So much happens in these sample chapters that I'm spoilerfying the rest of this post:
Spoiler
So, first off it's got Mike O'Neal kicking ass and taking names on the far side of the spiral arm. Smashing a posleen base, afterwards he discovers... humans. From earth. Taken thirty-thousand years ago by the Darheel for genetic modification and use as guards.
Atlantis was real, a GalFed base, and the Darheel destroyed it.
Next shocker: Thanks to an old 'Bounty Prize' law, Mike O'Neal's net worth is currently equivalent to 15% of all the Darheel clans COMBINED. He has the power to bankrupt them all at once, and many earthers are also owed significant amounts of cash.
Unfortunately, the Darheel can't allow either of these secrets to get out, so they order the Fleet to nuke the entirety of Fleet Strike into oblivion, destroying every remaining ACS trooper. Mike is arrested, and is put on a showtrial on the moon, where he amuses himself by telling his 'attorneys' what he knows so that they must be killed as well to protect the secrets. Just for laughs, at one point he goads a Darheel into Lintanai and watches him pass out.
At his sentencing, Mike appeals and demands the Darheel pay up, but is stunned and dragged off. The Bane Sidhe (including Tommy Sunday) break him out of his transport and disappear him. Shortly after that, dozens of transcripts of the trial show up all over the solar system, and Fleet Strike pretty much mutinies. They sieze control of the moon and arrest all fleet personnel.
Meanwhile, SOMETHING worse than the Posleen that scares the Himmit shitless has woken up and is eating Darheel core worlds like popcorn. So the Darheel are in a panic, and we get this:
Atlantis was real, a GalFed base, and the Darheel destroyed it.
Next shocker: Thanks to an old 'Bounty Prize' law, Mike O'Neal's net worth is currently equivalent to 15% of all the Darheel clans COMBINED. He has the power to bankrupt them all at once, and many earthers are also owed significant amounts of cash.
Unfortunately, the Darheel can't allow either of these secrets to get out, so they order the Fleet to nuke the entirety of Fleet Strike into oblivion, destroying every remaining ACS trooper. Mike is arrested, and is put on a showtrial on the moon, where he amuses himself by telling his 'attorneys' what he knows so that they must be killed as well to protect the secrets. Just for laughs, at one point he goads a Darheel into Lintanai and watches him pass out.
At his sentencing, Mike appeals and demands the Darheel pay up, but is stunned and dragged off. The Bane Sidhe (including Tommy Sunday) break him out of his transport and disappear him. Shortly after that, dozens of transcripts of the trial show up all over the solar system, and Fleet Strike pretty much mutinies. They sieze control of the moon and arrest all fleet personnel.
Meanwhile, SOMETHING worse than the Posleen that scares the Himmit shitless has woken up and is eating Darheel core worlds like popcorn. So the Darheel are in a panic, and we get this:
"General, you must get your forces under control," the Tir said. "This new race . . . Daga Nine was a core world. They threaten Gratoola! The capitol of the Confederation! This cannot be borne. You must defend . . ."
"I must?" Wesley said, mildly. "I must? I must do what? We humans must save your sorry asses again? Where's your God damned Fleet you put in your pocket and held like a souvenir? Half of First Fleet appears to be gone. All of Third. Fifth, who we will discuss in a moment, was apparently heading into the area after getting word there was a ruckus. But we haven't heard from Admiral Suntoro, who we will also discuss in a moment, for, what? Three months? I somehow doubt that he is gallivanting around the galaxy whooping it up after DESTROYING MY FUCKING CORPS!"
"You will not speak to me in that tone, General," the Tir said, dangerously.
"Or what?" Wesley snapped. "Or you'll have Admiral Hartono drop a rock on me from orbit? Listen you chicken-shit weasel, you were the one that ordered the 11th destroyed and killed over twenty thousand of my troops! You were the one that ordered me to hang Michael O'Neal. You were the one that screwed up the Fleet to the point that half the ships on the books don't really exist and the ones that are left absolutely suck! You fucking Darhel are the ones that have consistently screwed us humans to keep us under your thumbs and now you want us to pull your questionable rocks out of the fire again? Well SCREW YOU."
"But this race," the Darhel said in a tone of desperation. "It has taken not only colonies and Indowy worlds. It threatens the most important worlds in the Federation. It threatens Earth itself! Have you no care for the threat to humanity? To the damage this will do to the Galactic economy?"
"The only threat to humanity I see is you," Wesley snapped, pointing his finger at the screen. "I see you, you alien prick! You extra-terrestrial monstrosity. You lawyerous, slanderous, villainous asshole! You want to point fingers, I'm pointing them right at you, you cancerous boil on the face of the Galaxy. After you've fucked the situation up beyond redemption, what in the FUCK do you expect ME to do about it? I can't even control my own troops because of you, you, fucking YOU!"
"I see," the Tir said, sitting back and interlacing his taloned fingers. "Then what must we do?"
"Well," Wesley said, sighing, "first and foremost we have to find someone to lead this charade that the troops actually will trust. Sure as shit isn't me. Go figure. I can only think of one guy. And right now, I don't see him being amenable to reason. Even if we can find him."
[Admiral Ackbar] Our brains can't withstand Mary Sueism of that magnitude![/Admiral Ackbar]
