author : Michael Mammay

Sergeant Gastovsky—Gas to everyone but his superior officers—never wanted to be a soldier. Far from it. But when a con goes wrong and he needs a place to lay low for a while, he finds himself wearing the power armor of the augmented infantry.

eAfter three years on a six-year contract, Gas has found his groove running low-level cons and various illegal activities that make him good money on the side. He’s the guy who can get you what you need. But he’s always had his eye out for a big score—the one that might set him up for life after the military.

When one of his soldiers is left behind after a seemingly pointless battle, Gas sees his chance. He assemblies a team of misfit soldiers that would push the term “ragtag” to its limits for a big con that leads them on an unauthorized behind-the-lines raid, pitting him not only against enemy soldiers but against the top brass of his own organization.

If he pulls this off, not only will he save his squadmate, he might just become the legend he’s always considered himself to be. He might also expose a secret that alters how the entire galaxy views the endless war. But for any of that to happen, first he has to survive the mission.

And charm rarely stops bullets…

In 2108, colony ship Voyager departed Earth for the planet of Promissa with eighteen thousand of the world’s best and brightest on board. Two hundred fifty years and twenty-seven light-years later, an arrival is imminent.

But all is not well.

The probes that they’ve sent ahead to gather the data needed to establish any kind of settlement aren’t responding, and the information they have received has presented more questions than answers. It’s a time when the entire crew should be coming together to solve the problem, but science officer Sheila Jackson can’t get people to listen.

With the finish line in sight, a group of crew members want an end to the draconian rules that their forebears put in place generations before. However, security force officer Mark Rector and his department have different plans. As alliances form and fall, Governor Jarred Pantel sees only one way to bring Voyager’s citizens together and secure his own power: a full-scale colonization effort. Yet, he may have underestimated the passion of those working for the other side.

Meanwhile, a harsh alien planet awaits that might have its own ideas about being colonized. A battle for control brews, and victory for one group could mean death for them all.

Isolated and alone, Markov must contend with rival politicians on both sides of the border, all of whom have suspect motives and reason to take advantage an untested leader, while an unseen enemy seeks to drive the two sides a war that Markov has a mission to prevent. It’s enough to test even a leader.

Markov isn’t that.

With challenges from all sides, and even from her own troops, Markov will have to learn quickly and establish her authority. Because what hangs in the balance, is not only the future of the peacekeeping force, but of the planet itself.

War heroes aren’t usually called out of semi-retirement and sent to the far reaches of the galaxy for a routine investigation. So when Colonel Carl Butler answers the call from an old and powerful friend, he knows it’s something big – and he’s not being told the whole story. A high councilor’s son has gone MIA out of Cappa Base, the space station orbiting a battle-ravaged planet. The young lieutenant had been wounded and evacuated – but there’s no record of him having ever arrived at hospital command.

The colonel quickly finds Cappa Base to be labyrinth of dead ends and sabotage: the hospital commander stonewalls him, the Special Ops leader won’t come off the planet, witnesses go missing, radar data disappears, and that’s before he encounters the alien enemy. Butler has no choice but to drop down onto a hostile planet – because someone is using the war zone as a cover. The answers are there – Butler just has to make it back alive…

Following his mission on Cappa, Colonel Carl Butler returns to a mixed reception. To some he is a do-or-die war hero. To the other half of the galaxy he’s a pariah. Forced into retirement, he has resettled on Talica Four, where he’s now Deputy VP of Corporate Security, protecting a high tech military company on the corporate battlefield—at least, that’s what the job description says. Really, he’s just there to impress clients and investors. It’s all relatively low risk—until he’s entrusted with new orders. A breach of a competitor’s computer network has Butler’s superiors feeling every bit as vulnerable. They need Butler to find who did it, how, and why no one’s taken credit for the ingenious attack.

As accustomed as Butler is to the reality of wargames—virtual and otherwise—this one screams something louder than a simple hack. Because no sooner does he start digging when his first contact is murdered, the death somehow kept secret from the media. As a prime suspect, he can’t shake the sensation he’s being watched… or finally succumbing to the stress of his past. Paranoid delusion or dangerous reality, Butler might be onto something much deeper than anyone imagined. But that’s where Butler thrives.

If he hasn’t signed his own death warrant.

Carl Butler was once a decorated colonel. Now he’s a disgraced recluse, hoping to live out the rest of his life on a backwater planet where no one cares about his “crimes” and everyone leaves him alone.

It’s never that easy.

A CEO’s daughter has gone missing and he thinks Butler is the only one who can find her. The government is only too happy to appease him. Butler isn’t so sure, but he knows the pain of losing a daughter, so he reluctantly signs on. Soon he’s on a military ship heading for a newly formed colony where the dangerous jungle lurks just outside the domes where settlers live.

Paired with Mac, Ganos, and a government-assigned aide named Fader, Butler dives head-first into what should be an open and shut case. Then someone tries to blow him up. Faced with an incompetent local governor, a hamstrung military, and corporations playing fast and loose with the laws, Butler finds himself in familiar territory. He’s got nobody to trust but himself, but that’s where he works best. He’ll fight to get to the bottom of the mystery, but this time, he might not live to solve it.

Colonel Butler has paid his dues and just wants to enjoy his retirement on a remote planet. But the galaxy has had other plans. He has been roped into searching for a politician’s missing son and an industry magnate’s missing daughter. He has been kidnapped, violated numerous laws, and caused the destruction of colonial facilities. He’s famous—or infamous, depending on who you ask—and praised and reviled in equal measure across the galaxy for his exploits.

And he is determined to never let the government drag him into another investigation.

But when a runaway twelve-year-old girl whose father has gone missing asks him for help, well … it’s a lot harder to say no.

The girl’s father, Jorge Ramiro, was supposed to have been on Taug, a moon orbiting the gas giant Ridia 5, working on a dig with a famous archaeologist. But now there’s no sign of him and no record of his being there. Mining operations on the moon are run by two different consortiums—Caliber and Omicron—both of which have tried to kill Butler in the past. And he doesn’t believe in coincidence.

Landing on Taug with his right-hand man, Mac; computer genius Ganos; and an elite security squad, Butler soon finds that they’ve charged back into the crosshairs—because Ramiro is not the only one missing, and the perpetual dark side of this moon is hiding more than the truth about a missing archaeologist…