Bøger af Sean Benjamin

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.

Captain Raferty Hawkins, the Duke of Black Hallow and consort to Queen Alexis I, has two big challenges. There is a blood contract out on him and Killian O'Hare. The money is coming from the Aurora Empire, but the operators are near at hand in the Badlands. The second problem is less immediate but has greater consequences for the universe. The Goldenes Tor military is about to overthrow their emperor and enter the war in support of the Orion Confederation against the Aurora Empire. Such an event would mean defeat for the Zekes.The pirate leader decides to focus on the latter problem while letting his allies handle the former problem. His Badlands comrades are used to such situations as someone has been trying to kill them for the majority of their lives. Destiny Flores, Tactical, Baby Doll, and the two hit men, Shelby Pope and Jackson Kemper, make a formidable group regardless of the threat. Now they will search for the people who are administering the contract. Once found, they will be dealt with in the usual way such problems are handled in the Badlands: ruthless violence administered with vengeance.The blood contract is being funded by members of the peerage within the Aurora Empire. These elites know this is their best chance to get Hawkins and O'Hare before these two would-be contemporaries can become forces within Aurora upper society at the war's end. Queen Alexis intends to bring these instigators to justice. Unfortunately for the guilty peers involved, the punishment will not be the usual slap on the wrist reserved for members of the ruling class who stray outside of the law. Alexis loves her consort and has no intention of letting this slide. With the aid of media mogul David Van Drucker, Alex will dish out her own brand of justice. It will not be violent, but it will be just as effective in ending the threat.Meanwhile, Hawkins addresses the bigger problem. If Emperor Viktor Aurick is taken by the traitors within the Goldenes Tor Imperial Staff, the attack on the Aurora Empire would immediately follow. Despite knowing of the attack, the Royal Navy does not have the ships to defeat such a massive onslaught. The longer the emperor stays free, the longer the attack is delayed. The emperor turns to Hawkins for help in retrieving his throne. Hawkins searches for allies to bring to the cause. He is under no illusion that allies will join him to help create a better universe, but they will join for money or other favors that the emperor can grant. Hawkins directs the recruitment of the greedy, the needy, and anyone else with a warship and ordnance for this fight.Captains Killian O'Hare, Shane Delacruz, and Dylan Whitlock do their parts to achieve the goals of Pirate Flotilla One as ongoing missions are concluded and old scores are settled. This may be the last time such an occasion will present itself, and revenge cannot be put off until tomorrow.Old enemies become new allies as a threat that could take them all down must be defeated.

Raferty Hawkins has few rules, but those rules he has, he insists upon. The Goldenes Tor and their temporary Orion Confederation allies violated the rules by attacking a pirate settlement and killing a couple of hundred women and children. A few of the offending ships were destroyed in subsequent battles but that hardly balances the ledger. An example must be made and Hawkins and the ships of Pirate Flotilla One are just the group to do that. Hawkins settles on an audacious plan to punish the Goths and OrCons while making a large profit in the process. He just needs a little help from his new best friends, the Aurora Empire. Help in the form of money, munitions, and one young Royal Navy officer with a talent for engine harmonics. Getting that support will set the plan in motion. A risky demonstration for the Zeke Home Fleet proves the plan can be done. Once he has the backing of his Zeke supporters, the strategy is put in motion. The operation will not be complete until a Goth squadron is destroyed, the most important Goth base in the quadrant is hammered, and a secret Orion installation finds out the hard way that it is not nearly as hidden as the OrCons believe. There is one powerful man who sees a different opportunity within the plan. The opportunity to train a Royal Navy officer in pirate operations so that officer can lead Aurora Empire forces back to the Badlands after the war is concluded. Good idea, but he chooses the wrong officer for the assignment. He also chooses the wrong people to attempt to fool. Hawkins, Tactical, Baby Doll, O'Hare, Legrand, and Delacruz are back and bent on revenge. Despite the vast distances, great risks, and potentially high costs, the plan must be carried out because, after all, payback is a given!

One of the advantages to the Badlands is the past doesn't live there. Everyone is willing let the past stay beyond the quadrant's borders and out of their lives. After all, you can't change the past so why worry about it. The past may be static but its effects never are. Only a fool believes the past does not affect the present and the future. The Badlands give sanctuary, solitude, and a cruel hint of kinder possibilities but never forgiveness for past acts. It is a delusion to think otherwise. The past may not live in the region but, despite everyone's best efforts, it does visit from time to time. You can run from it, but you cannot hide, not even in the Badlands. Raferty Hawkins has ignored his past but now must return to it in hopes of salvaging his future. His obligations to Pirate Flotilla One and his obligations to family bring him to the Aurora Empire on a personal mission. He has always known about his past but there are two other people to consider now. The first one is a stranger who is owed an explanation. The second person is someone he has known all his life and now deserves acknowledgment. Others have demons from their own history to deal with. Shane Delacruz thought he had outrun his past until Llewellyn Terrant appeared. Tactical is trying to correct her past with Mason Reed. Doc Windsor discovers the past can become the present so very easily. Ringo, captain of Renegade, has never left the past. It rules her present and will determine her future and the future of her ship if she lets it. The past can be useful. Raferty will try to use Flot 1's past to change the fortunes of his command. He brings his flotilla into Aurora space to fight two battles. Both are to correct past transgressions by the Goldenes Tor and the Orion Confederation. If the pirates earn the gratitude of the Zekes in the process, so much the better. Right now Pirate Flotilla One can use all the help they can get. Regardless of the outcome of their deployment to the Aurora Empire, they will have to return to the Badlands soon enough. That is where their future is.

Pirate Flotilla One has enjoyed much success lately. They have an impromptu truce with the Goths. The Sunrise Grange is in disarray after their blockade of the Agra planets has been broken. Four Marbellan destroyers are in shipyards being overhauled prior to joining Raferty Hawkins' group and forming a fourth squadron under the command of Llewellyn Terrant. A permanent pirate settlement is being negotiated with the residents of Agra 5. Raferty Hawkins will not be the one to break the de facto truce with the Imperial Navy. He is content to have his ships avoid the Goths while patrolling with Royal Navy ships in the enforcement of Measure 200, the law against Aurora Empire entities profiting from slavery. Flot 1 has always fought against the trafficking of slaves and this new law gives them the authority to hold people accountable for their actions, even if these people include the powerful Cunningham family headed by Douglas Cunningham, the Defense Minister. In addition to this assignment, Rafe will use this lull in operations to clean up old business. First on the agenda is the Brie light cruiser Fusilier. Two years prior, that ship ambushed and destroyed the unarmed Redemption and then tagged her two escape pods. Since then the Bries had kept Fusilier close to home but her time is up. Shane Delacruz is tasked with delivering justice on behalf of Redemption. Hawkins will be pursuing another mission on Bolindale, the planet where his mother and her group were killed and the group's children had their first fights for survival and revenge. This mission is for Killian O'Hare and has been put off for far too long. The aftermath of the battle will allow Raferty and Killian to revisit their own history and, maybe, change their course. The crew of Flicker has their own unique challenge. They will go to the home planet of the Goldenes Tor and kill a member of the royal family to ensure the Sunrise Grange can not recover from their Badlands setback. These four amateurs will have to learn the art of assassination through on-the-job training in hostile territory. Pirate Flotilla One is scattered across the quadrant on a variety of tasks but these are people who know how to adapt and overcome. After years of holding on, events finally seem to be going their way. However, this is the Badlands.

Wars are never fought solely on the battlefield. They have economic, diplomatic, informational, and industrial facets. Battles are waged through ambassadors, assassins, the media, and allies. A warrior must tie all these efforts together in support of his campaign. Attack where the enemy is weakest. Often that weakness is not found on the battlefield but in other aspects of the enemy's effort. It is time to be going home. The ships of Pirate Flotilla One have completed their mission within the Aurora Empire. The Battle of the Electra System resulted in the loss of two Flot 1 ships but the Aurora Empire has replaced them. In addition to the obvious aid of ships, supplies, and munitions, the Queen of the Aurora Empire has supplied the new Duke of Black Hallow with legal protection and a Royal Navy squadron as allies for his ongoing struggle in the Badlands. A different challenge awaits Raferty Hawkins and his people back home. The recent addition of Llewellyn Terrant and her ship, Cottonmouth, to Flot 1 has brought a new enemy to the Badlands. A Commonwealth squadron is searching for Terrant and Shane Delacruz for war crimes committed in their civil war on their home planet of Rialta. Hawkins knows his captains will not fight this intruder for the sake of Terrant. She has an agenda of her own and her trustworthiness is suspect. No, Raferty will have to devise another method for dealing with this threat. If you can't attack the ships, attack the people commanding them. In addition to this new menace, the Sunrise Grange is still in business. The pirates must correct that situation. Rafe has a plan to use the Grange's own investors against them. Mason Reed, Tactical, Baby Doll, and Killian O'Hare will make this all work. Blondie has joined Predator as chief engineer and Dylan Whitlock and his small crew will embark on a different mission in support of Raferty. With these dedicated people, Flot 1 returns to the struggle for their quadrant.

In the Badlands, everyone has their own agenda. Local solar system governments, planetary authorities and large corporations want to increase their size, power, wealth, and authority. They are not shy about the methods they use to achieve these goals. Killing, robbing, and intimidation are accepted methods of persuasion and governance. Slavery is a viewed as a money maker with low overhead. The Goldenes Tor Imperial Empire borders a large portion of the Badlands and has long coveted the raw materials and trade possibilities here and they claim the area as their own and continually use their military and commercial might to gradually bring this wild region under their control. The Aurora Empire opposes the Goldenes Tor and maintains a small squadron of Royal Navy ships under Captain Skyler Mallory in the Badlands to dispute their declaration. Raferty Hawkins, captain of the pirate vessel Predator, also has an agenda. He wants to drive out the hated Goths of the Goldenes Tor, rein in the local governments and corporations, and give the natives a chance to live in freedom and control their own destiny. He is quite willing to kill people to achieve these ends. With the dedication of key crewmembers such as Tactical and Baby Doll, and the support of Captain Shane Delacruz of the Vindictive, and the crazy Captain Killian O'Hare of the Nemesis, Hawkins has been fighting the oppressive forces in the Badlands for years. But now the ever changing status quo is about to be turned upside down. The Orion Confederation is far away with no interest in the Badlands; however, an Orion squadron crossed Goldenes Tor space and entered the Badlands intent on destroying Mallory's command as part of a series of sweeping surprise attacks on the Aurora Empire. The Orion squadron and their Goth escort ships make one fatal mistake. They destroy a pirate settlement composed of women and children. Now Raferty Hawkins and the ships of Pirate Flotilla One ally themselves with Captain Mallory in a series of battles with the intruders and their Goth supporters. Two forces of unlikely allies maneuver for advantage across a dark, cold battlefield. The outcome of this campaign will shape the Badlands for decades to come.

Payback is almost complete. Oh, there are still a few Goth and Orion ships alive and well that need to pay the ultimate price for their part in the destruction of a pirate camp. Pirate Flotilla One will locate and destroy those vessels in due time. Nevertheless, a message has been delivered. Both the Goths and the OrCons now know there are rules, even when fighting pirates. Violate the rules and be prepared for severe consequences. But this is the Badlands. Victories are short lived and defeats are forever. Anyone who thought the Goths were just going to roll over has not been paying attention for the last several decades. The career and reputation of the Goldenes Tor commander, Admiral Werner Beck, are hanging by a thread that is quickly unraveling. He has been given six months to make this situation right. Right is defined as bringing Pirate Flotilla One to combat and annihilating that force. Raferty Hawkins' head on a stick in front of Fleet Headquarters on Rosstrappe would go a long way to retrieving both career and reputation. There are other forces at work here. People and organizations who want to advance their own interests regardless of the cost to others. The Sunrise Grange is moving to ensure their monopoly on food production. The head of Colandra Enterprises puts a hit team on Raferty Hawkins. The Bries are more than willing to do the Goths' dirty work as long as there is a payday involved. It is not all fun and games for the other leaders of Flot 1. Killian O'Hare has to rescue a bunch of do-gooders who have been captured by the Goths. Shane Delacruz hears from his old commander who has her own agenda for coming to the Badlands. Tactical renews acquaintances with an old friend, a friend she would just as soon kill as talk to. Despite the many distractions, Raferty remains focused on the task at hand. The Goths have a plan to bring him to combat. He will gladly accept the invitation but on his terms. With the able assistance of Tactical, Baby Doll, Greg Paulsen, Dylan Whitlock, and all the others of Flot 1, he intends to take advantage of his enemy's desperation to achieve a victory over the Goths, the Sunrise Grange, and the Bries. Everyone has a mission. All these missions will guarantee a meeting in space. There will be no second chance for the loser of that encounter. Just what Raferty Hawkins is counting on.