The Ghatazhak aren't as effective as they once were.

Hi Ken, I hear what you are saying and I know what you mean, but on reading that part of the book, they mention how the mission is stealth until they locate the Captain. The don't know where he is and need to recover him. So instead of rushing in guns blazing, which could have resulted in Siggi venting the atmo from the rest of the ship as a stopgap, they went in stealth and avoided combat which I am fine with.

Rescuing the Civilians is a second issue, and to do that without Civilian Casualties they speculated that they would need more Ghatazhak involved. As it turns out they still lost Civies, because as far as I can tell the Ghatazhak started a shoot out across the Civies as opposed to attacking from the sides and drawing fire away from them... Dumb tactics really, but I picture the room as a open hotel lobby, and there were likely less helpful points of attack for the Good guys. So they did the best they could and people still died. That's War. People die even when you do your best to stop it. Friends, Loved ones. Even people who don't get hit can be wounded for life.

As to the taking of the ship and taking out the bad guys for little losses, here I find myself wondering if its the fact that the bad guys had better/heavier weapons then the usual fair, and maybe that was why the Ghatazhak suffered as many losses / injuries. Again the bad guys had training, it was just their leader Siggi who was an idiot.The Ghatazhak preformed well on this occasion and I am very happy to see them using Stealth as part of their tactics, because it highlights the fact that these are highly trained people who can do more then run and gun. Also Telles would have torn those bad guys apart in his usual bad ass way, but then again, not all Ghatazhak are created equal (anymore)

Thanks, You make a good argument.

It just seems like the Ghatazhak are being whittled down to nothing at a faster and faster rate.

Can't wait for the next episode.

Yeah, I still remember laughing out loud at 3am when a group of about 8 Ghatazhak troops started venting the air out of a disabled Jung Battleship... good times...

It's not that the Ghatazhak have become less effective, it's that they are fewer in numbers. They can no longer afford to go charging fearlessly into a hailstorm of weapons fire. If they are to survive, and eventually swell their numbers again, they have to be more careful about how they fight. 25% losses are no longer acceptable, not when you're down to a few hundred men. Especially when you learn that your new enemy has a unit similar in capabilities to your own.

Sometimes sacrificing lives can result in a more favorable outcome... doesn't always sit well with the survivors though, especially when it happens by order. In saying that these are Ghatazhak we are talking about, each and every one of them is trained to the level that they know that at some point they will have to do something detrimental to themselves to further the greater good of their cause. and they have the mental training to (hopefully) cope with it of themselves and their colleagues.

I don't think they were deployed in full combat armour either tbh. No shoulder mounted lasers to provide overwatch.

Still love them though. We either need more guys & girls trained up fast to become a new Corp of Ghatazhak or hopefully find another batch of them in stasis hidden awAy somewhere. Though that would make it all too easy I guess.

The Ghatazhak are always willing to do what is necessary to achieve their goal. If that means protecting themselves and their assets on lesser missions, so that they are capable of achieving their long-term goals, then that is what they will do. They will have to undergo some changes if they want to beat the Dusahn, as they simply do not have the numbers. Personally, I would like to see them be used with greater stealth and precision, rather than as brute force, shock and awe suicide squads.

Oh, wait! It's my decision, isn't it!

lol Ryk, that was a pretty funny and very astute observation. One of the best things about being an author (assuming one can write a decent story - which definitely includes you) is that you get to be God in your created universe. As God, you get to call the shots and the direction of the story line - who will live, who will die, and what the outcome of each event will be. Of course, that much power comes with an equal dose of responsibility, both to the reader and to the characters themselves. I pity the poor fool who thinks they can kill off Jessica during some firefight. Me thinks she'll just reach right out of the screen and throttle you for even thinking about such foolishness!

On a more mundane note, have you come up with a working title for the next installment? Any idea as to a release date? Inquiring minds want to know!

Finallly, and this goes out to all you Frontiers Saga fans, please do not use the Kindle Unlimited option. The full price Kindle version is a very small price to pay to support Ryk and keep his Grand Opus going for many years to come!
Thanks and don't forget to turn off the lights on the way out!

Oh and about the Ghatazhak, I agree with Ken, even with their currently depleted numbers, it does seem that they have been taking an inordinate amount of casualties, particularly fatalities, for such badass super soldiers. In Head of the Dragon, the Ghatazhak plowed through the Corinari like a red hot knife through butter. I realize that the current foe is a lot tougher, but still, it's the Ghatazhak, not just some run-of-the-mill special forces outfit. Just saying.

They lost a good few of their number when Burgess was wiped off the map.

Army science lab concept for the future soldier: https://youtu.be/jwVgthgFx6w

Does it sound familiar?

Man.. we live in interesting times!

The Ghatazhak are awesome part of the story line. Did anyone else notice that the Captain is starting to exhibit Ghatazhak qualities, much like perhaps Nash. No doubt influenced by part of the genetic manipulation he endured. There was some foreshadowing in the last episode about the future of the Ghatazhak, I suspect they will rebuild in numbers with the help of the geneticist. I think theres a good number of pages that could be devoted to figuring out how Na-Tan will want to program them. Who will they be loyal to? How will they train and where? Perhaps with some of the new virtual reality systems. This I feel would be a two pronged approach, the geneticist is the long term plan, but short term would be a continued train up of the coranari into a Ghatazhak Lite company, would make sense if they were run by Nash. They would need to remain separate from the general Ghatazhak forces as they would be a dilution of the pure units effectiveness.

Also, we havent heard much about the children of The Ghatazhak, their families. I'm sure there more than one young boy who wants to follow in fathers footsteps. Im sure the wives of The Ghatazhak meet for lunch, much like the current wifes of the armed forces. I like to imagine what a meeting of those wives would look like, Im sure a few of them have their own kick ass qualities. Imagine Telles wife...Its hard to imagine a demur, submissive woman.