Chapter Summaries

Yuri Orlov returned to Dawn Star Planet aboard the Lancer with a Proton Torpedo, and Tang Xiao took the ship to attack the Ironfang-class cruiser. Tang Xiao began preparing a precise torpedo strike while the mothership’s crew faced an eight-minute deadline before they had to force the Auro freighter to dock.

• Yuri Orlov arrived near Dawn Star Planet in the Lancer, and Tang Xiao ordered fighters to escort it to the mothership.
• The fighter squadrons shielded the Lancer from the Ironfang’s fire, losing four fighters as Truda piloted the damaged ship into the hangar.
• Tang Xiao welcomed Yuri, then boarded the Lancer with Glory Judith and took the pilot’s seat while a T-850 operated the turret.
• Tang Xiao told Judith that Cun Te was still aboard the cruiser and began sensing the Force as he prepared to fire the Proton Torpedo.
• Qi Jian warned Tang Xiao that he had eight minutes to attack before the crew proceeded with the plan to force the YV-865 Auro class freighter to dock.
• Tang Xiao asked the Mainframe to calculate where the Proton Torpedo should strike the Hammerhead-class cruiser to cripple it without causing a secondary explosion.

Tang Xiao risked his damaged ship to break the Ironfang-class cruiser's shields and fire a Proton Torpedo at its engine, while the cruiser neared escape range. He later woke in the medical bay, where Cun Te revealed Tang Xiao had been unconsciously holding the room's floating objects in place with the Force.

• Tang Xiao struggled to line up a Proton Torpedo shot while the Ironfang-class cruiser's shields held and its secondary batteries attacked his Lancer.
• A Hammer-class frigate pilot declared the Fourth Civilization would not retreat, and the two frigates charged the cruiser, breaking its shields at the cost of one frigate.
• Tang Xiao evaded the cruiser's fire through the Force and fired at the cruiser after an explosion damaged its engines; an Auro class freighter carrying T-850s and Marines launched toward it.
• Tang Xiao woke in the medical bay and used the Force to keep floating objects, including a pothos above Cun Te, from falling.

Tang Xiao and Cun Te recovered after their daring operation crippled Kuken’s cruiser, and Tang Xiao returned to the mothership as the crew honored his leadership. Clement began reporting the battle’s spoils, led by the captured cruiser, which the Engineering Department planned to repair.

• Cun Te told Tang Xiao how he sabotaged Kuken’s crew, launched a Proton Torpedo aboard the cruiser, and helped trigger a mutiny that allowed the Fourth Civilization to capture it.
• Tang Xiao reprimanded Cun Te for risking his life, then admitted he feared the galaxy’s future war; Cun Te pledged to face that danger alongside him as his friend.
• Tang Xiao recovered from overusing the Force, while Cun Te healed in a Bacta tank salvaged from the cruiser.
• Tang Xiao returned to the bridge, where Clement and the Staff Department members saluted him for standing with the Fourth Civilization during the battle.
• Clement reported that the captured 315-meter Hammerhead-class cruiser needed a replacement propulsion system, which the Engineering Department expected to install in three months.

Tang Xiao reviewed the spoils from Kuken’s cruiser, arranged for the colony’s departments and resources to expand, and learned how Yuri and Vitaly had encountered a gigantic creature in hyperspace. He left the Mothership stationed between Dawn Star Planet and Dor and promised Yuri new opportunities as the Fourth Civilization prepared for further growth.

• Tang Xiao agreed to redistribute personnel, awaken an Elite Class talent to lead the Engineering Department, and establish a Logistics Department.
• Clement reported the captured shuttles, damaged fighter, prisoners, and money; Tang Xiao ordered a public trial and directed the Mothership to dock between Dawn Star Planet and Dor.
• Tang Xiao considered the Endor system’s abundant resources and its potential for secret development by the Fourth Civilization.
• On a Ministry-class shuttle, Yuri told Tang Xiao that he and Vitaly had seen a gigantic octopus-like creature inside a hyperspace rift during their unguided jumps.
• Yuri said he did not belong in battle, and Tang Xiao told him he would find him another opportunity if his plans to develop a weapons market on Tatooine failed.

Tang Xiao staged a public execution for the pirates who invaded Dawn City and sentenced Kenneth to death for his betrayal. He spared Kunto, Feraci, and the other conspirators from execution but fitted them with linked bomb collars, while sending Feraci and the captured pirates to work in the mines.

• Tang Xiao announced the Fourth Civilization's victory and hanged Kuken and six pirate leaders before the cheering crowd.
• Tang Xiao condemned Kenneth, who blamed Kunto and Feraci and begged for his life, then had him hanged.
• Tang Xiao sentenced the remaining pirates to mine ore as slave labor instead of executing them.
• Kunto confessed that he had informed Kuken and begged Tang Xiao to spare Feraci and the others.
• Tang Xiao fitted Kunto, Feraci, and the other conspirators with linked bomb collars and sentenced Feraci to three years of mining alongside the pirates.

Tang Xiao renamed the Kushan Mothership the Glory after the Fourth Civilization’s victory and left the battle’s cleanup to others. In Dawn City, he saw the colony’s residents and Ewoks working and trading together as a primitive economy took shape.

• Tang Xiao announced that the Kushan Mothership would be renamed the Glory, and the rescued civilians were assigned temporary homes in Dawn City.
• Old Truda chose to stay on Dawn Star Planet and open a machinery repair shop, becoming the Fourth Civilization’s first nonhuman member.
• Tang Xiao visited Dawn City, where Ewoks such as Moko helped human workers build new structures and joked with them on the job.
• Tang Xiao saw Ewoks selling gathered goods at street stalls and accepting Work Tickets for supplies as the city’s economy developed.

Tang Xiao learned that the Ewoks regarded him as their Great Spirit, and he joined their Moonlight Festival on Dawn Star Planet. The chapter left the celebration underway, with Ewoks singing and dancing around a bonfire as Dawn City residents joined them.

• Tang Xiao saw Cryo-embryo children in Dawn City and learned they would have shortened lifespans but could help expand the Fourth Civilization’s population.
• Ewoks bowed to Tang Xiao and called him the Great Spirit, so he helped them up and touched their head ornaments as a blessing.
• An official explained that the Ewoks regarded the Endor gas giant as the Great Spirit and Tang Xiao as its incarnation, and Tang Xiao agreed to attend their Moonlight Festival.
• At the festival, Ewoks and Dawn City residents gathered around a bonfire to sing, dance, and feast on an Endorian Marsh Beast.
• Tang Xiao sat with Ewok tribal chiefs and blessed visitors while the gathering continued and residents shared beer from the mothership.

Tang Xiao watched the Ewoks prove their fighting skill at a banquet, then planned to integrate them into the Fourth Civilization. Three days later, Yuri Orlov and Cun Te arrived on Tatooine to sell weapons for a purpose tied to Tang Xiao’s plans.

• Humans and Ewoks drank and fought at Dawn City, until a red-furred Ewok wearing a white feather headdress defeated the Marines and received Tang Xiao’s tribute of beer.
• Tang Xiao assessed the Ewoks’ strength and adaptability, estimated their population, and decided to integrate the tribes around Dawn City into the Fourth Civilization.
• Tang Xiao considered using the Ewoks as soldiers and planned to spread his Great Spirit worship to more tribes.
• Three days later, Yuri Orlov and Cun Te arrived near Tatooine aboard a YV-865 Auro class freighter.
• Yuri told Cun Te that Tang Xiao had hinted at their weapons sale because he wanted to break certain balances.

Yuri brought a cargo hold full of weapons to Tatooine to supply Broderick Shale’s gang, who were preparing to attack Jabba’s businesses. When Shale offered to steal whatever Yuri wanted instead of paying, Yuri agreed to discuss a deal.

• Yuri explained to Cun Te that the Administrator had traced the Bosa’s earlier trouble to the conflict between Jabba and Gaddula, then revealed a freighter loaded with weapons to sell to Gaddula’s people.
• Yuri made Cun Te pilot the hovering freighter to a desert rendezvous while Yuri called Scar and jokingly introduced himself as Santa Claus.
• Yuri met Scar, Broderick Shale, and their armed gang, and Shale confirmed they planned to rob Jabba’s businesses.
• Shale said he had no money but could steal anything Yuri wanted from Jabba’s territory, so Yuri agreed to sit down and talk.

Yuri Orlov used his knowledge of Hutt Gaddula’s weakened position to sell heavy weapons to Broderick Shale and the Bosa bandits. Shale eagerly considered expanding his forces, while Yuri named a steep price for a mortar that could threaten Mos Eisley.

• Yuri Orlov approached Broderick Shale without fear, knowing Hutt Jabba’s influence constrained the Bosa bandits and that Hego Damask II had stopped backing Hutt Gaddula.
• Yuri offered the bandits M-427 machine guns, and Broderick Shale inspected one and approved of it.
• Yuri demonstrated an M-341 rocket launcher, which excited Shale and Magtan Scar because such heavy weapons were scarce in the Galactic Republic.
• Shale asked Yuri to show him everything, saying the weapons would let him recruit more people and attempt something big.
• Yuri presented an M-752 mortar and demanded 10,000 credits for the single unit, rejecting Scar’s complaint that mortars cost less elsewhere.

Yuri Orlov supplied Broderick Shale and Magtan Scar with weapons and sold them a T-850, enabling their plan to rob the Bonta Night Speeder Race. Meanwhile, Tang Xiao formally organized the Fourth Civilization’s military and assigned leaders to its new branches and departments.

• Yuri Orlov agreed to supply Broderick Shale and Magtan Scar with goods, then sold them one T-850 after removing its learning restriction device.
• Broderick Shale armed his crew and planned to rob the upcoming Bonta Night Speeder Race, hoping to enrich Lord Gaddula and undermine Jabba.
• Tang Xiao established the Supreme Operations Command, with himself as commander-in-chief and Karls-Walton as deputy commander.
• Tang Xiao created the Army and Navy, appointing Xiao Guanghua and Igor Zavarov as their commanders.
• Tang Xiao placed the Space Engineering Corps under Bruce Tovan’s Logistics Department as it worked on two new space shipyards.

Tang Xiao organized the Fourth Civilization’s administration and met with financial advisor Semir to plan the Fourth Group’s launch. He assigned Rosana Goodes to work with the business-savvy T-850 on raising funds and obtaining an exploration permit.

• Tang Xiao explained that Normal Class personnel could perform important roles and that he reserved Elite and Master Class personnel for critical work.
• Semir proposed raising one million Galactic credits by selling rare metals and showed Tang Xiao contacts, false identities, and procedures for obtaining an exploration permit.
• Tang Xiao told the T-850 to record Semir’s plans and arranged for an agent to apply for the permit on Coruscant, with the robot relaying messages to Semir.
• Tang Xiao introduced Rosana Goodes to the T-850 and left her to handle the Fourth Group’s business arrangements with it.
• After hearing the robot recite Semir’s plan, Rosana said it might understand the business better than she did, and Tang Xiao encouraged her to learn from it.

Rosana and three officers traveled to Coruscant to file paperwork for the Fourth Group Company and its colonial development permit while Tang Xiao stayed behind to test the Wraith fighter. At the engineering station, he became captivated by a newly developed engineering mech and asked whether it was an SCV.

• Rosana formed a business team with three administrative officers and took the Lancer to Coruscant to file for the Fourth Group Company and a colonial development permit.
• Tang Xiao claimed the maiden test flight of the CF/A-17 Wraith prototype, confident that his Force-granted danger sense and piloting record made him the best test pilot.
• Tang Xiao worried that Jedi Knights would threaten the Fourth Civilization if it aligned with the future Confederacy of Independent Systems.
• Tang Xiao traveled by shuttle to the engineering research space station, where Qu Xuewen guided him toward Professor Chi Jianjun's laboratory.
• Tang Xiao spotted a heavily armored engineering mech through a laboratory window, ignored Qu Xuewen, and exclaimed that it looked like an SCV.

Tang Xiao inspected the SCV and construction vessel projects before piloting the newly completed Wraith fighter on its maiden flight. After its weapons and handling tests succeeded, he ordered production shifted from Blade-class fighters to Wraith fighters.

• Qu Xuewen told Tang Xiao that SCVs could enter service within two weeks, while the Trader Emergency Coalition construction vessel remained in early development.
• Professor Chi Jianjun led Tang Xiao to the hangar, where Tang Xiao saw the completed CF/A-17 Wraith fighter.
• Tang Xiao took off in the Wraith fighter and tested its laser cannons and Gemini missiles, destroying target drones with both weapons.
• Tang Xiao confirmed the Wraith fighter outperformed the Blade fighter in speed and agility, then ordered Blade-class fighters moved to reserve and mothership production lines devoted to Wraith fighters.

Tang Xiao oversaw upgrades to the Wraith fighter and the refit of a captured Hammerhead-class cruiser as the Fourth Civilization expanded its forces. On Tatooine, a bombing struck the Bonta Night Speeder Race track, where a young slave boy watched with dreams of racing.

• Chi Jianjun proposed pulse laser cannons, hyperspace engines, and stealth systems for future Wraith fighters before collapsing from exhaustion, and Tang Xiao ordered him to Dawn Star Planet to recover.
• Twenty Wraith fighters rolled off the production line, while engineers refitted the captured Hammerhead-class cruiser to carry eighteen Wraith fighters and two shuttles.
• Broderick Shale arrived on Tatooine and began a violent wave of robberies and destruction.
• At the Bonta Night Speeder Race track, a young slave boy told his mother he wanted to race when he grew up, but she reminded him that racing was beyond their means.
• An explosion hit a speeder racer in the starting plaza, hurling its driver and nearby technicians into the air.

Anakin and his mother survived a violent assault on the Bonta Night Speeder Race, where Broderick Shale and Magtan Scar’s gang attacked Jabba’s forces and slaughtered spectators. After the battle, Anakin chose to salvage a damaged droid and persuaded his mother to help him drag it away.

• Mortar shells and machine-gun fire sent the crowd fleeing as Anakin led his mother to shelter near the racetrack.
• Jabba ordered his mercenaries to fight the invaders and escaped in a sail barge while Broderick Shale and Magtan Scar’s gang attacked the betting hall for its money.
• Broderick Shale led the charge toward the betting hall as Magtan Scar ordered a rocket strike that destroyed a pursuing hovercraft.
• Anakin and his mother hid through the battle and bombardment until the fighting subsided and the attackers departed.
• Anakin ran toward the wrecked racers to search for repulsorlift engines, but found a damaged droid and decided to take it home.
• Anakin tied clothes around the droid and dragged it toward the exit, and his mother joined him to help.

After the Bosa’s bloody robbery at Jabba’s speeder race brought Tatooine into chaos, Yuri fled while leaving Jason Statham behind to protect Broderick Shale and hidden weapons. Cun Te then told Tang Xiao that Hego Damask II had contacted him and summoned them to Tatooine, as Tang Xiao concealed his plan and prepared to gamble on the future.

• Cun Te warned Yuri that the Bosa had robbed Jabba’s Bonta Night Speeder Race, killing spectators and mercenaries, and that Jabba had raised their bounty.
• Yuri ordered T-850s to bury weapons and ammunition, remove their synthetic skin and learning restrictions, and help Broderick Shale survive; he named one of them Jason Statham.
• Yuri left Tatooine aboard the freighter while Jason Statham stayed behind and answered a communicator, claiming he had come to help on Santa Claus’s orders.
• At the Glory mothership, Cun Te told Tang Xiao that Hego Damask II had contacted him, assigned them a job, and specifically requested Tang Xiao’s participation on Tatooine.
• Tang Xiao told Cun Te to undergo deep suggestion so Hego could not learn his plan, then said that winning his gamble could secure their place in the galaxy after the war thirteen years later.

Tang Xiao deliberately provoked Hutt Gaddula’s conflict with Jabba to draw Hego Damask II into action, while deciding to accept Hego’s Sith training in pursuit of power. The chapter left Tang Xiao greeting a cheerful Yuri Orlov after Yuri’s successful operation on Tatooine.

• Tang Xiao explained that Yuri’s weapons sales had stirred Gaddula’s conflict with Jabba and could expose Hego Damask II’s hidden influence.
• Tang Xiao connected his Force awakening and emotional volatility to the Dark Side and realized Hego wanted to train or use him.
• Tang Xiao decided to embrace the Dark Side and seek training and inheritance from Hego, despite fearing the cruelty of Sith apprenticeship and the risk of losing himself.
• Yuri Orlov entered Tang Xiao’s office in high spirits, and Tang Xiao joked that Jabba might catch and punish him for his work on Tatooine.

Tang Xiao reprimanded Yuri for losing scarce T-850s, then sent him to build a trade relationship with Yifent Mon on Cerea. Tang Xiao decided to travel to Tatooine with Cun Te to clean up Yuri’s trouble for Hego, and they prepared the Lancer for departure.

• Yuri claimed that Jabba’s pressure would make Hutt Gaddula buy more weapons from him, while Tang Xiao told him to lie low until the Tatooine situation settled.
• Tang Xiao scolded Yuri for losing two T-850s and gave him Yifent Mon’s name, arranging for Glory Judith to drive him and Spade to guide him.
• Tang Xiao explained that Yifent Mon’s ties to Jabba could help Yuri if his plans on Tatooine went wrong.
• Cun Te questioned whether Tang Xiao should accept Hego’s commission, but Tang Xiao chose to go to Tatooine and meet Hego in Mos Eisley.
• Tang Xiao told Cun Te that the Lancer was being modified and would be ready for their departure the next day.

Tang Xiao arrived on Tatooine with Cun Te and Kunto in the modified Lancer, carrying the red Wraith fighter he named the Red Comet. After evading bounty hunters and landing near Mos Eisley, they went to a guarded building to meet a powerful figure.

• Tang Xiao showed Cun Te the Lancer with a red, horned Wraith fighter mounted on top, and named the fighter the Red Comet.
• Cun Te piloted the group through hyperspace to Tatooine while Tang Xiao used the Force to steady his emotions before their meeting.
• They avoided bounty hunter ships searching Tatooine and landed at old Truda's ship berth near Mos Eisley.
• Cun Te left a T-850 to guard the ship, then accompanied Tang Xiao and Kunto to a remote domed building guarded by B-1 battle droids.
• The B-1 battle droids demanded that Tang Xiao, Cun Te, and Kunto surrender their weapons.