Publisher's Synopsis
The situation has changed for Pirate Flotilla One and its leaders. Raferty Hawkins returns to the Badlands as consort to Queen Alexis, monarch of the Aurora Empire. Killian O'Hare has married High Admiral Lawton Bartlett, commander of Home Fleet. Llewellyn Terrant is receiving the fourth squadron of the flotilla. New freighters will become the missile boats. Agra 5 will be the new home for all the pirate families.
The threat has changed also. Goth Admiral Eugene Muller, commander of Green Squadron, has a blank check written by the Imperial Staff. It is to be spent getting Hawkins and O'Hare or in attacking Zeke assets in the Badlands. His actions are a prelude to getting the Goldenes Tor in the war on the side of the Orion Confederation. This new ally would swing the momentum of the war back to the OrCons and go a long way to securing a victory against the Aurora Empire.
There is also a more personal threat. Someone has put out a contract on Hawkins and O'Hare. The contract is worth twenty million credits. Unfortunately for the originator, he or she picked the wrong hitman. Jackson Kemper has no intention of killing either pirate but is more than happy to help find the people behind such big money. He is assisted by Destiny Flores and Shelby Pope in the Badlands while Queen Alexis and her allies strive to uncover this new threat close to home.
Hawkins depends on all his old allies while acquiring a new one in Goth Admiral Cynthia Hochstadt as she comes to the conclusion there are worse people than Flot 1. She and Admiral Dietrich try to stop Muller and prevent the Imperial Staff from plunging the Goldenes Tor into war.
In many ways, the situation has changed for Flot 1. In other ways, it's business as usual in the Badlands. Hawkins and friends are trying to make things better while new and old enemies do their best to kill them. That is just like the old days.
