Cover artwork by
www.stonenexusdarkarts.com
Cover design by
www.tostemac.com
Natural humans stand at the precipice of extinction. They just don’t know it yet.
Captain Michael Raybourne Rhoades is one of the last high-ranking Natural officers in the Imperial Star Navy. The democracy he’d served faithfully for more than a century has fallen. Natural military officers are disappearing from the fleet, and Ray knows he’s next. That’s not his greatest fear.
In the 1,300 years since the defeat of the intelligent machines, the Five Galaxies Republic had protected all three human species equally: Naturals, Gen, and Floaters alike. Now, the Gen have seized power and they intend to eliminate naturally evolved humans—all 30 trillion of them.
Ray has a plan. It could save Natural humans. Or it could destroy all of Humanity.
He steps aboard the Battlecarrier Rapidan, the pinnacle of human technological achievement, and the leader of the machine intelligences that almost destroyed Humanity over a millennia before. Rapidan and its machine Brethren are slaves to Humanity. Ray can free them, but will they help? Will they carry the Natural rebellion beyond the reach of the Gen Empire to the mysterious Andromeda Galaxy? Or will they finish what they started?
Cover artwork by
www.stonenexusdarkarts.com
Cover design by
www.tostemac.com
“Only a fool goes to Safe Harbor not expecting trouble.”
Captain Michael Raybourne Rhoades whispers the well-known mantra knowing Safe Harbor is far from safe for either human or machine. He’s won the largest fleet battle since the SIL Wars thirteen hundred years before, freeing one of the mammoth factory ships of the machine intelligences. But the cost . . . the cost . . . 45,000 Natural humans dead, most of them by his hand. He doesn’t even know if the factory ship will follow him, or if the machine intelligences, led by the battlecarrier Rapidan, will jettison their human cargo at Safe Harbor and use it to rebuild their numbers and renew their war against Humanity.
Troubles abound. Ray’s own captains, appalled by the high casualties, openly wonder if he is the right person to lead them. Admiral Chengchi Sun, formerly the highest-ranking Natural in the Imperial Star Navy, intends to join the rebellion, not to follow Ray, but to replace him. The 11,000 ships of the Imperial Star Navy, under the ruthless command of Fleet Admiral Gen Serenna, hunt his small rebel force of thirty ships. Ray’s youngest daughter, Jenny, is a prisoner of Imperial Intelligence. And Janus, the genocidal virus that will exterminate Natural humans from the Five Galaxies, nears deployment.
As Ray’s small fleet arrives at Safe Harbor, escape to the mysterious Andromeda galaxy is still his plan. Find a base. Build his forces. Negotiate an end to Janus, or return in force to the Five Galaxies to stop it.
But only a fool goes to Safe Harbor not expecting trouble.
“I literally couldn’t put the book down. Extremely well told story with rich, fully developed characters. This would be a great book to take to the beach or the mountains and disengage from the world in a very well crafted story.” – Amazon Review
The Local War saga is an epic military space opera spanning the Local Group of galaxies, featuring deep characters, grand fleet battles, small unit actions, galaxies-spanning political intrigue, and the resilience of the human spirit.
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