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Exalted Permission
Title: Kill Team
Series:
Galaxy's Edge #3
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick
Cole
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
SF/Space Opera
Pages: 340
Words: 85K
From
Galaxysedge.fandom.com
The
Battle of Kublar rages while Victory company is extracted by the
Mercutio. On the destroyer’s hangar deck the remains of Doomsday
Squad spy an assault shuttle preparing to attack the Ohio-class ship
bombarding the planet. Chhun, Exo, Wraith, and Specialist Kags
convince the shuttle crew to let them join the assault. The marines
agree, and the Ohio-class ship is boarded and captured by the
legionnaires and Republic marines. The boarding parties recover
snippets of data regarding who planned and executed the MCR attack.
Two
months earlier, X, leader of the Nether Ops office known as the
Carnivale, is preparing a new assignment known as Operation Ghost
Hunter. X explains the mission to an operative code-named Tom Delo.
Tom’s mission is to infiltrate the illegal arms market on Ankalor
and follow the chain of contacts to the supplier who is providing the
Mid Core Rebellion with their weapons.
Tom
discovers the man behind the supply is known as Scarpia and begins to
track him. His first contact is a local enforcer known as Frogg, who
leads him to a talkative reported named Steadron. On the way to the
Night Market, they are attacked by Zhee, humanoid aliens with a long
history of religious zealotry. At the Night Market, Tom learns that
the bombs that destroyed the Chaism and Camp Forge were MAROs,
portable anti-matter bombs, and finds the republic officer going by
the street name Abo can sell him two for three million credits each.
On the way to the delivery site, Tom learns more about Frogg, who was
once a legionnaire who was so uncontrollably violent that he was
dishonorably discharged from the legion.
Frogg
takes Tom to meet Scarpia, who gives Tom a mission: plant one of the
acquired MAROs on the Chiasm and the other at Camp Forge. Tom goes
through with the mission in order to secure his place in Scarpia’s
inner circle, but increasingly chafes against his orders from X.
Still, orders are orders, and Tom continues in his undercover role.
Lt.
Chhun and Captain Ford get their first bit of down-time on the
Mercutio and are introduced to Legion Commander Keller, who confirms
the permanence of their new ranks and introduces to Captain Ellek
Owens. Owens works for Dark Ops, a clandestine office that
specializes in assassinations and spycraft. Owens is creating a Kill
Team to go after the MCR rebels who destroyed the Chiasm and invites
Chhun and Wraith to be part of it. Both accept.
Their
first mission is on Kublar, along with Andien Broxin who they now
learn works for Nether Ops. Andien retrieves a data cell from the
Chiasm that reveals that the ship was destroyed with a MARO,
difficult to get except through the illegal arms market.
Back
aboard the Merutio, Owens, Chhun, and Wraith start picking troops for
their squad, including Kags, Twenties, Masters, and Exo. Getting
ahold of Exo is difficult as Capt. Devers has ordered Exo to be
court-martialed for assaulting him on Kublar. Owens visits Devers in
sick bay and violently convinces him to release Exo from the
proceedings which Devers does.
Tom
takes the freighter Hoplyte to meet Scarpia at Smuggler’s End, his
private estate on Pthalo, with Illuria, his concubine, and attendant
friends and staff. Over the next days, Scarpia alludes to a much
bigger plan, one to sell the leaders of the MCR the equipment they
need to launch a major attack against the Republic, while Tom and
Illuria spend time together and grow closer.
Owens’
kill team travels to Utopion and locate Exo, who agrees to join the
team. Their trail leads them to the various links in Tom Delo’s
chain of contacts who are intercepted and interrogated one by one.
Back
on Pthalo, Scarpia finally tells Tom the big plan: loading up a
stolen republic corvette with crustbuster bombs and crashing it into
the House of Reason on Utopion. Tom is taken aback by the magnitude
of the plan but stays with his cover, agreeing to be part of it. A
preliminary mission is to kill the officer who sold the MAROs to Tom
back on Ankalor. Tom and Frogg take the Hoplyte to Ootani Station and
succeed in killing Abo, but Frog loses control and kills three
legionnaires as well. Tom arranges an escape for them aboard a life
pod.
On
Ankalor, Owen’s kill team is sent to interrogate the Zhee militia
leader who knows the whole story of the MCR attack on Kublar and the
weapons deals leading from and up to it. Missing the Zhee, they do
locate Steadron who tells them the Zhee’s name: Jarref Varuud.
Andien contacts Varuud who reveals Scarpia’s place in the sales and
Owens declares that bringing in Scarpia is now the kill team’s
primary objective.
Tom
tries to figure out how to deal with the new situation; he can’t
let the House of reason be destroyed as it would mean the destruction
of the republic, but he can’t blow his cover, either. His
relationship with Illuria deepens and she tells him the rendezvous
point for the corvette-bomb: Makchuria, and also agrees to send a
coded message to X via RepubNet when she heads off world on a
shopping trip the next day.
Now
that the location and nature of the attack is known, Owens’ team
begins to train for it aboard the Intrepid, Owens’ base destroyer.
They fail repeatedly using standard legionnaire doctrine and agree
they need to change their tactics to board the corvette in time to
avert the attack.
The
day of the rendezvous, legion super-destroyers gather at Makchuria
but no corvette is in sight. Tom learns from Scarpia that he merely
told the MCR leaders he was on board with their plan but has actually
sold the corvette to the Zhee who have a different plan in mind, a
suicide mission. The corvette is actually going to Ankalor to board a
battalion of Zhee fanatics and then head to Utopion. The Intrepid
detects the corvette jump in above Ankalor, and changes course to
pursue without the support fleet at Makchuria.
Over
Utopion, Owens’ kill team boards the MCR corvette while Tom Delo
takes over the bridge, and together they kill the zhee rebels and
avert the attack.
Back
at the Carnivale, X closes the book on Operation Ghost Hunter and Tom
returns to his wife, and his daughter, Prisma.
Good stuff! Star Wars lives again.
I am getting really strong Karen Traviss and the Republic Commando
vibes here. Except it is all good, not mixed with hatred like Traviss
had for Star Wars. These Legionnaires are what the 501st
should have been like instead of thugs for Vader. It is GOOD to see
some heroism.
That being said, I can afford to have some complaints. First, I still
mix characters up. Between first names, last names, code names and
nick names, half the time I am not keeping track of who is who. Kind
of annoying. Second, and bigger for me, is how the authors have
chosen to skip around in time. In this book we return to the
aftermath of the first book AND a timeline leading up to the first
book AND a timeline leading up to the second book. I can understand
why the authors wrote it this way (it keeps things moving and keeps
the readers interested and doesn't get caught up in sloggy moments)
but I really like moving from Point A to Point B to Point C in a
straight line. None of this connect the dots for me, thank you very
much.
I wasn't excited while I was reading but I was completely satisfied
by the end. To put this in food terms (here's a shoutout to
Lashaan
who always ribs me (ha!) for these food analogies), this
was like a serving of Cheesecake Factory Loaded Baked Potato Tots.
Those suckers are good! I always get them when we go to the
Cheesecake Factory for our anniversary and to be honest, I've thought
about ordering 2 or 3 servings and making that my main dish. Dipped
in the sriracha sauce, mmmhmmmm! It's not like the cheesecake, but it
is warm, satisfying and filling.
I continue to be happy with these books and how the authors are
handling everything (even if I don't like how the timeline is
handled). There are 9 books in this series, several spin off series
and a standalone novel or two. Thank goodness it is all listed over
at the Fandom page! As long as the quality stays up to par, I should
have plenty more adventures in this Dumpster Fire of a Galaxy Far,
Far Away!
★★★★☆
