Recaps

Zhang Han absorbed Roach Kagat’s hatchery and led his growing Swarm Fleet toward another star system, eager for war. On the Sapphire homeworld, Chen Hui arrived at a laboratory to examine an imprisoned Ultralisk obtained from the Antilians, hoping to communicate with an intelligent Swarm unit.

• Roach Kagat recognized Zhang Han as the resurrected Overmind and pledged his allegiance.
• Zhang Han absorbed Roach Kagat’s hatchery, combined his forces, and set out with 180,000 Swarm members for the next star system.
• Another 20,000 newly hatched Swarm members prepared to depart from the Tabi Star System as Zhang Han anticipated further expansion.
• Chen Hui left her meditation after Mentor Zhang Hua told her the laboratory’s test subject had awakened.
• Chen Hui entered the laboratory, where an immobilized Ultralisk that the Antilians had traded to the Sapphire Civilization awaited her.

Chen Hui led the Sapphire researchers in attempting to establish communication with the Devouring Swarm, warning them that the war was turning against the Milky Way civilizations. With previous methods failing, the chapter left her determined to find a way to understand the Swarm and open a path to peace.

• The Sapphire researchers gathered specimens of Swarm Units, including an Ultralisk held in stasis, for their studies.
• Chen Hui offered the researchers a chance to withdraw, but Zhang Hua and the others chose to support her research despite the risks to their reputations.
• Chen Hui warned that the Swarm was evolving to counter their forces, the war's loss ratios were worsening, and the Shroud refused to guide psionics users about it.
• The researchers reviewed how pheromone studies had revealed only a supplementary communication method, while psionic communication proved complex and Swarm Units refused to cooperate.
• Chen Hui ordered the experiment to begin and remained determined to find a way for the Sapphire Civilization to communicate with the Swarm.

Chen Hui struggled to get information from the captive Ultralisk until Zhang Hua brought her evidence that Swarm creatures obeyed a primitive world's native girl. When Chen Hui showed the images to the Ultralisk, it reacted violently, giving her hope that it might communicate with the Sapphire Civilization.

• Chen Hui confronted the silent Ultralisk, questioning why the Swarm chose slaughter instead of cooperation.
• Zhang Hua told Chen Hui that inspectors had detained a missing cargo ship's pilot, who claimed Swarm creatures obeyed his younger sister.
• Chen Hui watched the pilot's memories, which showed a white-haired girl guarded by Swarm units and treated as their leader.
• Chen Hui showed the images to the Ultralisk, which struggled violently inside the stasis field.
• Chen Hui urged the Ultralisk to communicate, believing its reaction showed that cooperation might be possible.

Chen Hui discovered that the Ultralisk recognized the planet in George’s memories and decided to lead an expedition there, despite the risks to her civilization. As Chen Hui prepared to depart with three fleets and George, the Ultralisk regretted revealing its connection to the planet and feared the expedition would endanger the Overmind.

• The Ultralisk reacted to footage of George’s homeworld, and Chen Hui realized it recognized the planet before it pretended to sleep.
• Chen Hui questioned George about Chloe and the Swarm, then insisted to Zhang Hua that they investigate the planet despite his warnings.
• Chen Hui persuaded the Civilization Leader to let her accompany three fleets, surrendered her company and assets, and secured permission to bring her team and George.
• On the night before departure, Chen Hui recorded her research and told the Ultralisk about the expedition.
• The Ultralisk feared the thirty thousand warships could threaten the Overmind and resolved to act before the situation worsened.

Chen Hui agreed to bring Nalga to the remote planet after it warned that the trip could threaten peace, while Nalga offered the Sapphire Civilization an advanced theory to delay its plans. On Tabi Star, Chloe welcomed the newly hatched Queen Typhon and checked that her mind and memories were stable.

• Chen Hui learned that the Ultralisk had no name, named it Nalga, and agreed to arrange for it to accompany the expedition.
• Nalga resolved to protect the Overmind and gave Chen Hui a theory that could lead the Sapphire fleet to a nearby natural antimatter deposit, hoping to buy time.
• Chen Hui connected to the Central Academy of Sciences' supercomputer to verify Nalga's equations, then left the laboratory to investigate them.
• On Tabi Star, Chloe saw the Level Four Hatchery finish hatching and met Queen Typhon.
• Chloe congratulated Typhon and asked whether her memories and mind were stable.

Chloe assigned Typhon work at the Giant Hatchery and Dyson Membrane, then heard Ika’s report on the growing churches across the Four Kingdoms. She offered Ika a Neural Thorn upgrade and, as Ika accepted, had Kamu take her to a Hatchery for modification.

• Chloe gave Typhon a choice between developing geothermal projects in Gale Valley and coordinating work at the Giant Hatchery on the moon, then ordered her to go to the moon and forbid her from killing or eating people without permission.
• Chloe went to meet Ika, who reported that churches dedicated to the Four-Winged Dragon God had spread through the Four Kingdoms, adapting the god’s role to each region’s customs.
• Chloe grew impatient with Ika’s lengthy report and offered to have Kamu modify her with a high-efficiency Neural Thorn that would strengthen her psionic abilities.
• Ika eagerly accepted the reward, and Chloe contacted Kamu, who seized Ika and pulled her toward a nearby Hatchery.

Chloe considered how the Empire could support the Swarm without wasting magic crystals or sacrificing ordinary people, then rejected an imperial emblem in favor of the Four-Winged Dragon God's symbols. She left Tanglade and the Council with the order that the Empire belonged to the god and that all Council members must join the Church.

• Chloe told Kamu she would collect the Empire's magic crystals for the Hatchery, while seeking a way to protect people whose livelihoods depended on the crystal industries.
• Erika informed Chloe that Acting Speaker Donald had requested an audience about the Empire's political structure, and Chloe invited Tanglade in.
• Tanglade presented a painting of Chloe as a proposed imperial flag and emblem, but Chloe said it represented only the imperial family and ordered the Empire to use the Church's flag and emblem.
• Tanglade warned Chloe that using the Church's emblem could reignite conflict between religious and imperial authority, but Chloe ordered every Council member to become a believer.
• Chloe told Donald that everyone, from beggar to emperor, had to serve the Four-Winged Dragon God and that they could defy her but not the god.

Chloe reorganized the Human Kingdom into the Darom Empire and planned to develop it using Swarm technology rather than building a technological base from scratch. Meanwhile, Zhang Han’s Swarm Fleet reached a heavily defended Hatchery and began a costly assault on its asteroid fortifications.

• Chloe ordered Donald to shut down magic crystal businesses, send unemployed workers to the mines, and keep the Empire stable while its crystals went to the Hatchery.
• Chloe concluded that the Empire could use Swarm technology without understanding how it worked, then named the new state the Darom Empire.
• Zhang Han’s two-hundred-thousand-strong fleet reached the second Hyperspace Route’s exit, where mines, asteroids, and defensive forces prevented most of his ships from entering normal space.
• Zhang Han discovered that the defending Hatchery’s logical consciousness was protected beneath a lava planet and ordered his available ships to attack an asteroid fortress.
• Zhang Han sent Fang Warships crashing into the asteroid and landed Spore Cysts, but the defenders on the other asteroid attacked his fleet’s flank as his losses mounted.

Zhang Han committed his elite Swarm fleet to a direct assault on the defending Hatchery’s weakest point, accepting heavy losses to break its terrain advantage. The defenders struggled to stop the elite force as the two Swarms’ strongest units clashed.

• Zhang Han reviewed the battle’s heavy losses and concluded that continuing the current attack could cost him at least eighty thousand Swarm ships.
• Zhang Han chose to lead a direct charge, using his nearly immortal body and ability to locate the Hatchery’s Logical Consciousness, then optimized the plan until the Swarm Network’s worried thoughts eased.
• Zhang Han sent five thousand elite Swarm ships, including Leviathans, Devourers, and Nether Bugs, into battle, and his fleet charged the defenders’ weakest point.
• The defenders widened the battle and dispatched their own Leviathans and Devourers to reinforce the threatened position.
• Zhang Han’s ten-thousand-ship vanguard was wiped out after costing the defenders fifteen thousand ships, while both sides’ elite fleets began fighting at close range.
• The defending Hatchery committed its entire fleet but still failed to stop Zhang Han’s elite force, whose superior quality overwhelmed the defenders.

Zhang Han launched a surprise assault on the defensive Hatchery, destroying its surface defenses before drilling underground to confront its Logic Cerebrate. The Cerebrate refused to recognize him as the Overmind and challenged him to a contest of psionic strength.

• Zhang Han used Swarm Leviathans and a Gigaton Cannon to breach the defensive line, then fired himself toward the primary planet as a shell.
• Zhang Han warped to the lava planet and crashed into its Hatchery, destroying it but failing to reach the target beneath the reinforced crust.
• Zhang Han fought off attacking Swarm Units with a Psionic Storm and drilled through the rock to reach the Logic Cerebrate.
• The Logic Cerebrate told Zhang Han it had anchored its consciousness in the Swarm Network and would not surrender because it believed he was only an Overmind fragment.
• Zhang Han claimed he was the resurrected Overmind, but the Cerebrate still rejected him and proposed a contest of psionic strength.
• Zhang Han attacked the Cerebrate’s psionic tendrils in the domain of consciousness.

Zhang Han planned to use the Cerebrate’s psionic skill to disguise a surprise attack on Kagar’s powerful Swarm. Meanwhile, Wendak brought a Shroud weapon to the Death Cult’s homeworld, Ascension Tower, where the escort fleet received the Xeloran ships.

• Zhang Han connected through the Swarm network to Isha and learned that production had increased across the Swarm’s star systems.
• Zhang Han chose Kagar, who controlled three star systems and a fleet of 400,000 to 500,000 ships, as his next target.
• Zhang Han planned to mass-produce troops, deceive the Swarm’s psionic detection, and surprise Kagar by seizing his core node.
• More than a hundred Xeloran ships emerged from hyperspace in the Death Cult’s home system, the Land of the Dead.
• Wendak carried a Shroud weapon to Ascension Tower, where the Death Cult’s escort fleet guided the Xeloran fleet into orbit.

Archon Wendak arrived on the Death Cult’s Homeworld to negotiate the use of the Shroud weapon with High Priest Zulaman. Their talks began with Wendak insisting that Xeloran experts control the weapon while the Cult supplied souls, leaving Zulaman displeased.

• A Xeloran Undead received Wendak and explained that Zulaman was overseeing an ascension ceremony.
• Wendak rejected a comfortable detour and demanded to meet Zulaman, emphasizing the importance of the Shroud weapon and bringing two elite guards with its case.
• Wendak’s aircraft passed the Conversion Tower, where Zulaman watched crowds enter to become Undead before preparing to welcome the Archon.
• Wendak and Zulaman met without warmth and entered a conference room to discuss the Shroud weapon.
• Wendak demanded that Xeloran scientists and psionics users operate the weapon under his supervision, while the Death Cult supplied souls, and Zulaman’s face darkened.

Wendak and Zulaman prepared to activate the Shroud weapon beneath the Ascension Tower, where Zulaman revealed that a vast population of intelligent rats supplied the souls it required. The Xelorans began charging the weapon, leaving Zulaman contemptuous of its unassuming appearance.

• Zulaman objected to Wendak’s plan to keep the Death Cult from studying the Shroud weapon, and Wendak offered the cult access and technical support after its use.
• Three days later, Zulaman led Wendak and the Xeloran team deep beneath the Ascension Tower to prepare the activation.
• Zulaman explained that the weapon’s expanded strike area required ten million Xeloran souls and asked Wendak’s team to probe the pit below with psionics.
• A Xeloran soldier and Wendak saw the pit swarming with intelligent, ravenous rats, which Zulaman said the Death Cult used as a source of souls.
• Wendak ordered the scientists and psionic team to begin preparations, and the Xelorans poured their power into the Shroud weapon, a plain purple sphere.

The Xelorans activated the Shroud weapon, which unleashed a psionic attack that struck both Zhang Han’s Overmind Consciousness and Humanity Consciousness. Isha began rebuilding Humanity Zhang Han’s shattered consciousness while Chloe was occupied with plans for the Empire and its church.

• The Xelorans used the Shroud to drain the cave’s rats and completed the ritual, activating the weapon as Zulaman watched in terror.
• The Shroud sent a psionic shock across the star system, and the Overmind Zhang Han endured the attack behind defenses made from Cellular Nanobots and the Swarm Network’s Psionic Power.
• The defense protected Zhang Han, but two million ground-based Warrior Bugs lost their minds, and Zhang Han vowed revenge on the Shroud.
• The attack shattered Humanity Zhang Han’s consciousness while he played League of Legends, so Isha used Swarm computing power and Psionic Threads to begin restoring him.
• Isha contacted Chloe for help, while Chloe met Four-Winged Dragon God Church leaders in the imperial palace and planned to promote Flesh Technology through the Hatcheries.

Chloe ordered the Darom Empire’s church to prepare large numbers of people for integration into the Zerg Network, then joined Typhon and other powerful psionic nodes to splice the Overmind’s shattered consciousness. She recovered two memories, including one that revealed the name Zhang Han, before continuing into the next fragment.

• Chloe silenced a priest who objected to the Swarm’s flesh technology and ordered Ika to carry out the Cerebrate’s plan, granting Emil authority over life and death in the Darom Empire.
• Chloe traveled to the Hatchery and learned that Typhon had been brought back to help splice the Overmind’s consciousness fragments.
• Chloe connected to the Giant Cerebrate and entered Zhang Han’s first consciousness fragment, watching him confess his feelings to a childhood friend.
• Chloe realized that the girl’s memory revealed the name of one of the Overmind’s incarnations and decided that the memories must be erased after the fragments were joined.
• Chloe entered a second fragment and watched the Overmind direct a Leviathan and the Swarm’s consumption fleet to strip a blue planet down to bare rock.

Chloe uncovered an intimate memory of the Overmind while the Swarm organized the reconstruction of his shattered consciousness through a vast network of Neural Thorn implants. As Isha reassured herself that the Clone could be restored, Zhang Han ended communications and focused the Swarm's energy on hatching its fleet and preparing to unite against the Stellaris Council.

• Chloe found a memory in which the Overmind's mortal incarnation watched a girl boast about winning Zhang Han's confession, and she decided to keep the memory secret.
• Ika ordered Emil to make influential people accept Neural Thorn implants and join the network, giving her the Queen's authorization.
• Emil endured the Neural Thorn's painful installation, discovered she could wield psionic energy as a Psionics Mage, and led the Highlanders Cavalry in receiving implants.
• Across all four countries, people were connected to the network and assembled small Consciousness Fragments, which Cerebrates checked before passing larger sections to Chloe and the other Nodes.
• Isha promised to restore the Overmind's Clone and sent Zhang Han progress reports; Zhang Han stopped mental amplification and communications to reserve energy for hatching the Swarm Fleet and pursuing revenge on the Stellaris Council.

Wendak left the Ascension Tower uneasy about the growing crisis among the major civilizations, while Humanity Zhang Han awakened in a strange, multicolored realm and learned he was a projection of consciousness protecting future possibilities. Zhang Han remained confused about the realm and the forces that had saved him.

• Wendak learned that the Antilians had captured a warship suspected of sending the mysterious signal, but he could not determine what the ambassador knew.
• Wendak ordered the Xeloran fleet to hurry toward the Silicate Alliance headquarters, worrying that civilizations were preparing costly trump cards for an approaching crisis.
• Humanity Zhang Han awoke in a multicolored space, where phantom rats gnawed at his mist-like body.
• A red force empowered Zhang Han, and he drove off the rats before crushing the last one and condemning its kind to eternal hunger.
• A green force restored Zhang Han, and a blue force revealed that the realm was the Origin, or Transdimension, and that Zhang Han was a projection of consciousness protecting future possibilities.
• Zhang Han thanked the colored forces but remained confused when they said he was incomplete and had to wait for the right time.

Zhang Han abandoned his planned buildup and prepared to attack early, while a new threat grew beneath the Death Cult's homeworld. He set a trap using Kagat's reputation, and Kagar's fleet was caught off guard by Kagat's psionics shield.

• Zhang Han's human consciousness began to sink after the kaleidoscopic world rejected him, while Isha continued trying to repair it.
• Mutated Undead rats emerged from a heap of corpses beneath the Death Cult's Ascension Tower and began feeding and multiplying.
• With Isha diverting computing power and fleet production falling, Zhang Han chose to attack with three hundred fifty thousand Swarm Fleet instead of waiting until he had five hundred thousand.
• Zhang Han planned to make Kagat's reputation the key to a more subtle attack on the three star systems along the Hyperspace Route.
• Kagar sent his five-hundred-thousand-strong Swarm Fleet to intercept Kagat's approaching fleet, but a psionics shield blocked most of the incoming fire.

Kagar pursued Kagat after mistaking his retreat for a challenge, leading a three-hundred-thousand-strong fleet toward a trap Zhang Han had prepared. Meanwhile, Johnny learned that Joey had brought no message from the Overmind and discovered that Mengka’s men had only been brainwashed, leaving him intent on killing them.

• Kagar struggled to defeat Kagat’s smaller fleet, which used Ghost Bugs’ increasingly skilled psionics to inflict heavy losses before retreating.
• Kagat taunted Kagar and withdrew, and Kagar concluded that Kagat had staged the battle to make him look incompetent to Zagara.
• After the Cerebrates weighed the risks, Kagar led three hundred thousand Swarm forces toward Kagat’s star system, where Zhang Han had hidden a three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-strong fleet to ambush him.
• Johnny met Joey and Terrell at the Coiled Serpent System spaceport and asked whether the pirate leader had sent a message, but Joey said the pirates had only taken supplies.
• Johnny inspected Mengka’s attendants, found that the Swarm had altered their memories rather than infected and modified them, and began to consider killing them.

Johnny sent Joey and Terrell away with money and Mimic eggs, then began preparing the Four-Armed Serpent God Church to start a revolution on Giant Serpent Star. Two days later, Mengka confronted Johnny after the Church’s leader delivered a viral speech against the company and its exploitation of the Slakks.

• Johnny’s transformed followers killed Mengka’s gunmen, and he decided to ask Joey and Terrell for help without infecting them himself.
• Joey and Terrell left Giant Serpent Star with twenty million Energy Credits each, unaware they had mental suggestions and Mimic eggs that Johnny intended to spread.
• Johnny moved his followers to the Church’s central location and accelerated plans to ignite a revolution.
• A viral video showed a purple Slarkan condemning inequality and accusing the company of stealing the workers’ labor.
• Mengka destroyed the projection equipment and accused Johnny of letting the Church incite unrest, while Johnny pointed out that Mengka had refused his requests for weapons.

Dr. Mengka ordered Johnny to burn the slums and kill the Archbishop, while Johnny accepted the mission knowing Mengka was doomed. As the assault turned the slums into a sea of fire, the Four-Armed Snake God Church's trained believers appeared and began damaging the attackers’ combat robots.

• Dr. Mengka gave Johnny weapons support and a mechanized battalion, ordering him to burn the slums and find the Archbishop.
• Johnny led regular troops and mercenaries as they attacked the slums with incendiary bombs enhanced by Catalyst No. 3.
• Slum residents fought back with small arms, but combat robots and mercenaries slaughtered them.
• Believers of the Four-Armed Snake God Church arrived in religious garments and used laser emitters and rockets to damage combat robots.
• The mercenaries alerted the regular troops to help resist the church believers.

Johnny’s forces fought the mechanized battalion and mercenaries, but the Four-Armed Snake God Church’s hidden troops and improvised particle cannons turned the battle in their favor. As the Church launched its assault and the enemy’s reinforcements failed to arrive, Johnny fled by aircraft.

• Johnny’s Church troops ambushed the mechanized battalion and mercenaries, using hidden tunnels, EMP bombs, and crude rockets to inflict early losses.
• The battalion’s mechs destroyed the rockets and battered the Church’s troops, prompting Johnny to consider a retreat, but the Swarm Consciousness resisted his order.
• A worker revealed that he and his fellow workers had converted two stolen particle engines into cannons, and Johnny provided targeting guidance.
• The particle cannons pierced the battalion’s mechs, while its commander’s request for aerospace support was denied because of the risk and lack of funding.
• Johnny boarded an aircraft and fled as the Church opened its tunnels and launched an all-out assault with its Chosen Warriors.

Johnny’s broadcast helped ignite a worldwide uprising against the Giant Snake Corporation, while his Chosen Warriors seized most of the system’s defense fleet. Doctor Mengka realized the corporation’s forces were collapsing, and the chapter ended as a damaged Cruiser Five charged a loyalist warship.

• Johnny broadcast footage of the Slums’ destruction and called on Slarkans to overthrow the Giant Snake Corporation in the name of the Four-Armed Serpent God.
• Johnny escaped the battlefield as his broadcast spread worldwide, sparking rebellion and drawing millions of oppressed people into the uprising.
• Doctor Mengka watched Nevernight City burn and learned that the defense fleet could not be dispatched because rebellion had spread aboard its ships.
• Chosen Warriors hidden among fleet supplies attacked from within, disabling most of the three hundred warships.
• A loyalist captain tried to flee toward Space Station Two, but Cruiser Five charged his ship under the control of a wounded Chosen Warrior.

The uprising destroyed the Giant Snake Corporation’s defenses and brought down its rule over the Slarkans. Johnny killed Mengka, declared the planet and its civilization part of the Swarm, and led the cheering crowd in a pledge to the Four-Armed Serpent God.

• The rebel forces used the swarm network and communications jammers to overwhelm the corporation’s police and isolate the Giant Serpent Tower.
• Mengka hid in his suite after his attempted escape failed, then faced Johnny, who revealed his allegiance to the Four-Armed Snake God Church.
• Johnny used his mimic abilities to evade Mengka’s lasers, impaled him, and tortured him while naming the people harmed by Mengka and the corporation.
• Johnny attached explosives to Mengka, left a time bomb, and departed as the top of the Giant Serpent Tower exploded.
• Johnny told the assembled Slarkans that their planet and civilization belonged to the Swarm, then called for the Four-Armed Serpent God as the crowd joined him.

Hydralisk Kagar invaded Roach Kagat’s system with a much larger Swarm Fleet, expecting an easy victory, but Kagat’s defenses and new units inflicted devastating losses on the first ground assault. Kagar watched his forces being routed and struggled to understand how Kagat had become so powerful.

• Kagar brought three hundred thousand Swarm vessels into Kagat’s system and sent most of them toward the planet where Kagat’s eighty thousand vessels were defending.
• Kagat ordered his fleet into the atmosphere and spread gray fog spores, while Kagar surrounded the planet and began blind bombardment.
• After an hour of fire, Kagar dropped twenty million Warrior Bugs onto the planet despite its heavy antiaircraft defenses.
• Kagat used terrain, Defilers, Ghost Bugs, and psionic abilities to overwhelm Kagar’s Hydralisks and Warrior Bugs, suffering far fewer casualties.
• Kagar watched the battle through the Swarm Network and was stunned by the scale of his forces’ defeat.