Another great story about the continuing struggles of Admiral James Romanoff and his super starship, the *Hunter* or as it’s officially called the “Delta Orionis”. He and his ship have had great success so far against the invading Novarites and the militant faction of the Tardans. As you’ll recall, the Novarites are aliens of a very large size who have historically used the Tardans as slaves to support their civilization. The Tardans formed their own military and fled the Novarites control. They fled to Confederation territory and were aggressively trying to conquer human held planets. Meanwhile the Novarites went after the Tardans with their very aggressive military only to themselves be pursued by the royal navies of the Kingdom of Kasterlara.
Romanoff had just free one Confederation system of the Locust, Novarites and Tardans but he knew he would have a tougher job doing the same thing around Vesuvius. This system was very much entrenched with Novarites and Tardans so it would be very difficult for his one gigantic battleship to fight the entire Novarite fleet. He planned to go to that system and look it over for quite some time before he decided just what to do. So, while waiting he got his ship repaired and restocked plus arranged for a number of other things. This book is full of details that have nothing to do with the actual fighting. The author thought it necessary to have numerous meetings to talk about what they were planning on doing and who was to do what that the actual actions in the book are actually very small parts.
There is one other string to this story and that is the Kingdom of Kasterlara. They figured that the kingdom must have sent some ships after the Novarites since they had been at war with the Novarites for decades. The kingdom was supposed to be further advanced than the Confederation and this was proven by all the knowledge provided by Patrick, a Kingdom of Kasterlara spy who was working with Lisa Gain, the computer specialist. Patrick had provided Lisa a wealth of new tech that she had introduced to the Confederation which was being applied by Admiral Romanoff. Lisa is something of a wild-card in that she’s a former criminal hacker that now works for Confederation Intelligence. She plays an interesting role in the upcoming confrontation with the Kingdom forces.
So, Admiral Romanoff has come a long way since he took what was once a museum mothballed ship to a supreme fighting battleship. Along the way we have seen some very, very young people grow with the ship. Amanda and Derek were kids playing a video war game on the bridge of the *Hunter* when Jack first encountered them. They were so good at the game, their skills transferred seamlessly to actually putting the *Hunter* into action. They have fought many battles together and despite their young age, they have mastered their skills far beyond what was hoped for. So, Admiral Romanoff has promoted both Amanda and Derek to Vice Admirals as his Executive Officers. Romanoff plans to put Derek in command of the next available battleship, but that won’t be for quite awhile so his team will still be fighting together for a while longer.
Both Amanda and Derek are absolutely shocked with their newly appointed ranks. Not too long ago, they weren’t even part of the Confederation Navy, but now they are Vice Admirals. Fortunately, there just aren’t hardly any Confederation military or Naval officers available since the Poseidon Group took over Confederation central. Admiral Romanoff has had to make do with what he has and fortunately, what he does have is some fine tactical and leadership potential. Amanda and Derek can do the jobs they’ve been given and heaven help someone getting in their way, especially Amanda’s. They both have an interesting event coming up that kind of happens suddenly.
So this series is far from over. The next book up is “Impecable Resolve” and it’s available for pre-order and should be out by 28 January 2024.