Heir Non-Apparent

The tiny farming colony of Jacob 6 going out of contact should have been no more than a footnote in the Emperor's daily briefing, but instead it sends his advisors into a panic.Captain Chase receives sudden orders to cancel his Platoon's exercise and find the Military Liaison on Jacob 6, but when they arrive nothing is as it should be and soon they are fighting for survival.The only chance the Marines have is lone survivor Se-se, a teenage Army Cadet whose combat skills are suspiciously advanced. She must lead them through the forest to find her fellow cadets and her Cadet Leader, the mysterious Colonel Castleman.There is a secret hidden on Jacob 6, a secret Castleman is willing to die to protect and someone is willing to kill to discover.This first in a series of Imperial Line novels introduces you to an ancient space-faring human Empire spanning hundreds of planets. Trillions of humans are ruled by an Emperor worshipped as a God by many and reviled as a tyrant by others. Tensions and rivalries abound, and nowhere more so than within the Imperial Court where high stakes power plays can trigger interplanetary wars and murder is not an uncommon tool.