This series has turned out to be really exciting. I say that because reading this latest book seemed like it was a really, really short book, but I don’t think that’s true. I think the excitement was held for so many parts of the book, it just seemed like I was flying through it. That’s a good thing.
Last we read about the USS Morrigan, she was in not so good shape. They had tangled with four Ervas starships which thoroughly kicked their butts along with destroying a starship from the Gold Empire. And, yeah, the Ervas did kick butt! The Morrigan had to flee the area or they would have been destroyed also. Of course, they put some hurt on the Eravs, destroying two of their ships and damaging another, but it got down to the point that Captain Noah Merkel knew he couldn’t win, so he bugged out.
Unfortunately, one of his essential crew members didn’t make it back to the ship. Major Oliver Peck was down on the planet trying to capture a Gold Empire VIP, but being a Marine, he was too bull-headed to know when he had to let the mission go and head back to his ship! So he and a Doctor Meredith Lyson ejected themselves from a crashed Gold Empire merchant ship and landed back on the planet with the Ervas looking for them. The Morrigan had to leave and Captain Merkel didn’t get the word that Major Peck was not accounted for until they had already translated out of the area.
And while that was going on, the super secret gunboat they had managed to acquire in book 3 was commandeered by four unscrupulous Gold Empire soldiers fleeing the ground battle. They made the gunboat depart the planet at gun-point heading for a Gold Empire base. They figured that by turning over this advanced gunboat, they would get back into the good graces of the Gold Empire leader even though they had run away from a battle. Not sure how that’s going to work out.
Also, Rita Peck and Erris, the MerCon executive, are back in Confederation territory looking for leads on a scientist named Karl Petrova. It’s believed that ConFed Intelligence has files on this guy that would identify him as the leader of the super secret base where they found the advanced gunboat. The only problem with their pursuit of this data was that it had been stolen by a Victor Tray, notorious thief and former intelligence agent. Mr. Tray was deadly in his thief of the data from a secure facility. ConFed Intel soldiers were now after him and it looked like Rita and Erris where going to have to rescue him if they wanted the data in his position.
So, as you can read, there is a lot going on in this book. That’s kind of new for John Walker. He previously had one mission only per story and that’s all they focused. Not so with the Morrigan; they’ve got parts and pieces floating all over the place. That’s probably why this book seemed so short, but it sure was exciting IMHO!