Tech World recap

Legion Varus rejects absorption into Earth's hegemony and is sent to Tau Ceti, where Claver's gunrunning and altered holographic projectors have helped turn local unrest into mass violence. After framing McGill for attacks on Turov and Drusus, Claver uses a Galactic Key to seize Minotaur and fire a devastating broadside that leaves the orbital habitat falling. McGill kills Claver, revives Turov, and helps recover the ship. Natasha creates a program that reverses the Tau conditioning, but Turov offers the habitat to Glide's cephalopods. McGill, Natasha, and Carlos secretly destroy the cephalopod ship. Turov revives the condemned mutineers, trades pardons for the Key, and claims the attack as her operation. The depleted legions return to Earth, McGill becomes a veteran candidate, and he reconciles with Natasha. A transmission from the destroyed ship leaves a wider cephalopod conflict unresolved.

Previously: James McGill serves with Legion Varus alongside returning comrades including Natasha Elkin and Carlos. Humanity has an established presence in Zeta Herculis, and the wider political and military consequences of that expansion remain relevant as this campaign begins.

During shore leave, McGill campaigns for Legion Varus to reject incorporation into Earth's hegemony. Hegemony military police attempt to arrest him without explaining the charge, and a violent confrontation kills McGill and all three officers. After revival, Natasha deletes the officers' final memory uploads and supplies an account that secures McGill's release. Turov then admits that she arranged the arrest to provoke him and damage his political influence. She has left Legion Varus to become a hegemony imperator and orders the legion to muster immediately. From orbit, Natasha creates a temporary connection to the voting system while McGill rallies the troops. Legion Varus votes to preserve its independence. The victory carries an immediate cost: Turov assigns the legion to a year of duty at Tau Ceti, where it must relieve Legion Germanica after a short handover.

McGill campaigns to keep Legion Varus out of Earth's hegemony. Turov attempts to undermine him with a staged arrest, but Natasha helps him survive the confrontation and later restores voting access from orbit. The legion chooses independence and is immediately assigned to a year at Tau Ceti. During the voyage, McGill changes an ambush exercise to give recruits a genuine chance, defying Harris and losing consideration for promotion to veteran. After a month in warp, Minotaur reaches Tau Ceti. Legion Varus completes the formal arrival ceremony with its rival, Legion Germanica, and transfers to the vast orbital habitat. Drusus commands the Varus mission, and the two-week handover begins.

After McGill helps Legion Varus preserve its independence, Turov sends the legion to Tau Ceti for a year. The troops arrive aboard Minotaur and begin relieving Legion Germanica. Claver, the Germanica officer guiding the handover, leads Leeson's platoon on a highly paid private escort through the orbital habitat. The job is actually an exchange of weapons for untraceable imperial coins. Armed locals attack, the clients die, and Claver abandons Legion Varus with the illegal money. Leeson and Harris are killed as further attackers pursue the platoon, leaving McGill briefly in field command. After the survivors and their dead return to headquarters, Graves arrests Claver and alerts hegemony to the imperial-credit offense. A larger uprising then reaches a transport hub. The attackers carry unfamiliar weapons that disable powered armor. Claver exploits the battle to escape custody, while McGill uses a captured weapon until the rebels overwhelm and kill him. Legion Varus loses the hub, and the unrest is spreading across the habitat.

Legion Varus wins its independence vote and is sent to Tau Ceti, where a private escort arranged by Claver exposes a trade in weapons and illegal imperial coins. Claver escapes custody during an expanding local uprising, and McGill dies fighting attackers equipped with armor-disabling weapons. His revival is delayed for three days while local civilians receive priority. Anne Grant restores him, and the revived Leeson returns him to duty. Rebels have seized large parts of the orbital habitat and acquired captured legion arms. At a government armory, McGill and Carlos notice that the advancing Tau share the same maroon-and-silver holographic appearance. Natasha concludes that the pattern is not an ordinary clothing choice, and Drusus orders an investigation. The armory defense costs many lives, including Carlos temporarily. A reduced team then traces the gunrunning route to a concealed cache. Kivi dies in a trap, while McGill and Natasha recover a locked holographic harness, an alien weapon, and a shell-like device. The harness cannot be removed by its wearer, linking the cache to the rebels' abnormal behavior.

Legion Varus preserves its independence and is posted to Tau Ceti, where Claver's private escort exposes gunrunning and illegal imperial currency as a local uprising spreads. Following heavy fighting, McGill's team recovers technology connected to the rebels' uniform holographic appearance. Natasha establishes that a captured harness reads and displays the wearer's emotional state, suggesting that the Tau crowd is being manipulated. When McGill reports the discovery, Turov threatens him over a shell-like artifact. Claver shoots Turov and Drusus, takes the object, and leaves McGill to be blamed. McGill pursues and captures him. Claver identifies the artifact as a Galactic Key capable of bypassing authorized off-world equipment. He admits organizing the criminal scheme and claims turmoil in the imperial core has created an opportunity for him. The two bluff their way aboard Minotaur, where Claver kills Germanica personnel and ejects occupied modules. McGill uses the Key to open fire control, allowing Claver to launch a broadside at the supposed source of the projector scheme. The strike devastates a populated area, severs the habitat's link to the planet, and leaves it in a decaying orbit.

Legion Varus's Tau Ceti posting becomes a war after Claver's gunrunning and emotion-altering projector scheme fuels an uprising. Claver frames McGill for shooting Turov and Drusus, then uses the Galactic Key and McGill's reluctant help to seize Minotaur and fire a devastating broadside. McGill kills Claver after the strike and uses the ship's revival equipment to restore Turov, concealing his own role in enabling the attack. Her body comes from a much younger backup, though her memories remain intact. Turov assumes command of the nearly empty ship and recovers one surviving Legion Germanica module. Tau attackers board Minotaur, but McGill, the rescued troops, and Turov clear the ship while revivals slowly rebuild their forces. Turov chooses to stay and attempt a recovery. She admits that the arrest on Earth was designed to discredit McGill, and the two begin a sexual relationship. Natasha proposes using a corrective program against the altered projectors. Graves supports an attempt to help the falling habitat, but Turov refuses. Instead, she orders Claver revived, intending to make the saboteur repair the crisis and using his knowledge as leverage over McGill.

Legion Varus's Tau Ceti mission exposes Claver's gunrunning and emotion-altering projector scheme. After Claver seizes Minotaur and fires a broadside that leaves the orbital habitat falling, McGill kills him and revives Turov. As the legions recover the ship, Glide contacts Minotaur on behalf of a cephalopod power at war with the Empire after the destruction of its Zeta Herculis colony. His claim that his people occupy several worlds reveals a threat much larger than one displaced force. Turov authorizes McGill's squad to enter the habitat. Natasha's corrective program spreads through its holographic projectors and frees thousands of Tau from Claver's conditioning. Turov nevertheless agrees to let the cephalopods loot the habitat and enslave its population as restitution. McGill rejects that decision. With Natasha and Carlos, he incapacitates Minotaur's tactical crew and uses the Galactic Key to destroy the cephalopod ship. Turov discovers the unauthorized operation and kills McGill and Carlos before reviving them for trial. Kivi is also killed and revived after being wrongly implicated, then kills Anne while escaping restraint. The four prisoners leave Tech World facing possible permanent execution.

Legion Varus remains independent after a Tau Ceti deployment shaped by Claver's gunrunning and projector manipulation. Claver uses the Galactic Key to take Minotaur and launch the strike that devastates the planet and sends the orbital habitat into decline. McGill kills Claver, restores Turov, and helps the surviving troops regain control of the ship. Natasha's counter-program releases thousands of Tau from the imposed conditioning. Turov nevertheless promises Glide that his people may take the habitat. Acting without approval, McGill joins Natasha and Carlos in destroying the cephalopod vessel. Turov executes the mutineers and revives them for trial. McGill secures pardons for his companions by disclosing the Key's function, after which Turov takes the device and presents the attack as her own covert mission. Graves supports that account while preserving evidence that could later expose McGill's involvement. The badly depleted legions return to Earth, where McGill becomes a veteran candidate and reunites with Natasha. The destroyed vessel's outgoing transmission leaves the larger cephalopod power as an unresolved threat.

McGill, Natasha, Carlos, and Kivi escape permanent execution after Turov takes the Galactic Key, pardons the group, and presents their unauthorized destruction of the cephalopod ship as her own secret operation. Graves helps preserve that account while retaining a record that could place responsibility back on McGill. Legion Varus and Legion Germanica return to Earth early because their losses and limited revival capacity have left them badly depleted. McGill reaches Earth as a candidate for veteran, with Harris expected to oppose him during the trials. McGill and Natasha resume their relationship. Anne was killed during the escape from revival custody, and her later status is not established. The corrected Tau projectors have freed thousands from the imposed conditioning, but the orbital habitat's ultimate fate is unresolved. The destroyed cephalopod ship sent a data packet toward the galactic rim, leaving Earth exposed to a larger hostile power while the regional battle fleet remains absent.