The Long Burn

When Commander Elara Kain reaches Station Tethys, she finds only ruin, solar arrays sheared clean by something fast and hot, atmosphere bleeding into the void, six hundred souls gone without a single distress call. The ISS Cinderhawk is dispatched to investigate, but the deeper her crew pushes into the Cinder Zone, the less the evidence fits any known weapon or any known enemy. Old alliances begin to splinter. Admiral Drax Karn demands answers the fleet cannot give. Captain Soren Vey's ships maneuver at the borders of the conflict with motives no one can pin down. And when a second installation is lost to the same impossible weapon, Kain's investigation becomes a desperate hunt for whoever, or whatever, is burning its way across the frontier. With Lieutenant Jael Orin at her side, Dr. Mira Tasso parsing wreckage for clues, and the enigmatic Kade Solren offering uneasy assistance, Kain must choose between the mission she was given and the one she now believes is true. A captured Sub-commander holds secrets that could ignite or end the war. The long burn has begun, and how Kain answers it will decide whether the void claims her ship, her crew, or the entire frontier.