This story is kind of getting sorted out, but it’s got a lot of confusing stuff going on. You’ll remember that the Federation is not friendly towards the “*Oberon*”, the last of the battleships built for a previous was against the Clicks. It was relegated to the reserves after the war and assigned to the Harbingers who apparently lost their planet during that war. They were shuffled off to Lagunia, a not very hospitable planet and then forgotten by the Federation. The only thing of interest to the Federation about Lagunia was that it had a hyperspace gate.
In the first book, the Federation decided to stage a surprise attack from the Lagunia gate as part of an overall surprise attack against the Clicks. What the Federation didn’t want is for the Harbingers to participate in the battle, even though they could bring the *Oberon*, a powerful battleship into the fight. The problem was the *Oberon* wasn’t in top fighting condition since the Federation hadn’t provided a lot of funding to keep it up. Still, Captain Konrad Bradley was insistent that his ship be part of the upcoming invasion. Unknown to him though, there were other things going on within the Federation that he wasn’t aware of but could impact if he wasn’t taken out of the equation.
So, the Fleet Admiral of the Federation fleet in Lagunia had Captain Bradley arrested and placed in the brig. Of course, the personnel on the *Oberon* didn’t plan on leaving their Captain in that situation. They actually made a rescue attempt only to have Captain Bradley order them to stop the rescue attempt and allow the Federation to do as they planned and that was to courts-martial him. This is the confusing part. Why he thought that would be a good idea, I don’t know. Anyway, Captain Bradley’s XO is not the acting Captain. She has been with the ship for a long time. To confuse matters more, Captain Bradley has two sons, the youngest serves onboard the *Oberon* and the oldest was serving with the Federation. This oldest son had returned to the *Oberon* for some reason I forget and is now stuck there.
Just before the Federation was to launch their invasion of Click space, another apparently alien fleet came through the hyperspace gates very unexpectedly. They destroyed the Federation fleet with only the Flag ship making it back through the hyperspace gate to the Solar System. The *Oberon* followed the Flag ship and now both are watching the Solar System being attacked by this unknown alien fleet. They don’t know if all the firepower that is located in the Solar System can defeat this new enemy. Even the Clicks had never attempted to invade the Solar System.
Now is where this story really gets confusing. The Federation doesn’t care for the *Oberon* and its Harbinger crew but they still assign them to protect assets with in the Solar System around Earth. The *Oberon* takes its assignment but is keeping an eye on the Flat ship with their Captain aboard. No matter what happens they intend to get their Captain back. While all of this is going on there’s also some kind of political intrigue happening and some kind of alien spy or some kind of human who can alter their appearance is causing all sorts of confusion. He kills the Admiral and takes over the Flag ship and then send a shuttle to Earth with Captain Bradley aboard. Bradley has been blamed for the death of the Admiral and the crew of the Flag ship was allowed to beat him unmercifully.
So, I have no idea where this story is going. It’s very complicated to almost make it not very pleasant to read. I’ll probably continue with the series, but only if I’ve got nothing much else to read. It’s just that confusing.