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Title: Turning Point
Series:
Galaxy's Edge #7
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick
Cole
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
SF/Space Opera
Pages: 251
Words: 86K
From
Galaxysedge.fandom.com
On
the planet Wayste, Aeson Keel and Ravi encounter a pair of Black
Fleet shock troopers while exhuming the remains of Kael Maydoon. One
of the troopers is Exo, who used to serve under Keel during his time
as Captain Aeson “Wraith” Ford in the 131st Republic Legion. Exo
takes the opportunity to air a few grievances about Wraith’s
conduct as a legionnaire and argue over who gets to keep Maydoon’s
hand (Exo does, but Keel keeps one of the fingers). Exo invites
himself and an unconscious Sgt. Bombassa to ride in the Indelible VI
on their way to rescue Keel’s crew. When he wakes, Exo assures
Bombassa that Ford can be trusted enough to get them to their
destination. Keel refuses to take sides in the war between the
Republic and the fledgling Empire, but agrees to provide transport to
the Cresweil Bazaar on Porcha.
The
Zhee, armed with new Republic ships and equipment, continue their
spree against the Republic. Phasia, the capital city of the wealthy
resort world Demetrion, is one such target, and is destroyed by a
planet-cracker explosive device after Zhee gunners bombard it from
orbit despite heavy legion resistance. The event comes to be known as
the Sack of Phasia.
Back
on Utopion, Legion Commander Keller and his adjutant, Colonel Speich
meet X who informs him that his life is in danger and that he needs
to communicate grave news: the House of Reason has turned over
Fortress Gibraltaar on Ankalor to the Zhee as well as ten new
battlecruisers and new legionnaire-style personal armor. This new
equipment will make the Zhee a regional power in the Republic which
Delegate Orrin Kaar and his allies believe they can manipulate. X
tells Keller that it’s time for him to enact Article 19 of the
Republic Constitution, which will give the Legion full control over
the Republic government for six months, which it can use to dismantle
the corrupt House of Reason and call for new elections. Dealing with
the Zhee will provide political cover to manage the crisis.
Back
aboard the Mercutio, Keller announces his intention to invoke Article
19 as a response to the House of Reason’s Grand Council’s
decision to elevate the Zhee to a de facto regional power in the
galaxy. Combined with certain delegates’ clandestine criminal
activity with regards to the Mid-Core Rebellion, it represents a
clear and present danger to the Galactic Republic’s political
integrity. A vote by top legion officers is taken and passes. They
agree to support Keller’s plan. The operation to defang the Zhee
and clean up the government is known as Turning Point. This will
involve pulling legions from disparate sections of the galaxy and
form them into a new corp to lead the attack on Ankalor. General
Hannubal, aka The Bloody Wolf, who has a reputation for utter
ruthlessness on the battlefield is chosen to command the attack.
Keller and Hannubal meet to plan the campaign.
Back
on the Intrepid, Captain Chhun is faced with replacing empty slots on
Victory Squad. Keel contacts him with news of locating Exo and his
current allegiance to Goth Sullus, and their impending destination:
the Cybar fleet. Chhun takes the news poorly. Aboard the Indelible
VI, Keel, Exo, and Bombassa go over their decisions to leave the
legion and examine their current loyalties. Keel decides the two
shock troopers know their business and is willing to work with them
against the Cybar, if it means getting his crew back.
On
the Intrepid, Chhun and Owens compare notes about Ford’s
intelligence gathering activity. Owens has another assignment for
Victory Squad, as an infiltration unit to hit Ankalor while the main
fleet attacks Fortress Gibraltaar. Chhun begs off to help Keel with
his mission.
News
of the attack plan filters throughout the fleet; Kill Team Zenith
will infiltrate Ankalor and take down the fortress’s defense
shields while the main attack will storm the fortress and take out
the planetary defense shield. An orbital bombardment can finish the
job of eliminating the facility. The combined forces of the Republic
Army, Navy, and Marines will then perform a planet-wide landing
operation and take control of its cities.
Keel
and Ravi spend the next few days on the Indelible VI posing as
potential recruits to learn as much as possible about the Black Fleet
and its component parts from the shock troopers. Keel decides the
Black Fleet is not be a viable replacement for the legion or the
Republic. He does learn about General Nero’s plan to be on Tusca
and contacts Harvel Keene to watch for the Black Fleet officer. They
plan to catch up to Nero on Olik, and inform Chhun of his timetable.
Chhun
takes the news of Nero’s travels to Captain Deynolds, Owen, and
Keller and they judge that capturing Nero justifies sending Victory
Squad on the mission. Op approved, despite Keller’s disappointment
that Victory will not be the infiltration team involved in Turning
Point.
The
mission above Olik to capture Nero is a slugfest, pitting the
Intrepid and her Raptor Strike Squadron 101 against the Black Fleet
frigate Monstrous. During the fight, Nero’s shuttle is captured and
pulled aboard the Intrepid while the Monstrous is destroyed. Nero
effectively surrenders himself.
Keel
arrives on Porcha with Exo and Bombassa in tow to deal with Gannon,
an arms dealer with ties to the MCR. Keel and Ravi observe Gannon
lifting a load of weapons and armor from a docked Black Fleet
transport ship. Keel and the two shock troopers, in an attempt to
intercept Gannon and the stolen gear are led into a running gun
battle and speeder chase through the streets of the Bazaar. Only
Ravi’s picking the men up in the Indelible VI saves them from
death.
On
Utopion, X returns to his office at the Carnivale and wonders how to
manage the current situation: preventing the actions between the Dark
Legion, the MCR, and the Republic Legion from blowing up into a
galactic civil war. He contacts Orrin Kaar and informs him of
Keller’s plans to invoke Article 19 and dissolve the current
government.
The
Dark Ops stealth shuttle Night Stalker is hit by anti-aircraft fire
on approach to the planet and crashes in the slums of Ankalor City,
killing most of Kill Team Zenith while the first platoon of Shadow
Company crosses the Gordan wastes dressed as nomads in order to
infiltrate and shut down the air defense towers of Fortress
Gibraltaar. Platoon snipers successfully kill most but not all of the
tower observers. The alarm is sounded and everything goes to hell. A
series of brutal engagements occur along the hallways and upper
floors of defense tower four. The battle continues to rage as the
assault carrier Hurricane (lead ship of Task Force Whirlwind) enters
the planet’s atmosphere.
Task
Force Whirlwind (assault carriers Sirocco, Typhoon, and Hurricane and
associated troops and gear) comes in hot and ready for action but
General Hannubal decides that the Zhee have been tipped off, t judge
by the extremely heavy resistance the assault carriers meet on their
way to the surface. Learning that Kill Team Zenith’s shuttle was
shot down only confirms this suspicion. While preparations for the
assault continue, Shadow Company tries to carry out its mission in
defense tower four.
What
follows is a clash of empires that eventually becomes known as the
Battle of the Blind, where legionnaires are blinded by SMAFF clouds
as they engage their equally limited Zhee defenders. The Zhee hold
extensive trench networks, bunkers, pillboxes, and other hardened
structures as the legionnaires do their best to dig out the
defenders. The legion advances the hard way, one trench at a time, at
a savage cost in time and lives.
Having
accepted General Nero’s surrender the Intrepid speeds to Ankalor
space. Major Owens learns that legionnaire Trident is the sole
survivor of KT Zenith and orders a quick response team to his
position, while contacting Chhun who now has to take up Zenith’s
mission: destroy Ankalor's planetary defense shield.
Task
Force Grinder, a legionnaire response team composed of combat sleds
for transport and main battle tanks for support, battle bureaucracy
from the point commanding their FOB, Camp Rex, and leave to support
Trident. Zhee insurgents attack the column from alleyways and the
shadows.
In
the skies over Ankalor, the First Expeditionary Legion Fleet meets
the fleet of Zhee battlecruisers (really Republic ships with Zhee
crews). Happily for the Legion (and bad for the Zhee) the Aegis fire
control system utilized by the legion ships works correctly and
several Zhee ships are destroyed outright by concentrated fire. The
Zhee formation breaks, and the legion fleet unleashes hell on their
opponents. The Zhee fleet heads into hyperspace to buy time.
On
Ankalor, officers from task Force Grinder break into the regional
control center and convince two on-site contractors to help them blow
up the defense shield surrounding Fortress Gibraltaar. The explosion
is heard for miles as the shield comes down, even while the planetary
shield remains in place.
Owens
and Chhun prepare their rescue mission as the battle rages around the
fortress. Ultimately they decide to ride a set of planetary defense
drones down to the surface, carried part of the way by the Raptor
squadron Gothic Serpents. Victory Squad meets up with the quick
response force on the surface.
Back
at Fortress Gibraltar, General Hannubal tasks Captain Besson with the
mission of killing the Zhee war chief, Karshack Bum Kali, by
combining surviving units and their equipment into a new unit: Dog
Company. Dog Company fights its way through fifteen linked trenches
at extreme cost and then come out the other side to see that more
Zhee reinforcements have filled the trenches they’ve just fought
through, surrounding them.
General
Hannubal’s staff notices that new contacts are approaching the
fortress from the desert, light speeders with Zhee bent on attack
runs at the legionnaires. The grounded assault carrier Hurricane
manages to dispatch large numbers of them while taking damage of its
own. Hannubal orders the Tornado and Sirocco to his position for
support and to prevent the Zhee from boarding the grounded carriers.
Dog
Company penetrates further into the Zhee defenses and encounters the
Crimson Knives, Zhee assassins who specialize in blind-fighting.
Fighting past them costs more lives. Finally PFC Huzu climbs up to a
mounted N-42 blaster and turns it on the defenders, cracking open Bum
Kali’s bunker only to find that he was never in the fortress, but
was hiding in the slums where he vows to never be taken alive.
A
last Zhee bomb-jockey drives his speeder, laden with explosives, into
the carrier Hurricane, dropping the ship and killing Hannubal.
In
the House of Reason audience chamber Delegate Orrin Kaar announces a
purging of the apparently treasonous legion, and also a peace treaty
between the Republic and the leader of the Mid-Core Rebellion,
putting an end to the fighting.
The
First Expeditionary Legion Fleet, in orbit above Ankalor, confirms
Hannubal’s KIA status and the de facto destruction of Fortress
Gibraltaar. Kill Team Victory is engaged with local Zhee and is
tasked with locating and eliminating Karshack Bum Kali while Task
Force Grinder heads back to FOB Camp Rex. After a series of raids and
firefights in the slums of Ankalor City, Bum Kali is located and
subdued. KT Victory is exfiltrated with their prisoner.
The
mop-up at Fortress Gibraltaar continues as Sgt. Major MakRaven
reports his losses to the remaining officers.
Bum
Kali, now aboard the Mercutio insists that he is a political prisoner
and is entitled to release and restitution. Legion Commander Keller
disagrees with this assessment, informing Bum Kali that since the
House of Reason was dissolved, he has no rights, and with the legion
dealing with the Black Fleet, any ideas he had about restitution are
invalid. Keller executes Bum Kali on the spot.
Wanna know a secret? I only include those huge synopses to increase
my average wordcount for my posts. I have discovered that posts with
500 words or less don't get as many views, likes or comments as ones
that are over 500. And yet, even with reviews like this and the Wheel
of Time synopses, I'm still under 700. I guess I can just say more
with less! ;-)
This was just another fantastic entry in the Galaxys Edge series.
There is a character, one of the Nether Ops leaders who thinks he
knows better than everyone else how things should be, who manipulates
events so that the Legion is betrayed even while still accomplishing
their goals. He wanted to weaken all sides and it made me so mad that
I had to put the book down for a bit. That shows some good writing
right there!
Another aspect, which I can't remember if I've talked about before or
not, is that Goth Sullus is barely playing a part. At first, I found
myself wanting to read more about him but then I realized that when I
was reading the Star Wars Extended Universe books one of the
complaints from a majority of the fans (myself included) was the
inclusion of too many force users. Where were the regular people that
made up the galaxy, we all complained. Well, Anspach and Cole have
done just that and yet it took me a minute to really appreciate that.
Sometimes fans don't know what they actually want :-/
There was a great big battle scene with the Legion attacking the
fortress of Gibraltar. We got it from infiltration to the end where
the Commander of the Entire Legion shoots the Zhee Warlord in the
face during interrogation and kills him. It was refreshing to see
authors admit that there are just bad people and bad cultures that
deserve to be stomped out.
There are only 2 more books in this “Season One” of Galaxy's
Edge. Season Two has started and is currently being written out. I'm
thinking I'll track down some of the spin off series and read those
while I wait for Season 2 to be completed. It took Anspach and Cole
about 18'ish months to write the 9 books, so I'm hoping Season Two
follows the same trajectory.
★★★★☆
