I like this series. It has some wonderful characters, the good guys, and some horrible characters, the bad guys. There’s no confusing the two, except when some of the good guys don’t know who they are working for!
Our band of good guys have grouped together and have just won a small skirmish on planet Ithnor Ithelia, which is in the meta-verse far from the normal universe. They had defeated a detachment of Recon Marines in a bloody battle. They thought that now they would have some time to sit down and think of what else they needed to do back home. But, Moldark didn’t give them that time, at least not right away. While their recent battle had been on the ground, now, the space around Ithnor Ithelia was full of starfighters and a heavy cruiser. They had followed Ambiola and Rohoar’s ship and now were preparing to attack the Novia Minoosh starship Spire.
Magnus and his combat warriors were still on the surface awaiting lift-off of their shuttles. What they didn’t want was for the shuttles to get half-way to the Spire and then be attacked by the Republic starfighters. Still, Magnus wanted to be where the fighting was happening so he needed to get the shuttles launched. But, Azelon, the AI running the Spire did not agree with Magnus and made it so the shuttles couldn’t take off. She was quite capable of defending the Spire and would only be distracted if she had to help the shuttles at the same time.
Magnus had no idea if the Spire even had any offensive weapons or what kind of defenses the starship could employ. It turns out that he shouldn’t have been worried since the Spire quickly and easily defeated all the starfighters and even destroyed the heavy cruiser using their own missiles against them! Actually, one starfighter did survive although the did crash on Ithnor Ithelia only to be captured by Magnus and his warriors. Commander Ricio Longo had been working under orders directly from Moldark to find and destroy everything he encountered on and over the planet. Since he was now a captive, that wasn’t going to happen. Additionally, Magnus’s forces had captured one of the Recon Marines, Nos Kil, who had a bad history with Magnus. This guy was a very evil man and was supposed to be spending his life securely locked away in a military prison. Why he was out and operating with the Recon Marines was a mystery to Magnus.
Nos Kil will become responsible for turning Piper against Magnus. He’ll tell Piper a bunch of dreadful lies which Piper won’t have the sense to believe are lies coming from this vile man. Something also happens during the battle at Worru which is even worse and further separates Piper even from Awen. This becomes the dark part of the story and it will be interesting to see how it ends.
I know there is another book either coming or already out. I plan to read it as soon as I can.