As humanity spreads out among the stars, private investors seize the opportunity to fund (and control) these new settlements in space. An alien race known as the Achli, eradicates humanity’s first exoplanet colony, Enlightenment, leaving no known survivors.
In the years following the devastation, a prestigious financial institution, Dhank Trust hires the Peacekeepers, one of the top mercenary groups, to provide security for the latest exoplanet colony, Bakht. After the first group's deployment, the colony goes dark. Krysta Evreux, a.k.a. “Lone Wolf,” an ex-Marine and one of the unit’s senior officers willing volunteers to go to the colony to find out what happened and to find her former lover who was part of the first team. Upon arrival, she discovers the Hlinan, a neighboring reptilian race, aren't as isolated as they pretend and have secretly watched the colony since its development.
As humanity spreads out among the stars, private investors seize the opportunity to fund (and control) these new settlements in space. An alien race known as the Achli, eradicates humanity’s first exoplanet colony, Enlightenment, leaving no known survivors.
In the years following the devastation, a prestigious financial institution, Dhank Trust hires the Peacekeepers, one of the top mercenary groups, to provide security for the latest exoplanet colony, Bakht. After the first group's deployment, the colony goes dark. Krysta Evreux, a.k.a. “Lone Wolf,” an ex-Marine and one of the unit’s senior officers willing volunteers to go to the colony to find out what happened and to find her former lover who was part of the first team. Upon arrival, she discovers the Hlinan, a neighboring reptilian race, aren't as isolated as they pretend and have secretly watched the colony since its development.
Colony Enlightenment, Aether B
June 6, 2220
Population: 56
John Evreux held his breath, his eyes fixed on the holo monitor’s video feed of the aliens outside. The director and security team were speaking to them, but John could only make out several armored, ivory-skinned beings. He reached beneath his shirt and clutched the wedding band on a silver chain, the cold metal grounding him in his desperation. His gaze locked on the alien, its amethyst eyes gleaming coldly under the colony’s lights. “It will be okay. It will be okay,” John repeated under his breath over and over.
“Humans, you have trespassed on our territory,” the aliens announced, the words conveyed through an AI translator tool. “Choose quickly: annihilation or servitude. If you serve us, you will obey the laws and customs of the Achli. We are beyond your primitiveness.”
John’s breath sped while his cloudy brown eyes spied the colony director and the head of security, arguing about how to respond. The security leader’s hand rested edgily on the butt of his pistol strapped to his side. “Please don’t. God, please no.”
Seconds later, glowing spheres burst from the aliens’ gauntlets, cutting down the security team and the director in a deadly instant. The building shook with the blast, and John gripped his wedding band tighter as screams filled the air.
“Everyone, get to the far side of the building. Stay together!”
Taking a shuttered breath, he released his death grip of his chain and pushed towards the rear side of the atrium. The entire room was thrust into chaos as he crawled towards the front while a gigantic mass of humans squeezed their way through the one doorway. Electrical sizzles followed by explosions caused the lights to flicker and the stampede transformed into a free for all. A hard shove in the back caused him to stumble. An older woman hit the ground ahead, and the mass did not halt to come to her aid while she struggled to get up.
“I got you.” John pushed through the crowd to assist her up, then held her hand to drag her along behind him. “Stay with me. We need to get away from the front entrance.”
The far back room filled up quickly with the colony workers and they wailed, holding onto one another for some hope of a savior.
Spotting the row of respirators hanging on the back wall near the exit door, John hurried to flag a few colonists that he passed by. “Come with me. We can’t stay here.” John snatched a mask off its holder and then tossed a few more out. “Put these on, quickly.”
The woman fumbled with her mask. “We can’t go out there! They’re outside!” She dropped the mask and then pulled away into the sea of civilians.
“Don’t go that way!” he called her through his mask.
Another civilian worker picked up the dropped item and fitted it on. He turned his attention back to John for guidance. “You sure we will survive out there?”
“I have a wife and a young daughter at home that I want to see again. We have more chances outside than we do here right now. This place is like packed cattle waiting for slaughter.” Screams of dread towards the front of the room seized his attention, and he jerked his head to see four Achli rushing in with their crimson armor. John opened the door behind him. “Let’s move!”
He stormed ahead, his legs pumping, mind racing with images of his young daughter smiling at him with her blonde hair flurrying around her. He ignored the shrieks from those he left behind, not daring to look back. His family’s faces remained inside his mind, reminding him grimly of the safety he left behind on Earth. A mirage of Earth hung in the background as his eyes desperately searched the sky.
“Charlotte, Krysta. . . I’m coming home to you both. You hear that, baby girl? Hang on. Daddy’s coming home!”
Krysta Evreux, known as Lone Wolf, is a member of the Peacekeepers, a prestigious mercenary group providing security to the giant corporations who fund and control new space settlements. Mercenaries are necessary as an alien race, the Achli, had destroyed humanity’s first colony, Enlightenment (home of Krysta’s parents), fifteen years previously, and her parents’ deaths were Krysta’s motive for joining up. Now her team have been engaged by the Dankh Trust to go to Bakht, an exoplanetary colonial town, as the colony has gone dark. This means the Peacekeepers have lost contact with the first team to be sent there, including Grim, Krysta’s former lover, In Bakht Krysta and Jack, a senior officer known as Papa Bear, discover to their surprise vicious wolf-like creatures in a forest just outside the town’s perimeter and an alien base set up nearby by the Hlinan, a reptilian race who have been secretly watching the colony. What else have the Dankh Trust not told them?
The scene is set for action and it rarely flags as Krysta and her team fight the Hell Suns, a violent mercenary group, and then the wolves in the forest near Bakht, hotly followed by a run-in with the Hlinan. Despite her own doubts about her ability Krysta is a first class leader despite being abrasive, overly suspicious, quick-tempered and hopelessly undiplomatic, a very clearly defined character. The others come across plainly as well, like the experienced and steady Bear, restraining Krysta when she wants to race into action without thought for the consequences. The planetary environment is not so different to Earth’s but the customs and clothing help to differentiate the various levels of society, especially within the Hlinan who seem to be a very peaceable race. Is it a trick? Krysta must decide as she's in love with one of them!
I must say I found the interspecies romance a little implausible, even though conveyed with deep feeling. The Hlinan are cold-blooded and surely it must be difficult to gaze deep into the eyes of one’s lover if there are four of them. The problem seems less in that the couple are able to converse very colloquially in English by means of an AI earpiece translator so perhaps all will be well.
Thus a very interesting set of circumstances, interspersed with a considerable amount of kung fu as well as military action and corporate and political intrigue, which will keep you reading through the night.