The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [2]
And on a planet far from Darien, a cyborg knight of the Legion of Avatars rests on a cold sea bed, considering the failure of its droid agent. It decides that it will have to take action itself and, after repairing its damaged biomechanisms, the Knight engages its engines and blasts up out of the depths of the sea – heading for the stars.
BOOK TWO: THE ORPHANED WORLDS
The Orphaned Worlds begins a few weeks after the end of Seeds of Earth.
Brolturan forces, directed by the Hegemony ambassador, Kuros, are now in de facto control of the Darien colony. Colonial politicians form an interim government that is clearly subservient to the Brolturans, who increasingly come to resemble occupiers.
Greg Cameron has been organising the resistance, which has set up a more permanent camp in an ancient Uvovo stronghold inside Tusk Mountain, in the mountains to the north.
Robert Horst, at the behest of the Construct, is on a mission into the depths of hyperspace in search of the Godhead, hoping it will help them negotiate an alliance against the Legion of Avatars and its agents. Accompanied by a simulacrum of his daughter, Rosa, their AI ship takes them down through the strange, bizarre, dangerous or scarcely comprehensible levels of hyperspace. The Rosa-sim dies tragically in a fight with a lone Legion cyborg, after which Robert meets the Intercessor, an emissary from the Godhead. It sends him onwards to a pocket universe, supposedly the final stage before meeting the Godhead, but it turns out to be a deadly one-way trap.
Kao Chih has left Darien with Silveira, an Earthsphere agent who wants to find out more about the lost human colony on Pyre and how the Suneye corporate monoclan took it over. They travel first to the Roug system, then on to Pyre, during which Silveira learns how Kao Chih’s forebears were a splinter group that escaped Pyre decades before. On Pyre they find out how the colonists struggle to exist under conditions of resource rationing, and the brutal oppression of offworld criminal gangs sanctioned by the Suneye Monoclan.
Ambassador Kuros now holds sway over most of the Darien colony, and the interim colonial administration follows his instructions to the letter. However, a senior adviser arrives from the Sendrukan Hegemony homeworld, the Clarified Teshak who is a Sendrukan wholly controlled by an AI. He exerts a harsh authority over Kuros while putting his own implacable plan into action.
Theo Karlsson was with Catriona on Nivyesta, looking after Malachi Ash, the captured ‘Ezgara’ mercenary who was found to be human, from a world called Tygra. And Tygra turns out to be the third lost Human colonyworld. Both Theo and Ash are snatched by a stealth team from Tygra, but are then freed by renegade Tygrans led by a Captain Gideon. Theo accompanies them to a rendezvous with a retired veteran Tygran officer who lives long enough to pass on information about a long-past conspiracy before tragically expiring. This knowledge further alienates the renegades from the leadership on Tygra, whose pro-Hegemony policies had already angered them.
When Kao Chih and the agent Silveira arrive back in the Roug system they find that several senior commanders and leaders of Kao Chih’s own people have been abducted by a mercenary assault ship. This is commanded by Marshall Becker, the Tygran’s overall military leader. The abduction was intended as a warning to Kao Chih’s human enclave to avoid involvement in wider affairs. The Roug, affronted by such a gross violation against their people, send one of their own vessels off in pursuit with Kao Chih aboard to assist. After a cunning and stealthy rescue carried out in hyperspace, the Roug ship continues to follow the Ezgara vessel to its destination, an Tygran base, to see who is behind it all.
Meanwhile, Theo accompanies Captain Gideon on an operation to liberate the rest of the captain’s men from a Tygran base. The raid is a success but, as they’re leaving, a hostile Tygran warship arrives, closely followed by the Roug craft bearing