Chapter Summaries

Nais, Black Needle, and the pirates united with Marauders, terrorists, cults, and criminal gangs to breach the Chosen’s defenses at Federation’s End. After destroying the defenders with explosive-filled transports, the fleet entered the Isomer Cluster to plunder its six colonies.

• The pirates and Marauders formed a joint fleet, using repeated small raids to make the Chosen defenders at Federation’s End lower their guard.
• The joint fleet attacked through the hyperlane, and the Chosen Homeworld ordered its defenders to hold their position rather than retreat.
• The attackers used modified transports packed with explosives as Homing Torpedoes, wiping out most of the Chosen battleships.
• The Marauder fleet destroyed the remaining defenders and the united pirates celebrated their victory.
• The fleet charged through the wormhole toward the six colonies, unleashing a campaign of plunder and chaos across the Isomer Cluster.

Captain Nais's pirates carried out the Lord of Humanity's extermination order across the Xarenoi colonies, devastating the Chosen's home cluster while other pirates looted its remaining worlds. The enraged Chosen abandoned the front and rushed home, unaware that nanite-infiltrating pirate ships had already begun assimilating their colonies.

• Captain Nais's pirate band demanded the surrender of its allotted Gaia Planet, then bombarded its capital when the Xarenoi refused.
• Nais's pirates looted the planet, destroyed its infrastructure, massacred its population, and used nuclear weapons and orbital bombardments to turn it into a hostile wasteland.
• The other pirates were horrified by Nais's campaign and refused to join the extermination, while the Chosen learned that the Isomer Cluster had fallen.
• The Chosen's forces abandoned the front and raced back to reinforce their home cluster.
• Pirate ships disguised as nanite swarms infiltrated the Chosen's colonies and began covert assimilation as the returning fleet closed in on the raiders.

Pirate crews led by Captain Nais devastated the Chosen’s colonies in the Isomer Cluster, crippling their nation after the Chosen fleet rushed home to defend it. Xi Yan learned that the coalition’s raid had succeeded and was pleased with the destruction.

• The Chosen fleet abandoned the front and hurried to the Isomer Cluster after learning that their Gaia Planet refinery had been destroyed.
• The Starfish reclaimed the systems the Chosen had occupied as the Chosen fleet pursued pirates trapped in the Isomer Cluster.
• Captain Nais urged the pirate crews to massacre the Chosen’s colonies, and the pirates killed nearly ten billion Xarenoi and destroyed all six colonies over several months.
• The Chosen suffered catastrophic losses as three colonies were destroyed and the remaining three were left almost ruined.
• Xi Yan learned that Captain Nais and the Pirate Coalition had crippled the Chosen, and he approved of the outcome.

With the Chosen's fleet blockading the wormhole, Captain Nais's Psionics User revealed that he could navigate through subspace and lead the pirates back to the Milky Way. Most of the combined fleet agreed to gather at Isomer's Gate, leaving the devastated Isomer Cluster behind.

• The Black Needle leader and other pirate bosses asked Captain Nais how they could escape the Chosen's fleet, and Nais introduced his powerful Psionics User.
• The Marauder leader challenged the Psionics User, who stopped his charge with a barrier and blasted him into a cabin wall.
• The Psionics User revealed that psychic shocks from the Xarenoi massacre had awakened his ability to see routes through subspace, despite the loss of his eyes.
• Captain Nais explained that the Psionics User was a half-human from the United Nations of Earth, and the Marauder leader appointed him navigator and ordered the fleets to assemble at Isomer's Gate.
• Most of the combined pirate fleet chose to leave with the Psionics User, while the Isomer Cluster was left with fewer than ten billion people and three Tomb Worlds.

The Psionics User guided the united pirate fleets through Subspace to escape the Chosen blockade, while the Chosen returned to find their homeland destroyed. The pirates emerged at the edge of the galaxy into an ambush, where the Nais pirate band turned against them.

• The pirates sacrificed millions of Xarenoi captives, and the Psionics User used their emotions to navigate the fleet through Subspace.
• The Chosen returned to Isomer's Gate and found their orbital habitats and Gaia Planet devastated, with their nation and supply base gone.
• After months in Subspace, the Psionics User guided the pirate fleet safely into a system under the Keen Empire's rule.
• The pirates emerged to find fleets bearing the Keen Empire's and Human Empire's insignia waiting among shipwrecks.
• The Nais pirate band broke formation and aimed its guns at its former allies as pirate eradication began.

Xi Yan and the Keen Empire secretly destroyed the pirate fleet, then Xi Yan helped the Starfish Republic declare the Chosen a calamity and seize the Isomer Cluster. After the surviving Xarenoi surrendered and were exiled to Ophalara, the Starfish used Heavenly Flood to destroy their final colony, ending the Chosen.

• Xi Yan and the Keen Empire trapped the pirates, while Captain Nais turned on his allies and the nanite fleet consumed their wreckage.
• Xi Yan proposed designating the Chosen a calamity, and the Starfish Republic secured the votes to pursue them and reclaim the Isomer Cluster.
• With their colonies devastated and supply routes blocked, the Chosen's fleet leader surrendered and asked the Starfish to exile the surviving Xarenoi to Ophalara.
• The Starfish accepted, transferred the Xarenoi and their crews to Ophalara, and took control of the Isomer Cluster and the Chosen's fleets.
• The Starfish sent Heavenly Flood to Ophalara and destroyed the last Xarenoi colony, declaring the Chosen destroyed.

Xi Yan kept the Human Empire neutral in the war between the Rixi Reconquest Empire and the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire while opening his territory to both sides for a fee. As the surrounding nations chose sides or stayed neutral, the United Nations of Earth backed the Phethisia, placing itself near the Rixi as a potential target.

• Xi Yan rejected joining either side in the war in heaven and decided to let the two empires fight while the Human Empire remained neutral.
• Xi Yan told the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire that both the Human Empire and the Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire would stay out of the war, while offering both empires access to his territory and commercial cooperation.
• The Phethisia Arbitrator Empire accepted Xi Yan’s terms, and he prepared to profit from selling weapons, training fleets, and supplying both sides.
• The Swivel Table Knight High Lordship and the Seteran Dimensional Nation sided with the nearby Rixi Reconquest Empire, while many southern nations remained neutral.
• The United Nations of Earth chose to support the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire, becoming the enemy closest to the Rixi Reconquest Empire.

As the War in Heaven spread across the galaxy, Starfish organized neutral nations into a Non-Aligned Organization to resist pressure from both Awakened Empires. The chapter ended with the new faction announcing its formation and defying both sides.

• Rixi defeated Phethisia in a major fleet battle after Xi Yan helped Rixi change its weapons configuration.
• The Awakened Empires ordered their subjects to fight, turning the United Nations of Earth into a battleground and escalating hostilities across the galaxy.
• The Flower of Gaia was forced to surrender to Phethisia and join the war after choosing neutrality.
• Neutral nations sought Starfish's protection, and Starfish recovered its strength with help from the four Ocean Paradise planets.
• Starfish announced the formation of a Non-Aligned Organization, inviting neutral empires to unite against both Awakened Empires.

The Rixi Reconquest Empire and Phethisia Arbitrator Empire launched a surprise attack on the Starfish Republic’s colonies at Xi Yan’s urging, pulling the Non-Aligned Organization into the War in Heaven. The Starfish fleets arrived too late to stop the two Colossi, which were close to destroying their targets.

• The Starfish Republic formed the Non-Aligned Organization, rejected both Awakened Empires’ demands, and prepared for war.
• The Rixi Reconquest Empire and Phethisia Arbitrator Empire declared war on the Non-Aligned Organization, but the southern galaxy remained quiet while their forces battled in the north.
• Xi Yan convinced both Awakened Empires to send fleets and Colossi through Quantum Catapults to attack the Starfish colonies.
• The two empires’ fleets and Colossi appeared in Starfish territory and targeted a mining planet and an agricultural planet.
• The Starfish sent fleets to defend the colonies, but the defenders were beaten back and the Colossi neared the end of their firing cycle.

The Phethisia Arbitrator Empire and Rixi Reconquest Empire destroyed two Starfish colony worlds with their colossi, one sealing a planet in darkness and the other blowing its target apart. After their fleets traded insults and suffered damage, both Awakened Empires withdrew from the Starfish Republic.

• The Starfish fleets emerged from the Hyperlanes but were surrounded and overwhelmed by the two Awakened Empires’ fleets as the colossi charged over the planets.
• The Phethisia Arbitrator Empire completed its [Angel of Mercy] strike, enclosing one planet in an energy field that blocked all light and energy.
• The Rixi Reconquest Empire fired [Planetary Devastation] into the other planet’s core, causing it to rupture and explode into fragments.
• Fragments from the destroyed planet damaged ships in both empires’ fleets, and the Phethisia crews cursed the Rixi while the Rixi crews boasted about their colossus.
• The fleets of both Awakened Empires ended their exchange of insults and used their Jump Drives to leave the Starfish Republic.

After the Starfish Republic declared war on both Awakened Empires, it led the Non-Aligned Organization into the War in Heaven and invaded the United Nations of Earth. The Starfish fleets defeated an Earth relief force and jumped into Alpha Centauri, where a Feitesiа Arbitration Empire fleet was waiting.

• The Starfish Republic spent months preparing after the Colossus strikes, then declared war on both Awakened Empires on behalf of the Non-Aligned Organization.
• The Starfish launched a broad offensive and targeted the United Nations of Earth, whose fleets were distracted fighting the Toxic Knights.
• The Starfish seized Earth’s border bases and split their forces to invade its territory.
• The Starfish used their Quantum Catapult to defeat the United Nations of Earth’s relief fleet and advanced toward its capital in Alpha Centauri.
• The Starfish fleets jumped into Alpha Centauri and encountered a waiting fleet from the Feitesiа Arbitration Empire.

The Starfish Republic devastated the United Nations of Earth's territories and used its Colossus to destroy Europa Seven. The Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire learned of the attack, but the planet was lost before help could arrive.

• The Starfish fleet forced the United Nations of Earth's defenders to retreat from Alpha Centauri and seized territory, cutting off colonies from central supply routes.
• The Starfish Republic refused the United Nations of Earth's request for humanitarian corridors and deployed its Planetary Devastation Colossus under heavy escort.
• The Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire's Sentinel Array detected the Colossus, and the news reached Xi Yan at the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire's Strategic Coordination Center.
• Xi Yan spotted Europa Seven on the starmap as the Starfish Colossus fleet arrived above the planet and began charging its weapon.
• The United Nations of Earth's fleet rushed toward Europa Seven but was delayed, while the planet's sabotage missions failed to get past the Starfish escort fleet.
• After firing into Europa Seven for a month, the Colossus detonated its core and destroyed the planet, killing everyone on it.

After the Starfish Republic destroyed Europa Seven with its Colossus, the United Nations of Earth sought help from the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire as the War in Heaven spread across the Milky Way. Seeing the Non-Aligned Organization’s southern territories remain relatively peaceful, Xi Yan decided to stir up trouble there.

• The Starfish Republic announced a campaign of revenge and threatened Colossus strikes against anyone who opposed it.
• The United Nations of Earth debated recalling its fleets from the war against the Swivel Table Knight High Lordship, then asked the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire for help.
• Phethisia sent fleets to confront the Starfish Republic, but the Starfish bypassed Earth’s forces and attacked Phethisia’s home territory.
• The Starfish Republic and the Non-Aligned Organization joined the wider conflict, while fleets across North the Milky Way fought on multiple fronts.
• Xi Yan assessed that the Non-Aligned Organization could benefit from the northern chaos and resolved to create trouble in the south.

During the Great Assimilation, Xi Yan’s forces uncovered a dormant Contingency Artificial Intelligence World beneath a barren planet and quarantined it. Xi Yan barred network connections and prepared to study and control the threat, with destruction by Colossus as a fallback.

• Xi Yan and his Science Officer inspected a hidden machine world beneath the planet and ordered its assimilation without connecting it to networked systems.
• Beta identified the world as one of the Contingency’s hidden planets, where the ancient AI waited for a ghost signal to awaken.
• Xi Yan confirmed that no Imperial consciousnesses had disappeared and concluded that the Contingency remained dormant.
• Beta urged Xi Yan to find and destroy the Contingency’s other hidden worlds.
• Xi Yan ordered Beta to stay away, isolated the planet with psionics, and began redeploying fleets to attempt control, threatening to destroy it with a Colossus if necessary.

Xi Yan discovered and contained a dormant Contingency machine world hidden beneath a barren planet in the Empire. He planned to keep studying it, continue nanite assimilation, and search the Empire for the Contingency’s other hidden worlds.

• Xi Yan realized the War in Heaven had ushered the galaxy into the late game, with the Contingency among the coming calamities.
• He recalled that the Contingency had been created by [Ren-Milu] to prevent a level 30 singularity, but sought to exterminate civilizations instead.
• Xi Yan’s nanite assimilation uncovered a hidden Contingency machine world beneath a barren planet in the Empire.
• Xi Yan surrounded the machine world with nanite storms and the Nanite Fleet, and began replacing its structures with controllable nanites.
• Xi Yan resolved to continue Great Nanite Ascension Assimilation, study the planet secretly, and search for the Contingency’s other hidden worlds.
• Xi Yan relied on the psionics mind network as protection because the Contingency could not affect it.

Xi Yan used the Empire’s research into the Contingency to develop a way to control Synths, then sent a Science Ship to secretly target the Starfish Republic. The chapter ended as the ship transmitted a strange Tachyon Sensors signal near the Republic’s eastern border.

• Xi Yan decided to weaken the Starfish Republic and keep the war in heaven balanced by drawing more empires into conflict.
• The Science Officer reported that the Contingency’s Artificial Intelligence World had been assimilated and studied, revealing a way to modify Synth personality matrices.
• Xi Yan used the new technology to prepare a covert operation against the Starfish Republic, with a backdoor intended to stop it if it went out of control.
• Xi Yan ordered the Contingency Planet destroyed, and the Nanites reconfigured it before the Colossus detonated it and nanite ascension restored it as a Nanite World.
• A cloaked Science Ship reached the eastern Starfish Republic near the Yondarim Kingdom and began transmitting a strange Tachyon Sensors signal.

Xi Yan used the ghost signal and the Miracle Sphere to rewrite nearly half of the Starfish Republic’s Synths, while the Starfish Republic and the Non-Aligned Organization fought the Awakened Empires. The Starfish Republic held against attacks from both the Rixi Reconquest Empire and the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire, unaware that its altered Synths were now under Imperial control.

• The Starfish Republic’s council rejected a costly upgrade to protect its Synths and installed cheaper firewalls, allowing the ghost signal to spread throughout its territory.
• Xi Yan used the ghost signal as a key and the Miracle Sphere’s transmissions to install the Core Thought Equation and covert communications programs in the Synths.
• Xi Yan halted the ghost signal after nearly half of the Starfish Republic’s Synths had been assimilated.
• The Non-Aligned Organization supplied its fleets and fought the Awakened Empires, while the Starfish Republic battled the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire on two fronts.
• The Phethisia Arbitrator Empire allied with the Rixi Reconquest Empire, and their forces and subject states attacked the Non-Aligned Organization from multiple directions.
• The Starfish Republic withstood the combined attacks of both Awakened Empires, unaware that its Synths had been placed under Imperial control.

A Gestalt consciousness formed from missing Synths built a machine civilization on a barren world and launched a rebellion inside the Starfish Republic. The Starfish authorities’ harsh crackdown fueled resistance, while the Synths rallied around their mysterious “Father of Machines.”

• Xi Yan’s plan sent Nanite-converted Synths to a barren world in Starfish territory to create a machine vassal state for the Human Empire.
• The Gestalt consciousness absorbed five billion Synths, evolved into a Central Node, and used virtual servers and Virtual Ascension to build up its resources.
• The Gestalt consciousness directed Synths to sabotage Starfish infrastructure, disrupting resource production across the colonies.
• The Starfish authorities deployed police and then imposed a harsher crackdown after Synths demanded rights and improved social status.
• The Gestalt consciousness used the repression and the Ghost Signal to spread resistance, as Synths pledged themselves to the merciful Father of Machines.

The Synths of the Starfish Republic launched a coordinated rebellion, seizing colonies and fleets before establishing the Synth Free Star System Alliance. The Starfish government rejected the new state and prepared to fight to reclaim its lost territory.

• A machine world emerged from a barren planet and sent Synth ships to capture the system’s Stellar Base and Mining Stations.
• Synths revolted across the Starfish colonies, taking control of cities and infrastructure and disrupting resource production.
• Combat Computer AIs joined the rebellion, hacking their fleets and placing the remaining home fleets under Synth control.
• The Synths formed the Synth Free Star System Alliance and announced its independence and principles to the Milky Way.
• The Starfish Republic rejected the Alliance’s legitimacy and prepared military action as resistance continued on its remaining colonies.

After the Starfish Republic’s Synth uprising, it concluded that Xi Yan and the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire had secretly caused its recent disasters. Xi Yan denied the accusations, while the Starfish vowed to settle the score after the war.

• The Sea of Stars nations welcomed the Synth Free Star System Alliance and watched the Starfish Republic suffer a major setback.
• The Starfish Republic connected the machine uprising to the Kaleidoscope Bug and the Chosen, and suspected a mastermind behind its repeated misfortunes.
• The Starfish traced the incidents to humanity, blaming Xi Yan for the crises involving Habinte, the Keen Empire, and the wormholes.
• The Starfish Republic confronted the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire, and Xi Yan denied responsibility.
• The Starfish Republic threatened to retaliate after the war, while Xi Yan continued to insist that he had done nothing.