This book is a little longer than the previous one, I think. It also takes place almost entirely on a very strange planet. Mark Allen is now the squadron leader of Rylos Squadron. He’s not all that comfortable with this new job, but he’s resigned to doing the best he can. It also seems that all of his squad mates recognize him as their leader even if grudgingly like in the case of Lanz.
They have been out on patrol and had just encountered an Ascendency drone squadron. Through some quick thinking and some great decisions by Mark, his squadron had come out the victors in this battle. Of course Lanz would have liked more targets to destroy, but Mark was just happy to get this job done and return to Rylos.
While at Rylos they get to see a who influx of more recruits for Training Officer Brex to train. Mark and Melika (Mel) notice that none of these new recruits are human. That’s been a problem since Mark got to Rylos station. It seems that Clint, a former squadron member of Mel’s old squadron, had gone rogue and turned traitor in the war against the Ascendancy. At least that’s the story everyone knew. Since Clint was a human, that immediately put a stigma on every other human fighting in the war. Lanz in particular didn’t trust Mark because of this even though Mark hadn’t done anything to make him feel that way. In fact, Mark Allen was the first human that had been recruited from Earth in forty years!
Also while at Rylos station and between missions, they met up with Axon Squadron. They’re going to be stationed at Rylos Station and will be used in combat exercises when both squadrons are not on missions. Of course this immediately sets up some competition between the squadrons which is in full force in the next exercise. Fortunately, Mark manages to get the last killing shot on the last Axon Stinger in the exercise so his squad comes out victorious, in this battle. Still it’s nice to know that Rylos Squadron will have backup coming if they need it on future missions.
And the next mission comes up pretty soon. Rylos Squadron has been assigned to explore sector 6641. Ascendancy squads have been reported in multiple places so all the squadrons on Rylos are getting assigned to various sectors. Sector 6641 is also known as the Torabor System and it’s very close to the Uncharted Dark. Mark has his squad make a quick transitions to his assigned sector and start looking around. The system has an average yellow star with all of its planets devoid of life.
There doesn’t appear to be anything happening in this system. That was until they received what seemed to be a Nova distress beacon coming from the third planet. Could this be another lost Nova like the one Mark found Mel in? She had been in stasis for over 40 years when Mark had luckily found her distress beacon. No matter what though, this was definitely something the squadron was going to have to check out.
This is where the story really starts. This planet is like nothing they’ve ever encountered. It is a deadly planet that some of them might well not come back from. So, it’s going to be interesting to find a bunch of pilots stuck on a planet having to fight in a ground battle after battle. Mark gets the challenge of his life trying to make the right decisions even though some will affect his squadron members very decidedly. He also finds out some very interesting information about his Father. Mark has to make it back home to Earth to talk with his Mom to find out if what he’s told was true.
I find it strange that Mark and Rylos Squadron go off to investigate a sector without the ability to call for immediate reinforcements. They can and do send a drone back to Rylos Station asking for assistance, but it seems to take a very, very long time for Rylos to act. In fact, they almost don’t act in time.
Still, more will come in book 3, “Yesterday’s Tomorrow”, available on 15 February 2026. Mark will have a smaller squadron and should be looking for replacements, maybe?
==[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]==
==[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]==