Appears in Beyond Amargosa
Broken Skies takes place in the early weeks of the Gelt occupation of Amargosa, opening with the Compact Navy’s doomed attempt to liberate the planet. Quentin Austin leads the operation, which ends in failure when the Ban Ki-moon is shot down during the battle. This catastrophic loss strands key personnel on the surface and initiates the chain of events that play out in Second Wave.
Following the failed campaign, Austin returns to Earth to face political fallout and mounting suspicion that the Gelt invasion was aided by Compact insiders. He begins investigating the military-industrial conglomerate JunoCorp, a firm with opaque ownership and curious ties to several failed defense contracts. Austin travels to JunoCorp’s headquarters on The Caliphate, where he discovers CEO Pope murdered under suspicious circumstances. He escapes the scene with the help of Sarai Gaddar, a resourceful insider who guides him to a deeper conspiracy involving the Hatch investment group, JunoCorp’s shadowy parent entity.
Their investigation leads them to Bromdar, where Hatch’s paper trail dead-ends in a web of front companies, shell funds, and phantom directors. Though unable to uncover the group’s full motives, Austin and Gaddar confirm that Hatch-backed elements have been supplying Gelt-aligned interests. This intel helps redirect efforts just in time to prevent a second Gelt incursion—this one targeting Anacreon, a colony of Etrusca. Austin and Eileen Burke arrive just ahead of Laral Farad, thwarting the attempted landing.
In recognition of his actions—but also as a way to remove him from sensitive political matters—Austin is promoted to rear admiral and reassigned to the Compact’s warp program. This so-called “kicking upstairs” maneuver effectively sidelines his investigations, much to the frustration of allies who recognize the growing threat of internal subversion.
Meanwhile, Tessa Dasarius becomes more active behind the scenes. After learning that Marcus Leitman knew her son JT Austin was on Amargosa during the invasion and said nothing, she expels him from Dasarius Tower, cutting off his access to corporate resources. Though not a front-line participant, Tessa’s quiet mobilization of Dasarius Interstellar’s influence and data networks begins to reshape the war effort from the economic side.
With its web of political subterfuge, failed military redemption, and creeping conspiracy, Broken Skies reveals that the battle for the Compact’s survival is not only being fought on the ground—but within its own institutions.