Commander Titus Barnes struggles to save his ship.
War brews on the horizon and the crew of the TCN Triton get caught in the middle. When they answer a distress call from one of their colonies on the edge of their space, they end up outmatched and outgunned by an unknown force. This conflict may well push humanity into a new age…or spell the beginning of the end for their race.
Meanwhile, two archaeologists work to uncover evidence of alien life on a far off planet. As they make what might be the biggest discovery of the human race, their activities trigger an alert, drawing dangerous forces to investigate. Cut off from any quick help and on their own, they must use every trick at their disposal to stay alive.
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Number 2 must assume command after hostile first contact encounter, as he leads crew trying to survive. Second contact arrives and destroys First ships. Earth must decide to join an intergalactic war but on which side?
This is a fairly short book, but it’s a good story. It’s also the star of another series by the prolific John Walker. I have read a number of his books and will continue to do so with this series. Here we find an Earth vessel, the TCN (Terran Colonial Navy) Triton heading out on a rescue mission or at least responding to a distress call from one of Earth’s recently established colonies. The TCN Triton is commanded by Captain Rudy Barrington, a sixty-three year old veteran that was not adapting to changing conditions well. At least that was the opinion of his First Officer Commander Titus Barnes. Commander Barnes has been serving aboard the Triton for about eight months and was a relatively young Commander which was causing a problem for him with his Captain. Captain Barrington didn’t believe anyone younger than forty-five had the experience to be a full Commander and he was holding back on recommendation for his other officers not based on their proven abilities, but just due to their age! That didn’t sit well with Commander Barnes.
Still, they have a new mission and that was to find out who was attacking a new colony in the Gerdon System. The TCN Triton was a battleship and on that had served the TCN well over the years. It certainly wasn’t obsolete and while the crew morale wasn’t extremely high, they all did their jobs very well with no complaints. Now they faced something new. They didn’t no if they were going to find a pirate band actually causing enough trouble to bring in the TCN, but that was usually the extent of their missions. Since colonizing a great portion of the known galaxy, the Earth had come had never come across any other intelligent life. That was soon to change.
Upon arriving in the Gerdon System, a scan of the only habitual planet revealed orbiting ships of an unknown nature. Scans also showed that these ships were attacking the planet from space and with ground forces. Captain Barrington ready his won shipboard Marines with the intent to send them down to the colony and rescue any colonist still alive and not already captured. He was going to open communications with the unknown ships, but the refused to answer. He could see that they were destroying colony buildings without regards to whether they were occupied! This meant that they had already used deadly force and he was going to reply in kind.
Unfortunately, Captain Barrington and his ground forces were soon to find out this new enemy, known as the Kahl, were quite a bit more advanced than Earth. Their ships were much more capable than the Triton. This disparity in capabilities soon became apparent when the ground forces encountered the Kahl soldiers and their armor couldn’t be penetrated by Earth weapons! And subsequently, firing on the Kahl ships showed that the Triton’s weapons were also ineffective against the Kahl shields. When the Kahl ship fired back, it struck with such force that it almost took the Triton out of the action on the first shot. Captain Rudy Barrington was one of the first victims of this attack. He died at his station when a sever shock went through his station. Commander Titus Barnes now had to step in and get the Triton and it’s crew out of harms way or they would soon cease to exist!
This incident was going to be a real eye-opener for Earth. Not only did they finally find out that they were not alone in the universe, but that they had just met the edge of a huge galactic community. The TCN Triton was saved from destruction by the fortunate arrival of the Prytin ship Brekka. It turns out that the TCN Triton had just stumbled into the middle of a galactic war with the Kahl being the aggressors bent on conquering all alien life forms. The Pyrtins were their enemies and just realized that even though these humans were behind in technology, they could at least form an alliance against the Kahl. The Pyrtins were more than willing to provide Earth with all their advanced technology so they could upgrade their ships and fight the Kahl on an equal footing.
The TCN Triton was the first ship to receive all the Pyrtin’s technology and once again sent out on a rescue mission to help a pair of archeologist that had gotten into trouble exploring a Kahl planet. Now it’s time to see if the Terran Colonial Navy can fight to war to save all humanity!
Poorly edited and shallow would be my description of this book.
The primary topic was that humanity had discovered aliens. Yet, even after the alien mentioned earth being a "seeded" world, it was MANY chapters later before anyone even gave it a sec thought. That one statement should have set off a chapter's worth of speculation in and of itself.
Also, the inner thoughts should at least be italicized so that they stand out separate from narration.
I probably won't read more in this series as it was just too difficult to get into such a shallow universe.
DID NOT FINISH I love MilSF, and this book seemed intriguing but I couldn't get by a few chapters. Maybe I'm a stickler but having officers in a military refer to each other (and be referred to by the narrator) by their first names seems childish even. It switches between first and third person on the same page also, it breaks the flow of the book. Most of the characters, bar the hero are written quite poorly and are foolish. Maybe It gets better.
For an author who claims to release a book every month, this is terrible. Sentences are like a Dick and Jane book. The character's thoughts are just thrown in with everything else and you have to try to decipher what is what.
The invaders came out. They were dressed in black. They had guns with point ends. I want to run away.
Summary: Huge world/galaxy building but ultimately for me it just didn't work. Lots of action and a plot that moves nicely, but the premise on which its built felt contrived, unreal.
Plotline: Moves nicely
Premise: Complex but awkward
Writing: OK, I felt some of the action scenes didn't work
Lots of action, good story, real BAD guys and aliens bringing humanity military and scientific tech. There are a lot of characters introduced quickly so the chatacyer development is thin. I wonder what happens next?
Lots of action, introduction of multiple characters, great good guys, bad bad guys, some that may not be as bad as they seem all delivered very effectively. Set up for a great series if all this is developed in forthcoming books ( I hope).
When cultures are found that are not humans but are truly aliens. All of the characters are well developed and the story has many surprises. The next book should be an exciting experience.
I really enjoyed this book. The action just keeps coming. Good character development. Fast paced. My kind of read. Looking forward to the next installment.
This book was not proofed. Missing quotes around comments or thoughts. Had to go back and re-read. Very tedious. Have not completed this book. Might not ever.
This book is a fast paced space opera with the humans and some good aliens fighting the bad aliens. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a great story.
Well what a great storyline of humans meeting aliens. Great action with plenty of blood and guts and a strong determination to win. Looking forward to book two