Sometimes it’s hard figuring out where one book ended and the next one starts, especially if you don’t read them back to back. I read book 5, “Sword of the Legion” back in February so it’s been a few months. And I could tell it. I was thoroughly confused with the beginning of this book. Most of the time the Legionnaires in these books are quite heroes that go about their jobs just getting things done others can’t do. The last time they did that, a kill team was sent into a Republic base to destroy a Republic shipbuilding facility that had fallen into the hands of the Empire. The Empire was lead by a former Legionnaire called Goth Sullus. Nobodies sure what he is, but they know he’s bad and taking over the Republic if someone doesn’t stop him.
While the destruction of the shipyards was going to put a big crimp in the Empires ability to gain new ships, it was something that supposedly wasn’t sanctioned by the House of Reason or so they say. They now indicated that the shipyards should have been left alone since the Republic was building up a force to retake the planet Tarrago. That was news to Major Ellek Owens. He had planned and had executed that mission with his Dark Ops kill team Victory directly led by Captain Chhun with the assistance of Captain Ford also known as Captain Keel a.k.a. “the Wraith”!
The House of Reason had charges drawn up against Major Owens and he subsequently found himself arrested and in custody of a squad of Republic regulars. He was eventually escorted into a make-shift courts martial aboard a freighter with several members of the House of Reason setting in while a bunch of appointed General Officers convicted him of a grand number of offenses! Even the Legion Commander Keller was present, but he seemed to be going along with these ridiculous proceedings. Major Owens knew he had done nothing wrong and he was sure Commander Keller would get him out of this situation. He even kept that belief when the sentence was read, “Guilty of all charges!”, which included murder and treason, either of which called for execution! Yet, one of the House of Reason delegates asked that Major Owens be spared and only given a life sentence. Since the House of Reason practically owned everyone of these appointed officers, the court granted that request and Major Ellek Owens was sentenced to life at hard labor in the mines of Herbeer. A cold and deadly planet from which there was no escape unless you were dead!
So, what’s going on? Looks like another example of the House of Reason trying to cover their tales since they did originally order the destruction of the shipyards and now someone things that was a bad idea. They are also becoming more and more directly involved in the Legion operations to the chagrin Commander Keller. There were things he could do the stop their meddling and one was to ensure Major Owens didn’t serve this sentence. So he called upon, once again, Captain Chhun and his Victory Squad. They were to plan and execute a rescue mission into those mines and get the Major out. How they did that was up to them.
While Captain Ford was considered part of that team, but he had other ideas and abruptly left with his ship. He wanted to find his kidnapped crew and wasn’t going to go on any other mission until he found them. So, Captain Chhun had to wait on other transportation to the planet when none other than LAo Pak showed up. He was sent by Captain Ford to proved transportation which was going to speed up the mission greatly. Now, if only Captain Chhun could trust this pirate! Meanwhile, there are other things going on in the background. Someone or something called X was waiting for the Empire and the Republic to fight it out so he or it could come in and claim what was left. That fight wasn’t going anywhere quickly so he was going to have to speed things up, maybe.
Another good story once I figured out who was doing what. It’s strange the way Captain Ford can just walk away from the Legion when he wants to. I can’t figure out if he’s still in the Legion or not. Still he helping when he can. Some good action in this book and it’s definitely not over. Book Seven, https://amzn.to/34yfSS3 is available on Amazon and I’ve got it on my reading list.