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Galaxy Bridge #3
Forward Pact
A storm is brewing.
Colonel Larra walks a tightrope. After several enemy incursions against Joint Base Sagittarius Arch, he’s facing backlash from the merchant guild over the backlog of customs screenings and immigration through the galactic wormhole. But it’s a delicate balancing act between freedom and security for all souls aboard the space station.
A responsibility he doesn’t take lightly.
Despite the challenges in Sextans B, progress is being made on the diplomatic front—and in Colonel Larra’s family life. The relationship with his wife has only strengthened through the recent adversities, and communication lines have miraculously been reestablished with both sons.
But it’s only the calm before the storm.
An offshoot of the Hex nation has declared independence and requested asylum. But after the Hex came to the Arch’s aid against the Kin, the appeal places the Coalition in a difficult position. When a saboteur targets the diplomatic corps, Colonel Larra is forced to take up the ambassador’s mantle.
The team barely departs when terrorists strike targets across the station—and worst fears come to fruition. Now, with a fleet divided amid battles on multiple fronts, it’s all hands on deck.
Or the house will fall.
Colonel Larra walks a tightrope. After several enemy incursions against Joint Base Sagittarius Arch, he’s facing backlash from the merchant guild over the backlog of customs screenings and immigration through the galactic wormhole. But it’s a delicate balancing act between freedom and security for all souls aboard the space station.
A responsibility he doesn’t take lightly.
Despite the challenges in Sextans B, progress is being made on the diplomatic front—and in Colonel Larra’s family life. The relationship with his wife has only strengthened through the recent adversities, and communication lines have miraculously been reestablished with both sons.
But it’s only the calm before the storm.
An offshoot of the Hex nation has declared independence and requested asylum. But after the Hex came to the Arch’s aid against the Kin, the appeal places the Coalition in a difficult position. When a saboteur targets the diplomatic corps, Colonel Larra is forced to take up the ambassador’s mantle.
The team barely departs when terrorists strike targets across the station—and worst fears come to fruition. Now, with a fleet divided amid battles on multiple fronts, it’s all hands on deck.
Or the house will fall.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 22, 2024
179 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 29, 2025
The last time I read a book in this series was about a year ago. It was OK, nothing great. The writing is just fine and the editing is probably better than most, but the story just doesn’t seem to excite! Yeah, that’s the word, “excite”. We on a space station sitting in front of a wormhole gateway. The space station, Joint Base Sagittarius Arch (The Arch) is commanded by Colonel Mateo Larra. If you’ve read the first two books you know all this anyway.
Colonel Larra has some interesting problems. He’s got a large contingent of civilians aboard the space station that are only interested in making money. They see The Arch as the gateway to a new galaxy with lots of aliens ready to make profitable trades with the humans. But, these civilians aren’t aways honest in their dealings and Col. Larra has had to fight against some smuggling and dishonest activities since he came aboard the space station. Now he also got to content with a hostile alien species that has already attacked his space station once.
The Arch isn’t without protection. No, it has been assigned a Task Force commanded by Brigadier General Wesley Raylan. He was another problem for Colonel Larra. BG Raylan resented the fact that Colonel Larra was also the military governor of the space station and all military elements in the same sector! While BG Raylan outranked Col. Larra, he had to follow Col. Larra’s orders when it came to protecting Coalition Defense Forces in the region.
And protection was needed. Not too long ago, another species called the Ken had attacked the space station but were beaten off with the help of the Qhix-Un. These aliens seemed to have ships and weapons capabilities similar to what the Earth human forces deployed. So, together, the Qhix-Un and the Humans of The Arch were able to drive away the Ken, this time. Col. Larra knew they would be back and probably in much larger numbers. Now, if he only knew how to contact the Qhix-Un directly, he would feel much better about defending the station.
But, there were other things going on. Out in system XB330, the heavy cruiser *Thomas S. Gates* was conducting a routine patrol when he received a frantic comms request from what appeared to be the Qhix-Un. Yet, when he answered the call, this contact stated they were the Qhix-Na Free Enclave. They were a rebel faction of the Qhix-Un and had setup a base in XB330. Their communications directly with the humans was something of an oddity, but even more of an oddity was what they were saying or rather, asking. They wanted asylum! The Qhix-Na were afraid their base would be discovered by the Qhix-Un and destroyed since the Qhix-Un definitely didn’t recognize this faction as something that should exist separate from their original civilization.
So, Col. Larra was quickly informed of the situation and was asked for instructions. He turned this over to his resident Ambassador since this was something entirely the responsibility of the diplomatic corps. Unfortunately, at about the same time as the Ambassador and her diplomatic contingent were preparing to go to XB300, an explosion occurred that released a deadly gas into the working spaces of the Ambassador and her Deputy plus others. The Ambassador, Nella Macreedy, was definitely incapacitated and her Deputy, Ambassador Keegan Connelly, was effected by not as badly as Ambassador Macreedy. So, it was decided that Colonel Mateo Larra would assume the duties of Ambassador while in contact with the Qhix-Na, as if he didn’t have enough other things to do!
The rest of the book is about those negotiations that are definitely not appreciated by the Qhix-Un and about the pending attacks by the Ken. The Ken, by the way, have already infiltrated The Arch and have infected Ambassador Bako, League of Sol. They, through him, are attempting to disrupt and destroy these humans from inside. They consider these organic beings as greatly inferior and wish to wipe them out. Their ability to control humans is not known to anyone on the space station, but Ambassador Bako’s actions of late have come under the suspicion of his Deputy. He’s not acting in accordance to League of Sol directives and she wants to know why.
So, there is some fighting, but it’s not very detailed. Most of it is space battles and the humans and Qhix seem to have the upper hand. There isn’t any ground action since most all of this takes place aboard ships or on the space station. I’m not sure why the author chose to name his books with “Forward” something. But, the next three books seem to carry that as part of their titles. I will probably read book, 4, “Forward Crisis”, but as stated, it’s not that exciting so I’m not jumping into it right now.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==
Colonel Larra has some interesting problems. He’s got a large contingent of civilians aboard the space station that are only interested in making money. They see The Arch as the gateway to a new galaxy with lots of aliens ready to make profitable trades with the humans. But, these civilians aren’t aways honest in their dealings and Col. Larra has had to fight against some smuggling and dishonest activities since he came aboard the space station. Now he also got to content with a hostile alien species that has already attacked his space station once.
The Arch isn’t without protection. No, it has been assigned a Task Force commanded by Brigadier General Wesley Raylan. He was another problem for Colonel Larra. BG Raylan resented the fact that Colonel Larra was also the military governor of the space station and all military elements in the same sector! While BG Raylan outranked Col. Larra, he had to follow Col. Larra’s orders when it came to protecting Coalition Defense Forces in the region.
And protection was needed. Not too long ago, another species called the Ken had attacked the space station but were beaten off with the help of the Qhix-Un. These aliens seemed to have ships and weapons capabilities similar to what the Earth human forces deployed. So, together, the Qhix-Un and the Humans of The Arch were able to drive away the Ken, this time. Col. Larra knew they would be back and probably in much larger numbers. Now, if he only knew how to contact the Qhix-Un directly, he would feel much better about defending the station.
But, there were other things going on. Out in system XB330, the heavy cruiser *Thomas S. Gates* was conducting a routine patrol when he received a frantic comms request from what appeared to be the Qhix-Un. Yet, when he answered the call, this contact stated they were the Qhix-Na Free Enclave. They were a rebel faction of the Qhix-Un and had setup a base in XB330. Their communications directly with the humans was something of an oddity, but even more of an oddity was what they were saying or rather, asking. They wanted asylum! The Qhix-Na were afraid their base would be discovered by the Qhix-Un and destroyed since the Qhix-Un definitely didn’t recognize this faction as something that should exist separate from their original civilization.
So, Col. Larra was quickly informed of the situation and was asked for instructions. He turned this over to his resident Ambassador since this was something entirely the responsibility of the diplomatic corps. Unfortunately, at about the same time as the Ambassador and her diplomatic contingent were preparing to go to XB300, an explosion occurred that released a deadly gas into the working spaces of the Ambassador and her Deputy plus others. The Ambassador, Nella Macreedy, was definitely incapacitated and her Deputy, Ambassador Keegan Connelly, was effected by not as badly as Ambassador Macreedy. So, it was decided that Colonel Mateo Larra would assume the duties of Ambassador while in contact with the Qhix-Na, as if he didn’t have enough other things to do!
The rest of the book is about those negotiations that are definitely not appreciated by the Qhix-Un and about the pending attacks by the Ken. The Ken, by the way, have already infiltrated The Arch and have infected Ambassador Bako, League of Sol. They, through him, are attempting to disrupt and destroy these humans from inside. They consider these organic beings as greatly inferior and wish to wipe them out. Their ability to control humans is not known to anyone on the space station, but Ambassador Bako’s actions of late have come under the suspicion of his Deputy. He’s not acting in accordance to League of Sol directives and she wants to know why.
So, there is some fighting, but it’s not very detailed. Most of it is space battles and the humans and Qhix seem to have the upper hand. There isn’t any ground action since most all of this takes place aboard ships or on the space station. I’m not sure why the author chose to name his books with “Forward” something. But, the next three books seem to carry that as part of their titles. I will probably read book, 4, “Forward Crisis”, but as stated, it’s not that exciting so I’m not jumping into it right now.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==
May 4, 2024
We all know the Golden Rule. He that has the gold can break the rules or at least bend them.
This book had a lot more of Larra being a Politician and not a Colonel and seeing how he grew into the role that he did not like or want. How Mr. Gold has become a very important part of the story and can't wait to see how he grows and what other trouble he will get into. We also got to learn more about the Kin. How will they be stopped ?
Looking forward to next book will the spies win the day or will they be stopped
This book had a lot more of Larra being a Politician and not a Colonel and seeing how he grew into the role that he did not like or want. How Mr. Gold has become a very important part of the story and can't wait to see how he grows and what other trouble he will get into. We also got to learn more about the Kin. How will they be stopped ?
Looking forward to next book will the spies win the day or will they be stopped
May 8, 2024
There are now two new species on the Arch's
Not on!y has the Hex's two warring (the -na and the -un) agreed to work together to fight the Kin but to also share a star system together. So that the Arch will have another species on their side.
Not on!y has the Hex's two warring (the -na and the -un) agreed to work together to fight the Kin but to also share a star system together. So that the Arch will have another species on their side.
April 25, 2024
Very enjoyable story plenty of intrigue and action.
May 15, 2024
Great addition to the series!
Each book in this series explores new scenarios and develops character further. Some nice surprises in this one. Good read!
Each book in this series explores new scenarios and develops character further. Some nice surprises in this one. Good read!
March 31, 2025
complicated
it is complicated it gets hard to follow, much more i can not say too many threads That is about it.
it is complicated it gets hard to follow, much more i can not say too many threads That is about it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews