Recaps

Zhang Han restored his consciousness, defended Tabi Star, and fought Zagara’s forces while the Shroud’s growing influence strengthened the Swarm at a cost. The story left Zhang Han’s conflict ongoing as Sophia’s Church claimed a planet for the Dark Prince and Teresa faced a test in the Shroud.

• The Evans and their allies fought off the Swarm’s invasion until Christina arrived with the Evans and Anfenli fleets, rescued survivors, and drove the Cerebrate clone into retreat.
• Zhang Han battled Zagara near a neutron star, escaped through Hyperspace, and learned that she had sent 1.5 million Swarm vessels through a Stargate after him.
• Erika’s final Consciousness Fragment restored Zhang Han’s memories, and he learned from her and Isha how the Swarm had rebuilt him and expanded while he was gone.
• Zhang Han defended Tabi Star against the Sapphire fleet, negotiated with Chen Hui for antimatter, opened a wormhole to Cadian, and freed Nalga from the field trapping her.
• Zhang Han’s forces fought Zagara’s fleets at Cadian as Chloe’s psionically empowered fleet defeated Zair, while Moras killed Zair and concealed the murder.
• Abaddon warned Zhang Han that the Shroud was pressing against the real universe and that using its strengthened psionic power too often would accelerate its expansion.
• Sophia’s Church defeated the God of War Church in a contest for a planet, then captured its people and sacrificed them to the Dark Prince.
• Teresa entered the Shroud and endured a test of desire as a strange voice warned her that her younger distant cousin’s survival after contact with the Overmind was no guarantee.

Zhang Han expanded the Swarm and launched a campaign against Zagara while the Skaven began devouring worlds and Laplace revealed the Swarm’s origins. As the fronts shifted, Rita encountered a terrorist attack by the Judas Eagles.

• Teresa resisted the Shroud’s temptation, claimed a Shroud Crystal marked by three gods, and prepared a manifestation ritual with Prelate Sun Yun.
• Zhang Han’s fleet suffered heavy losses to Zagara, retreated after her Gravity Ships devastated Cadian, and regrouped with reinforcements while probing the fortified Stargate at Neutron Star.
• Johnny rallied leaders from twenty civilizations to build fleets for the Doomsday Church and attack the Evans, while Christina and Gupi prepared Princess Liliya to preserve the fairies’ future.
• Aike launched the ratmen’s Grand Plan, and the Skaven destroyed the Death Cult’s homeworld before their Demon Capital emerged in a new system.
• Zhang Han welcomed Laplace back to the Swarm and learned how Laplace created the Swarm Network to unite races against the Light Giants.
• Zhang Han and Kundera joined forces against Zagara, while Zhang Han’s assault on Gult’s twin systems inflicted heavy losses but was halted by a War Hatchery.
• Moras failed to trap Chloe and Stars, while Rita responded to a Customs attack and identified the armed terrorists as Judas Eagles.

The Doomsday Church and the Swarm shattered the Libra Sector’s coalition, while Zhang Han’s psionic avatars helped his forces defeat Zagara’s commanders. Zagara began retreating toward the Libra Sector as Chloe and Stars pressed their attacks on her rear.

• Rita survived a terrorist attack, then awoke from surgery to learn the Swarm had resumed its assaults and was tasked with interrogating a captured cultist before Morgor soldiers freed him.
• The Doomsday Church joined the Swarm in crushing the combined fleet, and Christina’s forces fell at Blonda as Zhang Han and the Overmind considered how to contain the Shroud’s influence.
• Stars became the Goddess of Myriad Stars, used her psionic power to destroy Moras’s encirclement, and helped Zhang Han expand his campaign against Gult.
• Zhang Han captured Gult’s Meteorite Fortresses while Zagara sent reinforcements and prepared a risky plan, but Kundera’s counteroffensive trapped his own fleet at Kaimat V.
• Zagara abandoned her plans to defeat Kundera and chose to retreat toward the Libra Sector, ordering Moras and the other Queens to secure her route while Gult continued fighting Zhang Han.
• Moras and her sisters feigned a rescue mission at Moor III, where Queen One sent Overlords toward Gult before Chloe and Stars sprang their attack.
• Chloe invoked the Four-Winged Dragon God and routed Queen One’s defenders, while Queen One withdrew and ordered her fleet to cover her retreat.