Recaps

Xi Yan used staged hostility toward the M'tok delegation to strengthen his bargaining position while the empire received and exploited twenty million migrants from Earth. The negotiations ended with limits on military access and a standoff over Starhold Technology, leaving war as a possibility.

• Xi Yan finalized a treaty with the United Nations of Earth for technology, escorts, and one hundred million migrants, then sent [Ashes] agents to infiltrate the M'tok Union.
• Krauk Lee and his agents posed as merchant refugees, joined the Community Security Fleet, and gathered intelligence on the divided M'tok Union.
• The M'tok delegation arrived in Amaterro, where Xi Yan and Sunxia Xiachuan staged confrontations and encouraged public hostility toward the aliens.
• Xi Yan received twenty million Earth migrants and assigned them to controlled labor, while Song Zhong and other former criminals were sent to harsh factory work and power generation.
• Xi Yan met the M'tok delegation and traded insults with its ambassador before walking out when Kabulosius proposed open borders and cultural exchange.
• Xi Yan and the M'tok Ambassador negotiated directly, barred each other's military vessels, and agreed to communications access and star charts while excluding aliens from Cybrex Alpha.
• Xi Yan demanded Starhold Technology, and the M'tok Ambassador refused, prompting Xi Yan to threaten war and Kabulosius to blame the ambassador.

Xi Yan suppressed unrest at home, introduced robotic labor, and defeated the Community Security Fleet before turning the conflict into an intelligence partnership. He then accepted M'tok refugees under treaty terms and covertly encouraged human resistance against them as the Empire began colonizing a new world.

• Song Zhong joined Rake’s escape attempt, but after the group was captured, he killed Rake and pledged loyalty to Xi Yan.
• Xi Yan eliminated more than a million low-quality workers and introduced robots as protected citizens and replacements for basic jobs.
• Gorpious escorted a M'tok Union convoy into Imperial territory, where Xi Yan’s corvettes ambushed and defeated the Community Security Fleet.
• Xi Yan negotiated Gorpious’s withdrawal, exchanged captured defectors for Krauk Lee, and recruited Gorpious to provide intelligence on the M'tok Union.
• Xi Yan agreed to accept the M'tok operatives as refugees in exchange for communications access to other empires, then compensated those harmed in the battle.
• Xi Yan escorted the Empire’s first Colony Ship to Kui Su Three IV and settled the refugees in a xenophobic city on Amat Eiro II.
• Xie Wendong founded the Bloodline Sanctuary, and Ashes covertly armed it and directed it to disrupt the aliens’ addictive crop operation.

Xi Yan weakened under the strain of leadership, then found support in Veronica and awakened psionic powers as the Empire discovered the L-Gate and new alien threats. He began a new decade of industrial and military development while building alliances against the divided M'tok Union.

• Xie Wendong’s masked workers repeatedly raided the Criminal Enterprise branch, forcing Grugulum’s exhausted group to flee imperial territory and seek help from Perkin Asland.
• Xi Yan negotiated with Carls Charius’s reformist faction, arranged trade, and sought M'tok laborers while considering how to exploit the Union’s divisions.
• After Xi Yan collapsed from overwork and nightmares, Veronica cared for him and helped him confront his grief over the sacrifices made for the Empire.
• Xi Yan learned that an L-Gate lay in M'tok Union territory and resolved to claim the L-Cluster with help from the Nier Guardians and Zirick Cooperative.
• Veronica confessed her love and supported Xi Yan as he admitted his fears and sorrow, prompting him to accept the people’s shared ideals and activate Crisis Ascension.
• Xi Yan awakened psionic abilities, and Veronica and Ailiveer both became his partners as Beta explained the power and its possible effects on his lifespan.
• Svetlana Salazar’s Science Ship Two encountered hostile Space Amoebas, and Xi Yan ordered research into their biology and potential uses.
• Xi Yan launched the Empire’s second ten-year plan, expanded industry and military strength, deepened trade and alliances, and prepared with friendly powers for a joint attack as M'tok factions grew more hostile.

Xi Yan formed alliances against the XT-489 Extermination Unit while the Nier Guardians fought the M'tok Union and the Empire prepared its forces. With help from the dragon Hosgar and a map from the Rixian Seed Empire, Ning Zhiyuan led the First Fleet into the exterminators’ territory and aimed for their home system.

• Xi Yan welcomed [Teacher] and the Shroudwalker Enclave, learned he was a fate-chosen emperor, and was warned to avoid the Shroud and psionic ascension.
• After the XT-489 Extermination Unit attacked a Zirick outpost, Xi Yan joined the Zirick Cooperative and Nier Guardians in a mutual defense pact, while Krogg declared war on the M'tok Union.
• The Zirick Cooperative battled the exterminators as the Nier Guardians seized and fortified M'tok systems, and Xi Yan sent the First Fleet on an expedition against the machines.
• Xi Yan activated the Cybrex War Forge, which could produce Cybrex Prototype Warforms, while the Zirick fleet continued hit-and-run attacks against the exterminators.
• Xi Yan used a message and gifts of food to win Hosgar of Endless Flames’ favor, and the dragon welcomed contact from the human empire.
• When the First Fleet encountered the Rixian Seed Empire, Xi Yan offered tribute, received a map of the exterminators’ territory, and found a route to attack their rear.
• Xi Yan built a Second Fleet as the Zirick and Nier forces faced mounting pressure, while the M'tok Union prepared a major assault on the Nier Guardians.
• Ning Zhiyuan led the First Fleet across the southern border, destroyed a Stellar Base, and advanced toward the exterminators’ home system, prompting them to recall both front-line fleets.