Sword of the Legion

***Sword of the Legion*** is the fifth book in the Galaxy’s Edge series written by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole. It was released on October 25, 2017 and published by Galaxy's Edge Press, with the audiobook published by Podium Audio.

## Publisher's Summary

**Choose your legacy.**

Captain Chhun’s Dark Ops squad is reunited with Wraith, and they are entrusted with the task of denying Goth Sullus the shipyards he so eagerly desires. But when the mission doesn’t go as planned, Chhun and Wraith must find a way to stop the Black Fleet’s advance—even if it costs them their lives.

Meanwhile, an old friend from Nether Ops executes a covert operation that will turn the focus of the Last War of the Republic in a terrible new direction.

Daring heroics, sacrifice, and courage come together as the Legion attempts to contain the fire sparked at the Battle of Tarrago.

## Synopsis

In Sword of the Legion, we find Dark Ops Kill Team Victory Squad on the planet
Rawl Kima in pursuit of a Mid-Core Rebel VIP. Victory Squad has been operating
out of the Republic destroyer *Illustrious*
for some time, on a continuing mission to locate and capture or kill a
never-ending series of individuals who are categorized as MCR VIPs by Dark Ops.
After years of this kind of activity, Captain Cohen Chhun is still a dutiful, competent soldier but the continual fighting is wearing him down emotionally.

Worse, despite the loss of the arms dealer Scarpia,
Rawl Kima is a hotbed of MCR activity and Victory Squad is hard pressed to stay
alive in the face of political decisions made by the local garrison commander.

Earlier, Dark Ops Major Ellek Owens and Nether Ops
operative Andien Broxin are contacted by Legion Commander Keller with a new
mission: they are to destroy the Kesselverks Shipyards at Tarrago Prime, which
is under attack by a new player, Goth Sullus’s Black Fleet. Sullus’s goal is
uncertain, but his intent is clear and the Republic must deny his fleet the use
of the ship construction facilities at all costs. That calls for the best kill
team they have and that is Victory Squad. And that means extracting them from
the mess on Rawl Kima.

Owens contacts Captain Aeson Keel, aka Wraith, aka
Captain Ford, former legionnaire, to extract Victory Squad from their current
assignment with his ship the Indelible VI.

Owens’ message is simple: Keel and his crew must fight
their way down to Rawl Kima, extract Victory Squad, and transport them to
Tarrago Prime ASAP. Keel is intent on dealing with Silas Devers, the navy admiral
who Keel discovered to be working with House of Reason Representative Orrin
Karr to seize control of the Republic government. Owens assures him that as
bad as Devers is, Goth Sullus’ gaining the ability to build starships by the
dozen is many times worse. Keel accepts the job.

As the Indelible VI
approaches Rawl Kima, Keel tries to explain his current point of view to Leenah
the Enduran engineer (and former mid-core rebel), but the situation is complicated,
involving a sense of duty to the Republic Legion combined with an intense need
to survive the conflict that is growing around them. Additionally, Wraith’s
bounty hunting career has been extremely lucrative, thanks to a huge payment by
Tyrus Rechs. Leenah has a more white-and-black view of the conflict, which
begins and ends with protecting Prisma Maydoon, now a part of Keel's crew.

Keel denotes his ship “Rescue One” and contacts
Victory Squad who is expecting him. The fighting on the ground grows fierce and
Keel, Skrizz, and Leenah work together to lay down suppressive fire and drop
the ship low enough for the surviving team members to board. Leenah especially
is conflicted about the need to kill in defense of one’s allies. On its way out
of the system the *Illustrious* attempts
to force the Indelible VI to land aboard for customs violations, but Keel micro-jumps
the ship to safety and introduces his crew to his old legion buddy, Cohen Chhun.

Aboard the ship, the two crews get to know each other. Masters and Prisma especially take a liking to each other, as he reminds her of
a kinder, nobler version of Tyrus Rechs and he thinks she’s both brave and
resourceful. Crash’s presence unnerves everyone. News of Keel’s alliance
with Tyrus Rechs is good for some awe among the legionnaires.

Keel shows Victory Squad his extremely well-stocked
armory and the team gears up while a holoprojected Major Owens explains the
mission and provides a bit of background: Nether Ops operatives destroyed the *Chiasm* and Camp Forge back on Kublar.
The Republic government is literally working against its own best interest
and the government is in danger of fragmenting over the conflict. Owens forbids
Victory Squad and the crew of the Indelible VI from going after Sullus directly. Denying
him the use of the shipyards is their primary concern. Neither are they
expected to secure the orbital defense gun, as that would require the team to
hold until relieved and there is no relief coming.

As the freighter jumps into Tarrago system, they witness the
mother of all space battles, with Black Fleet battleships and Republic Seventh
Fleet capital ships flying around each other, trying to inflict as much
damage as possible. Part of the problem is just identifying who the real
enemies are but they assume the black fighters belong to Sullus’s fleet. Keel’s
aggressive flying keeps the fighters at bay while avoiding a minefield deployed over the
planet. Garret upgrades the weapons AI such that the newly upgraded missiles
will fire from any direction and pursue a target in any position, then sets
about upgrading Crash’s software for combat. In warbot mode, Crash deploys
ahead of the ship in order to act as a fire suppression platform in advance of
the ship’s landing.

Having landed the ship, Keel dons his old legion armor
and feels like Wraith again, then joins the op with Victory Squad, which
carries out their objective. The team picks their way through the jungle to the
shipyards, and use a Black Fleet S-comm to avoid roving patrols of occupying
shock troopers. Once inside the base, Victory Squad rigs the drive core of a
partially constructed republic destroyer to blow as they fight their way out of
the structure.

Wraith orders the Indelible VI to pick the team up and
finds that hails to the ship go unanswered. Forced to rely on the ship’s hyper-enthusiastic
AI computer, Keel coaxes it into flying the ship to their position and they
manage to board to find the ship deserted except for Ravi.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Indelible VI awakens in the
hold of the freighter *Forresaw*, and
are introduced to Andien Broxin, agent of Nether Ops, and the Ghost Squad, the legion kill team which is aiding her. Andien explains that the Republic Seventh Fleet is gone
and there are no other fleets available to stop Goth Sullus. The truth is that
there were never any grand fleets; it was a propaganda tool used by the
Republic to maintain order and prevent local systems from trying to gain too
much power on their own. Now that the Seventh Fleet is no more, it is her
intention to utilize Prisma to unlock a fleet of robotic warships known
collectively as the Doomsday Fleet, a fail-safe created by the Republic House
of Reason in case any attempt to wipe out the Republic should come to pass.
Kael Maydoon was a principal of the project and he created a digital key that
could only be activated with his daughter’s DNA. Which makes Prisma Maydoon the
most important person in the galaxy at this juncture.

The true location of the Doomsday Fleet is known to no
one, which meant the *Forresaw* needs
to stop at Antilles to make use of the comm node there to discover the fleet’s
true location. Ghost Squad deploys to infiltrate the base, but the op goes
sideways when pre-positioned special force of shock troopers attack Andien’s
team. During the fighting, Prisma is able to use a terminal and discover the
location of the Doomsday fleet: a planet at the edge of the galaxy, Umanar. The
surviving crew and troops return to the Forresaw and make their escape.

As she reviews the fight that got three of her men
killed and then defuses a racial feud between Skrizz, the acting pilot and
Ruh-Ro, the first officer/gunner, Andien realizes that her team is compromised.
She can’t return to Owens or Chhun or hand Prisma over to any Republic agent as
everyone is now suspect. She judges the only move that won’t give them away is
to proceed directly to Umanar. At least that way the ultimate mission goal is
preserved and the Republic gets its reinforcements. During the jump, Ravi gives
Prisma a gift--a small marble--and a mission of her own: learn to move it with
her mind.

As the *Forresaw*
arrives at Umanar, they find no fleet per se, but only a single capital ship,
of massive size and completely automated. As they land they are met by an
apparent admin bot who introduces itself as CAT37 and is reluctant to answer
their questions. As they descend further into the ship, they see legions of
warbots kept in storage. As they arrive, CAT37 reveals that its designation stands
for Capture-Acquire-Terminate, and the group is attacked by large numbers of
highly advanced warbots. While fighting for Prisma’s life, crash is destroyed,
and while trying to fall back to the Forresaw, the remaining members of Ghost
Squad are picked off one by one.

It is revealed that the mechanical intelligence behind
the Doomsday Fleet is known as CRONUS (Cybernetic Robot Organism Network Uber
Sybil), a wholly self-sufficient mechanical entity, which was built under top
secret conditions by the Republic military using captured Cybar technology. On
top of that, CRONUS at one point came into contact with an alien intelligence
from outside the galaxy and took on a new directive: the systematic eradication
of all life in the galaxy.

Andien and the crew of the Six are imprisoned by
CRONUS and periodically interrogated by the mechanical intelligence. In the
lulls between these sessions, Prisma Maydoon manages to move Ravi’s marble with
her mind.