Warning! Late Arrival Spoilers abound for previous books in the Starship's Mage series.
When the star system of Legatus was preparing to secede from the Protectorate of the Mage-King of Mars, it was the secret agents of the Legatan Military Intelligence Directorate that laid the groundwork and fought the covert war to make it happen.
Now, as the open conflict draws to a bloody stalemate, LMID has been broken. Their leader is dead, murdered by agents of the Republic they helped birth. Their surviving agents have scattered, following a final protocol that orders them to defect to the Protectorate.
An old friend brings all of this to Damien Montgomery, First Hand of the Mage-King, and begs for his help in unravelling the mystery. The only answers lie where the Hands of Mars should never go: on the worlds of the Republic.
This book provides examples of:
- Awful Truth: There is no technological solution to Faster-Than-Light Travel. The Republic ship are powered by the brains of child mages.
- Broken Pedestal: De Santis and many other members of the Legatus Military Intelligence Directorate LMID toward the Republic.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Battle of Legatus turns into this after The Mutiny following Damien's speech.
- The Empire: The Republic is shown to be an absolutely awful example of this.
- Founder of the Kingdom: Bryan Ricket is called this by the LMID agents.
- Loophole Abuse: The Republic has exploited many emergency measures in the Republic Constitution to turn it into a Police State.
- Meaningful Name: Prodigal Son is a program ordering agents to defect to Mars if the Republic becomes evil. Bryan Ricket enacted this before he died.
- The Mutiny: A massive chunk of the Republic's fleet revolts upon the discovery of what was powering their jumpdrives.
- The Needs of the Many: The Republic has rolled back almost all civil rights in the name of the war effort.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: More or less literally so. The unwanted mage children of UnArcana worlds are the basis for the faster than light drives used by the Republic.
- The Purge: The Republic has carried out one of these against LMID despite the fact they were previously considered the most fanatical of Legatus' agents.
- Red Baron: Damien is known as "Darth Montgomery" among the Republic. Its after an ancient folk tale.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Indentures is something that the Republic outlaws, except its been increased due to the needs of the war.
- Space Isolation Horror: Damien and De Santis investigate an abandoned space station that also serves as a Abandoned Hospital.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: At one point, Damien just loses his patience with De Santis' excuses and points out that his group committed a lot of atrocities before the Republic. He specifically cites Antonius where a hundred thousand innocent people died.
- State Security: The Republic has instituted this on many worlds in order to control the populace.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Republic and children, especially mage children. Their brain harvesting is what triggers a massive desertion and revolt.
