Well, the third book of this series is here and I was looking forward to it. And, for the most part, I wasn’t disappointed. Oh, there are some places in the book that I though were down-right not very good, but overall, I did like the story. As you are aware, Corporal Reverent Pelletier, Union Marine Corps, is an experimental Marine. Well, that is, his IBHU (Integrated Bionic Hopological Unit), hanging off his left shoulder is experimental until it isn’t. Rev just happens to be the carrier of this weapon system in place of his normal biological are that got blown off during the Children of Angels action. He’s getting used to it and they are still tinkering with the way it and he works with other Marines in his unit, but things are working out. Rev even got promoted or now he’s a Sergeant, but he’s not in the same place as he used to be.
No, while he was a Element Leader, they’ve now decided that he’s too valuable to put out there leading other Marines when he’s supposed to be the heavy fire support for his entire platoon. So now he’s been pulled back to the center of any tactical formation while Sergeant Tomiko takes over his Element. Still, he’s been told and knows he’s something special although he doesn’t feel like it all the time. Yet, he knows he can save a lot of Marines if they meet up with the Tin-asses since his IBHU was designed to kill the things. So, he and his Marines need a mission so they can go out and kill as many as possible in the shortest amount of time. Simple as that, but then nothing every is really simple.
Ever since somebody leaked the word the the Union might have an actual Centurian body or DNA that they have been looking at and not sharing with the other nations, the supposedly friendly allies haven’t been so friendly any more. The Frisian Mantle were the most recent ally that Rev and his Marines had fought beside. Yet, not it seemed that the humans wanted to fight among themselves instead of fighting the Centaurs. This next mission was apparently going to challenge those alliances and hopefully they wouldn’t break and have everybody fighting everybody else and the Centaurs!
Word got out that the Centaurs had positioned a base inside the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy and that was too much of a target to ignore. So, the Union was going to send in the Marines and attempt to capture any and all artifacts they could. This, it was hoped, would lead to some advance technology for the Union. Well, the Frisian’s were thinking the same thing, so they were sending in their soldiers. It was thought that the first ones inside the hollowed out asteroid would win the prize. The Union expected those first ones there to be their Marines and didn’t really care who got in after as long as the Union got all the good stuff out first.
Well, it just so happened that Rev’s platoon drew the short straw on entering the tunnel to the middle of the asteroid where there appeared to be a Centaur warehouse. Since it was expected this place would obviously be heavily guarded by Tin-asses, Rev was going to have to go in with the first group. Well, that’s what happens, but he and his squad mates meet up with some Frisians who were also determined to get to the warehouse first. Fortunately, Rev didn’t go in guns blazing or he and his Marines might have gotten killed immediately. So, he took it upon himself to form an agreement with the Frisians so they could both peacefully enter the warehouse and share what was there! Well, this pissed a lot of people off back at Council of Humanity! They were screaming that Sergeant Reverent Pelletier had no right and no authority to do any of what he did, but they might be stuck with the agreement he made. This means Rev was in some pretty deep kimchi!
And that’s the first thing that I didn’t like about the story. It wouldn’t have gone down this way at all. For two allies who have been barely hanging on against a common enemy, they are not going to become hostile to each other over some supposed artifacts which they had no idea would even be worth anything. They expected Sergeant Pelletier to just kill the Frisians and claim the stash which would not have done anyone any good. But he did just the opposite and there were some mad people in high places. Rev and his Sergeant, and his Lt were all arrested and imprisoned for an undermined time. When the Marine Corps finally got them out, they had to face to some pretty serious penalties. Rev was reduced by to a Corporal, his Sergeant was reduced down a grade and moved into an admin billet and the Lt. was reduced to a Private and put right back into the unit she once led. That would never, ever happen in my opinion. But that’s the way the story goes.
You’ll read more about other missions Rev has to go one and then some missions where the Centaurs bring the war very close to home. All this time, the one thing that is still with Rev is his best friend Sergeant Tomiko. She has been by his side like glue, but he’s just too much of a blockhead to understand the kind for relationship she wants and can give him. Then he goes and does something absolutely stupid at the end of this book. I have no idea why the author wrote it out this way other than they wanted a reaction from their readers. Well they got one. I don’t like the ending to this book. But, that means I will read the next one when it comes out to see if they can straighten idiot Reverent Pelletier.