hings have kind of settled down for the better for Lieutenant Commander Jacob T. Grimm. He’s the guy that almost got himself kicked out of the Navy for firing on a ship loaded with children. Didn’t matter that the ship had fired on his vessel and that he was ordered to do so as the Weapons officer of the ship he was in. Since he refused to quietly resign his commission and leave the Navy, he was assigned to an obscure little ship that was in no longer capable of operating. Through his determined efforts he managed to get the *USS Interceptor* back into fighting shape. He also showed outstanding leadership to a crew that was thoroughly demoralized since they felt they were assigned to this ship as some kind of Navy punishment.
All that occurred in book one and it’s a new book and a practically a new ship. Well, the *USS Interceptor* isn’t new, far from it, but the repairs that the ship’s crew have managed to do and the turnaround in morale almost make it feel like a new ship. After their last action, the crew noticed something different about their new Captain. He was concerned about their welfare and treated them like professionals. They responded by preforming their jobs the way they were trained and started responding to drills and exercises as a sharply capable crew should.
Now, LTC Grimm was awaiting new orders from his ghost superior, Captain Oberstein. The Captain was in-charge of the small flotilla supporting Zuckabar while stationed on his ship the *USS Corvus* parked outside Kremlin Station. Jacob had never personally met his commanding officer. It didn’t appear that his commander thought much of him and really didn’t like his own assignment. But, be that as it may, he was giving orders to LTC Grimm and expected them to be carried out.
Jacob, his crew and ship had just finished tangling with a mysterious freighter that refused to stop and be boarded. They had to fire on the ship to get it to stop. He had sent his boarding party, to include his XO, over to the freighter to find out what their problem was. The freighter crew was hostile, but with a boarding party consisting of US Marines, their hostility only ended in their deaths. Unfortunately, the XO had been badly shot in the back and was recovering from extensive burns.
Still, LTC Grimm had just received orders to respond to a destress call out at a distant mining facility on a small planetoid. He and his crew had no problem responding to these kinds of calls since they knew Alliance citizens were involved and their job was to protect those citizens and render aid when necessary. What they found on the mining rig was unexpected. While it didn’t seem to have been destroyed, there were no people to be found. Additionally, the rig had used a sling-shot method to fire ore containers back toward Zuckabar. That sling-shot arm was pointed the wrong way. Having no other clues as to where the miners had disappeared to and worried that pirates might have kidnapped them to sell to the Caliphate, Jacob headed in the direction the mining sling shot had pointed. He thought he’d just go see where this would have sent something if it had been used by the pirates or others.
This is where the USS Interceptor starts on a deadly mission. They’ll encounter ships with weapons that shouldn’t exist. He was to find out that one single shot from these mysterious ships/weapons could destroy his ship instantly. Of course he had to avoid that and also find out who was out here in the deep dark of space where no one should ever be.
This is a very good series so far. It’s got the small unit action that I like. Sometimes LTC Grimm seems to get in over his head, but his crew pulls them thru. There’s more to come in book 3, “One Decisive Victory”, which I already have on my reading list.