Axel Finn is a young guy that doesn’t really know who he is. He lead a kind of secret life with his Mother and Aunt on Earth which is now just a desolate husk of a planet. Most people of Earth have left with a few, like his Mom and Aunt, stubbornly staying where they were. Axel didn’t know exactly why. He wanted to go to the stars as everyone else, but as he was still young. He had no way to leave Earth until the day his Mother said he had to go.
His Mother never mentioned his Father. He at least knew his Mother and his Father had fought in a bloody war a long time ago. That war had changed his Mother. She had instructed Axel to be a pacifist and to never, ever hurt anyone. That didn’t seem to be a problem since Axel found himself sent away aboard a junker starship where he worked and learned how to make a living for himself. Along the way and some tweet-three years later, Axel has his own ship, the T*rash Squid* and his own crew. You’ll read about his collection of misfits that have collected around Axel and all seemed to be willing to do anything for him. They scavenged and salvaged as necessary to make a living, but lately their luck had seemed to run out. They desperately needed to make some money or the *Trash Squid* wouldn’t be flying much more.
Meanwhile, we find a will read about a young Sergeant Jacqueline “Jax” Brito of the Eagles. The Eagles are the elite of the Colonial Alliance Naval Defense Force (CANDF) and they were formed to protect humanity from itself and also from the Wrath. Jax Brito was a member of the Hatchet Platoon, but not of the very elite Dark Horse Company. These elite of the elite were commanded by General Rex Jessup, son of Admiral Rex Jessup. They were a force to be reckoned with.
Thirty-five years ago the Wrath appeared and began destroying everything. They laid waste to entire planets and nothing could stop them. The humans created a genetically enhanced soldier called the Stewards who were capable of standing up agains the Wrath. The Stewards did their job and defeated the Wrath, driving them back to the unknown sectors of space. Nothing had been seen or heard of the Wrath since then, but things were not so peaceful.
Some of the Stewards were having mental problems and couldn’t put up the peace that they had created. They were breed to fight, so they took out their aggressions on peaceful civilians in devastating ways. They had to be stopped so the Eagles were given the mission to find and destroy all existing Stewards. Admiral Rex Jessup did just that and he finally killed the last Steward Captain Leon Kahr. Now the Eagles alone stood against the unknown return of the Wrath.
Back to Sergeant Brito, Jax found herself going on a mission that didn’t really set right with her. They were assigned to seek out and destroy any and all Wrath artifacts. It was believed that some existed on the planet Jolia home to the race called the Inos. The Inos were very territorial and not necessarily prone to giving up anything on their planet. It was hoped that a peaceful mission could be conducted, but that was entirely up to the Inos. Jax found herself assigned to guard some beach where a strange mammal lived with specific instructions not to let any harm come to these mammals. She resented the idea that her squad wouldn’t be part of the “action” in the village. Then the other squads in the village came under attack and she lot comms with everyone except her squad.
Jax takes it upon herself to enter the village and find out what’s going on. This action would change her life forever and not necessarily for the better. She has no idea what’s in store for her.
About this time, Axel Finn and the *Trash Squid* have gotten word that a very valuable Wrath artifact may have been aboard a ship that had crashed in an asteroid belt not far from their current location. So they took off in hopes of finding the recovering the artifact , selling it and solving all their financial problems. Only this is just the beginning of their problems and they get worse.
A very easy book to read with lots of interesting story-lines. Most of the characters are well developed and I’ve not mention all the key players. You’ll read about a number of different species and how they interact with each other. This is a colorful galaxy and has some very deep, dark secrets. More will be revealed in book 2, “The Last Ship”, now available on Amazon.