The Phoenix Initiative Books

No other Human is more enigmatic than the Lyon. On the African savanna, the male lion is the lord who watches over his family, while the females of the clan do the real work. Joel, “The Lyon” Lyons thought that owning a mercenary company would be similar—he could sit back and allow the Lyoness to run the Pride. Everything would go well, money from successfully completed contracts would flow like water into his bank accounts, and everything would be as easy as it had been for him when he’d owned a chain of highly-successful restaurants. It’s easy to be full of pride when everything is going your way. But when he runs afoul of Peepo, the Veetanho who is arguably the most successful mercenary general in galactic history, he finally meets his match—someone who is every bit the master of logistics he is—and he is brought low. The true measure of a man isn’t in never being knocked down, though—it’s in what you do when you are. When Peepo leaves him for dead on the battlefield, will the Lyon slink away from the galactic spotlight, or will he get back up again and let the galaxy hear him roar?

A SalSha, a Veetanho, a Depik, and a Phidae walk into a case… Tald is the first SalSha Peacemaker Candidate… ever. Some would say he’s not smart enough or good enough to be a Peacemaker, or that the uplift designed to make him a “Sha” failed in his case. He’s determined to prove them wrong. But when he’s given the mission of finding the missing Veetanho Keesius ships—vessels that have the capability to destroy planets—it quickly becomes apparent that there are more forces at play in the galaxy than are obvious at first glance. Worse, most of them don’t expect him to succeed… and others don’t want him to. Tald has an ace up his sleeve, though. His father—who he’s lived in the shadow of, his entire life—has been a member of the Golden Horde mercenary organization for as long as there have been SalSha, and Tald knows Sansar Enkh, the head of the company. Tald thinks he knows what he’s doing—he’s worked hard and studied harder at the Academy, after all—but when he finds out that things aren’t quite the way they were portrayed in school, he rapidly finds himself in over his head, with deputies that seem more intent on killing each other than solving the case. Can Tald find the missing ships or will other factions use them to start the next Great Galactic War?

Sometimes all you need is a little Sunshine… and a really big gun. Captain Sunshine Luo, last surviving member of the Kakata Korps, has overcome much in her young life. Once a slave, later a mercenary and company owner, she has become the epitome of the word “survivor.” Now she needs to be something more. Bonds forged in the heat of battle have strengthened her and the ones she loves, though the losses along the way have left scars upon her young and weary soul. With the help of her friends, she could save the unborn children of a nearly extinct people. While pursuing an alien who would steal the future of the species, Sunshine stumbles upon a damning truth which would expose the biggest secret in the known universe. In order to take it all down, she’s going to need some help from Earth’s first Peacemaker, Jessica Francis. Alongside Jessica and her friends, and some new and unlikely allies, Sunshine prepares to take the fight somewhere no one ever dreamed, to bring what’s hidden into the light. What is the cost of truth… and who will pay the ultimate price for it?

The mission will transcend history… Their targets are personal. Their friends and their faith will be tested. Working together, Captain Sunshine Luo and Peacemaker Jessica Francis have tied the Crusaders, two different guilds, and the synthetic intelligences to the most heinous criminal acts in the history of the Galactic Union. Each of them knows what must be done, and they go their separate ways as friends—and allies—to right the wrongs. With a little help from their friends, each will have to stand up to a guild. Loyalty and duty have kept their bands of friends together through thick and thin, and when the MAC rounds start flying, they’ll be there to face their destiny. All of them know the stakes, and what they may cost. If they lose, the Galactic Union will tear itself apart, and chaos will reign throughout the galaxy. The only people holding back the anarchy are two extraordinary heroines—and their friends. They will honor the threat. And they will stand forever.

“ I don’t give a d**n about negotiation!” Khatash has been retaken, but the price was steep, and Okeo, Dama of Clan Shadow Fury, and Zatohachi, her blind swordsman companion, are working to rebuild it. But when the father of Okeo’s kits goes missing on a mission to track down information on the illicit Malluma Songo trade on a pleasure planet, Okeo and Zato head out to investigate. What they don’t know is that her rebellious, sole remaining kit and the kit’s teenage companion are tagging along for the trip, and they have a much different approach to the search. While Okeo and Zato lay low and follow a more traditional path, her kit plans to step out of the shadows and broadcast the secrets of the Hunters to the galaxy. And maybe become a star along the way.

War is Coming! Nigel Shirazi, the Speaker of the Merc Guild, knows that war is coming and he’s not ready. He needs to build up the mercenary forces after years of war, and he’s proclaimed the Phoenix Initiative to give people who want to start new companies the opportunity to do so. CASPers are cheaper and financed at lower rates, and the government of Earth is offering bounties to take the mercs from alien races off the planet. Now is the time! Hearing the call to arms, a diverse group of startups, including a number of non-conventional ones and ones that originated on some of the colony worlds, have just taken their first missions. These are some of their stories. Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, “The Phoenix Initiative: First Missions” includes seventeen all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors—and some you may not have heard of…yet. Are you ready to strap on a CASPer and go out to make your fortune? Then it’s time to read the stories of these mercs and learn the lessons they’ve already figured out for you!

Rick Walker is a veteran, but he’s also the newest scout sniper with BRASS, Inc., the finest scout sniper company in the Mercenary Guild. They infiltrate undetected to identify and terminate targets, then exfiltrate after delivering surgical destruction. Assault troopers love to have them paving the way and clearing obstacles because BRASS gives them the edge. When Ben’s Bravos took on the mission to rescue a scientist held in a jungle fortress, therefore, there was only one company to call to scout the objective—BRASS, Inc. Though newly assembled, Rick’s team was hired to provide the recon and firepower needed to ensure the Bravos could pull off their seemingly impossible mission. To do that, though, Rick will have to show he has what it takes, even though everyone—including the woman he loves—expects him to fail. And when everything starts to go wrong, and it appears the Bravos have a traitor in their ranks, he finds himself the only one at the objective. And if he doesn’t succeed, everyone—including himself—is going to die. Just another day as a scout sniper. BRASS (Balls) Included.

"Vibrant characters in a high action adventure. Should appeal to both fans of Military SF and anime." -- Jane Lindskold, New York Times Bestselling Author "Swift as hares, fierce as wolves!" Born into the Scarlet Rabbit's mercenary company, Sakura Ike learned the art of combat before she learned how to serve tea as a Geisha. For her, fighting in a CASPer mech suit is as natural as breathing. The job was simple: get down to the planet Wh'ton, retrieve the box, come home, and get paid. Easy. But then tragedy struck, and the only family she had left was her aunt Katsume and a mother that never loved her. There is no time to grieve; Sakura must find the answers before the trail goes cold, and she loses her chance at revenge. But she can't do it alone. Together with her best friend Jeni, the shell-shocked Newsom, the mysterious Jung, and the alien warrior Taka, they must band together to hunt down the Rabbits' betrayer. The good news is Katsume has built brand new cyber battlesuits for them. The bad news is a fledgling Yakuza crime family wants to take them out before they fulfill their ultimate mission. Will the Gunpowder Geishas get the revenge they seek, or will they become yet another failed Phoenix Initiative merc company?

The Winged Hussars, the only one of the Four Horsemen mercenary organizations to specialize in space warfare, have succeeded in what is arguably the most difficult branch of the profession. Alexis Cromwell is now the longest-serving commander in Hussars’ history, and her long-term romance with Nigel Shirazi, commander of Asbaran Solutions, has finally resulted in a complicated marriage and two equally complicated children. The Phoenix Initiative, started by Nigel and supported by Jim Cartwright as Minister of War, has resulted in hundreds of new Human mercenary companies, and with the Hussars growing by leaps and bounds, Alexis has begun taking contracts again to compete with them. But during a simple mission, things quickly go sideways when the Hussars find out that they’re being hunted in turn. And when her young children become involved, her opponents have gone too far. Alexis has never been one to take a challenge personally, but this time that’s what it is—personal. And in tracking down her children, she’ll find an answer to a mystery that’s been eluding the Horsemen for decades.

College graduate Danny Prescott is looking forward to rejoining the family’s mercenary unit, Prescott Defense Services, as a full-fledged member. He’s ready to prove himself and follow in the footsteps of his parents. When he gets home, though, things don’t seem right. His father, Jack, is less involved in the unit’s affairs, and nobody wants to talk about what’s wrong. A strike contract for the Merchant Guild seems like just the ticket to get PDS fired up, but Jack Prescott won’t bid on it. Danny decides that action is needed to save his family’s legacy, so he takes the contract and leads a ragtag team out to fulfill it. But when an old enemy enters the fray and kidnaps Jack, can Danny and his team complete the contract and rescue his father?

What do you do with technology that could ignite a second guild war? After being saddled with a money-pit spaceship needing a long list of repairs, Jonathan Smith has bills to pay to keep the Sub Rosa Infiltration Company afloat, and when the perfect reconnaissance and retrieval contract falls into his lap, he snaps it up. But when he finds out what he’s supposed to snatch, it becomes obvious that there’s more in play than what their employer let on, and a second guild war could result from the research being conducted on the small planetoid. And even worse, with so much on the line, their employer has authorized a second team to perform a “scorched earth” strike on the facility with Jonathan’s team still potentially in it. How hard can it be to sneak into a research facility on an isolated planetoid, confiscate some illegal equipment, and make a quick getaway? Jonathan is about to find out.

Chained by Loyalty Lieutenant Bree “Ducky” Alcuin returned from her first contract and learned her best friend was missing, along with her entire merc company. When a trio of Flatar showed up and delivered a message—Rebel was alive and a captive of the Science Guild—Ducky decided to do whatever it took to get her back. Including calling in a certain favor token. Chained by Duty When Ruin agreed to hunt down a missing merc for the granddaughter of Dama Tamir, he didn’t expect it to be a particularly difficult assignment. How hard could tracking down one Human possibly be? But in order to complete his task, he would have to go places he never anticipated. Chained by Memory When an injured cat showed up on her Iskandar ranch, Rebel cared for and sheltered him. Even when the sheriff inexplicably demanded she turn him over, she protected him. But things aren’t always what they seem, and getting on the wrong side of the law was only the beginning of her problems. Ducky, Ruin, and Rebel are separated by more than stargates, but they are not alone. And they won’t remain chained for long.

Haunted by the ghosts of the past… Operator Devlin Morrison retired from mercenary work a decade ago. Too many failed missions, too many lost comrades. Five years ago, he thought he had found his way back to hope and purpose when a mysterious Hunter offered him a glimpse of redemption. But once again, it all went wrong. Once again, others paid the price for Devlin’s failure. Now he’s content to spend his days driving wealthy clients around Houston, and his nights drinking away the ghosts of his checkered past. Until a mysterious fare unlocks the vault of his memories, and he finds himself drawn into the dark underbelly of the city once more. Now he’s working for a shadowy organization, driving one of the galaxy’s deadliest assassins around as the Hunter works to find and rescue the victims of a Human trafficking ring that goes deeper and wider than any of them imagined. Can Devlin and the Hunter Skakun learn to coexist long enough to accomplish the contract they’ve been given? Or will the ghosts of their past failures haunt them to the point of history repeating?

Peacemakers. The Galactic Union’s most capable enforcers and resolute negotiators, their name alone elicits fear and awe among the Union’s citizenry. It doesn’t happen often, but when a Peacemaker can’t solve a case, it goes to the Peacemaker Archives, as all Peacemaker cold cases reside within “Bureau 42,” as it’s also known. Cases dealing with ghost ships, missing Peacemakers, mysterious killers, and even a few cases that aren’t even really cases can all be found in the files of Bureau 42. Fourteen authors present thirteen all-new stories from the depths of Bureau 42. Take a look into the forgotten files of the Peacemaker Guild and find never-before-seen secrets, some of which herald the future of the Peacemaker Guild and even the Galactic Union itself. These stories honor the threat, set the terms, and walk the knife edge between standing or falling. Step inside, Candidate, and see what our files hold…

Tortantula, long considered the most vicious and tenacious of the mercenary races of the Galactic Union, are also one of the most enigmatic. Little is known about their origin or how they ended up as slaves to the power-hungry Veetanho eons ago, but when a young Tortantula was born with abilities not seen in thousands of generations, everything changed. Having escaped servitude to the Veetanho, Oort is on a quest to learn more about her race’s history. Hints of the Tortantula home world are buried within the GalNet, and she’s been following them for years. Now, she’s finally found a hidden cache of information. But Veetanho aren’t known for letting go, and they’ve found her once more. A drama of redemption, revenge, and destiny is about to play out as the tangled webs of the Tortantula finally begin to reveal deep truths… and shocking lies.