It’s time to get back to the faction war in Star Wars: The Old Republic this September.

As announced at this weekend’s SWTOR Chicago Celebration Cantina, the game’s next expansion is titled Onslaught and will launch in September free to subscribers, complete with a new playable species (Nautolans), a new level cap, and a new focus on the war between the Republic and the Empire. It’s a new break from the past few expansions, starting when Darth Malgus invades Corellia and kicks off new challenges for players.

Patron and friend of Massively OP Eliot W. (not to be confused with the author of this piece) was on hand in Chicago and fed us copious notes and slides from the live presentation tonight, which we’ve combined into this article!

The story will take players to the planet of Onderon and the hollowed-out smuggler hub of Mek-sha as players throw their weight behind one faction or the other, complete with a new operation on Dxun (the largest moon of Onderon) and a new flashpoint on Corellia itself. Players will also be exploring new ways of getting gear, non-combat items and sets, and a new gear slot, Tactical, which should provide new ways of customizing abilities along with itemization changes. There’s a definite emphasis on getting gear the way you like and through the play you find fun via horizontal progression.

During the presentation, BioWare devs admitted that Galactic Starfighter has been neglected and apologized in particular for the alt-unfriendly/legacy-unfriendly itemization system, so expect more changes along those lines. It even sounds as if there’s going to be new character screen music – you can check out a teaser below.

As usual, the expansion will be free for subscribers when it launches this September. You’ll be finding out more about the expansion over the summer when the usual round of subscriber incentives begins, so get hyped up now before the war flares up again in the fall.