Life hasn’t been easy for Siobhan Dunmoore and many of her fellow veterans since the Shrehari War ended.The Fleet’s quick return to a mundane peacetime footing left them unmoored and incapable of fully readapting after years engulfed in an existential struggle. Meanwhile, the memories of all those hard-won lessons, paid for with humanity’s dearest blood, are fading as careerists, bureaucrats, and politicians in uniform replace the leaders who brought about the war’...

Someone was setting fire to the Commonwealth Rim, nurturing a storm to drag humanity through the horrors of colonial warfare and thereby hasten the rise of Empire. Their plan had just one fatal flaw: it didn’t count on an ex-Marine pathfinder with a grudge, a dagger and a deadly partner. Zack Decker had seen enough of war to know this one had to be stopped before it turned into an all-out bloodbath, even if that meant ignoring orders and risking his mission as well as his ...

The collapse of humanity’s first interstellar empire is passing into legend, perhaps even myth, now that the ones who could remember those tumultuous years have merged with the Infinite Void. Tiny Lyonesse, the self-appointed guardian of all human knowledge tucked away in its wormhole cul-de-sac, has spent generations preparing to carry out Jonas Morane’s plan of reuniting humanity.Unbeknown to citizens of a republic cut off from the rest of the galaxy, four star s...

Every Marine has a story about someone he couldn’t save, a face that would haunt him forever. When Command Sergeant Hal Tarra, one of Decker’s oldest friends, vanishes on the Commonwealth frontier shortly after taking early retirement from the Corps, Zack knows what memories are driving the former Pathfinder, because he sees the same face in his worst nightmares. Naval intelligence isn’t interested in resurrecting ancient history, especially the tale of a failed rescue aft...

One last mission. One mysterious passenger. One baffling destination. After centuries of travel, an ancient log buoy finally reaches human-controlled space. In the midst of a stalemated interstellar war, the Admiralty has little interest in wasting resources on what would likely be a fruitless search for the truth, but someone was able to convince them they could afford to send an old, obsolete frigate soon destined for the scrapyard, on this quest. Pulled from her patrol route, Siobhan Du...

Zack Decker wanted one thing: to fight as a Marine Pathfinder. He got it. Then he lost it. Temper. Hatred of brass. Career over. Wife gone. Friends gone. Nothing left but a bottle and a string of planets he barely remembered.Then an old Marine buddy pulled him out of the gutter. Offered him a job. Decker took it. He was already running—cop dead, militia hunting him. No place to hide.The job was dirty. Security on a starship with owners who stank of trouble and a crew just a...

History has a habit of reaching out from the grave and reminding us of our species’ greatest failings.Humanity’s Migration Wars which birthed the Commonwealth of Sovereign Star Systems were the deadliest and most destructive in history. But not everyone draws the same lessons from past atrocities that were burned into the human psyche. For some, our species must do anything to avoid another murderous civil war, including the overthrow of the current political syste...

Humanity's interstellar empire died in fire and blood, leaving wrecked star systems to face the long night of barbarism.One tiny spark of civilization remains: The Republic of Lyonesse, tucked away at the end of a wormhole cul-de-sac. Yet that last bastion could suffer the same dire fate.When the late empress unleashed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on her crumbling realm, Lyonesse escaped War and Famine. However, the Pale Rider, carrying pestilence an...

Two years have passed since the OutWorlds seceded from the Commonwealth to form the Federation, and Ghost Squadron has never been busier, thanks to the Commonwealth stirring up trouble wherever it can.When mayhem erupts on former colonies in the Federation’s Rim Sector, newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Curtis Delgado takes Ghost Squadron on a covert mission to terminate the troublemakers and restore peace. But with savage deportees, depraved cartel members, and amoral mercenaries ...

What is the value of one life in an interstellar war that has already claimed millions? And if that single life doesn’t matter, are any others worth saving?A distress signal draws Siobhan Dunmoore’s Q-ship Iolanthe, a battlecruiser disguised as a bulk freighter, away from her devastatingly successful hunt through Shrehari occupied space and plunges Dunmoore into a dark, merciless universe of competing government organizations, undercover warfare, and organ...

The most powerful empire in human history is rushing headlong toward destruction, ending our species’ supremacy in the known galaxy.Two men with widely divergent visions are on a mission to save civilization in at least one sector, far from the imperial capital where a demented ruler holds sway. The first, Jonas Morane, wants to create an impregnable vault containing humanity’s accumulated knowledge so those who survive the coming darkness can rebuild in decades in...

Covert missions are failing, Fleet officers are vanishing, and Naval Intelligence is losing its eyes, ears, and the ability to strike at its foes. After Zack Decker and Hera Talyn, the Special Operations Section's deadliest agents, narrowly escape betrayal for the third time in a row, the Marine suspects something more than bad luck is in play. For years, the Fleet has been fighting a shadowy cold war against factions in the Commonwealth determined to strangle democracy an...