Disaster has struck for our favorite Legionnaire James McGill! Yes, his daughter Etta is going to marry a Hog! That’s right a Hegemony soldier and although McGill’s first instincts was to kill the guy when they first met, he didn’t due to his daughter standing right there looking at him. Apparently, Etta and his Hog (Derek) had met while Etta was working at Central HQ. They dated for a while and then Etta decided she wanted to go back to Dust World for some strange reason. And the Hog followed her out there. McGill had found out that the Hegemony manned a transfer gateway to Dust World for some strange reason and two Hogs were usually assigned as guards. This duty was usually given to those who had thoroughly pissed-off their superiors and were just short of getting executed. But, James also found out that Derek (Hog) had volunteered for the assignment once he knew Etta went to Dust World!
McGill just couldn’t kill the guy since he was so obviously enamored with Etta. So he had convinced both of them to come back to Earth and have the wedding at his parent’s house in the Georgia Sector. He had hoped that the weather or bugs would have been so bad that the wedding was called off, but that didn’t happen. In his embarrassment, McGill didn’t invite any of Legion Varus to the wedding except for Carlos. Why he asked him wasn’t explained, but he was a Med-Tech now so if something happened to Derek, maybe Carlos could bring him back to life. Della, Etta’s mother was also there and as you know she was also a Scout for McGill Legion Varus Unit. She didn’t seem to have a problem with who her daughter was marring.
So, that was done and McGill even drove the new couple to Orlando, Fl so they could begin their honeymoon. That’s when he got the call from Galina. She wanted James to complete the task she had asked him to do at the beginning of the last book. That was to find out where the former Consul was being held. They knew he had been executed but that also believed that his brain was being kept in a jar in the very bottom of Central HQ in the area known as the Vault of the Forgotten. This was a subbasement floor number -525 or something like that and no one that James knew of could get there due to security requirements. So he had to devise some kind of plan to get past all that security. Now this turns out to be only a side story to the rest of the book.
While at Central HQ, Tribune Winslade found out he was there and told him to come immediately to his office. This was highly unusual for Winslade who usually didn’t want to have anything to do with McGill. Except Winslade was about to enter into a meeting with a client offering a new Legion contract. All three Legions would be competing for the contract once they found out what the job entailed. Winslade invited McGill to the meeting since the client offering the contract was none other than Supreme Admiral Sateekas, a Mogwa and friend of McGills, sort of, anyway.
During the meeting, Sateekas introduces to strange aliens that looked like a cross between monkeys-raccoons-skunks standing about three feet tall. The contract called for one Legion to escort Sateekas and various VIP Mogwa while they were on the home planet of these Nebrans. Now Nebra was in the mid-zone of the Galactic Empire, very, very far away from Earth. No other Legion had ever operated that far from Earth so it was something of a mystery why the Mogwa had need of an Earth Legion. Each Legion bid with the first offering a discount, the second offering an even bigger discount and then Winslade for some reason blurted out he was willing to offer a 25% discount. At some point in time, each of the Legion Tribunes had to approach Sateekas and the Nebrans. They touched each of the Legion men, button here, a strap here acting as if they hadn’t seen normal clothing. Then one oddly enough reached for Legion Victrix Kraus’ service pistol and before anyone could stop it, the Nebran had shot the Tribune dead!
Of course everyone was stunned except McGill. He had drawn his service pistol and shot both Nebrans in the head immediately after they fired the unfortunate Tribune’s weapon. Everyone recovered from this action with Admiral Sateekas commenting that it went as expected with McGill present, but he accepted Legion Varus’ contract bid. So that deal was done and a recall was sent out to all Legion Varus members.
Now, McGill noticed that due to his participation in this meeting he had some special clearances that might just get him where he wanted to go, or at least down to a level where he could get the help of one of his not friend Agent Dickson. This does work and McGill will find himself actually in the Vault of the Forgotten, but he doesn’t find Drusus but he does die! Now, who’s going to get McGill a revival since he might have been doing something illegal when he died. It does happen though only a few months later and while Legion Varus is already headed for Nebran. McGill has been considered AWOL for two months so he has to figure out how to overcome that obstacle right off the bat.
This book is just as crazy as the rest of them. James McGill comes very close to getting permanently dead, but he always manages to get a revival for some reason or another. One thing I don’t understand is that in the last book, Primus Graves, McGill’s immediate boss, was sentenced to permanent death and reduced in rank to Centurion after the debacle on Crystal World, but here he is back at his normal job. Something to missed between books I think. As expected, there’s nothing indicating this series will continue, but I believe it will. Someone just has to come up with a new story-line and James McGill will be back, I’m sure.