Another very short book. I’m not real happy with this collection of books just because they are each so very short. It seems as though you just get into one and bam, the story is over. Same with this one.
First Lieutenant Solomon Cready has gotten himself and his two VIPs in a bad situation. The are trapped on the Moon running from a turn-coat General who has brain-washed his Marines in thinking he knows best for Earth. He has been in collusion with the Martian terrorist supplying them with Marine equipment and now shipping them dangerous cyborgs. These cyborgs were created with the plans given to two Earth corporations by the Ru’at, an alien species bent on taking over the Solar System.
Solomon had to give up his power armor to pay for passage for him and his VIPs to get back to Mars and hopefully meet up with General Asquew. He’s now on a freighter headed for a transfer with another FTL capable starship that will make the final leg to Mars. Unfortunately, the frieghter is full of cyborgs and the CEO of the Proxima corporation that Solomon saw killed by one of his cyborgs on Proxima. He finds out that this guy is a clone and there’s some information that there are a lot of clones working for the Confederation. Solomon isn’t sure what that means, but he doesn’t have time to figure it out since his freighter has been dumped just outside of Mars and is being attacked by a Confederation destroyer. So, while captured by Augustus Tavin and his cyborgs, Solomon is forced to pilot the freighter to a hoped for safe landing on the surface of Mars. The place he’s told to land is unbelievable; it can’t possibly exist, but it does.
Back at Pluto, Second Lieutenant Wen has just awaken from her bout with the cyborgs that attacked the Oregon. She is trapped in a compartment and has to figure out a way to get back to her squad if any of them are still alive. Se believes that the Oregon has been destroyed and knows that its Captain had ordered everyone to leave in the escape pods. Wen manages to get her power armor charged and use it to escape the Oregon only to find out that she has to get to the fourth level to obtain more oxygen. She does this only to find another cyborg shooting at her when she opens the airlock. Fortunately, the Captain of the Oregon was in the same passageway and he managed to take down the cyborg while Wen gets her breath back.
She is then shoved into an escape pod which she thought was heading towards Pluto. Instead it crashes into the space station. There she is met with station administrator who says her people are staying in place even if the cyborgs continue to attack. That does happen very soon. The cyborgs just tear through about anything and are almost impossible to kill. While the station is desperately fighting for its life, General Asquew and the rest of the Rapid Deployment Force arrive from Mars. They finally manage to secure the space station. Wen is then told to get here Gold Squad together and go find Solomon on Mars if he’s even alive.
And the story ends there. Could have gone on and made a pretty decent read from this point, but I guess I’ll have to get the next book when it comes out. I’m certainly glad I’m not paying full price for these books. It would definitely turn me off from this series.