Well, Charlie Travers is working with the United States government to secure more troops for his resistance army and it’s slow going. They have activated his commission in the US Army but promoted him to a full Colonel and is now in-charge of getting the troops assigned trained and ready to fight. He’s also responsible for getting crews trained and combat ready on two previous Anguilar cruisers. One is just now being recovered from it’s crash somewhere in Utah. The other is fully functional and is making training flights orbiting Earth.
Of course Charlie is under the command of the Chief of Staff, a 4-star General who reports to the President and of course the Sec. Def. He mostly reports to the President since the stuff Charlie is doing is of such important that not only the President has to know, but every member of Congress has to be informed. Charlie has gone to the Capital building on several occasions to report his progress to various Congressional committees and he’s getting tired of it. Other than the recent attack by the Anguilar, Earth has only had a very small exposure to the galaxy at large. They don’t understand that in their current condition, they could not and would not stand a concerted effort by the Anguilar to conquer Earth. He’s tried to drum it into their heads that things need to move along faster and that he won’t be tied down by politics, but this is Congress and humans he’s been talking to. They just don’t listen.
At least he has Chuck Barnaby, now Major Barnaby acting as a good-between himself and the American military. Trying to teach competent and skilled soldiers new ways of doing things is not easy. They have fielded pulse rifles which are a lot different than the existing projectile weapons these Soldiers and Marines normally fire. They can shoot through almost anything so their cover and concealment tactics are going to have to change. Change doesn’t come easy to previously skilled soldiers and Marines. Some in-charge don’t necessarily believe the changes are necessary, but they haven’t fought against the Anguilar, yet.
Meanwhile, Brandy, the intelligence officer for Travers and the resistance has come back to Earth on the *Liberator*. Her appearance is a great concern because that means something not good has happened somewhere. She reports that here sources have located General Zan-Tar. He’s now located on Wraith Anchorage which is being used as a huge construction dock for building more Anguilar cruisers. For obvious reasons, his whereabouts wasn’t that closely guarded so Brandy is suspicious of getting that information so easily. She thinks General Zan-Tar is setting a trap for Charlie and the resistance since he obviously wants them to attack the construction docks. Everyone else is in agreement that taking the bait is exactly the wrong thing to do. Maybe later when their new forces are trained and ready would they consider such a target, but not now. That means that General Zan-Tar will be able to build more Anguilar cruisers so that’s going to hurt in the long run.
Then Charlie is concerned with is friend Giblet. The Varnell has really taken the death of Dani hard. He’s barely taking care of himself and is not really talking to anyone. When he came to the meeting that Brandy called, he was definitely unkempt and very listless. He barely said a word except he did get very excited when the name of General Zan-Tar was mentioned. Giblet almost jumped out of his chair demanding that they immediately go and kill the SOB. He stated that this guy was directly responsible for Dani’s death and that he, Giblet was going to make him pay. Giblet was not happy when Charlie told him that they couldn’t do that right now. He said there were come a time when Giblet would get his revenge, but it was not now. Of course that didn’t sit well with Giblet.
This is when things completely change for the worse. Giblet left the meeting and later couldn’t be found. He did manage to take one of the interstellar transports and it appears that he’s actually going to go to Wraith Anchorage and get his vengeance regardless of what anyone else has said. It’s now long before Charlie gets a message from General Zan-Tar that says Giblet is now his prisoner and will be soon executed painfully if Charlie does surrender himself in the next 10 days! What in the world will Charlie Travers, leader of the resistance, do now? Is he stupid enough to go after his friend and if so, does he take a bunch of untrained Earthmen and women with him. Or does he acknowledge that like Dani, Giblet has now become another casualty of war even if he is another friend he might lose.
A very interesting story that will continue in book 8, “Sanctuary’s End”, now available on Amazon. I don’t particularly like the title to this new book. It’s got some very dreadful meaning, I think!