A bygone legend with a washed-up crew A crack team gathered for one last tour A cold war that has simmered to its final hour When the Castle Federation deployed the first starfighters, they revolutionized war and drove the Terran Commonwealth from their space. The first of the carriers for those deadly strike craft was Avalon, a legend that turned the tide of a dozen battles. That was decades ago. Now Avalon is obsolete, a backwater posting—but still a legend to the Federation and her allies and enemies alike. Wing Commander Kyle Roberts and a cadre of officers are sent aboard the old carrier to take her on a final tour along the frontier. Aboard, Roberts finds outdated fighters, broken pilots…and key subordinates who just might be traitors. He and the others will get Avalon ready for war once more regardless. Show tour or not, the old enemy has been seen near the border and no matter what, when the call comes, Avalon will answer!

LEGENDARY … AND UNTESTED Captain Kyle Roberts delivered one of the Castle Federation’s few victories in the early days of the war. Even losing his ship in the process didn’t prevent him being elevated as the hero – the “Stellar Fox” – his country desperately needed. His status with the public demands a worthy command, and he finds himself on the bridge of the Federation’s latest supercarrier and headed to the front lines of the war. But the Navy sees his promotion as a public relations stunt. His subordinates and superiors alike question his lack of experience – and enemies at the highest level of his own government manoeuvre to destroy him. As the war heats up around him, the Commonwealth may not be the greatest threat to Kyle Roberts or Avalon.

TURNING THE TIDE The Terran Commonwealth has proved a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut in its war against the smaller Castle Federation and her allies, but an almost accidental victory by Captain Kyle Roberts of the carrier Avalon has opened a chink in its armor. Desperate to change the course of a war they are rapidly losing; the Federation assembles a new forward fleet with orders to retake the systems that have fallen to the enemy. Outnumbered but on the offensive at last, Kyle Roberts must take a hastily assembled battle group back to the worlds the Alliance failed to defend. There he will live or die by the skills of his soldiers and the honor of his enemies.

A heroic Captain denied command A battered but relentless enemy A covert operation to strike at the heart of an unstoppable foe! Captain Kyle Roberts has commanded the carrier Avalon through the most vicious battles of the war against the Terran Commonwealth—but with Avalon in for repair, his political enemies deny him a new ship. Unwilling to accept a desk, he takes command of a covert operation using a captured Commonwealth warship to strike at the very heart of their enemy, drawing away the reinforcements that could destroy the Alliance's recent gains. But the spies who planned the operation have secrets they haven't shared. Their allies have their own agendas—and the Commonwealth has surprises of its own!

A helpless ally calls for aid A ruthless enemy strikes without mercy The fate of empires turns on even the smallest actions When a minor trade partner sends the Castle Federation a desperate call for aid, they have few resources to spare from their all-consuming war against the Terran Commonwealth. Unwilling to be seen failing their allies but able to spare only a tiny force, Castle sends a hero to command the task Captain Kyle Roberts, the Stellar Fox. Beyond the Rimward frontier of the Federation and its allies, little is as it seems. The pirates are being armed by an outside force, and the politics of these worlds is made deadlier by their poverty. When the Coraline Imperium the Federation's oft-difficult ally sends forces as well, it risks a conflict that could undermine the Alliance protecting them both. There are deeper games afoot as local schemes play the great powers against each other. Captain Roberts is caught in the chaos as fire and blood explode across the region. There is only one these Rimward Stars must not fall.

A battered but undefeated Alliance A war they cannot win by force A plan to turn the tide of history! For two years, the Castle Federation and the Alliance of Free Stars have stood against Marshal James Walkingstick of the Terran Commonwealth and his mission of conquest. Battles have been won and lost, worlds have died, and soldiers like Admiral Kyle Roberts have been forged on the anvil of war. But the Alliance cannot win. The Commonwealth has more worlds, more ships, more soldiers. They claim their victory is inevitable. That history is on their side. Refusing to accept the Commonwealth's future, the Alliance embarks on a do-or-die mission to end the war in one strike. If Kyle Roberts' plan works, the Commonwealth will break. But if it fails the Alliance will be broken.

Two star nations struggle for primacy A protectorate of both left defenceless A call for help from any who can hear The Castle Federation and the Coraline Imperium have built pocket empires on the fringe of human space. Tiny by the standards of the behemoth Commonwealth born of Terra, they remain unchallenged in their own sectors—but their fleets watch the border between them with careful eyes. When the Boudicca System’s only battleship is ambushed and destroyed by forces unknown, their leader calls for help from the Federation and Imperium alike. Admiral Darius Moonblood of the Castle Federation takes a fleet to Boudicca to answer that call, believing he is walking into an Imperial trap. It will fall to Admiral Moonblood to either start the war Castle and Coraline have feared for years or find a different answer to the conflict looming in Boudicca.

When allies call for help The conquered call for liberty The dead call for vengeance... With whom do you keep faith? After two years, the collapse of the Terran Commonwealth has finally slowed. With communications networks rebuilding, the Successor States are beginning to look to the future—but for some of these states, that is a future to be forged in fire and conquest! With warlords leading fleets into their stars, the newborn Weston Republic has called for help from every Successor State they could find. Now, James Tecumseh, founder of the Dakotan Confederacy finds himself fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside Imperator Walkingstick—the man he blames for the fall of the Commonwealth itself! As defeats, victories, and lies pile up all around them, the two leaders find themselves at a nexus of blood and fire that will define the future of the Commonwealth’s Successor States for all time—if they survive!