To buy Earth five years of safety, Dean has to take the war to the Crusade's home world.
The terms are defeat Commander Kryst and cripple his forces, and Earth gains Protected Status. If Dean dies, the contest for his planet resumes.
The System is happy to send him. It's even offering extra quests.
Dean and his team arrive on a world where elite Crusaders carry weapons that can penetrate his prized armor. Rival commanders are gathering, and Kryst's campaign could unite a force capable of crushing everything Dean has fought to protect.
To reach him, Dean must build strength behind enemy lines. Necromancers, monstrous experiments, and a pirate crew offer dangers and opportunities in roughly equal measure. With all-new allies beside him and his teammates risking their lives with every new quest, every new ability could make the difference in the next fight.
But the Crusade has been conquering worlds for longer than Dean's been alive. It knows how to turn a rescue into a trap.
And Dean has never been good at leaving people behind.
Book 5 takes the series off-world for a campaign of infiltration, dungeon battles, dangerous new magic, and unlikely alliances, with Earth's future resting on a team deep in enemy territory. The Apocalypse BREAKER series features canonical crossovers with Aaron Renfroe's The Resonance Cycle and, beginning in Apocalypse BREAKER Book 4, Sean Oswald's Magic Eater.
All the factions have plans upon plans, folding things to accomplish their goals. Poor Dean wanders and crashes his way through this terrain, oblivious to most of the machinations. It made for an interesting and fun read. It also provided me with laughter aplenty.
Did I mention that the author is one of those with layered plans? Recommending the series to my friends.