The HaLL Alliance learn that the Evil Empire of Absalom has been constructing a new Death Star, larger and more powerful than the first. In a plan to destroy the new weapon, Ravenant is elected to lead a strike team to destroy the battle station's shield generator on the utopian islands of Absalom, allowing a squadron of "friends" to enter the incomplete infrastructure and destroy the station from within. Returning from real life, Stoffi joins the strike team along with "friends", but soon fears that, sensing Chai's presence, he may be endangering the mission. On island x:x, Stoffi and his companions encounter a primitive yet intelligent tribe of "friends" and form an alliance with them. Later, Stoffi confesses to his "friends" everything he knows about his relationship to Chai, and that he is leaving to confront Chai one more time, believing that there is still good in him.