City World recap

James McGill joins a Mogwa-forced Earth expedition to defend City World. The human legions arrive amid a bear attack, struggle to enter the shielded city, and discover that the invaders are spreading a Mogwa-specific bioweapon. James restores the imprisoned Mogwa grand admiral and recruits Blood World gremlins who can pilot Mogwa armor. Their counteroffensive saves the city, but James has promised them their creator and a thousand armed suits. After the gremlin leader threatens his family on Dust World, James destroys the leader, nearby followers, and himself with a concealed explosive. Alexander Turov revives him at Galina Turov's request and releases him despite suspecting that James serves an unknown handler. James returns home and reconciles with Galina, while City World rearms under the surviving Mogwa leaders and the broader gremlin consequences remain unresolved.

Previously: James McGill is a veteran centurion in Legion Varus whose military career repeatedly brings him into contact with alien powers and Earth's senior leadership. His circle includes fellow legionnaires Carlos, Kivi, Harris, Leeson, Sargon, and Barton, while Winslade and Drusus occupy positions above him in the command structure. Galina Turov is both an imperator and James's intermittent partner. Her father, Alexander Turov, is a powerful civilian authority who sometimes uses James for sensitive work. James also has prior connections to the Mogwa and to a covert blue-scaled Saurian associate. He returns from the Ice World campaign to a family property in the Georgia sector, carrying obligations and secrets from earlier events.

James returns home to find that his parents intend to develop their swamp property, threatening to expose human remains he concealed in an old well. Carlos helps him cover the evidence, then takes him toward Central after a Mogwa battlecruiser appears over Earth. The ship's transmission names James, and a rejuvenated Mogwa grand admiral arrives with his mate, the Mogwa governess. They invoke imperial authority and force Earth to assemble ships for a mission reaching thousands of light-years into the Mid-Zone. Alexander privately urges James to stop the expedition if possible, while Galina expects him to kill the Mogwa leaders. James twice refuses an apparent assassination opportunity because the couple's young offspring is present. When Galina's armed attackers enter a banquet, James kills them and saves the Mogwa pair. A stray shot kills three officers and wounds Drusus. James disguises the attack as enemy infiltration, prompting the Mogwa to retreat to their battlecruiser. Galina admits that she arranged the failed attack, and Earth's officers remain divided over whether to obey or resist their alien commanders.

The Mogwa reveal that their ostracized colony is under Rigelian siege and make James their reluctant liaison. After he is shot on returning to Dominus, the need for that liaison ensures his revival. The fleet departs with sixteen capital ships and nearly a hundred screens. During the voyage, Winslade substitutes James's enlisted troops for senior officers demanded for a Mogwa hunt. Trapped in an arena, the humans defeat two hunting parties at severe cost. James then pressures the embarrassed grand admiral to conceal the substitution. Five months later, the fleet reaches a planet whose vast shielded city is being bombarded. A hidden enemy fleet attacks, and Dominus sends its legions down while withdrawing. James lands outside the city's protective dome. Leeson and Natasha are reported dead, radiation threatens the survivors, and the command lifter is destroyed. Armed six-limbed drones annihilate Seventh Unit and attack James's relief force. Electromagnetic missiles disable several machines, but Washburn and many heavy troops die. James's depleted unit holds a crater outside the inaccessible city without confirmed fleet support or reliable revival capacity.

James reunites with surviving command personnel and learns that only one revival machine remains. Missing soldiers such as Leeson cannot be revived without verified deaths. As more enemy craft approach, he receives a short deadline to find a way through the Mogwa dome. Kivi tracks defensive drones to an underground route, and James's team crosses a flooded tunnel into cultivated land inside the shield. Local Mogwa treat the humans as escaped animals rather than allies, so the team withdraws and reports the route. Engineers expand it into a mass-entry passage. Relations worsen when Mogwa authorities seize Winslade and several engineers, just as bear infantry begins landing around the city. James fights through to the breach and leads his unit inside under a diplomatic posture. There he learns that the grand admiral who compelled Earth's expedition is regarded locally as a rogue who stole a warship and abandoned the colony. James disavows the admiral, offers more than forty thousand human troops to the local Mogwa commander, and presents the legions as imperial servants needing shelter. The Mogwa accept the offer, allowing Legion Varus, Legion Victrix, and their auxiliaries beneath the dome.

Inside the dome, James secures a farmhouse for his restored unit, though the Mogwa regard the human troops as subordinate servants. Bears tunnel through the perimeter and threaten a food-processing plant. Collins leads a relief force, and James's unit destroys a missile bunker, rescues remnants of Seventh Unit, and links with the surviving Mogwa garrison. The combined force retakes the factory, but the wider city defense is failing. Krause, now the highest-ranking human officer present, wins approval for a defense of the water-control facility and places Collins in command with James as her executive. James takes a Bloodworlder cohort into enemy-held blocks and discovers gremlin technicians among its specialists. Bears surround the cohort and fire silent canisters toward the city. Collins obtains artillery support, allowing James's force to survive a devastating barrage that also kills many of its own soldiers. At dawn, the bears withdraw from the immediate attack. James recognizes the canisters as an airborne weapon designed to kill Mogwa while sparing humans and other near-human forces. The siege has become a city-wide biological catastrophe with casualties possibly reaching into the billions.

James explains the Mogwa-specific bioweapon to Krause and retrieves the imprisoned grand admiral. Although poisoned, the admiral regains command, transfers his revival data to James, dies, and is restored in a near-human facility. Mogwa revival machinery has failed, leaving much of the population at risk of permanent death. A covert blue-scaled Saurian provides a deep-link transmitter, which Natasha modifies so James can contact Galina. She reveals hidden gateway posts aboard a lifter. As the bears overrun more of the city, the grand admiral grants James access to unused Mogwa power armor. Gremlin technicians can operate it, but they kill Collins in retaliation for abandoning them earlier and demand evacuation as the price of cooperation. James secretly redirects the gateway to Blood World and promises the gremlins their creator and a thousand equipped armor suits in exchange for thousands of fighters. Their armored counteroffensive, supported by human scouts and reserves, drives the bears from the city. City World survives, but James has created a powerful armed faction and assumed obligations that neither Earth nor the Mogwa approved.

After the victory, Drusus orders the gremlin leader killed to prevent the armor from reaching Blood World. James refuses. Graves attempts the killing, is electrocuted, and later returns through revival. The gremlins depart without the armor, but their leader leaves notice that James still owes him. Collins is revived, transfers to Legion Victrix, and helps arrange Barton's desired departure from Varus. She is then abruptly assigned to command the Death World garrison. Gary asks to return to office duty, while a disciplinary transfer from Victrix is proposed as Barton's replacement. On City World, the Mogwa governess plans to seek local office and the grand admiral takes military authority over a rearmament program. Months after James returns to Earth, a fresh Dust World flower arrives without explanation. He recognizes it as a threat tied to his broken promise. On Dust World he finds Etta working with an investigator and the gremlins' creator. The investigator and the creator are engaged, making surrendering the creator both personally unacceptable and increasingly dangerous for James's family.

James refuses to disrupt the engagement or send the gremlins' creator to Blood World. After learning that a gremlin has already been sighted on Dust World, he takes an engineered package to confront the threat himself. Geetha detains him on arrival, but the gremlin leader brings him before an armed camp and demands the creator's return. James presents the threatening flower as a message, then detonates a concealed military explosive. The blast kills James, the leader, nearby gremlins, and six Mogwa armor suits. Alexander revives James in a private facility and questions him about the killings. He believes James may serve an unknown handler, but releases him without forcing an answer. James returns home for Thanksgiving, where Galina and her sister are guests. Galina reveals that she asked Alexander to revive him, and she resumes her relationship with James. City World remains devastated but secure under the surviving Mogwa leaders. Winslade is dead, Graves remains active, Collins commands on Death World, and Legion Varus faces personnel changes. The immediate gremlin threat is destroyed, but surviving gremlins, Alexander's suspicions, and the concealed remains on James's family land remain unresolved.

The bear invasion is driven from City World after James McGill brings thousands of Blood World gremlins through a secret gateway and places them in Mogwa power armor. The surviving Mogwa grand admiral and governess remain behind to govern and rearm their devastated colony. Winslade has been executed, Graves survives, Collins is reassigned to command the Death World garrison, Barton is preparing to transfer out of Legion Varus, and Gary wants to return to office duty. James refuses to surrender the gremlins' creator or fulfill the promised armor transfer. When the gremlin leader's armed group threatens his Dust World family, James kills the leader, surrounding followers, and himself with a hidden explosive. Alexander Turov revives James after Galina Turov intervenes, then frees him while continuing to suspect an outside handler. James returns to his family home and resumes his relationship with Galina. The concealed remains on his family's land, surviving gremlins, Geetha, and Alexander's scrutiny remain open concerns.