Crystal World recap

Galina Turov asks James McGill to stage her death so she can evade the consulship, but Boudica secretly holds her on Dust World. Alexander Turov then sends McGill and Legion Varus into a coalition campaign while privately ordering him to undermine the alliance. After an allied victory over a crystal fleet, the coalition lands on Crystal World, battles tunneling silicoids, and advances on a vast launcher. When the weapon targets Earth, McGill's commandos sabotage it and die in the explosion, which also destroys the surrounding coalition force and valuable technology. Wurtenberger punishes Graves for ordering the strike, while Alexander Turov later suspends McGill's own penalty. McGill finds Galina revived at an illicit Dust World facility and returns her to Earth, where her imperator position is uncertain. He then learns that Etta and Derek have married and accepts Derek as family.

Previously: James McGill serves as a centurion in Legion Varus and has longstanding personal and political ties to Imperator Galina Turov. His daughter Etta lives on Dust World with Florimel and the Investigator, whose hidden community operates beyond ordinary Earth control. McGill also knows Boudica, an armed Dust World leader, and has a history with Drusus, Wurtenberger, Winslade, Harris, Leeson, Kivi, Natasha, Sargon, and Evelyn Thompson. Earth uses revival technology to restore the dead, while purgatory can preserve a person's mind without returning the body. McGill's earlier actions left personal debts on both sides of Earth's power structure. The wider political order includes rival human, Saurian, Rigelian, Claver, and other alien interests, with old conflicts and alliances continuing to shape Legion Varus deployments.

Galina Turov summons McGill from leave and asks him to find the vanished Drusus, then help her escape pressure to become consul. McGill learns that Drusus and his staff were purged, with Drusus held as a disembodied mind in the Vault of the Forgotten. Wurtenberger authorizes an attempt to reach him, but an Intelligence officer intercepts McGill. McGill kills the officer, escapes Central, and becomes a fugitive. Galina's Saurian agents extract him to her yacht. She explains that the ruling council, including her father, would treat her as a disposable consul. Her solution is a public assassination followed by revival somewhere McGill cannot reveal. They travel covertly through Geneva to Dust World. In Boudica's cave complex, McGill exposes Galina's identity, plants a knife in her hand, and frames her as an attacker. Boudica's followers stab Galina to death, completing the staged killing while leaving her intended revival site secret.

McGill preserves Galina's revival data, but Boudica changes the arrangement. She proposes that the Investigator revive Galina off-grid and keep her hidden, using her disappearance against the council. McGill agrees to help Boudica reach Death World if Etta can leave Dust World. Etta reveals that she intends to marry her fiance, a Hegemony security specialist who transferred to be near her. The Investigator estimates that Galina's revival will take weeks. McGill and Boudica enter Geneva in disguise, but Galina's father's Saurian operative recognizes them. Boudica is allowed to continue toward Death World while McGill is detained and interrogated about Galina. Her father stops the interrogation, then confronts McGill directly. He sends McGill back to Legion Varus for a joint strike against a crystal base. In private, he also orders McGill to sabotage the coalition afterward, blame Rigel, and restart the conflict with the Rigelians. Failure means confinement beside Drusus in the Vault of the Forgotten.

McGill reaches Scorpio after missing muster. Winslade removes him from Third Unit and assigns him to administrative work under Primus Collins, while the Saurian operative becomes his official observer. The expedition combines Legion Varus with Saurian, Rigelian, ape, and dogman forces. Because crystal gravity weapons become more destructive around dense metal, the troops must prepare to fight with little armor. Complaints about the observer lead Winslade to return McGill to Third Unit, but he imposes a King of the Hill exercise as punishment. McGill's unit must defend the central hill against every other unit in its cohort using primitive weapons. Through camouflage, misdirection, careful use of wounded defenders, and repeated counterattacks, Third Unit defeats several larger formations. Sargon dominates the long-range fighting and is fatally wounded during the final assault, while McGill breaks the attackers' center. Third Unit still holds the hill when time expires. Graves briefly makes Leeson acting centurion, then secures McGill's return to combat command before the expedition reaches its target.

A stealthy crystal fleet approaches, and an allied admiral intercepts Scorpio to incorporate the expedition into a larger defense. Human troops are teleported near enemy vessels with antimatter bombs because ordinary remote weapons cannot survive the enemy's electronic defenses. McGill manually detonates a bomb and dies, then revives aboard Scorpio. The bombing waves cripple much of the crystal fleet, allowing the allied ships to close range and destroy the remainder. Crystal World's ground batteries still prevent a safe approach. During a tense command conference, the admiral proposes sacrificing allied ships, nearly breaking the coalition. Winslade preserves cooperation and asks McGill for another plan. McGill suggests a close hyperspace jump followed by immediate bombardment and deployment. The commanders accept the high-risk concept for technical refinement. At a later banquet, Primus Collins is assigned to monitor McGill. She makes clear that their former personal relationship does not excuse informal treatment in public. An investigation concerning McGill also remains active.

McGill learns from an expendable alien pilot, whom he nicknames Seven, that the invasion will use a fragile assault capsule instead of a conventional fleet approach. Third Unit must teleport down first with limited metal equipment and establish the beachhead. McGill gives Seven his own escape harness before the capsule jumps. The unit lands on a breathable but sulfurous Crystal World, activates gateway posts, and discovers settlements inhabited by shape-changing rock bodies. The capsule is destroyed, scout Cooper disappears, and the settlements empty. Saurian troops begin deploying, but the inhabitants attack and tunnel beneath the defenses. They destroy a gateway post and kill Kivi while she works on it. Carlos captures a living fragment, and Natasha suggests that each apparent creature may be a silicon-based colony. Evelyn Thompson is called to study it. Claver X arrives with ape and dogman troops as a far larger northern settlement empties. During a night assault, silicoids destroy both gateway sites, isolate the beachhead, and demonstrate deliberate planning. The coalition retakes the hilltop but expects a larger attack before dawn.

Replacement gateway posts restore the beachhead before a coordinated silicoid offensive. Claver X's forces destroy crystalline drones at extreme cost, while a larger underground attack breaks the Saurian line. McGill brings fresh Legion Varus troops to the hilltop and helps preserve the gateways. The Saurian survivors accuse Legion Varus of withholding troops. As Winslade and other Varus officers arrive, a landmine kills Winslade and wounds Cherish Collins. Graves determines that Varus did not plant it. The Saurian tribune, Claver X, and Galina's father's operative admit arranging Winslade's death because they considered him unfit to lead. Rather than remain exposed to further tunneling attacks, the coalition marches toward the enormous red launcher. The operative suggests that water can kill the low-moisture silicoids, and Evelyn Thompson confirms the idea with a captive. Graves reroutes the force between lakes for protection. Winslade revives, returns, and resumes command. At the launcher, McGill proposes attacking its internal controls. Winslade assigns him a one-way commando insertion with Harris, Natasha, Carlos, Sargon, and other troops.

McGill's commandos teleport to the launcher with no return charge. Natasha identifies their explosives as EMP devices meant to suppress defenses rather than destroy the structure. After deploying them, the team loses communications and climbs an external stairway while the launcher rotates, throwing several soldiers to their deaths. The survivors enter an exhaust channel as coalition reinforcements land and battle silicoids around the weapon. When communications return, Graves warns that the launcher is aligned with Earth and orders McGill to stop it despite instructions to capture the technology intact. Natasha devises a plan to obstruct multiple exhaust ports, while McGill throws plasma grenades into the firing system. The launcher explodes before it can strike Earth. The blast kills the entire commando team and every coalition fighter nearby. Revived on Earth, McGill attends Graves's judgment. Wurtenberger, now consul, holds Graves responsible, demotes him, orders his execution, and sentences him to confinement before possible restored service. Winslade disavows the order, leaving McGill uncertain about the true command chain.

McGill returns to Earth after roughly four months away while many Legion Varus soldiers still await revival. Wurtenberger has taken the consulship during Galina's absence. Seven, restored through human revival technology, accepts an Earth contract as an adviser on the fragmented Galactic powers. Alexander Turov acknowledges that he ordered McGill to damage the coalition, but not to destroy the captured launcher. He suspends McGill's punishment while emphasizing that Earth lost a defensive system it cannot reproduce. McGill finally travels to Dust World, where unusual plants and illicit trade surround the expanded hidden revival operation. Boudica takes him to the newly revived Galina and orders both of them to leave. After McGill brings Galina to her Central City home, Galina tells him that Boudica had her killed twice during captivity. She learns that Wurtenberger became consul and prepares to defend her imperator position after her long absence. McGill returns to his family and discovers that Etta and Derek have married. After initial anger, he accepts Derek as family.

The launcher explodes before it can fire on Earth, killing McGill's commando team and every coalition combatant nearby. McGill is revived, but Legion Varus is only slowly being restored. Wurtenberger, now consul, demotes Graves, orders his execution, and confines him pending a possible return to service. Winslade is alive after revival, while McGill remains unsure who truly initiated the launcher order. Seven survives through human revival and becomes an official Earth adviser on the divided Galactic powers. Alexander Turov confirms that he wanted the coalition damaged, suspends McGill's punishment, and regrets the loss of technology Earth cannot reproduce. On Dust World, the illicit facility has expanded and successfully revived Galina after Boudica killed her twice. Boudica expels both Galina and McGill, and McGill takes Galina home. She remains an imperator but must repair her political standing, while Drusus remains imprisoned and the silicoid threat is unresolved. Etta and Derek are married, and McGill accepts Derek into the family.