Previously published within the anthology Planetary Assault. From Hugo award finalist and Amazon bestselling author David VanDyke. When Admiral Absen and the crew of EarthFleet's most powerful dreadnought Conquest are sent on a mission forty light years from Earth, none of them expect to return. But to find a home and keep humanity safe from hostile aliens, they must fight to seize a new world, initiating EarthFleet's first conquest of another star system. First Conquest is Book 1 of the Plague Wars: Stellar Conquest series, which carries the Plague Wars series forward a century into the future when humanity turns to the stars to find its destiny. It tells of a bitter battle as EarthFleet smashes into an alien star system in a desperate first strike to save humanity. Follow the starship Conquest as its captain and crew take the fight to Earth's enemies, finding allies and making heroic sacrifices in order to secure the future of Earth's solar system against a hostile universe.

When an enormous and potent alien ship appears in the colony system of Gliese 370, EarthFleet must investigate. What they find within will change the course of humanity's future yet again, as they face Desolator. The risks are high and so is the price - and the payoff: new technology far ahead of their own, which may provide the key to fight the Meme Empire.

Armed with alien technology and a complete refit, Henrich Absen captains Conquest on a voyage to take back what humanity has lost. Along the way he must confront a new form of life as well as his own demons in this shocking episode of the Plague Wars/Stellar Conquest saga.

BOOK FOUR of the Stellar Conquest military science fiction series. Poised to reconquer humanity's home, Captain Absen and Conquest are confronted with a new enemy that upsets the balance of power and changes everything EarthFleet expected. Their struggle to free Earth becomes instead a desperate battle for sheer survival as they contemplate the unthinkable.

Book 5, the final book in the Stellar Conquest series! Over 300 pages packed with your favorite hard-hitting military science fiction adventure. After barely fending off the insectoid Scourge, Admiral Absen frantically prepares for another attack while dealing with politics and treachery from within, even as Spectre pursues his own hidden agenda. Can EarthFleet save humanity one more time, and will a bold counterstrike by an elite force of AI-equipped ships buy time, or merely invite disaster? The Plague Wars Series: - The Eden Plague - Reaper's Run - Skull's Shadows - Eden's Exodus (March 2015) - The Demon Plagues - The Reaper Plague - The Orion Plague - Cyborg Strike - Comes the Destroyer Stellar Conquest Series: Plague Wars continues 100 years in the future! - First Conquest - Desolator: Conquest - Tactics of Conquest - Conquest of Earth - Conquest and Empire