“You made the hard choice to stand fast when nobody else wanted to even admit we were in a war,” Marcum said. “The truth is, Captain, that there would never have been a significant force in this system. The politicians would never allow one enclave to have any sort of military presence over Haven. That’s why this has been Black Fleet’s home for all these years, and no other numbered fleets are welcome. They certainly weren’t going to revisit that policy just because a few Frontier worlds were at risk. Haven was always going to fall if the Phage wanted it.”
“That’s rather defeatist of you,” Jackson said.
“My point is that this disaster isn’t just one man’s fault,” Marcum said. “We didn’t take the threat seriously, and now billions are dead for it.”
“So what happens next?”
“We do what humans have always done: we persevere,” Marcum said. “We’ve debriefed your Earther friend here, although he keeps claiming he’s an ‘American.’ He’s got a lot more information on the Phage than we’ve been able to collect in the last four years, including one very significant vulnerability.”
At this Jackson perked up and looked over at the colonel.
“That’s right, Captain,” Blake confirmed. “There is one thing that could bring the Phage down completely, but my team has never had the resources to exploit it by ourselves. So the question is this: do you want us to leave you alone so you can finish what you were about to do here, or do you want to saddle up one last time and go riding for some payback?”
Jackson gave the officer a small, feral smile. “I’m listening.”
Thank you for reading Call to Arms.
If you enjoyed the book the story will continue with:
Counterstrike
Book Three of the Black Fleet Trilogy.
Coming Fall/Winter of 2015
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From the author…
So there we have it, the dreaded second act and the even more dreaded cliffhanger. I tried to make it as gentle as possible and looking back it’s actually the first time I’ve ever used that particular literary device in a published work.
This trilogy is very much about Jackson Wolfe and his crew, but in this second book I had to give a little more detail into the politics at play in this universe for things to make sense. My goal was to give enough detail to satisfy any questions you may have without grinding the story to a halt. We are on the brink of all out war, after all.
I know I’ve said this before, but thank you again for the overwhelmingly positive response to this series. With this in mind I’ve already started writing “Counterstrike” by the time this book is released so that books two and three come out back to back. For the Omega Force readers I hope to have book eight out towards the end of this year.
Cheers!
Josh
Call to Arms (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 2) Page 29