This book is still kind of confusing. Again, we have to get over the ton of Swedish, Finnish, and Chinese names, that are hard to pronounce. I have no idea how to pronounce “Zhang Xiao” (I think it means Lieutenant Colonel) nor “Ting Hui”, the Lt. Col.’s name. These Chinese names show up a lot at the beginning of this book so be ready for that. Ting Hui and her meager command are huddled together in some kind of bunker on an ice world guarding some kind of monster in a box! Yeah, that’s my take on it. The planet has been taken over by some kind of monsters that have killed all the other humans and are now trying to kill what’s left of Ting’s people. They have some kind of Inkeri generator that can send out a pulse every so often when does kill these creatures, but it’s also have a terrible effect on the bodies of her troops.
They can’t run the generator all the time, so they have to fight off each attack until they can run the generator. That plus this creatures can turn the minds of her people are slowly decimating her command. She also has some kind of monster in a box in the basement of the bunker. She has a guard outside the room to the monster’s box, but the guard can be influenced by the monster since it can invade human minds. Every time the Lt. Col. goes down to the basement, she has to make sure the guard hasn’t turned against her and humanity. What Ting Hui is hoping against hope is that the Governance hasn’t forgotten about her command and they will someday be rescued. There may no be anyone left if that doesn’t come soon.
Ok, back to GySgt Mathison, USMC. He finds himself in charge of all the military that now exists in the system. Both The SOG (Social Organizational Governance) the Vapaus Republic have ceded command to GySgt Mathison since they would otherwise be fighting amongst themselves instead of trying to save what’s left of humanity. Mathison has sent the SOG fleet to look for more of their kind to get them to stop fighting against the Republic and join the cause to save humanity. He has taken his Norwegian troops and a Colonel Feng down to a planet already infested with monsters, I. e. humans who have been turned insane and recreated by some kind of entity from transition space. They need to find information on the origin of these creatures and try to put an end to their existence in this dimension. (At least I think that’s what they’re trying to do.)
This is a third thread that comes up in this book and I have no idea why it’s here. This has something to do with Israelites that have a secret base on some kind of moon in the Solar System. They seem to know about GySgt Mathison and his fight against the monsters. I don’t have a clue how they fit into the overall story. It seems to just add to my confusion.
I do know that GySgt Mathison and his troops that infiltrate this infected space station run in to a whole bunch of fighting. They barely manage to get out but they do get the data they need. This data leads them to the ice planet where the SOG Guard battalion is fighting for their life. This is the same unit lead by Zheng Xiao Ting Hui. Will that mean they will get rescued and what exactly will GySgt Mathison and his people do with the monster-in-a-box once they have it? I have no clue.
I suppose I’ll continue reading this series even though after five books it’s still confusing. Maybe it will be clearer in Book 6, “[Valhalla Awaits”](https://amzn.to/3PPZHbo), then again maybe not. It’s available on Amazon now.