Soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds, including the IX Legion of Rome, are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing, and transported to the far side of the galaxy. Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark or die.

Fight or Die… Victorious in a star-flung battle against the inhuman Horde, Earth’s fabled 9th Legion of Rome; the U.S. 5th Company’s 2nd Mounted Rifles; and a Special Forces anti-terrorist team settle on Arden, their adopted planet, to raise families and live in peace. But soon, state secrets are revealed: The greatest of the inhuman Horde didn’t join the battle, but yet lurk among Arden’s outer colonies, posing a grave threat. Humanity’s Ardenese defenders send a flotilla of ships to far Exordium, the world where the Horde outbreak began, with orders to reclaim the outer colonies… Exordium . . . where the Horde awaits . . . where the cream of Arden’s fighting force must engage this adversary of unrivaled power… As worlds are sundered, suns destroyed, and star systems obliterated, a universal conflict proves again that… Death is only the beginning of the adventure.

Fight or Die—again! The task force dispatched to eradicate the Horde menace on far Exordium has failed, and for those left alive, that axiom rings true as never before... Marooned out of time and out of place, survivors lick their wounds and struggle to recover while the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance. But fate is not yet finished with the Ninth . . . Defenders of humanity mount a last-ditch attempt to end the enemy onslaught once and for all.Will the IX and its allies vanquish their foe, or will their heroic resistance end in defeat? The IX: Prelude to Sorrow, the final installment of the bestselling "The IX" Trilogy