Well, this series has gotten better since we’re not dealing with Colonel Joe Bishop and Skippy! Oh, we have to read about them for a while, but this story really goes back to Paradise and the remnants of the original ExForce. That is good because those ExForce personnel at least don’t have to deal with an arrogant AI named Skippy.
But, first we do have to get involved in what’s going on with the *Flying Dutchman*. That ship now has some kind of energy virus that has gotten aboard and Skippy, in all his magnificence, doesn’t know how to handle it. His solution is to shutdown the entire ship, turning off anything that makes or has an electrical current and that should kill the virus. The only problem with this is that humans also put off electrical currents even though they are almost negligible. Skippy’s solution to that problem is to evacuate all the crew to a save distance away from the ship while he works the problem. Only the thinks it might take over eighty hours to get rid of the energy virus. Now how is the crew going to survive in deep space with nothing but spacesuits? They can’t even use the drop ships because they are also infected. Good luck to the crew surviving this one.
So, that brings us back to the ExForce personnel on Paradise. Since there is much for a human military to do on Paradise, the ExForce has been greatly reduced. Most of the former soldiers are now becoming farmers or something definitely not related to the military. The Ruhar don’t want the humans to have a military so they aren’t disappointed in the ExForce shrinking. But, there is a few military that want to stay involved. Those were mostly pilots that had been involved in flying Ruhar drop ships before and would like to do so now if the Ruhar would give them a chance. Additionally, some ExForce people had been heavily involved in finding and activating the hidden and buried masers that defeated a Kristang battle fleet and kept a Kristang invasion from happening.
Those personnel are now under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Emily Perkins. She has been able to work with the Ruhar military and has somewhat convinced them that the humans can fight and are willing to learn if given the equipment and training. Of course, humans are considered inferior to Ruhar in both physical attributes and in technological understanding. Still, they are being given a chance to prove themselves training with Ruhar cadets. During this training they have found out that humans have a knack for coming up with impossible solutions to problems the Ruhar see no way to solve. So, LTC Perkins has made some headway in getting accepted by the Ruhar command.
But now she wants her team to go on an off-world mission. She hopes that her team can learn how to operate in space and even learn how to fly starfighters or even drop-ships of the Ruhar. Her boss, General Lynn Bezanson, thinks it would be a good thing but she offers to name LTC Perkins’ outfit the “Mavericks”. That’s Ok with LTC Perkins and even better when they are accepted to join a training mission aboard the Ruhar training ship, “*Ruh Toestella*“, an old cruiser, and immediately renamed by the humans as the “*Toaster*”. LTC Perkins has only six members in her unit, but they are all highly motivated for this new mission. They will also be accompanied by a Ruhar liaison, Cadet Durndurff.
So, even thought this is only a training mission on an old starship, it is the most exciting thing LTC Perkins and her crew have been doing for a long time. They are going to be observed very closely by all the Ruhar on-board, but most of them will be Cadets with very few “adult” Ruhar aboard. But first, after some embarrassing event for a Ruhar instructor, the Mavericks are given an almost brand new drop-ship which they will fly up to the training cruiser. They have to get this done immediately since it seems some of the Ruhar don’t exactly want the humans aboard. But, they get it done and then settle in to some simulator training for a long time, like two or three months. This is going to be an easy mission and just maybe the Ruhar will let the human pilots take a crack at flying the cruiser.
Well, nothing goes as planned. This “training” mission turns into something no one would ever have imagined. It comes down to the Ruhar fleet being attacked and almost destroyed at the very beginning. The training cruiser suffers significant damage and finds itself with no adult Ruhar to manage the situation. You shouldn’t be surprised as to who has to step in and take command.
I liked this story simply because we didn’t have to put up with Skippy most of the time. Oh, he does come back at the end, but it wasn’t too bad. I still don’t think the *Flying Dutchman* will ever get back to Earth. Something always comes up and they have reason to believe that Earth might have been attacked while they were gone. So getting back to Earth may not be a pleasant thing. But there’s more to come in book 7, “Renegades”, now available on Amazon.
==[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. ]==