Exodus — Kali Altsoba

Jan Wysocki must get Madjenik Company out of the ash lands into besieged ToruÅ" City. The odds are all against it. A massive ring of heavily armed defenders encircles the whole city. He's going to need a lot of help to do this.

How can he contact the garrison and coordinate his attack? Once inside the city he will have to finally face Zofia as well as his own failures as a man and a commander. And he must decide where to go next. Should the company stay and fight the last battle at the berm, or should Jan lead it offworld on the Exodus fleet that is fleeing Krevan space to find sanctuary and fight on from bases in the neutral Calmar Union? Stay and die or live and resist from long and uncertain exile? He's not sure what to do. Neither is Madjenik, which may mutiny if he refuses to go back out to fight along the berm wall.

He has a third decision to make. He's offered an extraordinary secret mission by General Amiya Constance, the garrison commander. Can he do it? Will he agree to leave his home to a cruel enemy? Is he about to be exposed as a fraud or will he fit the legend of the 'Ghost of the Woods'? Is he the one to lead a long and brutal war of resistance from exile?

Captain Magda Aklyan is in command of the Exodus flotilla, just nine little ships including two converted civilian liners used as troopships, with KRA fighters packed into every nook. She has to get her charges past heavy cruisers and destroyers of the Kaigun's orbital patrol, then escape pursuit with slow troopships to reach the far L2 in the lee umbra of a gas giant. What's waiting there to block egress from the system? Must she divide her escorts, sacrificing some to save the troopships? Can she get through the enemy's picket ships and blockade line?