Our trio or quad of kidnapped warriors are still on a planet Bathsen. They have been helping the Bathsens to fight off alien creatures that appear plant-like but have a voracious appetite for protein or humans now that they have eaten everything else on the planet. Unfortunately, the citizens of Bathsen have divided their world into separate cities which do not cooperate with each other. This is going to spell disastrous for all the people of this planet unless Zuri and her group can step in to help.
Zuri, Noah, Smith and the seedship known as Yasuko have found the city of New Halton being besieged by the aliens called Boush. These are yellow-green creatures of different mass that can join together to form larger creatures or separate into smaller forms to wriggle through cracks in walls and other objects. These creatures devour living flesh and anything that contains protein. The only way to stop these creatures is with fire and lots of it. Unfortunately, the citizens of Bathsen have not learn very effective tactics against the Boush and they are losing their planet little by little.
Zuri with the assistance of Yasuko comes to the rescue of New Halton when Yasuko uses its powerful engines to burn back the Boush from the walls of New Halton. This city is in the norther part of the continent and it appears that the Boush are going south for some unknown reason. There are several large cities to the south of New Halton and they will soon be overrun by the Boush if they don’t get some help.
There is a group of Bathsens that have separated from the others and have gone deep into the foothills near the city of Seth. These people are called the Ghost because they don’t come out in the light of day very often and when they do, they cover themselves with a grey ash from the caves they live in. These cave dwellers are not what you would assume. They have a thriving civilization deep under the mountains where waterfalls feed growing farms of plants for food. They are secretive in nature and have fought hard to keep their paradise secret from others on the planet. Yet now even this peaceful community is threatened by the Boush. It can seep in between rocks and through places that the Ghosts don’t even know about and then reform into huge monsters that would devour everything in the caves. Their leader, Wendell, knows that they cannot stop the Boush by themselves so he seeks help from Zuri.
Not far from the hills of the Ghost people is the city of Seth. It is directly in the path of the Boush’s drive south and they are probably less prepared than those in the city of New Halton. Yet Zuri manages to get an agreement between the two city leaders and the Ghost that they must band together if they are to survive. They must agree to share resources to include soldiers and ideas on how best to fight the Boush.
Next after Seth is the city of Ruthyl. Their walls are even shorter than those of Seth City and certainly shorter than those of New Halton. Zuri leaves Finn here to help them improve their defenses after learning what works and doesn’t work at the other cities. He has some time and gets the city leaders to devote resources and manpower to improve on what they have and then come up with some innovative ideas on how to better apply what they have learned.
Still, there’s no guarantee that anyone can survive the onslaught of the Boush. They are being driven by something but no one knows quite what it is. The planet is being systematically cleansed by the Boush and there could well be nothing left if Zuri, her troops and Yasuko can’t stop the Boush. Yet, Yasuko is running out of fuel and she has not had the time to mine and refine more palladium which is desperately needs. Their situation is dire to say the least and this is definitely no where Zuri wants her story to end. They need to get back to Earth.
So, this story is pretty interesting and exciting in this book. They are running all over a planet or at least a large continent which seems like it would take a long time, but at least they have a starship to do some of the long travels. I’ll be interested to see how this story continues in the next book, “Finn’s War”, now available on Amazon.