The Praetorian Guard, elite of the False Emperor, have divided and fought amongst themselves. Those that supported the rebellion thought they had won with the death of the False Emperor, but they could not be more wrong. In the secession that follows, as the revolutionaries that used the Praetorians force them to dissolve, it transpires that some of the participants planned more than just the end of the tyranny. They want their own rule to prosper.Commander James Gavain has inherite...

Admiral James Gavain is enmeshed in the politics of the post-Dissolution colonised galaxy, an unwilling and reluctant participant. His main concern now is for forging a future for the people under his command, a mercenary company for sale to the highest bidder in a rapidly disintegrating colonial galaxy.As pirates swamp the Eastern Segment, preying on the weak, a pattern begins to emerge. All is not as it seems. Whilst his ships engage on a contract which plunges the mercenary comp...

"She said that many a final move is made before the game has even begun."The Lost Kindred were abandoned.It all began centuries before the Age of Secession started, but it will come to a head now. As the colonised galaxy turns upon itself, the Thirteen Kindred will return in greater force than ever before. This is the story of how that came to be.Following its bloody birth, the young, new Red Empire is secretly trying to reach other galaxies. The Roanoake Expedition...

The Lord James Gavain has surprised the galaxy with his actions, and is seen very much as a hero. He attempts to build a new nation and a better future, taking in refugees from the many battles and wars throughout the seceding Houses, trading on the mercenary ability of his comrades and what appears to be the advanced technology he has recovered, yet he finds that there is a limit to how honourable one can be and still rule a post-Imperial House.Beset by enemies jealous of his avar...

"They are different than us".Those words have echoed throughout time as an excuse for senseless hatred. In the Age of Secession, none of those hatreds are bigger than the antagonism between the unaugmented and the augmented, a senseless disgust borne from the most basic cause for man to turn on himself; fear of the different.The Zhou-Zheng Compact is one of the new states, an alliance of two noble Houses, extremist humanists with their unmitigated loathing of anyone who has...

"Let me tell you the story of the Darkness of Mars, the time during the start of the Age of Secession when one of the greatest crimes against humanity was committed. This was the time when the majesty of the Sol System was reduced to nothing but ashes, the blood flowed freely and everywhere, borgite and humanist hated each other and fought to the death, and greedy men and women sought thrones to salve their own egos and self-importance, seeing power as a right rather than a responsibility....

Under Imperial Law, slavery in any form has never been illegal. It has always been left to the Houses that ruled the stars to decide for themselves whether they would allow fellow man to be enslaved to another, it being a matter for House Law.Jebediah Lockwood is an augmented borgite born free to an agricultural family on a world in the deep south of the galaxy. His happy childhood is destroyed when - just as the insurgency against the False Emperor is having its success on distant...

This compilation book contains all three novels in the Ascent of Mars trilogy.Part I – Oncoming StormThe Causeway; what it is, no-one outside of the Third Empire knows for sure. Even the majority of the Shadows who operate within the Third Empire know little of what is intended to do. All that is certain, is that it was born from the fevered insanity of the Third, Shadow Emperor, and in his damaged, splintering mind it will change the course of the Age of Secession once agai...

The Tears of the Moon are weapons of destruction, capable of turning entire planets into tombs. A very dangerous man by the name of Mason Duboise knows of them, and as a former Imperial Intelligence and StarCom double agent, Mason is no stranger to duplicity. In the wrong social class, he has wept his own tears as he was forced to deny his son and his wife by the laws of the Red Empire of Mars.He has a plan to steal the weapons, and sell them to the highest bidder, but life in the A...

This compilation book contains the first three books in the Age of Secession series, within the Vindicator Trilogy, in full and unabridged. This brings together the novels Dissolution, Rosicrux and Shadow, telling the full story of James Gavain and his Vindicator Mercenary Corporation.The Battle for Mars has been fought and won, and the False Emperor lies shot in the head in the ruins of the Red Palace. The rebellion is over, its purpose apparently complete. Little were the partici...

As the Red Empire of Mars collapsed into Dissolution, it was not just the corrupt and devious Houses that flourished in the sudden vacuum of power. The underworld strengthened their grip all throughout the colonised galaxy, taking advantage of the corruption of Imperial Law. Criminal gangs fighting for territory inevitably begin to cross boundaries. Some parts of the galaxy are just too small for them all to co-exist.The vicious Vanquistadoreans are gripped in the brutal rise of th...

A bounty hunter with a long, deep past interwoven with that of the Red Empire of Mars and its many challengers dares to dream that he can have his birth-right after centuries of denial. He accepts the contract, and will lead the hunt, looking for something only he could ever find. His payment will be the return of some of what the True Emperor took from him.A Faceless Assassin wishes to bring an end to the person it blames for its very existence, but it needs help. It has prepared,...