The Khel

About The Khel
#89 in the Kirov Series / #20 in the Earthforce Saga

As Fedorov continues to try and peer into the dark corners of the new Archon Meridian, connections are made that link things he thought were unrelated, and then even these connections present yet another mystery—the Khel. An old friend turned enemy also poses problems for Fedorov and Karpov, and he will return by the end of this volume with some startling requests, and astonishing assertions that tighten the weave of events here into a more cohesive picture for Fedorov.
Then this new and emerging threat, the Khel, begins to arrive on the Startides and puts pressure on Karpov’s defenses, first at Eden on Delta Tide, and then at Fomalhaut on Beta Tide. Meanwhile, connections made by Fedorov shed new light on the importance of the War on Archon, leading Karpov to request an major intervention there, and EARTHCOM authorizes divisions presently on Mars to form an invasion group at Archon
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Returning to marshal arms and ships against the Khel at Fomalhaut, Karpov and Fedorov learn that Nikolin has a young niece in Earthforce, and that she was stationed at Xanadu, the forward Earthforce outpost beyond Fomalhaut on Startide Beta. This leads to a rescue operation to try to save the remnant of the Substation crew there, hiding in a bunker deep within an asteroid. But first, Karpov must drive off the muster of the Khel to secure the space around Xanadu

More pressure on Earthforce resources is applied when the Khel move down the Mordor Star Ridge through Cirith Ungul to attack the big mining colony at Beowulf. This leads to the first face to face battle against the Khel on Beowulf, and a surprising realization as to who they really are when Earthforce stands to arms with its 3rd Marine Division to defend Red Wolf City. Then Karpov takes the initiative and pursues elements of the Khel fleet as they withdraw back along the Mordor Star ridge through Udun, and there Apollo meets a strange and incomprehensible fate at the edge of the massive Maelstrom of Udun.

In the midst of these defensive battles, Fedorov also plans a voyage on Startide Epsilon to make a supply run out to the Rigel Expedition. Yet he is not quite prepared for what they find there, and struggles to understand it when he finds a strange artifact, and a journal written by one of the prominent Paleontologists in the Rigel Compliment. There he learns of a mystery hidden in the colorful nebula known as “the Veil,” but lifting that veil to gain understanding comes at a cost.
The Battle for Red Wolf City resolves, and the Khel Directorate meets to devise a devious new strategy aimed at undermining and wearing down the resistance of Humanity. But analyzing a strange signal decrypt, SS SIGINT Intelligence officer Makenzie Morgan on the Argos Fire takes his conclusions to the Grand Admiral, and with a warning.

The book closes with the return of Tyrenkov, who makes an unexpected request and delivers information that shocks both Fedorov and Karpov in a Ready Room scene no one should miss. Fedorov now learns more of the Khel and their mysterious Masters on Archon, and more on the Lyrians as well with Tyrenkov’s revelations, which lead to some very dark places, with a new understanding of the structure of the universe, and the truth behind the massive Lyrian Empire
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The Earthforce Saga powers into book 20 in this well paced and involving volume, where connections and revelations are made that cast a whole new light on the place Humanity now has in the Cosmos, and the ancient history of both Mars and the changeling Planet Archon.