Captains Cam Alvarez and Vicky Sandoval were with Sergeant Wade Cunningham on Tahn-Khandranda doing basically nothing important. They were assigned to occupation duty and not very happy with it. Although the Tahni lost the war, they weren’t very happy about it and took every opportunity to show that displeasure. Not only that, but the planets the occupied and now the Earth troops occupied were hotter than heck. Cam, Vicky and Wade didn’t like any of these conditions, but that’s what they had signed up for so there wasn’t much they could do about it.
Then they got a call to report to the Fleet Intelligence HQ for a mission brief. That was a good change to what was otherwise a very boring day. They got picked up by another Captain named Geiger who took them to the HQ building. Just prior to going into the main briefing room, they were told by a duty NCO that another Tahni Priest was again complaining about something. Captain Geiger went to find out what he wanted and took Cam, Vicky and Wade with her. Someone screwed up and the Priest produced a hidden weapon which he proceeded to try to use against Captain Geiger. She, on the other hand had a pulse pistol and that stopped the Priest dead. So, it was pretty exciting beginning to Cam and Vicky’s day at Fleet Intel HQ. Hopefully it wouldn’t get more exciting, but it did.
Colonel Hatchett wanted Cam and Vicky to find out where General Zan-Thint had went to hide. They were to go to Tahn-Skyyiah and talk with a Tahni informant who might have some information on the General’s whereabouts. Well, the informant didn’t want to give up any information at all and instead called in a bunch of his Tahni friends and just about took out Cam, Vicky, Wade and Captain Geiger. In fact, they got a pretty nasty firefight going on and Captain Geiger didn’t make it back. She got hit just before the Force Recon Marines reaction force made it into the fray. They did capture one of the attacking Tahni. After using some reasonable drugs on the Tahni, he told them that General Zint-Thint was recruiting on the planet Venlann-Skan. So, with that information Cam, Vicky and Wade got back on the Orion which was Col. Hatchett’s mission ship, told him what they found out and he directed the ship to the planet Venlann-Skan.
Once they get to this new planet, they find evidence of General Zan-Thint’s activities, but not him or his troops. He’s build a large dome facility that appears to be housing some Tahni Shock-Troopers, but they are definitely not the High Guard troops you would expect. The human forces don’t have much trouble fighting deeper into the dome until they get too far. Cam feels like it’s a trap and it is. What they come up against almost ends everyone on the planet. They do escape and then the planet had to be nuked out of existence. It was a trap setup by the General although they did find some interesting intel. It’s appears that some of the buildings in the dome were occupied by Tahni females and their children. So, now they knew the General had to find a livable planet for his people to survive.
So they had to look for a system that was capable of being colonized by the Tahni under General Zin-Thint. They found one system that had not been surveyed and that’s where they headed. There they found a Tahni starship in orbit around a strange alien construct. It was huge but it’s purpose was unknown. Soon after getting in closer to the object, the Orion lost all power except for life support and then it was drawn in towards the alien construct. About this time they also noticed that the Tahni ship was also being pulled towards the huge vessel and there was no way to stop their movement.
What happens after this will cause everything to change. It also might mean the end of Cam and Vicky permanently. In fact, the entire crew of the Orion is at risk and the only ones that can help are the Predecessors! They have to be found!
Pretty good story with some interesting twist. I’m not sure how they are going to get out of this one. Captain Alvarez does some pretty stupid stuff in this book only because he worries too much about Vicky. She shouldn’t be going on missions with him nor should he be with her. They both get to concerned with the safety of the other that it can result in mission failure! He should know better than this. The story does continue with book 9, “Kill Box”, which is available for pre-order and will be delivered on 18 January 2022!