Well, this series has gotten so, so much better that I’m tempted to continue reading the next book in the series even though it’s not next on my reading list! And that’s saying something. Previously, I was always complaining about the lame conversation between Colonel Joe Bishop and Skippy, the Elder AI. While Skippy is very intelligent and can do some marvelous things, he’s a conceited idiot most of the time, no, all the time. Yet, Skippy has gone through some traumatic experiences that has toned him down some. He really almost failed the humans he has been helping when they needed him most and they aren’t about to forget that episode.
Now things are looking up for the humans who have been labeled as the Merry Band of Pirates flying through know space in a stolen, repaired and improved Maxolhx battlecruiser called “*Valkyrie*”. Col. Bishop and his ship has arrived back at Earth and are preparing to conduct an “ass-kicking” campaign now that he has secured Elder weapons and has stationed them around strategic planets of the Maxolhx and the Rindhalu, the two senior most alien species that pretty much ran the galaxy. With those two species understanding that any attack on Earth or where Skippy happened to be, could result in Skippy not resetting the timers on the Elder weapons. If those timers weren’t reset, then they would go off and destroy any planet they were aimed at, but also activate the Sentinels that would ensure the destruction of every living thing in the galaxy. That wouldn’t be a problem for humanity since they wouldn’t have released the Elder weapons if they were still alive.
This strategy had only one drawback. It was an all or nothing situation. There was no provision for limited engagements. In other words, if the Maxolhx or the Rindhalu decided to attack Earth just a little, then there really wasn’t anything the humans or Skippy could do. In fact, Earth so far only has the one starship, *Valkyrie* that was battle worthy and it had to be other places besides Earth. But, Joe Bishop now could do some attacking of his own. He had a very strong disagreement with the existence of the Kristang who had came to Earth posing as friends only to get them involved in their war with the Ruhar. The Kristang were also holding humans as prisoners on a rocky planet intending to use them as subjects for medical experiments.
So, now that the word was out that humans had Elder weapons, there was no need to hide the Flying Dutchman or the Valkyrie. As the Valkyrie had been stolen from the Maxolhx and improved by Skippy’s modifications, they were pretty certain that the Kristang’s couldn’t match the Valkyrie’s abilities. So Joe started making sure the lizards (Kristang) know that humanity was a species that should be played with! This was a fun time for Col. Joe Bishop and his Merry Band of Pirates. They were able to do some payback which they had not dare to do in the past. Now humanity was considered a senior species since we had Elder weapons. But that didn’t solve most of our problems. Actually, that made things kind of worse!
Colonel Bishop had been previously getting his orders from the United Nations Expeditionary Force (UNEF) HQ and he was still a US Army officer. Yet, he kept getting the feeling that his arrangement couldn’t last forever. Some of the things UNEF wanted done wasn’t what needed to be done and his opinions were based on him actually being out in the galaxy. So he came to the conclusion that he could no longer be part of the US Army and therefore not directly under the command of UNEF. Surprisingly, the Army had no problem with this, but instead of leaving the Army, Skippy had suggested that Joe Bishop become the military branch of the nation call “Skippyistan” or specifically the “Glorious People’s Republic of Skippyistan”. Now this was a made-up nation, of course, but Skippy had done everything he needed to have this declared a real nations by everyone concerned, even UNEF! So, Joe was transferred on loan from the Army to Skippyistan and now only took orders from UNEF-HQ. He was also declared a citizen of Skippyistan so as to confuse the fact that he was also an American. Most of this was just to ensure Joe stayed out of trouble with the Army and some times with UNEF. Joe was notorious for a number of things, disobeying Army orders being one of them!
Now comes a really good part. Gunnery Sergeant Margaret Adams had transferred back to the Valkyrie but was also going to be transferred to their forward operating base “Jaguar” or in Chinese “Jiayuguan”. And with Colonel Bishop no longer her commander, they could make up for lost time. They both had been in love with each other for a long time, but due to Gunnery Sergeant Adam’s strict military principles, they couldn’t do anything about their feelings. Well, now things have changed. This is good because Joe has been without some decent companionship for a long time. Maggie might not be aboard the Valkyrie all the time, but Joe planes to spent some quality time orbiting above FOB Jaguar as often as possible.
But, all is not roses. Colonel Bishop knows that his single battleship cannot protect Earth forever. They need allies that can help by providing more and more ships the humans can modify into a fighting fleet. That will take time. Unfortunately, this also results in a trap that the Valkyrie fall into that could cause it and everyone aboard to be destroyed and die. This is a very intense and exciting part of the book.
So, I’ll probably not go directly to book 12, “Breakaway”, even though it is available now on Amazon. I’ve got nine other books in front of that one, but I’ll certainly be looking forward to the book.
==[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. ]==