Pretty much all of the discussions I've seen about the plot line in Starlink: Battle for Atlas has taken the story at face value. I believe it's far from simple, and it's not just "good guys against a megalomaniac."
This is the first of (I hope) a series of postings giving my interpretations or questions about what's going on. (I don't have answers. Just questions.) Since these postings will inevitably be spoilers, the rest will be posted in the Spoilers forum. This one only looks at one possible re-interpretation of the opening cut-scenes, so I don't think it can really be considered a spoiler. Okay, I do mention the "boss" by name, but that's been outed in so many reviews and discussions I don't really think it's a serious spoiler.
So here's the basic premise of this interpretation:Now for the evidence supporting that premise.Spoiler: Show
Why was the team recruited in secret? Why is this trip a secret? For that matter, what is St. Grand's problem? Over and over again, he refuses to share information with the team, often critical information, even when he's unsure he's going to survive. There clearly is something going on there, unless we choose to write it off as St. Grand's hamartia being secrecy.
Upon arrival in Atlas, St. Grand doesn't set up security patrols. He's almost certain to know that Atlas is a lawless system filled with outlaws and Legion, because on the previous trip he'd worked with the outlaw Shaid in setting up the procurement of the artifact. Instead of launching security patrols, St. Grand sends his primary fighter pilot -- Hunter -- and his secondary fighter ship away from the Equinox to "escort" the delivery. What kind of escort was needed?
St. Grand clearly hasn't let either Razor or Hunter in on the lawless nature of Atlas, or they certainly would've objected.
Shaid asks for help with the Drakes, and even though she's carrying the artifact that supposedly is the whole reason that the Equinox is in Atlas, St. Grand doesn't react. Perhaps he thinks/knows that the Drakes are a diversion. Razor calls him on it.
St. Grand siezes the opportunity to get Mason out of the way.
Notice that wording. Instead of telling Judge and Mason to go to the hangar, he tells Judge to take Mason to the hangar. Also notice that he says this is to "buy time," not to defend Shaid.
Mason is surprised at being sent to the hangar. He's a techie, not a pilot.
St. Grand insists that Mason not join him in the Reactor Room, to the point of giving his own ship to Mason.
Down in the Reactor Room, it doesn't look like St. Grand is "jumpstarting the engine." It looks like he's shutting down the reactor.
That's bad? And he's anticipating something worse to come?
For that matter, what's with this whole "jumpstart the engine" thing? They'd just arrived in Atlas, and if we assume that the trip to Atlas is just to pick up the artifact, the spindrive should still be ready to go. If he's talking about some kind of normal-space maneuvering engines, would he really think that the Equinox could outrun fighters?
The raiding ship was already in position in the asteroid field, much closer to the Equinox than Shaid is. That'd be quite the coincidence.
It seems that Grax was personally present in the raiding party.
Note the wording: "with us" rather than "with you."
If Grax indeed was in the raiding party, that strongly suggests that Grax knew the exact place and time that the Equinox would arrive. The efficient grabbing of the reactor also suggests that the raiders knew exactly what they were after. A bit later, Hunter will comment on this, but he doesn't know everything that we know.
The abduction of St. Grand also strongly suggests that Grax knows who St. Grand is, and that he has valuable information. The man could've been just a reactor-room tech who could be spaced when the raiding ship pulls out, but Grax knows otherwise.
Then something goes against the original plan. As the raiders are liberating the Equinox's core, St. Grand says:
It's unclear what he's objecting to. He could be objecting to being abducted, or he could be objecting to them taking the entire reactor core rather than just some of the Nova from it. Or both.
Still, think about St. Grand's reaction. If your front door gets kicked in and a bunch of bandits swarm into your house and start hauling your safe away, you might cower in fear, you might be confused about what's going on, or you might be angry and confrontational. But would you be pleading?