In this book we’re back with one of the original characters we started with in Book 1. Samuel Hyst, his wife Sura and their son Orion have been leaving a some-what peaceful life on Longstride until the Tasca slavers found them. Oh, they have fought other pirate groups that wondered the galaxy looking for targets of opportunity and their little settlement seemed to be just that. Most thought they looked like easy targets being farmers and all, but they soon found out that those farmers had histories rife with warfare and fighting for what they wanted to keep. So, the Samuel and Sura fought as they had to until they found the Gedra crate the Tasca slavers had left. Now Samuel knew that everyone who was important would come looking for the Gedra. They couldn’t very well stay there and constantly fight everyone that came to claim it.
So, they made the decision to pack up and head back aboard the *Rig Halo*, mining ship that Sura had served on during the long days, months and years that Samuel was away fighting for the Grotto Corporation. The ship was commanded by Captain Dar, who had definitely taken a liking to Sura while she previously served aboard his ship. Sura, likewise, enjoyed the company of the Captain, but both knew she was a married woman and they didn’t go any further than a close friendship. Yet, now Samuel was taking his family back aboard this ship and was going to become part of its crew as long as necessary.
As mentioned, the *Rig Halo* was a mining ship and had all the tools necessary to find ink-rock and collect it in their hold. They also had a small contingent of ex-fighters, one of which was a Helion soldier and quite possibly had met Samuel on the battlefield during his Salvage Reaper time. They didn’t necessarily get along, but Samuel’s talent at fighting and taking orders was what his job aboard the *Rig Halo* was supposed to be. If that was the job, then he’d do it like he had done so many times before.
We’ll also start reading about a Grotto Bond Agent Trask and his team of Paul Lovat and Aeomi. They are doing the work for the Grotto Corporation and that is looking for and finding those who have skipped out on their life-bond. The Corporations didn’t look kindly on people doing this. They figured they have given the human asset an opportunity to live and work in civilized society and that living had to be paid back. The penalties for not paying a life-bond were not the concern of Trask or his team. They were authorized to use whatever force necessary to bring the debtor back into the fold and if that debtor was still healthy enough, they’d go to prison or a penal colony where they would become mercenaries for the corporation. It was this or be very dead. We’ll read about Trask and his team as they go after the Chiodo brothers. Now one of the finer points of being a Bond Agent was to make the capture very noticeable by the general public. The Corporation believed that if they saw what happened to those who skipped out on the life-bond, others would be disinclined to do the same. So, Agent Trask and his team were going to take these two down in a very, very public way. They hoped to keep collateral damage to a minimum but that was a little up to the skippers.
Now, back to Samuel and his life aboard the *Rig Halo*. Samuel soon found out the while he had thought Captain Dar and honest man, there were times such as now that the economy wasn’t favorable to doing a lot of ink-rock mining. There were also lots of independent miners landing on out of the way planets, setting up a mine and collecting what they could before moving on. Captain Dar knew that these mines could be easy pickings for a well trained crew. Instead of mining his own ink-rock, he’d have his mercenaries drop down and take over the rig with as little blood shed as possible. Samuel didn’t particularly care for this kind of activities. He considered the ship and its Captain nothing much more than pirates which he had hated and fought many times in his past. Still, Sura was adept at explaining the harsh realities the ship and its crew faced and there were times when they just needed the money and got it the easiest way possible.
So, that was Samuel Hyst’s life now. Then something changed and he found that Grotto Bond Agent Trash had a warrant for his arrest. Samuel didn’t know why since he had long ago paid his life bond to the corporation, but he wasn’t about to let the Agent capture him or his family. Well, that was going to be very hard to do.
Book 8, “Combat Sentence”, is the next book in the series and is available on Amazon right now.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==