This is a fairly short book or so it seems. We are part of an Earth expeditionary/colonization effort aboard the Exodus Ark . We have landed on the planet Kainos and have found it inhabited which was a surprise. Out flight to this point was not easy. We were attacked by some unknown virus which we call the “Blight”. It turns our own people into zombie-like creatures that are very difficult to defend against. Most of our the crew and passengers were in cryo-sleep for a large part of the trip to Kanios. Now, those needed to settle the planet have slowly be awakened and put to work. One such person was Chief Mission Ward Kent. If you’ll remember Kent is a former Black Shield Agent or soldier. That means at one time he was the ultimate warrior. He was bread to fight Earth’s enemies and he did that very well, to the exclusion of everything else. While operating as a Black Shield Agent, nothing matter other than accomplishing the mission. He had not time for personal interaction and there was none since the only other people he came into contact with were other BSA soldiers. But, he’s become obsolete and now has been assigned to the Exodus Ark as it’s Chief of Security.
Kent has successfully formed an alliance with one group of Volcuri, the planets native inhabitants. These are something like bird creatures very different from humans, but not so much as to make the totally incompatibly to associate with. There are others of their kind in different groups with one group apparently located inside a mountain. This group appears to be aligned with the First or the alien entity that is responsible for the Blight. The First also have the ability to mind control those effected by the Blight and most of the Volcuri inside the mountain are definitely mind controlled and hostile toward anyone not under the control of the First’s Volcuri henchman called Makin.
Chief Mission Ward Kent’s mission is to capture and control the mountain. He suspects that it holds something the First don’t want the rest of the Volcuri to obtain. That’s why they are guarding it so closely. Unfortuntely, Kent doesn’t know the strength of Makin’s forces and his ally, Riva, doesn’t have a lot of troops in support. She attempts to get the support of other tribes of Volcuri, but whether or not they will participate in any attack mission is unknown. So, Kent will have to go with what he has. He does have a small group of former security agents with either police or military backgrounds and he has personally trained them to be competent if not very capable. He just doesn’t know how much of the enemy he’ll be up against or how well the mountain is fortified. They do know there are some secret entrances into the mountain and those may or maybe not all be guarded closely by Makin’s people. Chances are they can’t cover everyone of them. So, this attack has to be swift and silent hopefully catching the Mind Controlled by surprise. Good luck with that plan!
As I mentioned, this story seems short. It could be that the writing is so smooth that the reading is easy and quick. As this is the third book, there aren’t any new characters introduced and you pretty much know the situation on the planet. Still, it seems that Mission Ward Kent is operating with very few resources and needs more personnel which he’s only getting a few at a time. Why they haven’t’ awoken all the other people on the Exodus Ark is kind of strange. Earth has said they will be sending reinforcements, but know one knows when they will arrived. They all do know that the First are coming and they need the resources inside the mountain if they are going to have a change against the First and all it’s mindless minions.
I probably will continue to read this series since this one left off with a very strange ending. No, the ending was as it should be, but a little unexpected. It’ll be interesting to find out where the Exodus Ark goes from here.