Chains of Command picks up the story about one year after the end of Angles of Attack and Earth is still hanging on. Andrew Grayson finds himself training new recruits to backfill the depleted ranks of the space borne infantry but it is obviously too little too late. The Lankies retain control of Mars and regularly send siege ships toward Earth. The rag tag remnants of the NAC and SRA space fleets are barely able to repel them and every encounter is successful by only the slimmest of margins. Unfortunately, mankind knows it is losing the overall war of attrition and the status quo is unsustainable. This leaves only two choices available for regaining our solar system and they both involve attacking Mars. Take a chance and launch the assault now with what remains of the space navy or risk a blind raid in an attempt to recover the modern warships that were taken when the former NAC military and political leadership jumped away leaving everyone else behind to die.

Since both Andrew and Halley are bored to tears training up fresh meat for the grinder when they are given the opportunity to join the secret raid they both jump at the chance. It is likely a suicide mission but if successful it could greatly improve the chances of the Mars assault not ending in disaster. As the former government was departing our solar system with the most modern ships available some of their transmissions were recorded by the stealth drones left behind by the Indianapolis. With the help of the Chinese the NAC was able to crack the encryption on those communications and figure out where they went. With that knowledge the raid will have the element of surprise although how that will result in re-acquiring the lost assets is a big unknown.

Despite the fact that I often grow tired of stories where humanity prefers fighting itself when faced with annihilation from a alien threat, this story grabbed me and kept me interested. The stakes are high, the odds are long, and I am invested in the characters and the story arc. Andrew's character in particular grows a lot in this book and he has to make some tough calls with many lives at stake. Marko Kloos has done an excellent job with this series and it picks up momentum with each book. For audiobook fans Luke Daniels continues to do a fine job with the narration and it is nice that he continues to voice these characters.

This book advances the overall story arc but it certainly doesn't finish it so I find myself greatly anticipating the next installment.