Ok, now back to a good story. For some reason I kept wanting to skip this book and go straight to book 4. That’s what I get for grabbing multiple books in a series at the same time. I read about two or three chapters in book 4, “Dark Paths”, before I realized they were talking about people and places that I hadn’t read anything about! So, I got back on track and read this book in a very short time.
These books are known for their straight up approach to one mission and one mission only. That’s how John Walker, the author, writes most of his books. Oh, the Leviathan goes a lot of places, but it’s only in pursuit of a single mission goal. This time they are after additional allies; hopefully military allies with some additional resources. That partially happens, but the defense of Earth is still in serious jeopardy.
Avania, the alien Princess, that Captain Warren Miller rescued from the Collector ship has been a tremendous help to Earth and the Agency. She had some technical training and knew a great deal about the salvaged parts taken from the wreck of the Collector ship. It has helped get Earth in a position to travel beyond the Solar System using a warp drive. Now they are headed to a huge space station known as a trading hub and the home of the Border Dukes. Avania believes they might find some support from this organization or they might be able to lead them to someone that could help. They will have to be very careful on the space station, Lantha, since Avania is wanted by the royal family and have bounty hunters looking for her. She has a contact at the station that might get her to a secure area so they can talk.
As usual, most plans don’t last once they are executed. The same goes here. They meet Avaina’s contact in one of the lower-level bars and start discussing their situation. Suddenly, two bounty hunters enter and demand Avania surrender to them. Of course, Captain Miller and his two escort Marines aren’t going to do that, so the fighting starts. Just what they didn’t want on their first visit to this huge trading hub.
So, the story goes on from there. They do get the name and location of a General Atalis who once led a contingent against the royal family and was still not happy with this latest coup and the current ruler. The Leviathan sprints for the coordinates given for the General’s hideout and arrive just as a Royal Battlecruiser is preparing to bombard the planet. Captain Miller offers his assistance and General Atalis’ second accepts given that they don’t know who these people are, but they don’t have the space assets to challenge the battle-cruiser. So another battle starts. Both ships send in ground troops for there’s something for the Marines to do as well as the Leviathan’s fighter group. Both sides are pretty evenly matched. Something must be done to push the outcome in the favor of the Leviathan. I wonder what how that’s accomplished?
Great story. This is the only mission they do, contact some military help and return to Earth. Pretty straightforward only it’s kind of hard to understand just how this General Atalis will be helping Earth. He doesn’t really have any combat ready assets at his disposal proven by his inability to drive off the Royal Navy attacking his hideout. It’s going to be interesting to see what’s next.