatist Throne-class warships shattered the Galactic Empire’s fleet around Dantooine and trapped its ground forces without reinforcements. As Imperial leaders scrambled to respond, Matteo Bach revealed that the Emperor’s secret base, The Warren, was on the planet, while Alexander Kjar and Dai Hongkui prepared to press the attack.

• Three Aquatens-class cruisers and much of the Imperial transport fleet were destroyed or stranded in chaotic hyperspace fluctuations, leaving Zell Johnson without reinforcements or supplies.
• Gillard Perine ordered transport ships to stop jumping and clear the hyperspace route, then began planning a possible offensive through Ord Mantell toward Bilbrin Planet.
• At the Imperial Center, Matteo Bach told Dunn Vesex that The Warren, an Emperor-backed secret research base, was on Dantooine and offered to join him with twenty prototype TIE Phantom fighters.
• Dai Hongkui learned from Alexander Kjar that two stripped-down Throne-class warships had been assembled aboard an industrial mothership and would need its support until the Geth fleet arrived.

The Kingdom of Dawn defeated the Imperial forces on Dantooine, capturing about one million soldiers and forcing Zell Johnson to surrender. Dunn Vesex, Matteo Bacci, and Gillard Perine made separate preparations as the Empire treated the planet’s fall as insignificant.

• The Kingdom of Dawn used its two locally assembled King of Kings-class Battlecruisers to cut Dantooine off from Imperial support, while its fighters pursued transports and disrupted hyperspace routes.
• Gillard Perine executed fleeing transport captains, but Imperial morale collapsed as transports surrendered and local rebels rose up across Dantooine.
• Admiral Dai Hongkui landed ten Incasas-class frigates, and the Kingdom of Dawn launched a full-scale ground offensive that shattered the Imperial defenses.
• Zell Johnson surrendered with roughly two hundred thousand remaining Imperial soldiers after more than six hundred thousand died in the fighting and about one million were captured.
• Dunn Vesex, Matteo Bacci, and Gillard Perine held a secret meeting; Matteo Bacci went to Agamar Planet, while Gillard Perine fortified his defensive line and Dunn Vesex remained on Palin-Minor amid visits from mysterious black-robed figures.
• Imperial Center received news of Dantooine’s fall without significant reaction, viewing the planet as a remote border world.

As Imperial officials mocked Dantooine’s defeat, Dunn Vesex and Marshal Matteo Bacci planned to abandon the planet and secretly protect the hidden Warren from Tang Xiao. Meanwhile, besieged former Imperial Marshal Demetrius Zaarin sought mercenary support and arranged to contact Olegar’s Fist.

• Imperial dignitaries joked about Dantooine’s losses while Dunn Vesex, Gillard Perine, and Matteo Bacci discussed the danger of the Separatists discovering The Warren.
• Matteo Bacci said they should bury everything inside The Warren and secretly return to Dantooine after the fighting ended; Dunn Vesex agreed.
• Admiral Thrawn defeated Demetrius Zaarin’s fleet, captured his new base, and forced Zaarin to flee after Arden Lyn abandoned him.
• Zaarin rejected the Rebel Alliance’s limited offer and resisted the Kingdom of Dawn’s terms, then ordered his fleet toward the Mandalore star sector.
• Zaarin asked an intelligence broker about mercenaries and offered a share of the proceeds from TIE Defender technology to hire Olegar’s Fist.

Demetrius Zaarin hired Olegar's Fist to help him escape the Galactic Empire and reach the Outer Rim with the TIE Defender data. At Azure Planet, Roan surrounded Zaarin's battered fleet to demand payment, but Olegar arrived with a powerful fleet as the confrontation escalated.

• Demetrius Zaarin contacted Olegar and offered two billion Imperial credits for help escaping, promising payment from the sale of the TIE Defender data.
• Olegar accepted Zaarin's request to assemble at Azure Planet and attack Thrawn's defensive line on Pengalan IV.
• Zaarin's depleted fleet reached Azure Planet, where Roan's Calamity Legion surrounded it with a much larger force.
• Roan demanded compensation for his lost fighters and insisted that Professor Vasquez inspect Zaarin's TIE Defender data.
• Massive hyperspace fluctuations interrupted Roan and Zaarin's confrontation, and Olegar appeared on the screen as a Deceiver-class destroyer led the arriving fleet.

Olegar's Fist escorted Demetrius Zaarin through the Imperial blockade at Pengalan IV, then Olegar tracked Zaarin to Metalorn after he fled. There, Olegar offered Zaarin another chance to prove his sincerity as Thrawn's fleet closed in.

• Olegar arrived with a massive fleet, refused Roan's offer to betray Zaarin, and forced Roan to honor the agreement by setting course for the Pengalan System.
• Olegar's Fist held off the Imperial fleet at Pengalan IV while Zaarin escaped through hyperspace, and Olegar's forces withdrew before Thrawn's main fleet arrived.
• Marka Ragnos urged Olegar to attack the Imperial traitor and build the power of the Sword of Kings, but Olegar silenced him and said he would keep the weapon from the Galactic Empire.
• Thrawn pursued Zaarin across the sector as Zaarin fled from planet to planet without trusting anyone else.
• Olegar's Fist intercepted Zaarin at Metalorn, where Olegar offered help against the approaching Imperial fleet and told Zaarin to open his mind and look into his eyes.

Olegar used his psychic power to bind Demetrius Zaarin, Raven, and their fleet to his service, then learned Zaarin possessed a planet-destroying Star Killer shell. Thrawn attacked the combined forces at Metalon Planet, but as the battle began, someone grabbed him and urged him to flee.

• Olegar’s psychic influence calmed Zaarin and Kronda, and Zaarin placed Raven in command of the combined fleet.
• Raven reorganized the fleet and, under Olegar’s influence, pledged his loyalty to his new master.
• Zaarin reported that his fleet carried prototype warship designs and a single Star Killer shell capable of destroying a planet.
• Thrawn assessed the Calamity Legion as no threat and ordered his fleet to jump to Metalon Planet and attack.
• The Imperial fleet emerged from hyperspace and opened fire, and an unidentified person grabbed Thrawn and told him to leave immediately.

Antillis Trimein sensed a powerful Dark Side presence aboard Olegar’s Deceiver-class destroyer, but Thrawn stayed to fight the enemy fleet. As Olegar’s power turned Imperial warships against one another, Thrawn resisted his influence and escaped into hyperspace.

• Antillis Trimein warned Thrawn that a powerful presence threatened him, but Thrawn ordered an attack on Olegar’s Fist fleet.
• Colonel Raveen directed the outmatched fleet and maneuvered Olegar’s flagship toward Thrawn’s forces so Olegar could seize control of the Imperial commander.
• Olegar’s power overwhelmed Trimein and caused five Imperial-class Star Destroyers to attack their own fleet.
• Thrawn reorganized his forces, ordered his flagship’s self-destruct sequence to activate if he turned against the enemy, and continued retreating under fire.
• Thrawn’s flagship completed its hyperspace jump and vanished from the battlefield.

Thrawn returned to the battle at Metalon Planet, rallied the Imperial fleet, and turned the fight against Olegar's Fist and Zaarin's combined forces. A golden fighter helped drive off the enemy flagship, and its pilot, Fenix, introduced himself as an ally who had come to capture Olegar.

• Thrawn rejected Antillis-Trimein's plan to regroup and returned to Metalon Planet, reasoning that the mysterious enemy had limits and could be defeated.
• Thrawn found the Imperial fleet still fighting, reorganized its ships, and raised the soldiers' morale with his return and orders to attack.
• Thrawn's fleet launched a counterattack against Olegar's Fist's Divine-class destroyer, but a golden fighter appeared and struck at the enemy flagship.
• Thrawn ordered his fleet to concentrate fire, but the Divine-class destroyer escaped into hyperspace while its forces retreated in order.
• The golden fighter approached Thrawn's flagship, and its pilot, Fenix, announced that he had come to capture Olegar.

Fenix and Thrawn formed a temporary alliance to pursue Olegar, whose mind control had enslaved Imperial ships and expanded his fleet. Three days later, Thrawn’s force arrived at Gromas Planet to find Fenix attacking Olegar as Olegar unleashed a storm of psionic lightning.

• Fenix and Thrawn agreed to cooperate against Olegar while keeping their separate priorities: Thrawn wanted to capture Demetrius Zaarin, and Fenix wanted to stop Olegar.
• Fenix boarded Thrawn’s flagship and gave him a Kyber Crystal to shield him from mind control, then warned that the crystal had limits.
• Thrawn learned that Fenix supported the Twilight Council’s aid to the Kingdom of Dawn and the Separatists, but he agreed to assist Fenix until he captured Demetrius Zaarin.
• Fenix deployed Observers to search for Olegar, and three days later he reported Olegar’s fleet near Gromas Planet.
• Thrawn ordered his fleet to Gromas Planet while Fenix attacked Olegar’s fleet in his Phoenix fighter.
• Olegar unleashed a vast storm of lightning and crimson fissures around Fenix’s fighter as Thrawn’s fleet arrived and Thrawn ordered an attack.

Thrawn defeated Demetrius Zaarin’s rebellion, while Olegar escaped and the Empire began investigating his mind control and searching for him. Olegar planned to rebuild his fleet using Zaarin’s technical data, and Roan’s Calamity Legion remained stranded on Anzat Planet with outdated facilities.

• Thrawn’s fleet destroyed seven of Zaarin’s Star Destroyers, captured Zaarin after a fierce boarding battle, and reported the victory to the Imperial Center.
• Olegar escaped aboard a Star Destroyer during the battle, while Fenix vanished; Thrawn and Antillis Trimein sent Palpatine intelligence about both men and their mysterious race.
• The Empire executed Zaarin and his relatives, investigated Olegar’s mind control without finding a way to detect or break it, and established a special intelligence team to pursue him.
• Olegar and Colonel Raven discussed rebuilding their fleet with Zaarin’s ship and fighter blueprints, including TIE Defender designs, and Olegar ordered Raven to contact Roan about selling the data.
• Roan’s Calamity Legion occupied Anzat Planet but could not adequately maintain its advanced Matar warships, and Roan regretted that Zaarin’s distrust had left them cornered by the Empire.

Roan learned that the Imperial fleet had destroyed Olegar's Fist and captured Demetrius Zaarin, then reveled in violence while his fleet's weakness and his split with Ni Yongxiao weighed on him. The chapter left Roan delighted when Olegar offered to sell Zaarin's stolen TIE Defender data with the Calamity Legion for an equal share.

• Roan learned that Olegar's Fist had been routed near Metalon Planet and Gromas Planet, then watched Emperor Palpatine announce Zaarin's execution.
• Roan killed a subordinate, ordered a drunken feast, and indulged in brutal violence with his pirates.
• Roan reflected on breaking with Ni Yongxiao, seizing control of the Calamity Legion, and raiding Imperial convoys to pursue his ambitions.
• Magtan Scar confronted Roan and urged him to return to Hutt Space, but Roan dismissed him.
• Roan received Olegar's message saying he had escaped with Zaarin's data, including the TIE Defender plans, and wanted to sell it with the Calamity Legion for a fifty-fifty split.