I really like B. V. Larson books, ususally. He writes with an excellent sense of humor as in his “Undying Mercenaries” series. But, he’s missed the mark on this series. This is just dumb. He’s trying to work in humor, but it doesn’t seem to fit the story-line which itself is hard to believe.
As before, we’re members of a mining spaceship called the *Borag*. This ship makes it’s money by landing on asteroids and mining common and rare minierals for Interplanetary Excavations, Inc. They haven’t brought in much money lately so their corporate bosses are making them do mission that are not part of their normal job. Still Captain Hansen had not choice since she and her ship were deeply indebt to the corporation for operating supplies, equipment and crew salary. The *Borag* is not a military ship. She has a small crew of so-called Marines who are self-trained and really nothing but mercenaries. They work for the ship to protect it from pirates. They call this group the Red Company although I’m not sure that it’s much more than a couple of squads. There is also a Green Company, again, it’s not that large and their function is to mostly protect the ship internals.
Anyway, Corporal Starn is a former rock-miner that has worked his way up to become a member of Red Company. He and his Sergeant are out training a new batch of recruits, but that job is very difficult because of the low quality of their recruits. Nobody in their right mind would want to work for a mining ship with the reputation of the *Borag*. She had just returned and another mission that saw her and her crew get involved with some very ancient alien artifacts, including an alien ship. Some of the crewmen that went into that ship were now showing signs of mutations. Corporal Starn, for one, has an unusually large and muscular left arm. The ship’s doctor has come up with a treatment to slow down the mutations called Lot Six. It has been successful in some cases and in others, not so much.
Corporal Starn has done some notable things lately. He’s been responsible for saving the life of the Captain on a couple of occasions and is now in front of the Captain for something else. To his surprise, he’s getting promoted to Sergeant and given command of his own squad, the same bunch of poor recruits he and Sergeant Cox were just trying to train.
Now his Captain has been called back to Interplanetary Excavations, Inc. HQ to recevied new orders. She’s told that her ship must go and assist another mining company, Teklutions, Inc., and their ship, the *Sarasvati*, has issued a Mayday broadcase and the *Borag* will answer it. Captain Hansen doesn’t necessarily want to do this and her corporate boss doesn’t want to fund the mission, but they eventually come to a satisfactory financial agreement, so the *Borag* takes off.
They eventually meet up with the *Sarasvati* and it’s in orbit over a 944 Hidalgo, a nondescript asteroid. There doesn’t appear to be anything immediately wrong with the *Sarasvati* so Captain Hansen contacts thier Captain and asks him what’t the problem. He tells her that the asteroid is very rich in minerals, but it’s been taken over by pirates and they want them eliminated! The *Sarasvati* has even a smaller crew than the *Borag* so they can’t do it themselves. Captain Hansen things this is a joke. She’s in no position to exterminate a bunch of pirates just because another corporation doesn’t want to take the time and expenses to do so. She does call back to her HQ, but they stand firm in that she’s to do whatever the *Sarasvati* requests.
So, both ships land on the asteroid and they are eventually met with a hoard of Pirates, mostly mutated humans of all different shapes and sizes. Some barely still resemble human with a lot of technology replacing normal human parts. Fighting these guys is not going to be easy and Sergeant Starn is going to be in the thick of it. There are a lot of battles over the next few days with the mutant Pirates almost taking both ships, but that effort is thwarted and the Pirates pushed back. Captain Hansen seeks a peaceful solution which involves trading some of her and the *Savasvati’s* captured crew for a load of Lot Six, the medicin that can treat the Pirates mutations.
And this is how the rest of the book goes. There is another mission involving Pirates and a big alien gun, but it falls along the same lines as all their other missions. Sergeant Starn is a capable Marine, but most of his other “Marines” are a joke. Still they do they job they’re paid for, if they ever get paid. There’s some story line about Starn getting along with the women aboard ship and he becomes the Captain’s personal bodyguard although it’s strictly professional, but it allows Starn to be in on a lot of conversations he would otherwise never hear.
I think I through with this series. It’s just no my kind of story and I don’t think it ever will be. The guys aren’t real Marines and never will be no matter what name they take. They’re just hired guns doing a job for a mining ship that apparently never mines anything. Yet, if you want to continue reading this series, book 4, “Invasion”, is now available on Amazon.