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The Expansion Series
The Expansion Series
Series · 5 books · 2017-2022
By
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Books in series
#0.5
Shadow Game
2018
Wars make unlikely allies.
When his ship is damaged, retired assassin Gau Shesharrim finds himself stranded on a hostile world. To repair his ship, he will have to sneak into a jungle spaceport crawling with Terrans and their scaly Urd allies. An impossible task. Until help comes from an unexpected source. Arkk just wants to evade the Urd hunting him. A chance encounter with Gau offers him temporary refuge, and something more: a way to get justice for his slaughtered paddock. But first they have to get off-planet. Can Gau and Arkk work together to escape before their enemies catch up to them?
Shadow Game
is a story of serendipity, retribution, and empowerment set in the thrilling universe of the Expansion space opera series.
#1
Absence of Blade
2017
This isn’t about victory. This is about survival. Mose Attarish isn’t used to making mistakes. As an intelligence agent on the contested world Olios 3, he gathers the intel to direct the Osk’s operatives into every chink in the Terran forces’ armor. Through sabotage, espionage, and assassinations, the Osk have held their own in the war for Olios 3 – barely. Every failed mission brings the war’s end nearer, and when faulty intel nearly kills one of his operatives, Mose takes it hard. Gau Shesharrim doesn’t blame Mose for what happened. Bad intel is one of the risks of the job, and it’s a job Gau wouldn’t trade for any other. But his latest brush with death has made even this seasoned assassin consider the merits of early retirement. Too bad the top brass don’t care what Gau wants. Shomoro Lacharoksa follows a mission apart from the rest of the colony. In a lonely base, she researches the technologies that give the Terrans their invisible edge, hoping to bolster the Osk’s foundering campaign. It might not be enough. The Terrans are doing research of their own, and no one—not even the Terrans themselves—is prepared for what they will unleash.
#2
Alliance of Exiles
2020
Shomoro Lacharoksa’s life depends on turning an enemy into an ally. Just months after the assassin Mose Attarrish surfaced in Neo-Chicago, her intelligence networks reveal his next target: Shomoro herself. The High Council wants to throw him into the darkest pit on Teluk for his crimes, but Shomoro sees another way: Recruit him to her team and turn the Terrans’ weapon against them. But Shomoro’s life isn’t the only thing at risk. She bought her fragile sanctuary on Teluk with the promise to create countermeasures against the next Terran nanoweapon, and at least one Council faction is determined to protect its investment at any cost. As Mose’s arrival looms and Shomoro's alliance is drawn into the Council’s schemes, fault lines appear between her and the people she relies on most. If she can’t win them to her side, Shomoro may lose not just a potential ally, but the ones she already has. Alliance of Exiles is the second book in the Expansion Space Opera series, where your worst enemy may be your closest ally.
#3
Accord of Shadows
2021
Sometimes to reach light we must brave shadows. Shomoro’s alliance has plucked Mose from the Project’s grasp, but her work is just beginning. Now she must find a way to free him from the nano that keeps him chained—and keep him out of the hands of Council factions who want to experiment on him once they discover his true nature. Mose wants nothing more than to help her. He sees the glimmer of a new life beyond the horizon of freedom. But even if Shomoro succeeds, the Project may pull him back in. Because trouble is brewing in Diego Two: under Gau’s command in all but name, the Djandjer-Pralsh faction is building toward their most ambitious strike at the heart of the Church. And what they uncover will send shockwaves through the Expansion and beyond. Accord of Shadows is the third book in the Expansion series, where the deals made in the dark will give shape to the light.
#4
Ashes of Victory
2022
Betrayed. Abandoned. And sent to a city at war.
Shomoro paid the price for defying the High Council. With her status revoked, the surarchy she once served has summoned her to explain her fifteen-year absence. Now she must find exonerating evidence, or face the surarchy empty handed. It won’t be easy. Her best lead is in Diego Two, a city afire with civil unrest after the Djandjer-Pralsh’s failed revolution. But the greatest threat is still to come: embittered by the deaths of his comrades, Gau has enlisted the warlike Urd in his scheme for revenge. And what he brings to Diego Two will be a disaster no one can prepare for…
ASHES OF VICTORY is a thrilling science fiction adventure where the fires of defeat loom over every triumph.
Author
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Author · 4 books