Black Ocean: Astral Prime Series

Cedric the Brown is a wizard with a dark past. In an effort to make amends, he hides in plain sight among the residents of a space station he once nearly destroyed. Cut adrift by a bankrupt megacorp, the mobile mining station sets off to uncharted space in a desperate attempt to scrape by. What they stumbled onto would change the course of the galaxy. A planet. A lost alien race. A secret that will lead to all-out war. How will a station filled with scoundrels and crewed by former miners handle being the fulcrum of history?

With nothing but the bankrupt station as severance pay, Director Fujita Hiroko moves to the edge of the galaxy to keep the station afloat as an independent mining operation. When the nearby planet vanishes with her and her survey team still on the surface, hopes of mining are quickly replaced by a more pressing goal: finding a way back to her station.  

When a survey team unearths buildings on prospective mining planet, at first, it’s hailed as an archeological jackpot. But the ancient structures are more advanced than anyone’s seen. And the hedge against technology is a wizard. Cedric and Hiroko lead a team to study the mysterious underground facility from a lost age. And when they discover the alien caretaker, he’s none too happy that primitives have infested his home.

With rival factions in orbit around Shadow Planet, the obvious threat was one another. When the defenses of an ancient alien outpost activate, trapping everyone in the star system, it becomes clear there was more to worry about beneath the planet’s surface than in orbit around it. As Hiroko plays peacemaker to three rival fleets, Cedric and Kane lead an effort to shut down the power source keeping the system-wide energy field operational.

The ancient solution to get magic and tech to coexist lies within an alien structure older than any race in the galaxy. Now, the balance of power threatens to tip. As factions reinforce their fleets for a war to claim the ultimate technological prize, Hiroko finds herself trapped between three races - one of them her own - in a quest where even victory promises disaster. Down beneath the planet’s surface, Cedric delves into the workings of the mysterious alien technology that works like magic. Discovering the key to the untapped power it possesses may be Astral Prime’s only hope.

The syndicate had given her an ultimatum: disappear. Watched and wary, Fujita Hiroko obeyed for years, burying herself in work. Now one of the galaxy's most recognized faces, owner of the universe's must-see tourist trap, she can't hide any longer. And that's going to cost her.

With Astral Prime in chaos, Kendra hatches a desperate attempt to use forbidden alien technology to bring her lover back from the dead. As the struggle for control of the station unfolds, her efforts go horribly awry and plunge everyone into a strange and unfamiliar universe. Stranded in a desolate sector of an unknown universe, the citizens of the station cling to hope and ration their supplies of food, water, and medical essentials. But what hope can there be for rescue when even they don't know where they are?

They stared too long into the abyss. The abyss is going to do more than just stare back. They toyed with forces they didn't understand. Now, the inhabitants of Astral Prime are going to pay the price. Their foray into an alternate universe has not gone unnoticed. Nor will it go uninvestigated. While Jace Jarvis attempts to reassemble the pieces of a broken life, a new foe threatens to steal that life away yet again. With Hiroko shepherding a new flock and Cedric guarding the planet below, Astral Prime faces an invasion they might not be able to stop.

The search for truth meets the fight for dominance. In the aftermath of the station's invasion, Hiroko tries to rally the survivors around a new religion: Hers. Combining her knowledge of anthropology with her alien enlightenment, she hopes to bring the galaxy together in spiritual awakening. Meanwhile, Cedric delves into the origins of the stations attackers, seeking a deeper understanding of why they came in the first place.

Unleashed from an alternate universe, the space-borne leviathan dubbed "void kraken" terrorizes the galaxy. The most powerful weapons barely scratch it. Whole fleets fall before it. Its movements are erratic. Its motives inscrutable. All anyone knows for sure is that if it isn't stopped, it's going to eat its way through the galaxy. Fujita Hiroko feels responsible for the beast's presence in the Milky Way. She tries to rally support to combat the creature, to form an unprecedented inter-species alliance to find a way to stop its rampage.

The galaxy is in a state of panic. A horror has been unleashed, and it's a threat to every inhabited planet. Luckily, it currently rampages across a sparsely populated part of the Black Ocean. But even that callous view holds only limited hope for the fortunate species whose worlds lay safer by virtue of distance. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to destroy it.

To fight is to lose. Not to fight is to die. The galaxy has gone from troubled to doomed. Now faced with a multiplying threat, the races of the Milky Way are faced with a foe who cannot be stopped, cannot be turned back. And yet, for the sake of their own survival, they fight on in the desperate hope that they can hold out long enough to prevail. As Cedric frantically searches for an alternative way to combat the abominations, Hiroko attempts to halt the proliferation of ancient weapons that are only making the situation worse in the long run.

Every mistake carries a price. The worst accrue interest. All come due eventually. Cedric has discovered the means to fight back, but the price is high. Not all species are capable of carrying out his methods. It's one thing asking ships and crews to fight; it's another to ask them to sacrifice themselves. And yet, the valiant ships of Earth Navy continue to do so. When the war with the cosmic horrors reaches an epic crescendo, everyone is going to have to decide how much they're willing to sacrifice for the sake of their fellow sentient creatures.