Ten thousand stars, once chained, taste freedom An eternal empire, once undefeated, falls to pieces An alliance, once united, now lacks a common foe War was hard enough. Peace may be impossible For seventeen years, Colonel Henry Wong and the United Planets Space Force have fought the Kenmiri Empire. They drove the alien overlords back from humanity’s borders into their own stars and found allies among the Kenmiri’s slaves and subjects. Now the war is over. A great Gathering has been called of the allies who fought the war, but they only ever shared a common enemy. With the Kenmiri in retreat, a thousand new agendas are revealed. The United Planets Alliance wants peace above all else. Their allies want everything from new homes to new empires – and all too many of them are prepared to do anything to achieve their goals!

Amidst the ruins of a broken empire A new warlord rises to power The worlds in his path call for help And the United Planets Alliance answers! The Kenmiri Empire has fallen, broken against the might of the Vesheron rebels and the United Planets Space Force. The alliance between the Vesheron and the UPSF has collapsed in turn, leaving the former empire as worlds without governance or leaders. Amidst the chaos, the UPSF has launched a valiant effort to reach out to the weak and protect the defenseless. As part of the Peacekeeper Initiative, Colonel Henry Wong leads the battlecruiser Raven deep into once-hostile territory. There, an old ally has begun to forge a new empire from the old slave worlds. As starvation forces worlds to surrender, Henry prepares a desperate plan to bring food to the hungry—and defeat to those who conquer!

Old friends have turned to foes Old oaths have shattered But old ties still promise redemption Amid the ruins of a fallen empire, humanity fights to secure the fates of once-enslaved worlds. Captain Henry Wong and Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich of the United Planets Alliance have mustered force and diplomacy alike to drive their former allies in the Kozun Hierarchy back from their invasion. With their superiors unwilling to fight a war this far from home, Todorovich leans on the Drifters, old allies of both the UPA and the Kozun, to broker a peace summit that could bring peace to a dozen worlds—if she can trust anyone. Fearing treachery, Captain Henry Wong and the battlecruiser Raven accompany Todorovich to the summit. Even among former friends, he can trust no one—not the Drifters and, most especially, not the old friend in command of the Kozun delegation!

An enemy on the run to neutral space An elite squadron beyond the reach of any backup A secret deal that could doom the whole sector… When United Planets Alliance Captain Henry Wong and Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich attempted to bring peace to the Ra Sector, they turned to the Drifters for neutral ground. Instead, the nomadic spacers betrayed the summit and attempted to kill everyone there. With peace forged despite the Drifters’ betrayal, Henry and Sylvia take an elite squadron in pursuit of the Drifter Convoy. Their enemies have friends at every turn, neutral worlds who will give them shelter—and if the UPA breaches that neutrality, everything Henry and Sylvia have worked for could crash down in flames. If the UPA is to keep the peace in the stars of a fallen empire, their diplomats must be untouchable, their honor unblemished. But as Henry’s superiors prepare for all-out war, his ships fly ever closer to a deadly trap laid by an enemy that knows them all too well…

It is the first and final duty of any warship to put herself between the innocent... and the enemy. Henry Wong and Sylvia Todorovich have gathered the interstellar powers of the Ra Sector into a tentative alliance—an alliance that is tested by the return of the Sector’s former rulers: the Kenmiri Remnant. The Sector’s only hope of withstanding a genocidal faction of the Kenmiri is the Twelfth Fleet of the United Planets Alliance. But when Wong’s scouting flotilla collides with the Kenmiri, he discovers they now have a weapon that could easily destroy Twelfth Fleet. Wong and Todorovich are stranded on the wrong side of a world the Remnant have burned, and they only have one way to meet their allies before it’s too late. If Henry Wong is to save his people and his allies, he must take his ship on a deadly run into the hostile star systems of the Kenmiri Remnant: the very species he doomed to a slow death.

In times of peace, alliances wither and are forgotten. In times of war, honor must reforge them in fire and steel! The United Planets Alliance fought the Kenmiri Empire with a hundred allies at their side. Bound in common cause until genocide broke the Kenmiri—and Kenmiri schemes broke the alliance in turn—those one-time allies still left deep debts of blood and friendship behind. Still, the UPA has forged ahead in the post-Kenmiri times, weaving new economic and military alliances despite their more limited reach. The last thing they are expecting is for a soldier of the Londu, one of those half-forgotten allies, to arrive in Sol itself and ask for help. An unknown alien force, armed with weapons thought unique to humanity, has assaulted the Londu people. To honor debts and promises alike, Rear Admiral Henry Wong and Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich find themselves called to take a fleet farther than any human ship has gone in half a decade—and challenge an enemy they know nothing about. If the Londu are even still there when they arrive…

For seventeen years, the United Planets Space Force fought the Kenmiri Empire. They drove the alien overlords back from humanity’s borders into their own stars and found allies among the Kenmiri’s slaves and subjects. Now, Henry Wong and the crew of the Raven must forge alliances with once-conquered worlds. They must reach out to the weak and protect the defenseless. But allies threaten to turn to enemies among the ashes of a fallen empire. War was hard enough. Peace may be impossible.

When truths are revealed But secrets remain concealed The price of victory may be far too high Henry Wong and the United Planets Alliance Expeditionary Fleet have broken open the blockade their enemies forged around their allies, the Terzan. Now, thanks to that restored alliance, they know the truth of their enemy: a genocidal war machine determined to destroy not only its creators but every other organic sentient it can find. New tools allow Henry and his partner, Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich, to call on old alliances as they rush to save their other enemies from annihilation at the hands of the Liberated Intelligence. But against the burning of worlds and the death of peoples, any alliance will be considered. Any hope of victory will require laying aside grudges—and the greatest of sacrifices…