Glass World recap

Abigail gives James McGill a lead linking lost Skae technology to Rigelian armor, drawing Legion Varus to Glass World. The expedition survives sabotage, a disastrous landing, smart mines, gateway battles, repeated deaths, and Winslade's bid to replace Galina Turov. McGill recovers Cooper's remains, destroys the mine gateway, follows Lisa to Rigel, and learns she sold his landing coordinates to escape. A later casting mission reveals stealth-capable insect aliens building a gateway below Glass World. Winslade strands the assault force, which crosses into their hive and captures its queen. When Rigel orders the colony destroyed, the queen rebels and helps the survivors open a gateway to Earth. Natasha proves that living spinner larvae can manufacture fitted armor, turning the expedition into a strategic success. Galina retains command, McGill stays with Legion Varus after refusing reassignment, Abigail's faction gains an Earth contract, and McGill and Abigail begin a relationship before her departure.

Previously: James McGill serves as a centurion in Legion Varus and has longstanding personal and professional ties to Galina Turov, Drusus, Graves, Florimel, and his daughter Etta. Clone technology allows dead personnel to return from stored scans, but a revived person may lack memories formed after the last reliable record. Claver and his copies have repeatedly opposed Earth. A female counterpart named Abigail and her brother Claver X belong to a dissident faction seeking a different relationship with humanity. Winslade and Lisa return from the Clone World conflict without memories of their earlier defections, leaving them punished for choices their present versions do not remember. Rigel remains a powerful rival, and Maurice Armel leads renegade human mercenaries in its service. Earth has captured alien wreckage and developed dangerous teleportation methods, including experimental casting that can project a person over extreme distances while sending observations home. A failed return, however, may leave no proof of death and therefore no authorized revival.

So far: Abigail contacts McGill from Green World on behalf of hunted rebel Clavers. She offers coordinates to advanced wreckage if he will approach Drusus about protection, but Galina intercepts McGill's report and insists on controlling his access to command. McGill refuses to identify his source even after Galina has him flogged. Drusus approves a long-range verification jump, and Graves equips McGill with a hazardous prototype suit. At the destination, McGill finds a blasted dead world or planetoid rather than an intact prize. Abigail is already dead, but he downloads her latest scans, preserving a possible route to revival. Before he can leave, an armored Skae-derived guardian attacks him in vacuum. McGill must now survive long enough to return with evidence that the mission found something of value.

McGill kills the armored guardian, brings back a claw and mission recordings, and chooses death and revival rather than accept severe surgery for his injuries. Analysis shows that the claw is made from the same extraordinary material as Rigelian armor, linking that technology to the Skae. Central revives Abigail for questioning, but Rigelian infiltrators break into the detention area. Abigail reveals that the armor comes from a world affected by collapsed matter, then forces McGill's weapon to kill her rather than face repeated copying and coercion. McGill also tells the memory-incomplete Winslade that his former self defected to Claver, explaining his delayed revival and demotion. By tracing the dead Skae's path, McGill and Drusus identify Tau Orionis as the likely source system. Drusus promises not to revive Abigail again merely to continue the interrogation.

Florimel tries to recruit McGill for a casting mission to the collapsed-matter world, but Etta fears the experimental connection could strand him beyond revival. Etta kills Florimel while trying to stop the recruitment, and Galina secretly arranges Florimel's revival, leaving McGill indebted to her for concealing Etta's responsibility. Ghost specialist Cooper takes the mission instead and disappears without proof of death. Legion Varus departs aboard the refitted Rigelian battlecruiser Berlin to find the armor source and, for McGill, to recover Cooper. He enlists Natasha Elkin to locate Cooper in exchange for future access to casting technology. During the voyage, simultaneous generator failures destabilize Berlin's warp bubble. Troops are trapped in an external module, Carlos dies during the escape attempt, and Kivi uncovers the suspicious pattern. McGill survives inside a gun turret and concludes that sabotage nearly destroyed the ship.

McGill suspects Winslade of sabotaging Berlin and kills him without proof. Galina delays Winslade's revival, but Captain Merton later takes lawful command of the ship before planetfall. After McGill refuses Galina's order to kill him, Merton dies in an apparent heart attack and Galina assumes control. Legion Varus lands beside a Rigelian mine on the target planet, suffering heavy losses before establishing a beachhead. McGill warns that the mine must use a gateway because no ore freighters are present. The legion advances through crystalline terrain filled with adaptive smart mines. Kivi's drones open a narrow route, and Harris dies drawing the mines away so the main unit can reach the excavation. At the mine, Natasha locates Cooper's stripped remains. The evidence finally establishes his death and permits revival, but Graves immediately orders McGill's depleted unit to enter the mine and clear it without waiting for support.

McGill's unit seizes the mine but is annihilated after discovering an active gateway to Rigel. Following his revival, Galina returns to Earth and gives the Glass World command to the revived Winslade. Winslade orders McGill to arrange Graves's death, then sends units through one-way teleport harnesses in a renewed assault. Graves removes himself from the first wave, leaving McGill to lead it. McGill's troops destroy the gateway posts and ore haulers, cutting off direct Rigelian reinforcement, but enemy forces overwhelm them. Maurice Armel, a renegade human commander aligned with Claver, finds the mortally wounded McGill and kills him while claiming the act repays a debt connected to Lisa.

Rigelian forces counterattack the weakened Varus position. McGill proposes orbital fire on both armies once they are locked together, allowing the legion to be revived later, and Berlin carries out the bombardment after his death. Rigelian assault modules still reach the ship, and McGill's partly restored unit sacrifices itself to expel an unstoppable boarding robot. Drusus arrives with replacements and reviews Abigail's proposal. She says the mine is not the true objective: Earth needs a processing center that turns the collapsed-matter material into wearable armor. She offers its location in exchange for trade and recognition of her Claver splinter faction. Drusus offers peace but refuses immediate commerce, then orders her executed when she withholds the location. McGill secretly obtains her scan and engrams, preserving another route to revival. The campaign continues because Earth has neither found the processing center nor gained armor suited to human bodies.

On the next drop, Rigelian troops wait at McGill's exact landing point and kill him after attempting to capture him for Squanto. Back aboard Berlin, McGill finds Lisa missing and traces her teleport harness to Rigel. He follows, becomes stranded, and encounters Maurice Armel, who now commands a large alien mercenary force. Armel tries to sell McGill when he proves strategically useless, but Lisa kills Armel and escapes with McGill to Berlin. Abigail, now officially attached to the mission, admits accepting payment in a separate plan involving a sabotaged harness, while denying that she intended McGill's capture. Lisa later confesses that Abigail connected her to Armel and that she traded McGill's landing coordinates for passage to Rigel. Lisa's present self lacks her Clone World memories and describes Armel's influence as coercive, but she accepts responsibility for the betrayal. McGill and Lisa then begin an intimate relationship. Abigail's exact part in the ambush remains unresolved.

Winslade sends three units into a sealed cavern believed to hold the armor-processing center, but all vanish. McGill proposes another casting reconnaissance and returns to Central, where Etta secretly operates the device and Abigail uses covert influence to place him on the access list. McGill enters knowing that he must die before the unstable connection fails. In the cavern he finds the missing troops dead, downloads Manfred's records, and observes stealth-capable insect aliens building a gateway. They kill him, but Central receives the evidence in real time. Winslade delays McGill's revival for more than a week and later tries to erase the expedition records. Graves reports that Central has restricted Winslade's authority and forbidden further revival delays. Manfred and his unit can now be revived because McGill established their deaths. When McGill reveals that the casting project already preserved the reconnaissance, Winslade cannot suppress it and orders him to lead the next assault on Glass World.

Winslade sends McGill, Graves, and their troops into the abandoned cavern with depleted harnesses and no reliable extraction. The insect aliens have removed the expected processing equipment, but their gateway still connects to their home-world hive. The humans cross before the far end can be dismantled and recover uncured armor shells that suggest a living manufacturing process. Enemy attacks destroy the gateway back to Glass World, trapping the survivors. Leeson dies blasting a route into a lower chamber, where McGill finds the hive's immense queen. With Natasha translating, he forces her to negotiate. The planetary Rigelian viceroy demands surrender, and High Lord Squanto orders the entire chamber destroyed, including the queen. Realizing that Rigel considers her colony disposable, the queen rebels. Her guards capture the viceroy and bring replacement gateway posts. The viceroy programs a lethal destination first, but McGill exposes the trap and forces him to open a working gateway to Earth Central.

The survivors evacuate from the hive to Earth, and McGill returns the captive viceroy after using him to verify the gateway. Natasha reveals the expedition's decisive gain: captive spinner larvae can construct and cure tailored armor, including suits made for humans. This turns the costly campaign into a strategic success and undercuts Winslade's effort to replace Galina. Drusus keeps Galina in command and assigns her and McGill to establish armor production. McGill is offered promotion to primus only if he accepts an off-world Stormworld posting. He refuses to leave Legion Varus and remains a centurion. Abigail later reports that her faction obtained access to Earth contracts through a separate agreement involving Winslade and his senior patron despite Drusus's earlier refusal. McGill rejects intimacy framed as contractual payment, but Abigail returns and they acknowledge a genuine mutual attraction. They begin a relationship before she departs the next morning for an off-world destination. The queen's rebellious colony still faces likely Rigelian retaliation.

The stranded human force crosses from Glass World into an insect-alien hive and loses its return gateway. After capturing the hive queen, McGill turns her against Rigel when High Lord Squanto orders her colony destroyed. Her rebels seize the planetary Rigelian viceroy and obtain gateway posts, allowing the survivors to evacuate to Earth. Natasha demonstrates that captured spinner larvae can build and cure tailored armor, giving the campaign strategic value even though the rumored processing machine was never recovered. The discovery keeps Galina Turov in command and defeats Winslade's immediate promotion effort. McGill refuses a promotion tied to reassignment and remains a Legion Varus centurion. Earth must now establish armor production, while the queen's colony faces Rigelian retaliation. Winslade and his patron retain political influence, and Abigail's faction gains Earth-market access through a separate agreement. McGill still owes Natasha access to casting technology, remains indebted to Galina for concealing Etta's actions, and begins an open-ended relationship with Abigail before she leaves off-world.