Undying Mercenaries

The machine races demand a turn at the job, but the organics refuse to allow it. For more than a century, the Galactics have battled for supreme power. War and instability reign in place of peace, with every species spread over a hundred billion stars suffering as the Empire decays. James McGill discovers a scheme is underway. A new power is rising, determined to snatch the Throne from all the rest. Will this unite the Galactic Empire, or destroy it utterly?

Things have gone bad among the colonies. Insurgents are building alien-hybrid armies and planet-killing weapons, threatening to upend the fragile balance of power in Province 921. There's not only trouble in the province—the Core Worlds are igniting as well. The Mogwa have asserted claims upon the Imperial Throne, causing their rivals to move against them. Earth's Hegemony and the rebels are pulled into a conflict that could tear the galaxy apart.

Left to die on a volcanic world by the Skrull, McGill and his mercenaries face waves of missile attacks with nowhere to hide. When the Skrull seal themselves inside an impenetrable energy dome, McGill knows he has to get creative. Even if that means sabotaging alien power plants, blackmailing his superior officers, and using his own troops as bait in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

When Earth's colonies go silent, Legion Varus drops onto Kepler-62 expecting a routine investigation. Instead, they find something far worse than death. The colonists aren't dead—they're changed. A new kind of enemy has arrived in Province 921, microscopic invaders that transform humans into perfectly coordinated killing machines. These "Demon" parasites don't just control minds; they improve them, creating an army that works with terrifying efficiency.