I’m not sure how I should record these books so I’m going to do them individually just like any other book I’ve read. See, I got six ebooks in one package called the “Order of the Centurion: Complete Boxed Set”. I think there are other authors besides Anspach and Cole writing some of the books so that’s also why I’m going to write the reviews separate. I may have to consolidate all these reviews into one large one when I get around to posting them on Amazon. But, for now, I’m doing them like this.
First up is this one, and it’s a very, very good book. If you have been paying attention to what’s going on in the Commonwealth, you should know that the Legion wants nothing to do with politics. The Legion has strongly held that they solely exist to kill enemies of the Republic no matter when or who they are. That’s their sworn duty. They don’t want the House of Reason meddling in their business and the House of Reason certainly doesn’t want the Legion messing with government business, yet the House of Reason feels that it should be in control of the Legion.
So now they have figured out a way to get that control on some level. They appoint their own Officers into the Legion with the understanding that such Officers will naturally favor those who appointed them.
It’s been made a pretty big deal to be appointed by a House of Reason Representative since each Rep. gets only two, I think that’s the way it works. It also works that those appointed usually come from families that can contribute the most to these Representatives political aspirations or agenda. Two such Officers are now identified as a Major B’lay Berlin and Lieutenant Washam or just “Wash” to everyone that knew him. Being “Points” they were in the Legion, but being Points, the Legion wanted nothing to do with either of them.
Oh, Major Berlin played the game with his House of Reason supporters and they eventually blessed him with promotions for basically doing nothing. He could have actually gone through the Legion training course and he did do some of it, but most he just blew off knowing that it wasn’t what he was really made for. No his goal in life was to become a House of Reason Representative, the pinnacle of political prestige and power! He just needed this military time on his record to make him look good.
Yet, Lieutenant Wash was a different kind of guy. Although he did come from a very wealth family and was appointed to the Legion by the same Representative that appointed Berlin, Lt. Wash actually wanted to earn his way. That was something unexpected in a Point. Still, even then the Legion wanted nothing to do with him or Berlin. Wash understood that, but still he was in the Legion so he figured out early on that he might get himself ready if he was ever called to do something. Right now he was buried in supply requisitions and that looked like how he would finish his fine Legion service time. Until Major Berlin changed all of that.
Major Berlin was a manipulator supreme. He could talk a good talk, but there was probably little substance behind that talk if anyone cared to look. One day, he took it upon himself to create a mission that was going to earn him some combat experience that would look very good on his political record. So he commandeered a helicopter with qualified pilots and got a Marine Recon squad assigned to a mission he thought up all in his own head. Oh, he could read a map, but didn’t have any kind of intelligence about the mission. He just knew that he wasn’t going to be a hero sitting behind the lines all the time. The mission day came and of course he asked his friend, Lt. Wash, to come with him and while Wash knew very well that said mission would get him and Berlin killed, he did worry about the Squad of Marines that might also get killed. So off these two “Point” officers go into what they have no clue to do what they even have less of a clue. As you can expect, it doesn’t turn out very well for, well, anyone!
No one knows how they will react in combat. Some think they know what they’re getting into, but few ever really know until it’s too late. Learning what you should be doing while trying to stay alive is a bad training plan. Fortunately, Lt. Wash has paid attention when he went to Legion OCS and he did what he was supposed to do. He was treated like dirt by every Legionnaire instructor since they couldn’t believe a Point could ever become a real Legion officer. But, Lt. Wash passed the course. And he passed with flying colors, but no one was going to ever say that. No, the Legion would never admit that a Point Officer could also be a good Legion Officer. So, Lt. Wash was assigned to this out-of-the-way supply warehouse where he reviewed supply requistions, all day, every day, until his friend, Maj. Berlin showed up.
This story is very good. It shows what can happen when people who should know better, do stuff they have no business doing. It shows how deadly this can be to the average or even above average soldier or Marine as we have in this story. Leadership means leading and you can’t do that if you don’t know what you’re supposed to do, if you’ve not been trained and learned that training until it’s automatic. That’s why OCS and basic training is so hard. It should be automatic if you’ve been through it, you know what to do. Doesn’t always work out, but you had a chance. We these two officers around, the Marines with them almost had no chance. Still, it did have a decent ending. I liked what happened overall. I hope the next book in this collection is just as good!