Brutal Response Series

Mia Verick's upbringing was . . . unusual. Most young women raised in the Kerrick Confederacy of Aligned Planets go to school. Mia had daily firearms practice, tactical exercises, and pilot training. She never cared about her strange life, only about living up to the expectations of her father. His mysterious job often takes him away on secret missions, leaving her to self-training until the day she can surpass him. Now she'll never get the chance.

Mia is headed to Ice, the premiere military prison world in the KCP. She's going to find out firsthand that there's something rotten on this cold rock. Her stint on the frostbitten crag is only supposed to last a few weeks, but she soon discovers there are those determined to make it a more . . . permanent arrangement. She was ready for everything from brutal guards to vicious inmates, but there's something more going on beneath the surface.

Mia escaped in one piece from the ice ball masquerading as a planet, but what now? To start, she's got a laundry list of questions about her father and her origins. It's just her luck that the answers to her questions have the potential to topple regimes. She has to tread carefully or make things worse. Before she can begin her search, she needs to make it through training. The pressure ratchets as the rivalries among the trainees become ferocious. A little bit of skullduggery can go a long way toward ending a career . . . or ending a life.

Mia's world came apart when she learned about her father's death. The one constant since that moment has been her refusal to give up her search for the truth. Overcoming the challenges obstructing her trajectory has landed her exactly where she wanted to be. Every secret has been uncovered, every lie revealed, and everyone the truth exposed is calling for Mia's blood. On the run from the KCAP and toting around a few billion credits worth of stolen mili-tech, Mia has to navigate the unfriendly void as a fugitive. She's not alone.

Mia has been on the run before, but being named a traitor to her own species means the heat is turned up to max. The struggle to keep her ship among the stars and her fighters loaded when even the criminal class won't work with her becomes her main focus. When all else fails, Mia's only choice is to pivot and get creative.