The Confederated Worlds implanted in Tomas' brain the skills to make him a soldier. He had to learn for himself how to survive interstellar war. Tomas Neumann sought escape from his backwater planet and overbearing mother, and a mentor to replace his long-dead father. "Taking the shilling"—enlisting in the Confederated Worlds military—promised both. But despite the soldier's skills implanted in his brain, combat still threatened to destroy him, in body and in spirit. Grieving for lost comrades, demoralized by a spiral of atrocities, could Tomas learn what he needed to survive, before facing his war's ultimate challenge?

The Confederated Worlds lost the war. Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace? By the terms of the peace treaty, the citizens of the planet Arden will vote to stay in the Confederated Worlds or join the victorious Progressive Republic. Newly-minted Lieutenant Tomas Neumann leads his overstretched and demoralized Confederated Worlds Ground Force platoon in a mission that pushes men and machines to their limits, against elusive, deceptive foes out to tilt Arden to the Progressive Republic—and turn the Confederated Worlds against itself.

"I’m reminded of Poul Anderson’s Dominic Flandry series, or more recently, Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Anniversary Day saga." —Analog Capt. Tomas Neumann faces shocking dangers in an unexpected new battlefield. Assigned to the Confederated Worlds’ capital planet, Tomas works to rebuild the military’s confidence after the last war. He has no interest in politics. But after saving the Confederated Worlds’ next president from an assassin, politics becomes interested in him. Gone are the familiar lines between friend and foe. In the halls of power, Tomas plunges into a world of secrets and lies. Worse, he soon discovers a terrifying conspiracy threatening far more than his career, his family, or even his life. He finds a shocking truth capable of destroying the Confederated Worlds. Battling spies and pervasive surveillance, Tomas takes shadowy journeys from luxurious temples to secret police brain scanning chambers. The fate of the galaxy will hinge on his ability to tell allies from enemies. To tell loyalists from traitors. And remain true to his principles, as a soldier and a man. Military science fiction meets political thriller in the triumphant conclusion to the Confederated Worlds trilogy.