The Shadow Sister Ryana, the very Shadow of Death, is marrying her beloved and joining his gypsy clan. War took her innocence, and now she’s determined to rebuild her life. But religious cults are springing up, and the gypsies come under attack. Ryana’s best friend in the Sisters, Jelena, has fled to join one of the cults, and the senior Sister asks Ryana to find out why. Too late, Ryana discovers their enemies have a sweet and seductive weapon, one that has turned Jelena into her enemy. R...

Ryana, a worthless girl-child, is sold to a mysterious woman who takes her to the home of the Shadow Sisters who are prized for their abilities as spies and assassins. She survives years of training in spite of being unconventional: adopting poisonous bats as familiars—something no one else would dare to do; choosing the blow dart as her weapon of choice—a weapon the Sisters don’t teach; and relying on intuition rather than logic. As she completes her training, the Shadow Sisters are under...

Jolie was 3 when she found she was ugly and deformed.She was 5 when she found she was a subhuman and an outcast. She was 7 when five boys and two girls dragged her out of the orphanage and beat her unconscious, leaving her lying bleeding and broken in the street.She was content to lie there and die, tired of being hated and abused. But a frail old man with wispy white hair and a long beard wasn't content to let her die. He not only saved her, but he adopted...

Anna nearly dies, along with all her family, at age four from the deadly Cacao virus. But she survives, thanks to a poisonous red-headed krait. The medical community is excited since there is no known cure for the virus, but Anna and her snake, Red, have a symbiotic relationship—containment, not cure. If she is ever separated from Red, she will die.Anna struggles through foster homes. As her krait becomes known and valuable throughout the three star empires as one of only a handful...

Anna’s nice comfortable world is in turmoil. Because of their success in destroying the foreign Raiders, Anna, Kris, and Adrian were promoted to full commander, and the project team was disbanded. Kris and Adrian were given NIA offices to manage on Stone Ring and Westar, and Anna is being pressured to move to Eastar to manage the NIA station. That would mean she would have to move away from home and Alexa, who Anna considers her refuge. In addition, she would be exposed to new people whose...

Anna and her Naval Intelligence Agency (NIA) teammates have a new high-priority assignment: foreign raiders who are wreaking havoc within the United Alliance of Stars. They hit high value targets, have access to inside information, kill the security guards, and leave no witnesses.The NIA team soon discovers the raiders’ system has been well thought out and has no weak links to exploit. The raiders prove arrogant, resourceful, and in no hurry to leave. So when the raiders discover t...

Not only is the Ghost Platoon the only permanently configured platoon in the Tasmanian SFG, it only has ten men assigned, never has an assigned objective, and is commanded by a woman whose call sign is Fox.While most in the Tasmanian SFG hunt the enemy like a pack of wolves, the Ghost Platoon is frequently behind enemy lines, like foxhounds, searching for ways to be a general pain in the enemy's ass.

An insidious cabal has decided to change the direction of the United Alliance of Stars (UAS) with a coup d’etat—but not through a military takeover. They have devised a subtler coup: the manipulation of the Committee, the fifteen-star system that sets policy for the UAS.This group of terrorists, calling itself WEP—for “We the People”—have issued an ultimatum: revise the UAS Constitution, or they will kill those who oppose the change. And good to their word, shortly afterward, Commi...

Anna’s success as the Eastar NIA station chief has catapulted her into the position of Director of NIA Stations. Anna is uncomfortable with the promotion and bored. She has a master chief secretary, a lieutenant aide-de-camp, and fifteen commanders and their staff to do the work. But she suspects not all of her commanders are happy with their new, very young admiral or are doing their jobs. But she has no way to observe those commanders as their stations reside on distant systems.A...

The Tasmanian's unofficial motto is et anima una: of one mind.Somehow, the elite special forces group performs like they have one mind. Jolie understands on a subconscious level, but not on an intellectual level. This is an important level for Jolie, as she has a platoon and no stated objectives while on assignments and, therefore, easy to lose her connection with the main force. A problem that could make her unfit for the Tasmanians....

"Devils to me," a siren call that would bring every Tasmanian running to answer no matter what they were doing.Repeated over and over by those answering the call, it would empty bars or a base or a city of Tasmanians, because no member of the elite unit would desert a brother in trouble, reinforcing their unofficial motto, Et Anima Una, Of One Mind.Jolie is the only female in the elite all male Tasmanian special forces group and loving every crazy minute of...

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology.Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of ar...