The Confederation never, ever stops fighting. And now it looks like they will finally be destroyed! The Highborn are in control of the Union and both Gaston Villieneuve and Ciara have been Collared which means they can’t control their actions any more. Villieneuve now serving the Highborn just like all the other Thralls, but Ciara has been sent on a deadly mission to the Confederation, if they will accept her escape story as true. Gary Holsten did not, but he was kind of overruled by the Senate Speaker Emmit Flandry, who escorted her back to Megara, capital of the Confederation. Ciara was going to address the entire Senate as a First Citizen in exile. Her presence in the Senate building was going to be a horrible mistake!
Meanwhile, Andi Laforge or rather Andi Barron, has once again left her husband, Admiral Tyler Barron and her daughter, in pursuit of the mysterious weapon previously used to defeat the Highborn. She has limited clues as to where to look, but she knows it’s on an ancient planet in the unknown and barely explored part of the Badlands. Her old ship, the Pegasus, with her old crew, including Vig, were going as quickly as they could so they could return to the fleet and hopefully provide a decisive weapon against the Highborn. There was not guarantee that Andi would find anything since the previous actions against the Highborn had been centuries ago.
Out near the border between the Confederation and the Union stood Fleet Base Grimaldi. This once powerful space station had been the anchor of the Confederations fights with the Union. It’s powerful guns could range just as long as the Highborn, but Union space was pretty quiet and had been until now. As you read in the pervious book, the Highborn have joined with the Union and has provided a substantial fleet of Highborn battle ships ready to cross the border and start attacking the Confederation from a new direction. If they could get past Fleet Base Grimaldi, they would have a straight shot into the heart of the Confederation.
Gary Holsten had commandeered every available starship that was left in the Confederation and sent them to Fleet Base Grimaldi. He was also there directing the preparations for the coming fight although he had not military experience or rank. Yet those troops with him accepted his position as leader of this defense and followed his orders without question. He had also promoted Captain Colin Simpson to Commodore, although again, Holsten didn’t know if he actually had the authority to do so. Yet, Commodore Simpson was the best military tactician he had and that’s what he needed now.
This coming battle was going to be very difficult. Admiral Barron and his staff didn’t have anything available to send to Fortress Grimaldi so they had to do with what they had and that wasn’t much. Even the very newest battle ship Gary had ordered from the docks wasn’t complete and most of the other ships had been in space docks being repaired. So, that’s what was going to hold the Union and the Highborn back. A very tough and almost impossible job.
Meanwhile, Admiral Barron was getting ready to face his own battle. This was going to be a battle to the death as far as Confederation and the Pact were concerned. There was not place to fall back to. Fortress Striker was as ready as it was ever going to be, but even Admiral Barron didn’t believe it was enough!
Ok, so the Highborn attacking Fortress Striker change their tactics some what and send troop ships in great numbers towards that station. They also sent troop ships to other Pact ships. It wasn’t really known why they were doing this since the Highborn could probably just blast all these ships to pieces. Were they trying to capture the ships intact or what? That was a mystery that Admiral Barron could not figure out and it almost cost him.
Meanwhile. Jake Stockton has actually gained control of his actions to the extent he plans to aid his old Confederation pilots, but only if they will believe that it’s actually him flying a Highborn starfighter. It might be impossible to get them to accept the information he’s going to pass, but Jake knows one thing. He’s going to die in this last battle!
I believe this is the next to the last book. I can’t imagine the Pact and Admiral Barron fighting much longer. They won’t have anything to fight with. I’m not sure Andi will bring back the weapon that’s needed to defeat the Highborn because Tyler Barron might not want to use it. What kind of weapon could she have found?