Government by assassination. That's been the Imperium system for 1,500 years. Flashback to Pyotr at age 10, huddled in his room as five Hashâshīn creep through the hallway, looking to kill him and the whole Imperial Family. In her rage, the Dowager Regent orders all-out genocide against the cowls of the Broderbund, unbalancing the Imperium and setting the stage for war. Pyotr came into power in conspiracy and matricide. He kills often and he fears being killed daily. Now, with the Fourth Orion War starting to turn against the Imperium on Amasia and across the Thousand Worlds, it seems like nearly everyone wants to kill him. Enemy agents in the capital, the remnants of the Broderbund, and above all, his own military try to do it. But it's as if he's blessed by Fortune. He escapes pistol and poison, solitary bombers and full scale coups d'état. Whatever the obstacles, one man is determined that Pyotr must die so that he can rule over the wreckage of the Imperium. Takeshi Watanabe is climbing a blood greased pole to power. He's the center of a master web of multiple conspiracies, for and against the Brethren who raised him, the Special Action Commandos who raised him up, and the military 'big hats' and Old Families who want the upstart brought down hard. Can one man overcome so many and seize all power? What will he do with so much power if he ever gets it? The top agent of the Alliance wants to know if she can trust him with the terrible secret that Argos scientists have found in the Dead Zone. If she uses it to help him take power in the Imperium, will he end the war or expand it?Meanwhile, arriving at last from the Perseus spiral arm after a multiyear journey to Orion, The Envoy arrives at the farthermost Globular Republic. It brings news to Humanity that we are not alone, and that we are in terrible danger. War is coming. War on a terrifying scale. War that will make even the Fourth Orion War look like a skirmish, a warm-up for the real thing. War that will reach across the stars and The Gap between the spiral arms to scorch all the Thousand Worlds.SECOND EDITION: Expanded and RevisedKali Altsoba is the pen name of the military historian Cathal J. Nolan, winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History and the Distinguished Book Award from War on the Rocks. His books have been feature reviewed in major military and history journals and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The National. His military fiction starts with the Orion War series. Forthcoming is White Sails, which will follow Jan and Zofia and the Wreckers offworld on commando raids and into naval and marine battles, even as the fight between mass armies continues on Amasia and dozens more invaded and contested worlds.SECOND EDITION