Back to a very entertaining series written by one of my better authors. Last time we left Lieutenant Magnus, he was blinded by a Republic surface strike from space. He was definitely too close and the sudden blinding light ruined what eyesight he had. But, with the direct intervention of Dr. Valerie Stone, the wife of the former Senator Stone, he now has a new pair of bioteknia eyes. At least he could still see, but with these new artificial eyes came the end of his Republic Marine career. Well, he still had a mission to do and until he was officially discharged, he was going to see it through.
He knew that some of his original crew had been taken captive by the Jujari after the bombing at the mwadim’s palace tower. His new mission was to rescue those guys and get off the planet with Valerie and her nine year old daughter, Piper. Of course he was going to need some help and he got that, surprisingly and readily, from Abimbola, the Marauder Warlord who had already done more for Magnus than he thought possible. Additionally, Abimbola had some kind of alliance with the Twanhack Jujari and their Warlord, Rohoar, and he also volunteered some of his troops only so they could kill other Jujari from another tribe. So, it looked like the rescue was on, but it definitely wasn’t going to be easy.
Meanwhile, in the space above the planet, a crazy Republic Admiral named Kane was quickly going mad. He seems to have been taken over by some kind of alien parasite. It was now coming to the front of his personality and almost in complete control. He even told his subordinates to stop calling him Admiral Kane since his name was Moldark! After killing several of his high ranking officers in the fleet, he finally got the point across that he was now in command of the former Republic Third Fleet, but they weren’t going to fight for the Republic any more. He also started getting called Lord Moldark which suited this alien presence even better. Third Fleet, under the command of Moldark has begun attacking the Jujari fleets and has started a full-scale war. The other Republic fleets don’t know what’s going on or why Third fleet so suddenly began firing on everyone.
And then there’s Awen, TO-96, Ezo and Sootriman. They were stranded on a Novia Minoosh planet in another galaxy with no way to return home. They have searched the capital city as much as three people and one robot can without much luck. Everything is over grown and centuries old. Of course nothing really works and they are running out of food and fresh water. Awen has not gone back into the Unity since her last encounter with the then Admiral Kane and his alien parasite. She was so scared of that presence that it has shaken her ability to go back into the Unity. Ezo and Sootriman are of the opinion that if Awen could go back into the Unity, she might be able to see something of the Novia Minoosh they they are missing. So, evenutally, Awen faces her fears and attempts to go back into the Uinity. She succeeded and was frightened even more, but also pushed past that and did in fact find something that just might help her and her friends to get home.
As you can read, we have three threads here that will some day, I guess, merge in some way. Right now, Awen is far, far from Lt Magnus while the evil Moldark is just above him fighting a space battle. It’s going to be interesting to see how these three threads do intersect. Lt Magnus has got to some how get off the planet, but he doesn’t have much to work with, or does he?
Great series and I’m already to read the next book, “Gateway to War”.