Sten

The first book in an action–packed new SF adventure series. Vulcan is a factory planet, centuries old, Company run, ugly as sin, and unfeeling as death. Vulcan breeds just two types of native: complacent or tough. Sten is tough. When his family is killed in a mysterious accident, Sten rebels, harassing the Company from the metal world’s endless maze-like warrens. He could end up just another burnt–out Delinquent. But people like Sten never give up.

Raised on the factory planet of Vulcan, Sten soon learns about the survival of the toughest. Now he wants more than survival. The Eternal Emperor rules countless worlds across the galaxy. Vast armies and huge fleets await his command. But when the Emperor needs to pacify the Wolf Worlds, the planets of an insignificant cluster that have raised space piracy to a low art, he turns to Mantis Team and its small band of militant problem–solvers. Sten’s destiny is in his own hands.

Mutiny! In the Eternal Emperor's service it is forbidden to even speak the word. To join an insurgency is a firing-squad offense. So, when the crewmembers of the Flame turn traitor and steal an entire space train of Imperium X - the second most valuable element in the Empire - and threaten to sell it to the Emperor's enemies, the Emperor only has one option...to send in his best assassin and dirty trickster: Sten!

Sten had fought his way up from slave labor on a factory world to commander of the Eternal Emperor’s bodyguard, the Imperial Gurkhas. But during his first three months on Prime World, the most dangerous weapons Sten had encountered were the well–phrased lies of Court politicians. It seemed no place for an honest fighting man. But when a bomb destroys a local bar, Sten discovers the danger and corruption behind Court intrigue.

The Eternal Emperor's fleets were taking a beating. Had even Sten met his match? Sten's luck seems to have deserted him. He had barely scraped through Imperial flight school when he was assigned a tacdivision in the Fringe Worlds. The enemy couldn't have picked a better time or place to launch their long-planned attack against the Empire. But Sten won't give up without a fight.

Sten had fully expected to die in a blaze of glory, taking his Emperor's greatest foe with him. Instead he was a slave laborer in a P.O.W. camp deep in the heart of enemy territory. But sitting out the action had never been Sten's style. And now that the war was building to a climax, the Eternal Emperor needed him more than ever. Not even the toughest prison in the known universe could keep Sten from his mission . . .

The Eternal Emperor was dead, and the five members of the Privy Council ruled in his place. But they quickly discovered that their power would collapse around them if they didn’t locate the Emperor’s secret source of Anti-Matter Two, the economic keystone of the Empire. And so they sent a team of crack commandos to capture Sten, one of their late ruler’s few surviving confidantes.

The Eternal Emperor was back and ready to save his Empire from collapse. Only Sten guessed that something was rotten at the core. The Empire is in chaos. The once great Imperial Navy has been shattered in battle and lies burning in space, driven by a civil war that threatens to engulf humanity’s future. For the revered Eternal Emperor is not the man his subjects thought him to be — and may not even be human at all. And it is Sten who now leads humanity’s fight for survival.

Sten embarks on the ultimate treasure hunt: the search for the source of the Eternal Emperor's power. But his quest uncovers the dark secret of the emperor's past - and Sten finds himself questioning his loyalties - and whether the only way to save the human race is to destroy the Empire he vowed to protect.

With the Empire poised on the edge of war, Sten spearheads the Eternal Emperor’s crackdown on the pirates and traitorous profiteers who are arming his enemies with vital war supplies. A trap is baited to lure the villains into a truel - a three-way duel. Only one thing stands in Sten’s way: Venatora, the beautiful pirate queen he’s grown to love. When it comes down to it, can he overcome loyalty and duty and pull the trigger?