Phase Two

Story so far

Phase one was the crawl - infiltration, Faction Wars, and the quiet work done under its cover, including the destruction of The Orc Yacht. Phase two begins the instant the veterans come home. Colonel Boomer tells York it is about to start, that it is about to get really, really bumpy, and that the good news is it will not be nearly as difficult as originally thought, because they made some friends down in the dungeon.

The means are already staged: breaching suits, enhancement zone suits working exactly as Porthus predicted, and Cronus-class Power Armor all online aboard the Homecoming Queen, now very likely the strongest ship in orbit. Four Cronus suits go to a landing skiff for a pregnant veteran on the surface who needs backup. Porthus's timed broadcast supplies the public ultimatum - stop the crawl or else - and Boomer supplies the private one: it is time to bring the war out of the dungeon, so warm up the lasers.

Role

The open, above-ground war the book ends on the brink of.

Relationships

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

• The Eye of the Bedlam BrideBook 6