This was an interesting but very confusing book. I think I finally found out who the main characters are, but they didn’t seem to come to the forefront until the very last of the book. Then again, I could have been reading about them earlier but didn’t know they were the main characters at the time mostly because there are a lot of characters in this book.
It seems that humanity has been attacked in the distant pass by an alien entity called the Clicks. Nothing has ever been found identifying Clicks. None of their wreckage from that distant battle had any kind of residue that could be identified as a species unknown to humanity. They did attack without provocation and were deadly in this attack. The Terran Federation was caught by surprised and it resulted in the destruction of Harbinger. The Clicks had attacked Harbinger’s moon Kor to the extent that it has shattered in to seven incredibly large pieces each headed towards Harbinger. By this time, the planet had been alerted to the coming disaster and numerous civilian starships had left the ground and were collecting with the Terran Federations newest and only Titan class battleship, the *Oberon*.
There were civilian freighters know as free ships traversing the Harbinger system when the attack came. One, the *Ezekiel’s Revenge* captained by Sarah Mantell, had figured out what Clicks were going to do so she tried to warn the *Oberon*. Yet, the *Oberon* did nothing but wait. Finally, she realized that the *Oberon* was headed towards the jump point and was running away from he on-going battle. Why, she had no clue. Why was a fleet starship running from a battle?
That appears to be the basis of this story. While the *Oberon* was commanded by then Commander Konrad Bradley, he has now assumed the Captaincy of the ship although it has been regulated to the fleet reserve. Captain Bradley and his crew are considered reservist, not regular Navy Fleet personnel. Soon, the *Oberon* will be decommissioned and her crew either retired, discharged or reassigned depending on their skills. It’s thought that since this ship is now so ancient that most of the crew won’t be able to transition to the modern fleet very easily. That’s especially true of Captain Bradley. While the Oberon had its reason to flee that battle twenty years ago in the past, it was not the Terran Federation Navy’s finest hour. The population of Harbinger has dispersed somewhat in the asteroid fields of the system and didn’t feel like they were wanted anywhere else. Their homeworld was lost and they had no means of getting revenge unless the *Oberon* was given a second chance during the upcoming secret attack that was going to happen on the Clicks.
Humanity had figured out how to open multiple warp gates into what they believed the Click home system. Admiral Augustus Bretoni was commanding Strike Group 2, was staging his fleet just inside the newest warp gate preparing to launch a surprise attack against the Clicks. It was Captain Bradley’s desire that the *Oberon* and its escorts should be included in this fleet action. But that wasn’t going to happen. In fact, Admiral Bretoni was there to offer Captain Bradley a chance to retire honorably. No matter what the circumstances, the Admiral had no intention of using a bunch of reservists and their ships in his pending operation.
So, there is a lot going on in this book and I’ve only touched on some of it. There are about three different threads going and some I’m not sure I understood how they fit in. This store is also a long way from being finished although it does end with the Captain of the *Oberon* going to the Admiral’s brig! While the Oberon tries to rescue him, he refuses to be rescued and for some reason wants to go through with his pending courts martial. I just don’t understand some of his actions.
I guess I’ll have to read book 2, “[Battlefield Earth](https://amzn.to/3PSYtMo)”, to find out what’s going to happen.