The Gladio Umbra have thwarted an initial plan by So-Elku to obtain a rule over the planet Aluross, home of the Sekmit. It is also a planet that contains vast amounts of trinium, a mineral that runs starships! The mining of trintium on Aluross has been a Republic secret for a long time. The Sekmit are not accustomed to having outsiders on their worlds. They had made an arrangement with the Republic to keep their privacy and for protection. The Republic was paid for their services in trinium. The Sekmit knew that the amount of trinium they had to pay for this protection was far in excess of what they should be paying, but they didn’t have much of a choice. While the Semkit were a warrior race on their own planet, they didn’t build starships and had no space navy. Now that the Republic has been crippled, the Neo-Republic is trying to take it’s place. They don’t have the same resources as the old Republic and the Sekmit know it!
So-Elku had co-opted Governor Blackwell and wanted him to get control of the trinium operations on Aluross, but the Gladio Umbra stepped in and stopped that action cold. They knew that Blackwell was actually working for So-Elku when they had to fight large numbers of Li-Dain just to get to him. Blackwell was killed in the exchange, but the Gladio Umbra and Sekmit were working on a plan to get So-Elku into a trap. He was invited to Aluross by one of the tribal chiefs to discuss trade arrangements with the Lumina Alliance of Worlds (LAW). Would he fall for it?
Meanwhile, Rohoar, had ample evidence that Moldark was still alive and building up an army some where. They didn’t know who he was now working with or why and they didn’t know what his new agenda would be since he pretty much destroyed the Republic by wiping out Capriana Prime. But, Moldark was after So-Elku. He felt betrayed by the man, and wanted him dead!
This was pretty good reading. Most interesting were the trips to the spaceport and the fighting in the underwate minining operations. Yes, part of these battles take place underwater. It’s a good thing the Gladio Umbra found the Novia Minoosh starship and their ability to use the Unity was going to be paramount in these battles. I hope everyone lives through all this stuff.