The starship Theodore Roosevelt is fighting on the far outskirts of a galactic war,
its crew made up of retreads and raw recruits. A new first officer reports, Wilson
Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding his orders (but getting results). He's
been banished to the Teddy R. for his actions, but once there he again ignores his
orders and again comes away triumphant.
It is when the captain of the ship stubbornly follows orders that Cole knows are
wrong that he takes command of the ship and wins a major battle. But victorious or
not, the service cannot condone a mutiny, even a bloodless one, and he is brought
back to stand trial. But Wilson Cole realizes that a guilty verdict is a foregone
conclusion.
Seeking to find a new life for themselves, Wilson Cole and comrades remake the
Teddy R. as a pirate ship and set sail for the lawless Inner Frontier. Here,
powerful warlords, cut-throat pirates, and struggling colonies compete for
survival in a game where you rarely get a second chance to learn the rules. But
military discipline is poor preparation for a life of pillaging and plundering,
and Cole's principles naturally limit his targets. Seeking an education on the
nature of piracy, Cole hunts more knowledgeable players. Enter the beautiful but
deadly Valkyrie, Val for short, and the enigmatic alien fence known as David
Copperfield. But hanging over everything is the fearsome alien pirate--the
Hammerhead Shark.
Seeking to find a new life, Wilson Cole first remade the Teddy R. as a pirate
ship plying the spaceways of the lawless Inner Frontier. But military discipline
and honor were a poor match for a life of pillaging and plundering, and Cole's
principles naturally limited his targets. Seeking a better way of life, the
Teddy R. becomes a mercenary ship, hiring out to the highest bidder. Whether it's
evacuating a hospital before war can reach it, freeing a client from an alien
prison, or stopping a criminal cartel from extorting money from a terrified planet,
the crew of the Teddy R. proves equal to the task. Along the way they form
a partnership with the once human Platinum Duke, team up with a former enemy, and
make the unique Singapore Station their headquarters.
But the life of a mercenary is not always predictable, and eventually circumstance
pits Cole and the Teddy R. against his right-hand woman, the former Pirate Queen
known as the Valkyrie. Soon the fragile trust that has grown between these two
legends is put to the test as they find themselves on opposite sides of a job.
Almost a year has passed since the events of Starship: Mercenary. Captain Wilson
Cole now commands a fleet of almost fifty ships, and he has become the single
greatest military force on the Inner Frontier.
With one exception. The Republic still comes and goes as it pleases, taking what
it wants, conscripting men, and extorting taxes, even though the Frontier worlds
receive nothing in exchange. And, of course, the government still wants Wilson
Cole and the starship Theodore Roosevelt. He has no interest in confronting such
an overwhelming force, and constantly steers clear of them.
Then an incident occurs that changes everything, and Cole declares war on the
Republic. Outnumbered and always outgunned, his fleet is no match for the
Republic's millions of military vessels, even after he forges alliances with the
warlords he previously hunted down.
It's a hopeless cause...but that's just what Wilson Cole and the Teddy R.
are best at.
The date is 1970 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and
the Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, finds itself
in an all-out war against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent
Man's growing military and economic power. The rebel starship, the Theodore
Roosevelt, under the command of Wilson Cole, is preparing to lead Cole's ragtag
armada into the Republic, even though he is outnumbered thousands to one. Cole
is convinced that the government has become an arrogant and unfeeling political
entity and must be overthrown. The trick is to avoid armed conflict with the
vast array of ships, numbering in the millions, in the Republic's Navy. For
a time Cole's forces strike from cover and race off to safety, but he soon sees
that is no way to conquer the mightiest political and military machine in the
history of the galaxy. He realises that he must reach Deluros VIII, the
headquarters world of the Republic (and of the race of Man), in order to have
any effect on the government at all - but Deluros VIII is the best-protected
world in the Republic. But a new threat looms on the horizon. Cole, the Valkyrie,
David Copperfield, Sharon Blacksmith, Jacovic, and the rest of the crew of the
Teddy R face their greatest challenge yet, and the outcome will determine the
fate of the entire galaxy.
Download File Size:7.83 MB
|
