The 5th Century AE sees the New Outreach expanding Mankind's influence in the galaxy.Book 9: Introit: psalm sung before Eucharist, common to Christian days of Communion.On the planet of the midnight sun, Klettur, where the only habitable land mass is that produced eons ago by volcanoes in the high Northern hemisphere, Finnish and Icelandic colonists, familiar with such terrain, eke out an existence in their old familiar ways; farms worked in brief Summers, after which one battens down for long, dark Winters, making wool, and telling tales of dwarves and sprites and the terrifying Yule Cat.Sergei Zaitsev, young outcast of Russian blood, is called back from his aimless education on Grimshaw by a letter from his deceased mother's law firm, Dvallin, Berling, & Grer.He is asked to find, in her mansion, among her belongings, some specific items which she apparently stole, before Sergei was born, from Mei Hsiu Chen, the interstellar gangster, and founder of the Inner Worlds Federation. Sergei is shown a hologram of these items; a breathtakingly beautiful amulet, called the "Seeds of the Princess," and three plain looking pebbles.He is told it is very important he find them, and dangerous if he doesn't.It sounds like a fairy story to Sergei at first. Then, he starts to remember how his mother told it to him, as a child......And he finds a secret closet with his father's magic armor......and it becomes clear;this quest is more important than anything else in his life.Book 10: JubilateMarines on Tracchus don't need proof Hell exists!This tale is of Major Beakham's rise on the battlefield - not as an Academy brat, but in fire.The Galactic Republic Marine Corps' mission to Tracchus, was meant to be a quick in and out - fighting surrogates for the Inner Worlds Federation, with parades and parties after the dust settles.It ain't like that at all.Then, the fan is full of planner's brain-children, and the whole brigade could die, but Sergeant Beakham is fool enough to think he should work for a living, or die trying.On Tracchus, men die for nothing, or for lack of trying.As his "3 Musketeer" colleagues, Bogdan & Werner say, "Time to oil blasters & check charges."Survival alone would be a victory for most men, but these earned more by their bravery.
