Chapter Summaries

After rescuing Goro Takemura from Night City, Su Xiao recruited him into Dawn Military Company and brought him to Bolivia. There, Su Xiao’s forces began expanding their territory by attacking an Anti-government Armed Forces-held gold mine, and the chapter ended as they approached the workers’ shack after clearing the guards.

• Takemura agreed to work for Su Xiao’s Dawn Military Company rather than continue as a mercenary.
• Su Xiao bought a Militech Medusa from Meredith, and Takemura piloted it back to Bolivia with him.
• Saul and the others proposed taking control of the territory connecting Dawn Military Company’s two gold mines and one copper mine in eastern Bolivia.
• Two weeks later, Su Xiao and Mitch led a unit through the rainforest to reconnoiter a gold mine occupied by Anti-government Armed Forces militiamen.
• Su Xiao’s two teams killed the mine’s sentries and sleeping militiamen while avoiding the workers in the central shack.
• After confirming the outer buildings were clear, Su Xiao led his group toward the workers’ shack.

Su Xiao established the Dawn Military Company in Bolivia by taking control of mining sites, treating and paying local workers, and earning civilian support. After a year of rapid growth, the company defeated the Anti-government Armed Forces across eastern Bolivia and kept the territory rather than handing it back to the Government Army.

• Su Xiao offered captured mine laborers food, free medical care, and the choice to leave or work for him, and some chose to stay.
• Su Xiao's forces took another Gold Mine and a Copper Mine, secured routes to La Paz, and paid recruited local workers wages.
• Over the next year, the Dawn Military Company expanded to more than thirty thousand trained and equipped soldiers, aided by Su Xiao's sale of 3,500 Combat Augmentors to the Republic of Texas.
• The Dawn Military Company bought civilians' food at Night City prices and offered medical treatment with affordable installment payments, winning strong local support.
• Saul led the Dawn Military Company in driving the Anti-government Armed Forces out of eastern Bolivia.
• The Dawn Military Company kept eastern Bolivia instead of returning it to the Government Army.

Su Xiao reflected on why the Bolivian Government Army kept losing ground and met the president in La Paz after being invited to discuss an important matter. The president explained that refugees were fleeing the Anti-government Armed Forces, while Su Xiao suspected the government was unwilling to help them.

• Su Xiao concluded that the Government Army performed poorly because its soldiers lacked motivation and its officers disregarded their lives.
• Two weeks later, Su Xiao and Goro Takemura met the president outside La Paz after he invited Su Xiao to the capital.
• The president asked Takemura to ride separately, and Su Xiao agreed after checking that the president and limousine posed no threat.
• During the drive through La Paz, Su Xiao saw that the city had many more refugees than before.
• The president said the refugees had fled the Anti-government Armed Forces as the Government Army retreated, and admitted the government could not resettle them.
• Su Xiao doubted that the government was truly unable to help the refugees and suspected it was unwilling to do so.

Su Xiao heard the president’s offer to grant Dawn Military Company legal rule over eastern Bolivia in exchange for fighting the Anti-government Armed Forces, but he withheld his decision because the campaign could be costly and destabilizing. Their journey stopped when Presidential Guard soldiers beat a refugee, leaving the president anxious about how Su Xiao would react.

• The president asked Su Xiao to hire Dawn Military Company to defeat Bolivia’s hostile forces and offered the company legal ownership of eastern Bolivia in return.
• Su Xiao declined to answer immediately, weighing the costs of fighting across the country and the risk that new rebellions would arise under the same elite rule.
• The limousine stopped because refugees blocked the convoy, and the president reluctantly got out to inspect the situation with Su Xiao and Goro Takemura.
• Su Xiao and the president saw Presidential Guard soldiers beating a refugee, and the president ordered them to stop.
• A soldier offered to dispose of the refugee, making the president furious, though he relaxed when Su Xiao showed no visible displeasure.

Su Xiao watched the President stage a show of concern for civilians before arriving at the Presidential Palace and attending a banquet with the country’s elites. After hearing the President’s proposed deal, Su Xiao asked Goro Takemura for his honest opinion, and Takemura said he did not support accepting it.

• The President ordered guards to take an injured refugee and his sick daughters to a hospital at the Presidential Palace’s expense, but armed guards drove back the crowd that gathered around him.
• The convoy reached the Presidential Palace, where Su Xiao inspected his carefully arranged room for surveillance devices and rested.
• Su Xiao and Goro Takemura attended a banquet where the President introduced them to the country’s elite guests.
• After the banquet, Goro Takemura secured Su Xiao’s room, and Su Xiao told him the terms of the President’s proposed deal.
• Goro Takemura said he did not think Dawn Military Company should accept the deal, and Su Xiao asked him to explain why.

Su Xiao and Takemura debated how Dawn Military Company should handle the Bolivian president’s demand to eliminate the rebels, then an explosion revealed that rebel forces had reached the capital. The Government Army had collapsed after mutiny and disastrous friendly fire, while the rebels had acquired Scorpion-Tailed Lions that soldiers sold to them.

• Takemura warned Su Xiao that the president might turn against Dawn Military Company once the domestic opposition was defeated, and suggested agreeing while advancing slowly and consolidating territory.
• Su Xiao accepted Takemura’s offer to guard him overnight, but an explosion shook the Presidential Palace near midnight.
• Takemura seized the Minister of Defense, who revealed that rebel forces had entered the capital after Government Army soldiers mutinied and the front collapsed.
• Su Xiao and Takemura escorted the Minister toward the elevator while Su Xiao asked why the Government Army had lost despite receiving weapons and training.
• The Minister explained that poor coordination caused Basilisk vehicles to outrun infantry and Scorpion-Tailed Lions to attack friendly troops, so officers stopped using the aircraft.
• Soldiers guarding the Scorpion-Tailed Lions sold them to the Anti-government Armed Forces, who used the aircraft effectively against the Government Army.

Su Xiao rejected the Minister of Defense’s plan to flee La Paz and went to the capital barracks to organize a defense against the Anti-government Armed Forces. He ordered Second Lieutenant Abbas to lead the soldiers to protect the eastern district, but the men remained reluctant to act.

• The Minister of Defense urged Su Xiao and Goro Takemura to escape east, but Su Xiao asked what would happen to everyone else if the rebels occupied La Paz.
• After the Minister of Defense described the rebels’ killings and looting, Su Xiao asked where the military barracks were and left him behind.
• Su Xiao and Goro Takemura reached the chaotic Capital Barracks, where soldiers were fighting over cars and no officers were present.
• Su Xiao fired his revolver into the air to get the soldiers’ attention, then learned that Second Lieutenant Abbas was the highest-ranking person there.
• Su Xiao ordered Abbas to mobilize the soldiers and establish a defensive line in the eastern district, but Abbas protested that Su Xiao had no authority to command him.

Su Xiao persuaded Second Lieutenant Abbas and the soldiers to defend La Paz instead of fleeing, promising Dawn Military Company reinforcements. He then urged them to choose a new ruler if they succeeded in holding the city.

• Second Lieutenant Abbas and the soldiers said they wanted to abandon the camp and flee with their families rather than fight for the absent government.
• Su Xiao explained that they lacked the vehicles and supplies to escape safely and said Dawn Military Company could not evacuate them all.
• Su Xiao urged the soldiers to fight for their homes, warning that fleeing would leave them trapped and vulnerable to the rebels.
• Su Xiao promised air support within hours and ground support within days, restoring the soldiers' confidence that they could defend La Paz.
• Second Lieutenant Abbas worried that corrupt bureaucrats would return if the city survived, and Su Xiao proposed choosing a new ruler instead.

Su Xiao prepared Bolivia’s defenses and sought to draw Government Army soldiers to Dawn Military Company, while Truss’s Rebel Militia advanced into La Paz. The rebels met organized resistance in the civilian district, leaving Truss to decide how to respond.

• Su Xiao offered the soldiers the chance to choose Dawn Military Company after the invaders were driven out, then assigned them defensive zones and called in support from the company’s training base.
• Truss gathered his looting Rebel Militia and set out to take control of La Paz, believing the Government Army had fled.
• Truss split his forces into five groups and ordered his men to spare certain people they could exploit while killing the elderly, sick, weak, and anyone who resisted.
• A group of rebels stayed behind in the wealthy district and shot the residents and servants who had been left there.
• Government Army soldiers ambushed the advancing rebels from prepared positions along a street in the civilian district, surprising Truss and his men.

Truss led the rebels around the Government Army’s defenses, believing only a small force remained in the capital, but a machine gun and hidden snipers shattered his plan. After Chris and his men were killed, Truss forced the hesitant rebels to charge, leaving them exposed to the enemy.

• Truss left his second-in-command to hold the enemy back and led the rest of the rebels around the Government Army’s position.
• A machine gun opened fire from a bell tower, killing more than twenty militiamen, and Truss ordered Chris to attack it with rocket launchers.
• Hidden snipers killed Chris’s men as they advanced; Chris fired a rocket before being killed, and it exploded against the rebels’ former cover.
• Truss ordered his men to charge, shot one hesitant militiaman, and Chris executed another before a third rebel rushed forward.

Dawn Military Company’s forces crushed Truss’s rebel militia with armored vehicles, machine guns, and air support, forcing the survivors to retreat. As Truss prepared to withdraw, two Medusas appeared overhead and opened fire on his battered troops.

• Dawn Military Company’s instructors held their fire until a Basilisk armored vehicle joined the bell tower machine gun in attacking Truss’s advancing militia.
• The militia broke and fled under the barrage, while Truss escaped with his trusted men.
• Truss learned that his other four detachments had also met fierce resistance, and that Medusas had devastated the units circling the city.
• Truss agreed to withdraw after his trusted men urged him to leave the capital.
• Two Medusas appeared above the rebel survivors, and their Vulcan Cannons began firing down at them.

Su Xiao’s air support crushed the rebel assault on the capital, and the Government Army soldiers there joined Dawn Military Company. After learning that President Anton had died and his son Diego had survived, Su Xiao offered Diego a choice between staying in Bolivia and leaving for Europe, where he would be beyond the reach of the country’s elites.

• Two Medusas slaughtered the Rebel Militia, and Truss was killed when he tried to escape.
• Su Xiao ordered Second Lieutenant Abbas to secure the capital and Dawn Military Company personnel to guard the wealthy district.
• Second Lieutenant Abbas and the Government Army soldiers switched allegiance and joined Dawn Military Company.
• The Government Army learned that President Anton had died in a car accident and that a kindhearted resident had rescued his son, Diego.
• Su Xiao met Diego at the Presidential Palace and explained that the elites might try to make him president as their puppet.
• Su Xiao offered to help Diego settle in Europe, but Diego had not yet decided what to do.

Su Xiao persuaded Diego to leave Bolivia and prepared to take control of the country, while a Sparkle Group envoy tried to persuade him to preserve the group’s coca trade. The chapter ended with Gustavo arguing that coca cultivation was Bolivia’s only path to development.

• Su Xiao convinced Diego that staying in Bolivia would end in death or submission, and promised to protect the country in his place.
• Goro Takemura reported that Saul, Mitch, and Panam would arrive with fifteen thousand soldiers, and Su Xiao planned to refine the campaign against the Anti-government Armed Forces.
• Goro Takemura told Su Xiao that a Sparkle Group representative had come to meet him, and Su Xiao agreed to receive him.
• Gustavo offered cooperation, arguing that Su Xiao would need the Sparkle Group’s coca trade to govern Bolivia and improve its economy.
• Su Xiao challenged Gustavo’s claim that coca was necessary, and Gustavo began defending coca cultivation as South America’s only route to development.

Su Xiao rejected the Sparkle Group’s offer and seized Gustavo, then had Lucy extract intelligence from his Cyberbrain. Dawn Military Company took control of La Paz and expelled Bolivia’s elites, leaving the country poised for a confrontation with the Anti-government Armed Forces.

• Su Xiao revealed he intended to take the Sparkle Group’s wealth, incapacitated Gustavo, and ordered Goro Takemura to access his Cyberbrain and contact his boss.
• Goro Takemura discovered a concealed self-destruct program in Gustavo’s Cyberbrain and stopped his intrusion before it could destroy the data.
• Lucy disabled the program, cracked Gustavo’s security, and recovered intelligence on Sparkle Group leaders and export channels.
• Dawn Military Company expanded its presence in La Paz after President Anton’s death and prevented government elites from removing their assets.
• Dawn Military Company arrested the elites, secured their pledges to relinquish their property, and arranged for them to leave Bolivia.
• Observers expected Dawn Military Company to fight the Anti-government Armed Forces next and debated whether it would cooperate with the Sparkle Group.

After a Sparkle convoy was destroyed, Sparkle Group struggled to identify the attackers and met with Bolivia’s exiled elite to discuss support. Su Xiao’s force waited near the group’s Chilean port to ambush Sparkle Group’s number-two figure, but Yanan sensed danger as he and Flores returned from negotiations.

• An unknown force hijacked and burned a Sparkle Group convoy, causing nearly fifty million euros in losses and leaving Sparkle Group’s leaders unsure who had attacked it.
• Bolivia’s elite class approached Sparkle Group for help reclaiming control, and Sparkle Group agreed to meet its representative aboard a yacht near its Chilean port.
• Su Xiao rejected Goro Takemura’s plan to attack the port guards, ordering his force to hide and wait for the yacht’s return.
• Yanan and Flores returned to the port alongside officials and magnates from Peru and Chile, appearing friendly after their meeting.
• Yanan sensed something was wrong and urged Flores to return to the yacht, then decided to take her with him rather than risk ruining the deal.

Yanan and Flores were caught in an ambush at the port, where the Dawn Military Company attacked the Sparkle Group guards and left the wealthy passengers as witnesses. The squad leader claimed the attackers were the Bolivian Free Alliance Army, and the chapter ended with a wealthy hostage offering a ransom in hopes of being released.

• Yanan warned Flores that danger was near, and they headed back toward the ship as gunfire erupted around the port.
• Yanan was shot in the thigh, and the luxury cruise ship sailed away without him; the battered Sparkle Group guards surrendered.
• Dawn Military Company soldiers emerged disguised as anti-government fighters, disarmed the guards, and gathered the wealthy Chilean and Peruvian passengers they had spared.
• A wealthy Japanese woman claimed her status would protect her, but the squad leader struck her and aimed his rifle at her until she apologized.
• The squad leader identified the attackers as the Bolivian Free Alliance Army and promised not to harm the passengers, prompting a middle-aged hostage to offer a ransom.

Su Xiao’s team abducted Yanan and Flores while posing as the Bolivian Free Alliance Army, and used the ransom operation to steal tens of millions from wealthy captives. After returning to Bolivia, Su Xiao separated the prisoners and accessed their Cyberbrains to investigate what had happened to the elite class’s wealth.

• The leader demanded ransom from the Chilean and Peruvian captives, collected their transfers, and let them leave after the electronic interference stopped.
• The soldiers captured Yanan and Flores with Blockers, revealing that the operation had targeted them rather than the wealthy captives.
• Su Xiao told Goro Takemura that the ransom had gone into Dawn Military Company’s anonymous Swiss accounts, where hackers had already dispersed it.
• Su Xiao’s group drove back to Bolivia and entered a military base outside the capital.
• Su Xiao separated Yanan and Flores and accessed their Cyberbrains while investigating how Bolivia’s elite had lost their wealth.

Su Xiao learned that Bolivia’s elite class had promised the Sparkle Group access to Captain Cuatro’s hidden vaults in exchange for support, and chose to exploit the group’s internal divisions. The Dawn Military Company routed the Anti-government Armed Forces and took prisoners to the capital for public trials, while the Sparkle Group suspected its rivals had killed its boss.

• Lucy hacked Yanan’s and Flores’s Cyberbrains, revealing that Bolivia’s elite class had offered the Sparkle Group the locations of Captain Cuatro’s secret vaults.
• Su Xiao chose to have Goro Takemura kill the Sparkle Group’s number-one figure rather than eliminate its entire leadership, hoping the remaining members would fight over power.
• The Sparkle Group’s boss was killed in his safe house, and the Anti-government Armed Forces captured Yanan and the elite class’s representative at a Chilean port.
• The Dawn Military Company attacked the Anti-government Armed Forces in northern and western Bolivia, aided by local civilians, and routed their forces.
• The Dawn Military Company transported captured militiamen to the capital for public trials instead of executing them or accepting them all into its ranks.

After Sparkle Group’s boss was killed and its second-in-command was believed captured, the senior members fought among themselves for control instead of uniting against outside enemies. A month of infighting left five exhausted factions with depleted forces and destroyed coca plantations, while Dawn Military Company continued its campaign against the Anti-government Armed Forces.

• Sparkle Group’s senior members disagreed over whether to oppose Dawn Military Company, then turned their attention to choosing a new boss.
• The senior members failed to agree on a leader, returned to their territories, and began fighting to eliminate their rivals.
• Several clearheaded senior members left Bolivia, while others stayed neutral; fighting wiped out the two weakest factions and prompted mercenaries to demand better pay and treatment.
• After settling the mercenary dispute, the five strongest senior members attacked the neutral factions, forcing them to submit or killing them.
• A month later, five exhausted senior members remained, with half their original mercenaries, far fewer laborers, and most coca plantations destroyed.

Dawn Military Company used the five Sparkle Group executives’ intelligence to destroy the organization and consolidate its control over Bolivia. Six months later, Su Xiao returned to Night City and met with Raijin Arasaka, who acknowledged his rapid rise.

• Dawn Military Company sent the same offer to Sparkle Group’s five executives, who each revealed information about their rivals, unaware that all five had been contacted.
• Dawn Military Company used their combined intelligence to kill the executives, dismantle their strongholds, free enslaved laborers, and drive off the mercenaries, uprooting Sparkle Group.
• Over the next six months, Dawn Military Company cleared out the remaining Anti-government Armed Forces and Sparkle Group forces while Su Xiao left the work to others.
• Su Xiao returned to Night City with Mann’s team and David, then brought them to Arasaka Tower for a meeting with Raijin Arasaka.
• Raijin Arasaka greeted Su Xiao and remarked on how much he had changed since their encounter more than a year earlier.