The Phoenix Initiative

On the African savanna, the male lion is the lord who watches over his family, while the females of the clan do the real work. Joel “The Lyon” Lyons thought that owning a mercenary company would be similar—he could sit back and allow the Lyoness to run the Pride. Everything would go well, money from successfully completed contracts would flow like water into his bank accounts, and everything would be as easy as it had been for him when he’d owned a chain of highly successful restaurants.

Tald is the first SalSha Peacemaker Candidate…ever. Some would say he’s not smart enough or good enough to be a Peacemaker, or that the uplift designed to make him a “Sha” failed in his case.

Captain Sunshine Luo, the last surviving member of the Kakata Korps, has overcome much in her young life. Once a slave, later a mercenary and company owner, she has become the epitome of the word “survivor.” Now, she needs to be something more.

Working together, Captain Sunshine Luo and Peacemaker Jessica Francis have tied the Crusaders, two different guilds, and the synthetic intelligences to the most heinous criminal acts in the history of the Galactic Union. Each of them knows what must be done, and they go their separate ways as friends—and allies—to right the wrongs.

Khatash has been retaken, but the price was steep, and Okeo, Dama of Clan Shadow Fury, and Zatohachi, her blind swordsman companion, are working to rebuild it. But when the father of Okeo’s kits goes missing on a mission to track down information on the illicit Malluma Songo trade on a pleasure planet, Okeo and Zato head out to investigate. What they don’t know is that her rebellious, sole remaining kit and the kit’s teenage companion are tagging along for the trip, and they have a much different approach to the search.

Nigel Shirazi, the Speaker of the Merc Guild, knows that war is coming and he’s not ready. He needs to build up the mercenary forces after years of war, and he’s proclaimed the Phoenix Initiative to give people who want to start new companies the opportunity to do so. CASPers are cheaper and financed at lower rates, and the government of Earth is offering bounties to take the mercs from alien races off the planet. Now is the time!