Scimitar: Basilisk - Endgame Omnibus

The entire final trilogy closing the NARC series, under one cover: Scimitar, Basilisk and Endgame:

SCIMITAR (NARC #5): After NARC broke the back of DEATH'S HEAD Jarrat and Stone did not expect to return to the colony of Rethan. Sheer chance took them back in STOPOVER, where they were lucky to survive a lethal brush with elements of Death's Head which had evaded the syndicate war. Chell Tactical's Colonel Pete Stacy knew full well, at least one key player from Death's Head remained at liberty. 

Her name is Valda Hawass: immeasurably old, unspeakably brilliant, until recently anonymous in the shadows. Now, Hawass has picked up the threads of a century-old crusade -- and the Athena is headed back to Rethan with explosive results. 

But Jarrat and Stone have more to worry about. Senator Bram Sorenson is rising as a homeworlds hero, championing new legislation which will ignite the colonies in war and spell the end for NARC. Roots of disillusionment have already taken hold within NARC itself -- change is in the wind, and Jarrat and Stone, Cronin and Ramos, are caught at the epicenter of it. 

(This segment: 96,700 words) 

BASILISK (NARC #6): Straddling the frontier, the hellish star system belonging to an industrial corporation, the Montserrat Lode, is harassed by marauders from the wilderness beyond. Freespacers prey on Montserrat's habitat cities while the system itself is a perilous chaos better known to the colonies as Tartarus. 

Tartarus has an Angel problem, fueled by the last of the great empires, Basilisk -- but for reasons of its own Montserrat is fighting to prove its rich lode sits in freespace, beyond colonial jurisdiction. Tactical Colonel Noel LeFevre is eager to invoke NARC, but analysts, captains and riot troops doubt that NARC could fight its kind of action in a place where vast populations are spread over trillions of kilometers, and the system itself is inherently hazardous, even before freespacer raiders strike from beyond the frontier. 

The new carrier Huntress is assigned to Tartarus -- not to fight, but to run dark, gathering data upon which the decision might be made. But when she vanishes utterly with Gene Cantrell and Mischa Petrov in command, Jarrat and Stone must take the Athena and follow her into hell. Death lies at every hand, and NARC has never paid a price so high. Jarrat and Stone with recall the Basilisk encounter as a turning point. 

(This segment: 110,350 words) 

ENDGAME (NARC #7) 

Drawing every thread together from across the whole NARC series, ENDGAME weaves a vast tapestry from Darwin's World to Aurora. Jarrat and Stone find themselves at the crux of events which will be written into history.

The last of the great Angel empires has fallen, but the shadow of something more sinister and infinitely more far-reaching falls across every city: Angeliberty -- 

Political tensions explode across the colonies as homeworlds legislation promises death for millions of Angel victims. Only the Marcus Brand Foundation stands between Venice, Elysium, Chell, and war -- 

Cassius Brand challenges Starfleet over the Mostov disaster, and a scene on a Thule street will propel Jarrat and Stone in directions they could never have imagined -- 

Behind all this, the Jagreth Pioneer Company has launched the super-sleeper ship designed to open up a new world, far beyond the reach of the troubled old colonies-- but JPC's facade of commercial hype hides an appalling truth. 

ENDGAME is Part Three of the massive story which began in SCIMITAR and continued in BASILISK. Every question is answered, every thread tied off, in a tour de force of action, intrigue and sensuality spanning all the worlds and all the characters readers came to know throughout the NARC series. 

(This segment: 183,500 words)