This story keeps getting better, but the fighting just seems too easy. There’s more and more of the story about Lisa Gane than the *Hunter* and Admiral Romanoff, but that’s Ok, because even her stuff is pretty interesting. If you’re forgotten, Lisa is the former criminal hacker now turned semi-good person that is helping the Confederation now. She has formed a crack hacking team under Tina Chen who is now the Director of Operations for Confederation Intelligence. So all the hacking that Lisa is doing now is government sanctioned.
Admiral Romanoff is preparing to begin his fight against the Locusts for which he is now quite prepared. They have the control codes to stop the Locusts in their tracks and even turn them into Confederation space assets. That will help tremendously and may save a lot of lives. But first he has a number of things he needs to take care of on Argent. Due to Lisa’s relationship with Patrick, the spy/assassin from another galaxy, she has acquired several more assets that were meant only for her use. One was a small stealth starfighter which she intended to turn over to the fleet. Once Admiral Romanoff saw this tiny ship he had it tested against the *Hunter* to see if they couldn’t really detect it flying in their space. It proved to be very stealthy and none of the sensors could find the ship even though it made several runs against the *Hunter*. He then directed Derek and Amanda, his Navigator/Helmsman and Tactical/Weapons Officer, respectively, to take care of fully vetting this new ship to see what it could do. It came with some antimatter missiles and some other weapons they needed to test for effectiveness. Lisa also turned over some sleep-learning tapes and a machine so they both could learn how to fly this new ship. Derek was excited about the prospect of being a fighter pilot, although he knew his job was aboard the *Hunter*.
Meanwhile, Admiral Romanoff and Vice Admiral Sara Nastasi were heading the space station Argent One where the courts-martial of Robin Monahan was to be held. Sara and Robin has been good friends until Robin turned traitor and shot a Confederate Naval Admiral on video no less! The fact that she could get the death penalty was known by everyone, they just had to give her, her day in court. Surprisingly, Monahan pleaded guilty to all charges so it was left up to Grand Admiral Romanoff to pass sentence. With the concurrence of his fellow military judges, they did sentence Robin Monahan to death to be carried out immediately! Unfortunately, that exception via a space station air-lock didn’t happen as planned and Robin Monahan escaped! Investigations later found that she was helped by none other than Bronson Rowe, who had also escaped from captivity sometime previously. He had killed a guard in the process, so both would now be wanted, dead or alive.
But that wasn’t a problem for Admiral Romanoff right now. He was trying to get his ship to move to Leaping Deer to find out if the control codes for the Locusts actually worked. If they did, then that was one enemy he no longer had to worry about, so then he would have to tackle the military leadership of the Tardans and then the Novarites who were all militant and not inclined to surrender under any circumstance. He also didn’t know if more Locusts, Tardans or Novarites were coming to Confederations space.
The other problem Romanoff was facing was kind of a political one. He had purposely sent Councilor Kristi Rose out to the jump gate where it was thought other refugees from the Confederation proper might be showing up. That did happen and the freighter that was sent was coming back with several Confederation warship that had taken quite a beating. Those ships, mostly all cruisers, were badly damaged with lots of casualties. Jack didn’t necessarily want to confront Councilor Rose since they had last left with a very strong argument against each other on where to place Tardan civilians. But, he couldn’t avoid her forever and had to find out if she had changed her position. What he did find was very surprising. It’s strange how being in a highly stressful situation can affect some people. He’s was to find a very different Councilor when they next met.
So, this book does have some fighting, but it’s not much. Admiral Romanoff and the Hunter now have the advantage over his enemies. With the help of all the technology left behind by Patrick, he has gone on the offensive and now just needs to clean up this part of the galaxy. His next big effort will probably be directed to eradicating the Poseidon Group that has invaded and probably taken over Confederation HQ and that entire region of space. Don’t know if that will be in the next book, “[Under Siege](https://amzn.to/497gG0p)”, or maybe later in the series. Either way, I’m going to continue reading every book.