To Hell and Back recap

Omega Force hunts Seven, the assassin personality dominating Lucky's prototype body, while a synth conspiracy tries to obtain the body and its production data. The crew extracts Scleesz, protects Kellea Colleren from an assassination threat, and follows a staged hostage message to a mining planet. Lucky briefly retakes control during the rescue. Omega Force recovers the captive engineer, then finds Lucky and Combat Unit 707 after they suffer severe damage. Desiree subsequently kills the synth conspirator. Cas then gives up its separate existence to bridge Lucky's mind to compatible systems, permanently eliminating Seven. Omega Force returns home with Lucky recovering and Seven's intelligence on predatory warlords. Seleste departs, 707 plans time with Scout Team Obsidian, and the contracts against Kellea remain unresolved. The rebuilding government and the dormant Machine also remain part of the wider conflict.

Previously: Jason Burke leads Omega Force, whose members include Crusher, Cage, Twingo, Doc, the AI Kaz, and the battle synth Lucky. After Lucky's sentient matrix was placed in an advanced assassin body, a dangerous personality called Seven took control, leaving the crew responsible for finding their teammate and containing the threat. Omega Force has allies among Lot 700 battle synths, the resistance led by Saditava Mok, council member Scleesz, and naval commander Kellea Colleren. Their wider struggle also involves the Machine, a former controller that is dormant but not permanently neutralized. As this book begins, Omega Force must deal with Lucky's unstable body while political violence and the Machine's remaining servants continue to endanger its allies.

Omega Force travels to Kepri for an engineer who might help Lucky, only to find him critically injured after an interrogation-style attack. Cage recovers encrypted data from the engineer's destroyed synth aide, and Combat Unit 707 joins the search. The data explains that Lucky's sentient matrix is incompatible with the assassin body. Its combat systems have produced Seven as a competing personality, with no known cure. Jason still orders a capture attempt before any lethal response. Seven continues taking contracts while an internal voice resists harm to innocents. A brief contact apparently made by Lucky leads the Phoenix toward Seven's trail. On Sparuo, an organized force shadows the crew as they seek the broker Jorg. Omega Force finds a recent massacre and learns that Seven uses several brokers. Seven then enters the meeting place, refuses 707's command to surrender, kills Jorg, wounds 707, and incapacitates the others before escaping. 707's identification confirms that Seven occupies Combat Unit 777's body, physically linking the assassin to Lucky.

Evidence connects the hunt for Seven to the anti-biotic Children of Khedron and to a synth leader controlling the Machine's former forces. Desiree, an intelligence operative sympathetic to the rebellion, tells Scleesz that Seven occupies the last secret assassin prototype. The synth leader wants both the body and its design to manufacture more assassins and incite war. The cult captures Seven on a mining world with equipment tailored to the prototype. Meanwhile, Omega Force learns that Kellea Colleren faces an assassination contract and extracts Scleesz from Khepri with help from Combat Unit 929. Jason creates a Seven-only counter-contract on Carolyn Whitney, the Viper, hoping both to delay her action against Kellea and to expose Seven. Whitney agrees to a two-week pause because unknown coercers are threatening her partner Abia's daughter. The broker Seleste accepts the counter-contract, but the force hunting Seven's brokers attacks her Colton Hub operation. Omega Force helps her escape, while her aide Hjal stays behind and is presumed dead. The synth leader reveals that Seven and Combat Unit 777 are separate minds sharing one body and that 777 is fading. Rather than abandon Lucky, Jason's crew chooses to seek a compatible replacement body.

Omega Force and a Lot 700 unit raid a Keprian depot for a replacement battle-synth body, but the recovered crate contains only repair parts. Saditava Mok begins reshaping the damaged resistance into an alliance with the former leadership, and Kellea Colleren takes Scleesz into protection. Lucky then secretly regains control by rebuilding Kaz's mental barriers while the cult transports him. The cult uses a captive Prue engineer to stage a hostage recording, drawing Omega Force to a mining planet. There, the crew finds Seven's ship displayed as bait and detects Confed military support. Jason, Crusher, 707, and Seleste infiltrate under a false corporate identity created by Cage. Seleste persuades local corporate security to attack the mine as an unauthorized rival operation. Reconnaissance confirms that the prototype body and the engineer are both prisoners. During the assault, Lucky breaks free and releases the engineer, while the ground battle draws a Confed cruiser toward the settlement. Omega Force recovers the engineer, who confirms that Lucky currently controls the body. Lucky and 707, however, disappear during the fighting, leaving their condition and intentions uncertain.

The synth conspirator attacks Lucky and 707 with the captured assassin ship's plasma cannon. Both battle synths are gravely damaged, but Omega Force recovers them. Lucky asks Jason to destroy the body before Seven can return, and Jason instead brings him aboard under restraint. Desiree decides the conspirator has adopted the dormant Machine's campaign against biotic life and kills him. Twingo, Cas, and the rescued engineer attempt a permanent repair. Twingo learns that 707 entered the mission intending to kill Lucky because it distrusted Jason's judgment, but ultimately chose to save him. Cas removes the incompatible prototype systems, substitutes ordinary battle-synth components, and transforms its own matrix into a permanent control bridge. The sacrifice ends Cas's independent existence but restores Lucky as the body's sole mind, eliminating Seven. Lucky survives with fewer abilities and ongoing trauma, while 707 recovers and plans temporary work with Scout Team Obsidian. Seleste leaves but warns that the Viper may still pursue Crisstof Dalton's contract against Kellea Colleren. Omega Force returns home, where Seven's files provide Jason with intelligence on warlords who extort civilians and a possible direction for future missions.

Lucky awakens as the sole controller of the converted assassin body. Cas no longer exists independently, having turned its own matrix into the permanent bridge that makes Lucky's recovery possible and removes Seven. Lucky loses several capabilities of the prototype body and still needs physical repairs, but he is mobile, increasingly confident, and back with Omega Force. Combat Unit 707 is also recovering and plans to spend time with Scout Team Obsidian after repairs. Seleste leaves by a prepared escape route while remaining a possible intelligence contact. She warns Jason that the Viper may still execute Crisstof Dalton's contract against Kellea Colleren. Scleesz remains under Kellea's protection and involved with the emerging government, while Saditava Mok continues building an alliance around the former leadership. The Machine is still dormant rather than destroyed. Back at Omega Force's home base, Seven's retained mission files give Jason leads on warlords who terrorize civilians, suggesting a new direction for the team.