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Lieutenant Peter Cochrane of the Quantar Royal Navy believes he has his future clearly mapped out. It begins with his new assignment as an officer on Her Majesty's Spaceship Starbound, a Lightship bound for deep space voyages of exploration.

But everything changes when Peter is summoned to the office of his father, Grand Admiral Nathan Cochrane, and given devastating news: the death of a loved one. In a distant solar system, a mysterious and unprovoked attack upon Lightship Impulse resulted in the deaths of Peter's former girlfriend and many of her shipmates.

Now Peter's plans are torn asunder as he is transferred to a Unified Space Navy ship under foreign command, en route to an unexpected destination, and surrounded almost entirely by strangers. To top it off, his superiors have given him secret orders that might force him to become a mutineer.

The crisis at hand becomes a gateway to something much more when the ship's Historian leads Peter and his shipmates into a galaxy of the unknown - of ancient technologies, age-old rivalries, new cultures, and unexpected romance. It's an overwhelming responsibility for Peter, and one false step could plunge humanity into an apocalyptic interstellar war...

With his critically acclaimed military science fiction debut series, Dave Bara launched readers on a star-spanning journey of discovery, diplomacy, and danger.

The Lightship H.M.S. Impulse is gone, sacrificed in a battle against First Empire ships. And though the fragile galactic alliance has survived the unexpected invasion, the Union forces might not prove victorious against a full onslaught by this legendary enemy.

For Peter Cochrane, serving as an officer aboard his world's flagship, H.M.S. Starbound is a dream come true. Tasked with investigating a mysterious space station in a rediscovered star system, Peter and Starbound face a surprise attack by unknown forces and suffer terrible losses.

But there is no time to grieve or even regroup as Peter is thrust into a new crisis, a potential civil war on the Union world of Carinthia. Caught between his rank in the navy and his status as a royal heir, Peter is put on trial for the loss of Impulse, used as a political pawn as Carinthia stands on the brink of a devastating conflict. Peter escapes but faces the prospect of interstellar war when he learns of a possible alliance between the First Empire and Carinthia, a coalition which could tear the Union apart!

Lt. Peter Cochrane and his new wife, Karina, are under attack.

When Peter and Karina escape an assault by a hostile government on his new command, Defiant, he travels with his wife to fend off an Empire attack on Skondar--which just so happens to be where his ex-lover, Dorbina, is stationed.

Worse still, the attack is led by Prince Arin, the Butcher of Carinthia. As dark secrets that could change everything are revealed, Peter must face the battle of his life--one that could save the human race, or doom it...