Peacemaker Van Tudor is really making a name for himself out in space. After finding a stealth spaceship in his Grandfather’s barn back in Iowa, he’s been on one whirlwind of a trip. Now with almost four years of service as a Peacemaker, he’s done a lot of good, but he’s also made a lot of enemies. It just so happens that his enemies have a habit of trying to attack his ship, the Fafnir, and killing it, him and all his crew! That’s exactly the situation they find themselves in when out near Neptune, more specifically orbiting the dwarf planet Orcus. They’re repairing and fixing things on the battleship Iowa, which strangely they have never used yet.
Two strange missiles are dead set on hitting the Fafnir while Van Tudor and his crew are dead set on them not doing that. More importantly, they would like to know where these missiles originated from and pay those who launched them back in kind. They manage to shatter one missiles and completely destroy the other, but they do capture a fragment with the intent of trying to tell just who sent them. Zeno studies the plate fragment closely and tells Van that these thing apparently originated outside known space, but she needs to confirm her suspicions with a visit back to her home planet.
So off the Fafnir goes to gather enough information to find some bad guys and take them in. That’s what Peacemakers do. But, they run into a slight problem when Perry, the AI bird, and the P’nosk Mother, Tendothir, clearly state they can’t tell Van anything since they are under a Seal of Writ, a type of Guild non-disclosure (NDA). But, since that Wit was done so very long ago, Tendothir relents and tells Van about a species that had to be genetically modified to be transplanted to another planet. Those modification didn’t go very well and the resulting species became known as the Tenants. To find out more about this entire event in history, Van was told he’d have to contract the Schegith.
So off they go on another trip through space, but this time it will be a pleasant stop since they enjoy the company of the Schegith and can find relative safety when on their planet. Little do they know that this is going to lead to a very dangerous mission which will result in some serious battles between the Guild and the Seven Stars League. As you know, the Seven Stars League has a warrant out for Peacemaker Van Tudor and they appear ready to serve that warrant and arrest him as soon as possible. Why isn’t ever given, but then we find out that the Tenants and the people of the Seven Stars League are very closely intermixed. It’s not a good relationship at all.
Things are so bad between the Seven Stars League and everybody else that Master Gerhardt has declared them a “Threat to Order” which is an equivalent to “Crimes Against Order” which now means the Guild are now at war with the Seven Stars League. Master Gerhardt also begins implementing Plan Heracles which basically calls for all Guild members and members of the GKU to rally to this cause. So some serious fighting is about to take place.
But, prior to that, Van Tudor and his crew had to stop a Seven Stars League attack on none other than Schegith. These attackers had the intent to either kill or capture the recently born heir to the Schegith crown. Their reasons are explained, but during this battle one of the crew of the Fafnir is fatally wounded. Van Tudor hasn’t experienced the loss of one of his closest crew=members so it’s not known how he’ll react. It’s going to be tough for everyone on the Fafnir to come through this event and become engaged in the even larger struggle they will all face.
Pretty exciting reading and it’s only going to get better. I have book 9, “Fields of Fire”, already on my reading list and can’t wait to read it.