The New York Times-bestselling author's military sci-fi saga continues as the fate a remote planet decides the future of the Confederacy.Second Lt. Antonio Santana was considered a hero-until he refused an order to fire on unarmed civilians. Now stripped of his rank, he's been posted to the isolated planet of LaNor. Since its discovery, LaNor has attracted attention from all corners of the still-precarious Confederacy of Sentient Beings-all with an eye to exploiting its location and natural resources.As for the native LaNorians, little concern is paid to them except as a steady supply of cheap labor. But now, led by their empress, the LaNorians are ready to launch a rebellion. Taken by surprise and suddenly surrounded, the competing interests must band together for survival. It is an unlikely alliance held together by Santana's courage and the diplomatic prowess of his sometime lover Christine Vanderveen.Even as the Legion and its newfound allies struggle to fend off the LaNorians, Santana begins to suspect that they all may be pawns in a much greater and deadlier campaign. Someone else is behind the uprising. And their true objective is to spread the chaos of war far beyond LaNor . . ."e;[An] elaborate military-political thriller . .. Dietz has created an intricate tapestry of local and star-faring culture with topnotch action sequences."e; -Publishers Weekly
