Bad Times summary:

In this first book, two of the main characters: Lyron and Terratio are seen infiltrating a mining operation as a part of a unit of other Jotun (large machine people). They steal what the Norns (people who resemble humans) are mining but plans don’t go well and they flee through the forest. Norn soldiers chase Lyron but he manages to escape with help from the magic tricks of his best friend Panchun, who is also a Norn. In Lyron’s home town everyone meets up with the elder foreman: Valk Jotun who praises the characters for their hard work but warns them about the increasing danger of the Norn people and of the dragons that roam the world. Jotunheim at best is a rusting junkyard and shanty town filled with piles of trashed metal and sheds. The Jotun steal the metal ores from the mining operations of the Norns because the metal is very high quality once it is refined and much better then the old iron and tin they have left over. Terratio jokingly asks why Lyron has not asked Panchun – the girl who helped him to escape – to be his girlfriend, but Lyron shrugs.

Back in the city called Bifrost: The city of the Norn people, you get a short glimpse of the strict militaristic and religious lives that Bifrost people live. A woman named Genya Zerai is yelling at some soldiers she is training. Panchun the girl from earlier, arrives to meet with Genya and they both walk to a prison facility where a captured and broken Jotun is kept. Panchun does not like what she sees but Genya asks her to leave so she can interrogate the prisoner. Genya begins to torture the large Jotun when he doesn’t answer her questions well, and is interrupted by a servant. She has to leave suddenly but promises more torture upon her return and leaves. Panchun who was hiding in the shadows, feels sorry for the broken Jotun and frees him only to learn his name is Lance. Lance wants to be rescued but doesn’t think its possible so he asks Panchun to deliver a message to the elder foreman Valk.

Back in Jotunheim, Valk speaks to Lyron and Terratio of Lance’s capture and requests for them to go with a large Norn named Cheska Chatori into Bifrost on a rescue mission. Terratio is very skeptical of the success of the mission and speaks against it until Cheska becomes angry and yells at him. Valk agrees with Cheska, and Lyron and Terra have no choice but to do the mission so the town isn’t demoralized. They move through the Forrest under the cover of night and meet up with Panchun briefly, who gives Lyron a sector map and wishes him well. Cheska uses some teleportation magic and all 3 appear in the middle of Bifrost. As they move through the city, Cheska becomes so anxious to save Lance that she goes against the mission blowing everyone’s cover. Lyron and Terra are forced to fight a big group of Norn guards without hurting them while Cheska runs into the bottom entrance of the prison. She follows a blood trail and a mess of wrecked corridors to discover Lance’s broken scrapped body laying in a bloody pool in the dark. Cheska sobs at discovering the Jotun she came to save dead, but is discovered by Genya (the girl who tortured the Jotun from earlier). Cheska fights Genya and her two elite soldiers (managing to wound her), until Genya manages to get the upper hand and kills Cheska. Cheska’s wounds drip and then crystallize into red prisms at the touch of Genya’s sword.

Lyron and Terratio become concerned about a type of metal the Norns call ‘Muramite’. They run inside the top entrance of the prison but are boxed in with magic. Genya and her elite soldiers discover the trapped Jotuns and move in for the kill using magic to run through the crystal walls. Terra decides to use his sonic boom shoulder weapon to shatter the hall of the building causing a big explosion of crystal and dust. The two are jettisoned out of the building and fall into the adjacent alleyway.