Slade and Forge as you know from the first book, are off-the-book operatives working for a Lieutenant Colonial Summer Pace at CMC HQ. Their direct reporting contact is Captain Isaac Buress. He sets them up with their missions and supplies them with all their weapons and equipment. This operation has been taking its toll on the Summi Duces organization. That organization is ran by a large group of very, very wealth people from all over the galaxy. They are evil and corrupt and their secret organization is them at their worst. Slade & Forge have witnessed some of the unspeakable acts they have done with children as part of their secret societies rituals. Our two Colonial Marines are slowly eliminating this organization with prejudice!
They have a new mission and this first one involves something not directly related to the Summi Duces elimination operations. It seems a CMC Major Linker has gotten himself captured by Universal Socialist Movement (USM) forces on a planet called Thurgil. They were specifically in an area call Shinar which was part Colonial territory and USM territory depending on which side you belonged to and how many guns you had. How the Major got caught wasn’t important, but getting him back was. Unfortunately, Slade & Forge were going to have to fight the better part of a company of USM soldiers, but fortunately, they weren’t very professionally trained, certainly not to the stands of Slade & Forge.
Once that mission is accomplished, it’s back to some much needed R&R, which this covert operation ran my Captain Buress and LTC Pace, abundantly provides. After a while, Captain Buress shows up again with a new mission. Slade & Forge have no problem with the operation as long as it’s against the Summi Duces which is exactly what this mission is going against. They have found a place on another planet that appears to be a staging grounds for collecting children and then transferring them to starships provided by a wealthy member of the Summi Duces. They are going to stop this operation and have no problem killing all those involved.
That mission is also accomplished with vengeance and they learn that the children have been transferred to a placed called Eternity Nebula. That becomes their next target and they hit it again with a vengeance. The further along in this crusade to eliminate the Summi Duces, the more Slade & Forge realize they might not make it out alive. This new place is in the middle of nowhere space and is not on any star charts. It is a very ornate and expensive space station but they plan to blow it up with anyone and everyone on-board. They don’t know if they’ll make it out.
But, of course they do. Once again, Slade & Forge are back enjoying some R&R waiting for their next mission. They are eventually contacted by Captain Buress and Major Linker only they came to tell them it’s over! Their mission is done and they are now out of the Marines and on their own. LTC Summer Pace was even reduced in rank to Major and sent off to some isolated assignment so she could seriously contemplate ending her career. Captain Buress was promoted to something called Lieutenant Major which is a totally stupid made-up rank in my opinion, the author should have known better. The have been given the remaining balance of the budget for their operation which will set both Slade & Forge up nicely in another career of their choosing.
So, the two have some serious thinking to do, some of which wonders why the operation was so suddenly stopped. They don’t get to think too long before they are suddenly and very rudely kidnapped in the middle of the night. Someone knows who they are and what they have been doing, someone very rich and very powerful!
It appears this is the last book in this series. It was a short two-book series, but it was enjoyable. I’ve read many books by Toby Neighbors and will continue to do so. They are very enjoyable.