Chapter Summaries

The Randallan fleet arrived at a vast Ringworld and traded its cargo with the protection protocol, which offered alloys and advanced technology. Unsure how to choose an exchange that would help his civilization in time, Meta asked the protocol for advice.

• The Randallans emerged from the wormhole and found a binary system filled with Ringworlds, Machine Worlds, and immense fleets of Titan-class Warships.
• Two Titan-class Warships escorted the Randallan fleet into a Ringworld, where curious residents gathered to watch them disembark.
• Meta authenticated the fleet’s access code and offered its cargo of rare resources in exchange for alloys and technology.
• After reviewing the protocol’s proposed technologies and alloy exchange, Meta struggled to choose and contacted his home nation, which had no clear answer.
• When the protection protocol called to ask what the Randallans wanted, Meta asked it for counsel, and it agreed to share its experience.

Meta failed to persuade the Holy Guardianship to aid the Milky Way against the Devouring Swarm, though he secured three Titan-class Warships for the Randallans. As Abaddon’s fleet approached a small system with a Hatchery, Zhang Han remained unaware of the danger while Skadi completed her modifications.

• Meta asked the Holy Guardianship how the Milky Way could survive the Swarm, but its Central Processing Unit predicted defeat and refused to intervene.
• Meta argued that the Swarm threatened all life, but the Holy Guardianship said it would preserve both species and welcomed the possibility of the Swarm surpassing it.
• The Randallans departed with three Titan-class Warships, while Meta withdrew in despair and Gufu eagerly considered becoming a warship captain.
• A radar operator overlooked a trace from Abaddon’s Swarm fleet as it traveled through the Hyperspace Routes toward a remote system.
• Abaddon’s scouting Cerebrate found a small star system with psionic fluctuations from a Hatchery, which Abaddon planned to devour and use as a base.
• Zhang Han spoke with Skadi after her modifications restored her bloodline, gave her bony wings and a Neural Thorn, and greatly increased her Psionic Power.

Skadi warned Zhang Han that piercing Tabi Star’s turbulent Psionics Sea to reach the Shroud was dangerous, but Zhang Han prepared to try anyway. He abandoned the attempt after Overmind Zhang Han urgently warned that the Shroud was malicious and far more dangerous than they had expected.

• Skadi told Zhang Han that the Psionics Tide prevented her from connecting to the Shroud and advised waiting until it settled before researching further.
• Zhang Han questioned Skadi’s loyalty after she recommended caution, and Skadi began cutting herself apart until he ordered her to stop.
• Zhang Han gathered the psionic power of nearly ten million Swarm units and prepared to pierce the Psionics Sea.
• Overmind Zhang Han sent an urgent warning not to contact the Shroud, and Zhang Han immediately dispersed the gathered psionic power.
• Overmind Zhang Han said the Shroud had detected him beyond the second expansion system, possessed immense power and malice, and manifested physically as the supermassive black hole at the galactic center.

Zhang Han expanded the Swarm’s forces and defenses as his unease grew, then learned that a fleet of up to a hundred thousand ships would reach Tabi Star in three days. Meanwhile, a robot crew following a mysterious signal approached a planet covered in machinery.

• Zhang Han halted some resource extraction, redirected the Swarm toward troop production, and created a winged Defiler with three combat abilities.
• Zhang Han let the Star Eaters consume stored Dyson Membrane energy and spent ten days rapidly increasing the Swarm’s strength.
• A reconnaissance Cerebrate detected high-mass objects approaching through the Hyperspace Route and warned Zhang Han that a fleet of up to a hundred thousand would arrive in three days.
• A damaged spacecraft crewed by varied robots followed a mysterious radio signal through space.
• The robot crew reached a bare red-and-brown planet whose surface was covered in factories, pipelines, and roads.

A mechanical planet awakened and its core prepared a Milky Way cleansing plan despite fatal program errors. On God of War Star, Kunmao and Yanren discussed the dangers facing the Empire before a serving girl challenged them over the hardships ordinary Antilians endured.

• The mechanical planet powered up as battered ships approached, and its intelligence core decided to initiate the cleansing plan despite rising failure risks.
• Kunmao and Yanren drank on leave and discussed their losses, their difficulty living without Powered Armor, and reports of Synthetics secretly building ships.
• A serving girl asked whether the Super Soldiers were immortal, and Kunmao explained that they were not invincible.
• The serving girl asked to join the military, but Yanren doubted her prospects and Kunmao warned her that soldiers could die in war.
• The serving girl argued that hunger, disease, poverty, and heavy taxes also harmed ordinary people, then broke down crying.

Joey and Johnny negotiated with Dr. Mengka in the Coiled Serpent System to sell their potions and secure legal arms-trading access. Mengka agreed to a contract and demanded to join their next shipment, while Yanren and Kunmao received emergency orders elsewhere.

• Yanren and Kunmao received an emergency recall and left the restaurant after Yanren comforted the weeping maid.
• Joey showed Dr. Mengka a red potion, and Mengka described its effects while raising concerns about its unknown ingredients and legal risks.
• Joey argued that the potion had already improved ten patients, and Johnny offered Mengka another ten percent of the profits.
• Johnny demanded an arms-trading permit and offered a blue potion that could extend life by five to ten years.
• Mengka caught the blue potion, revealed his interest in buying more at up to a hundred times the red potion's price, and demanded to join the next shipment.
• Mengka summoned armed Slarkan warriors to escort Joey and his companions to sign the contract and collect their money.

Johnny stopped to question three Slarkan vagrants and learned how corporate power had cost them their homes, savings, and livelihoods. Joey ended their accounts by telling them that hard work would never make them rich.

• Joey complained that Johnny had sold their shipment too cheaply, while Terrell warned that Joey wanted to gamble their money.
• Johnny left the car and used his psionics to stop a security guard from driving three Slarkan vagrants away.
• Johnny brought the vagrants into a restaurant and paid for an expensive meal so they would tell him their stories.
• The first Slarkan described losing his ancestral land and restaurant to a corporation, the second described losing money in stocks, and the third described his factory being seized after false claims about its products.
• Joey told the vagrants that they had to overcome their instinct to work if they wanted to earn Energy Credits.

Johnny exploited the Slarkans’ poverty and resentment to build a following in the Coiled Serpent System. He incited them against the corporation, then offered drinks containing Infestors as holy water in the name of the Overmind.

• After hearing about the Slarkans’ hardship, Johnny decided to recruit the desperate and use them to expand the Swarm’s influence.
• Joey and Terrell left the Coiled Serpent System with Mengka’s men, while Johnny stayed behind to establish a gang under the Giant Snake Corporation.
• Johnny addressed a gathering of lower-class Slarkans and blamed the corporation for their poverty, stirring the crowd to anger.
• Johnny called for the crowd to follow the Overmind and presented drinks filled with Infestors as holy water.

Johnny established the Four-Armed Serpent God as the faith of the Infestor-infected Slarkans and organized their growing church. After directing its leaders and reporting to Mengka as Purple Fox, he positioned himself to control both the church and his gang.

• Johnny gave the gathered Slarkans Sweet-Scented Porridge, then led them in worship before a statue of the Four-Armed Serpent God.
• The Infestors gently influenced the Slarkans, and an hour of prayer made those present devoted believers whom Johnny could use as a peripheral Swarm network.
• Cook reported that the church was short on food and funds, while Worker described support from former coworkers and proposals for an armed workers’ organization.
• Johnny told Worker to slow recruitment and avoid focusing solely on violent rebellion, and reassured Student that his knowledge came from the Four-Armed Serpent God.
• Johnny arranged church affairs, resumed Purple Fox’s appearance, and asked Mengka to let his gang handle the religious group in the Lower City while reporting its growth and profits.

Zhang Han led his Swarm Fleet against a vastly larger hostile Swarm emerging from the Tabi Star Hyperspace Route. After the enemy’s numbers overwhelmed his defenses, he entered the fray as the Ether Drake and unleashed a Psionic Storm that destroyed more than half the Mutalisks, leaving the battle ongoing.

• Zhang Han positioned his thirty-five-thousand-strong Swarm Fleet and two hundred Star Eaters at the hyperspace exit to face the approaching Swarm.
• Zhang Han’s psionic Corruptors destroyed five thousand hostile Fang Warships, but Swarm Leviathans and the rest of the enemy fleet pushed through the exit.
• Zhang Han ordered Isha to command the Swarm Fleet while he joined the battle in the Ether Drake.
• Zhang Han drew on the psionic power of more than twenty million Swarm units and cast Psionic Storm among the Mutalisks.
• Zhang Han’s storm destroyed more than half the Mutalisks and inflicted heavy casualties on the Scourge.

Zhang Han and Isha fought Abaddon's Swarm Fleet in a brutal battle of attrition, but their smaller force gradually lost ground despite Zhang Han's powerful psionic attack and Isha's tactics. Zhang Han committed his Leviathans to hold the line as Abaddon reorganized his fleet and prepared to press his advantage.

• Zhang Han stitched together a hundred Psionic Storms, killing fragile Mutalisks and Scourge and creating an opening for Isha's Fang Warships to attack.
• Isha sent her Fang Warships charging into Abaddon's fleet and moved the exhausted Zhang Han to the rear while the Swarm forces on both sides exchanged heavy losses.
• After the initial charge weakened, Abaddon reorganized his fleet and replenished its losses from hyperspace, while Zhang Han's fleet lost eight thousand ships.
• Abaddon judged that Zhang Han's Hatchery had prioritized development over numbers and decided he could win the battle.
• As Zhang Han's frontline weakened, he brought two hundred Star Eaters and his Ether Drake forward, but their slow attacks proved inefficient against the huge enemy fleet.
• Zhang Han's Leviathans blocked the enemy Fang Warships and stabilized the front line.

Zhang Han led the Star Eaters and the Ether Drake in a desperate fight against Abaddon’s invading Swarm Fleet, despite overwhelming losses. As Abaddon prepared to capture the Ether Drake and seize the star system’s core Hatchery, Zhang Han charged into the enemy formation to attack its Brood Lords.

• Zhang Han held the front with the Star Eaters for two hours, destroying hundreds of Swarm Leviathans before the defenders’ line collapsed.
• Abaddon sent fifty Swarm Leviathans to surround the Ether Drake, which Zhang Han controlled, and their bombardment grievously wounded it.
• Zhang Han refused Isha’s plea to abandon the Ether Drake, restored its body with psionic energy, and killed a Swarm Leviathan with Chainswords.
• Isha supported Zhang Han with Psionics Hatcheries and Scourges, but he chose to attack the enemy Brood Lords rather than return to the disordered Swarm Fleet.
• Abaddon sent a thousand vessels to try to capture the Ether Drake alive and dispatched a landing fleet to locate and occupy the core Hatchery.

Abaddon's Swarm fleet attacked Tabi Star, but Chloe's forces fought back fiercely in Death Forest while the invasion's scattered Spore Cysts devastated other regions. In Abundant City, Jonathan and the kingdom leaders witnessed the attack, and Emil rallied them to fight alongside Chloe's Swarm.

• Abaddon's Swarm fleet entered orbit and launched waves of Spore Cysts, while the Giant Cerebrate destroyed many Brood Lords and Overlords with Psionics Shocks.
• Chloe commanded Zhang Han's forces in Death Forest as Spore Towers destroyed most incoming Spore Cysts and ground troops overwhelmed the Warrior Bugs that landed.
• Abaddon's scattered Spore Cysts brought slaughter across Tabi Star, with the Altia Empire and Nishang City suffering especially badly.
• Jonathan and the political leaders gathered in the Auklai Empire learned of the invasion when a Spore Cyst struck Abundant City and released Warrior Bugs.
• The palace's Guardians, Zerglings, and Needle Crawlers fought the attackers, and Emil took her spear and rode toward the barracks to rally the mortals.

Chloe struggled to command the defense against Abaddon's landing Swarm, but Isha's help and the Defilers' abilities turned the battle in her favor. Chloe's forces gained a major advantage and destroyed the Corruptors sent to support the landing, while she planned to recommend more Giant Cerebrates if they held Tabi Star.

• Jonathan ordered the Empire's military forces to follow the Empress's kin and fight the newly appeared Swarm Monsters, and Lister obeyed.
• Chloe's mistakes let Abaddon's landing forces unite, and her Swarm surrounded them as bloody fighting spread across the surface and underground.
• Isha returned to help Chloe command, and the Defilers' gray and Blood Mist Insects disrupted Abaddon's ranged units and tore through its ground forces.
• Chloe used the gaps made by the Blood Mist Insects to divide and encircle Abaddon's Swarm, inflicting nearly a million losses.
• Chloe used the Giant Cerebrate's Psionics Shocks to bring down more than half of the Corruptors, then sent her Mutalisks to destroy the rest.
• Chloe planned to suggest that the Overmind hatch more Giant Cerebrates if they held Tabi Star.

Abaddon trapped the Ether Drake and tried to make it submit, but Zhang Han’s Overmind consciousness returned and destroyed Abaddon’s escort fleet. Abaddon recognized the Overmind’s power and pledged allegiance to Zhang Han.

• Abaddon used his Swarm Leviathans to hold the Ether Drake inside a force field and offered it food and protection in exchange for allegiance and research cooperation.
• The Ether Drake refused Abaddon’s offer and mocked his poor record in battle, angering him.
• Abaddon received a warning about an approaching object warping space, and Zhang Han’s warp-bubble impact shattered the barrier and destroyed the surrounding Swarm Fleet.
• Zhang Han, badly damaged by the maneuver, seized Abaddon and demanded his surrender through a psionic connection.
• Abaddon recognized Zhang Han’s Overmind power and pledged allegiance to him.

After defeating Abaddon, Overmind Zhang Han kept him as a subordinate network core and questioned him about the invasion. Learning that Abaddon could help the Hatchery recover and improve its Swarm Fleets, Zhang Han accepted his allegiance and discovered the gene bank’s collection of heroic units.

• Humanity Zhang Han left to recuperate in the Hatchery Pool while Overmind Zhang Han took control of Abaddon and made his network a subsidiary of the Swarm’s.
• Overmind Zhang Han stationed Abaddon inside the moon’s Hatchery and kept his consciousness contained in psionic power.
• Overmind Zhang Han questioned Abaddon in the Consciousness Space, where Abaddon shared memories of the Stellaris Council’s vast fleet and its Great Crusade against the Swarm.
• Abaddon offered to use his expertise in genetic editing and hatching to speed the Hatchery’s recovery and optimize the psionic Swarm Fleets.
• Overmind Zhang Han examined the gene bank, learned about its heroic units and the costly process of hatching them, and accepted Abaddon’s allegiance.

After Abaddon surrendered, Chloe helped coordinate the Swarm’s withdrawal and relief efforts across Tabi Star, while the surviving people tried to understand why the Swarm had first attacked and then saved them. Highlander missionaries later offered a divine explanation that credited Chloe with persuading God to spare humanity, leaving the planet’s survivors with a new story to believe.

• Chloe learned that Abaddon had surrendered, then asked Zhang Han for permission to help Tabi Star’s intelligent life.
• Emil and the Highlanders endured devastating losses fighting the Swarm until its units stopped and withdrew north; the Ether Drake appeared, prompting the Highlanders and Oclaians to cheer and pray.
• In Altia and Krolan, Warrior Bugs and Ultralisks devastated cities and towns before Zhang Han took control of Abathur and the Swarm.
• Kamu brought Siege Beasts to rescue survivors, and Chloe ordered Drones to hatch a Hatchery between the countries so it could produce more Nutrient Fluid.
• Over the following days, Kamu used Nutrient Fluid to heal survivors and help them through the post-disaster crisis, reducing their hostility toward the Swarm.
• Highlander missionaries told the survivors that Chloe had persuaded God to spare humanity after the Swarm’s attack, giving the devastation and rescue a religious explanation.

After Chloe returned to Nishang, Ika proposed creating a new religion to unite the human kingdoms under the Empire. Chloe agreed that the people should pledge allegiance to God, and Ika asked for God's name or a symbol.

• Angry crowds in Altia and Kroland rooted out and killed suspected opponents of the Queen, weakening the ruling elite and changing the human world's political landscape.
• Chloe returned to Nishang, where residents welcomed her, and received Ika, a Highlander priest who had risked entering the Swarm to request an audience.
• Ika proposed a new church and religion to unite the four great Human Kingdoms and make the people loyal to the Empire and the Queen.
• Chloe told Ika that God existed and that she was God's servant, then said the entire Empire, including herself, would pledge allegiance to God.
• Ika welcomed Chloe's decision and asked for God's name, title, or emblem so the church could represent him.

Chloe authorized Ika to establish a church devoted to the Overmind, whom they named the Four-Winged Dragon God. Meanwhile, Abaddon improved the Swarm’s units and Hatcheries, then warned Zhang Han that their development lagged behind in the competition to become the Swarm Overmind.

• Chloe drew an emblem combining the Overmind’s forms, and Ika named the deity the Four-Winged Dragon God.
• Chloe connected Ika’s mind to hers and authorized him to establish a church if it united humanity and secured loyalty to the god.
• Humanity Zhang Han practiced commanding the Swarm while Abaddon redesigned the Psionics Corruptor to cut its hatching cost in half.
• Abaddon created Ghost Bugs that could empower nearby Swarm Units with psionics, and he increased the Giant Hatchery’s output to two thousand units a day.
• Abaddon reviewed the Hatcheries and began adjusting their production to suit their locations and strengths.
• Abaddon told Zhang Han that their development had fallen behind in the Overmind competition, then began drawing a map in the Consciousness Space.

Zhang Han learned that the Swarm’s struggle for the Overmind had narrowed to Zagara and Kundera, and prepared to attack a Hatchery before his rivals could claim the Swarm. Meanwhile, Yanren led three hundred Super Soldiers to board a mysterious warship linked to a signal that was causing robots and electronics to malfunction.

• Abaddon explained that Zagara and Kundera controlled the strongest Swarm nodes, while the other nodes awaited their contest’s outcome.
• Zhang Han gave himself one month to prepare, then planned to lead the Swarm in an all-out attack on the first Hatchery Star System.
• Yanren briefed his Super Soldiers on their mission to capture a strange Special Warship believed to be a source of the galaxy-wide signal affecting robots and electronics.
• Yanren rallied the three hundred Super Soldiers, who split into six squads and boarded their combat boats.
• Kunmao teased Yanren for telling the soldiers to come back alive, and Yanren told him to be careful and reminded him they still had drinks to share after the mission.