So Captain Noah Markel has the Morrigan preparing to fight against a Gold Empire battleship. He’s accompanied by one other Gold Empire starship who had fortunately arrived at the Morrigan’s location on time. This fight is one he agreed to with Commodore Alden back near Gallik after their run-in over the secret Lab. There the Gold Empire didn’t show and Captain Markel was still not sure his new allies were worth having. But, he now understands what’s going on within the Gold Empire.
There is a faction that wants war with the Confederation. Commodore Alden is on the side of a peaceful resolution to their difference with the Confederation because he has seen and knows the ervas are a much greater threat to humanity. Captain Markel agrees that the two nations must stand together and certainly not war with one another while the ervas come calling. He has agreed to engage Commodore Kelden Parse leads the we-want-war group and if he’s taken out, then Commodore Alden will have control of the Gold Empire military and can then convince his political leaders to focus on the ervas and not the Confederation.
But, Captain Markel has to defeat Commodore Parse and his very formidable battleship. the Dust Wing, commanded by Comander Wilmarth of the Gold Empire has shown up and both are attacking. Then an unknown starship appears and it’s not readily known who it is or why it would venture into a hostile area. Further it’s not known if this ship will take either side and if it does, that might tip the battle in that sides favor. Captain Markel has his job cut out for him and he’s hoping he’ll survive because he still needs to deal with Marshall Whitaker who may be the master-mind behind all this trouble between Gold Empire and the Confederation.
Meanwhile, back at Gallik, a bunch of things are going on. The Morrigan and Commodore Alden’s fleet met there to recover and decide what to do next. After extensive repairs, the Morrigan left for the above mission along with the Dust Wing. Rita Peck, Lisa Erris and Eliza Leavis has all escaped Whitaker’s forces and were heading to Gallik. There Major Oliver Peck was awaiting them. At the same time, Karl Petrova, Eliza Leavis’ partner, was headed to Earth to find and rescue former Marshall Alexander Northam. They believe he was replaced under very different circumstances than he should have been and he still should be the Confederation Marshall. Karl is in hopes of getting to Northam before Marshall Whitaker just has him killed.
As you can read, this is almost a two-part book. The first part concerns the Morrigan and a very difficult battle with one faction of the Gold Empire while back at Gallik, everyone is trying to gather so they can defeat Whitaker and take back the Confederation military. Things seem to be going very well for these people until Marshall Whitaker decides to take his Confederation fleet to Gallik after planting a tracker on Rita Pecks escape ship.
Very good story and has some great space fighting as well as a lot of action on and around Gallik. This story continues because the ervas haven’t yet been dealt with, that is provided there’s anybody left to face the ervas!