So our US Marines, led by GySgt Wolf Mathison, are getting somewhat accustomed to their new situation. It’s still a little hard to get their heads around what has happened to them, but they now have to worry about something far worse than being stranded in a future many hundreds of years from when they were born. They need to find out what was on that SOG (Social Organizational Governance) research station, the same one they woke up on when they were revived from their long, long cryostasis sleep.
They now know, with out a doubt, that things have changed from the world they knew. Earth is now under the governance of the SOG, a socialist government that is as terrible as most of them have ever been. There is no United States; it was obliterated in nuclear war along with millions of other people on Earth when the other countries became afraid of the Artificial Intelligences (AIs) arising to self-awareness in the US. Now the Vapaus Republic is all that is left of a freedom loving society. Fortunately, this is the group that rescued the US Marines and now they are working together.
They know that something was able to take the Pankhurst into Shorr space and that something wasn’t anything that sounded human! The unit the Marines are now with is lead by a Lojtnant Sadi. She has three other special forces operatives with her team and in now incorporating the four Marines. The Marines are aided by their “scoobies” or AIs that were the very first implants way back when the Marines were operating in their own time. Their next mission is to go back to the space station and try to figure out what they are facing. It’s not going to be an easy mission and not everyone will come back, but they have to find out what they are up against.
That mission gets partially accomplished. They find that the entity they are facing is far more intelligent than they thought. The do have a lead which points to a scientist that was involved in some of the research going on the space station. Unfortunately, that guy is located on a very secure SOG planet probably under military control. They still need to get him at all cost.
In the meantime, we’re introduced to another military unit. This is a SOG Guards unit that has been given the mission to guard/protect another secret research base located on a frozen planet. The Battalion Commander is a formerly disgraced officer once part of the Orbital Drop Troopers, but she has risen well in the Guards and now commands this battalion of all women. She doesn’t exactly feel that her new mission is a punishment, but there seems to be more to it than it appears. In order to get to her new base, the starship she and her troops have to travel in are going to transition through Shorr space numerous times. There has been rumors of more and more spacers going insane the longer they are exposed to Shorr space. The Battalion Commander hopes that her troops aren’t effected because they will be immediately executed if found “tainted” by the Shorr space effect.
So, there is a lot of stuff going on in this story. Most of it is pretty exciting and involves numerous combat scenarios. GySgt Mathison isn’t a young man any more so he’s definitely wondering how long he can continue to do what he’s doing. Ina ddition that that, he has to wonder why he’s doing what he’s doing since there is no Marine Corps as well as no United States. So how does he keep his Marines together or do they even want to continue what they are doing. Lots of questions that get some answers. More will arise and it will be interesting to see where this goes.
I’m already on the next book, “Gates of Hell”. I’ll be reading this series until the very end.