Empire Rising

Title:	Empire Rising
Cover Artist:	Don Semora
Genre:	Military, Sci-Fi
Series:	The Earthfleet Saga
Publication Date:	July 2011
Media Types:	Ebook
ISBN:	978-1935805496
Preceded By:	Homeworld

Empire Rising is the fourth and final book in The Earthfleet Saga and closes out the story of Earthfleet, and their secret, yet mortal enemy, the Crassians.

Back Cover Blub

Once thought destroyed, a dangerous enemy has returned, bringing with them weapons of immeasurable power to finish the job they originally failed to complete. Attacking from the shadows, they threaten to destroy and conquer the galaxy one race at a time and bring the new Galactic Alliance to its knees. To stop this threat, the Alliance, the Society and the nine races must work together to find this enemy and destroy them before they can achieve their goal of galactic conquest.

Book Summary

The story begins with an Angalorian colony that is wiped from existence by mysterious attackers who leave only a tiny clue to their identity, or their intentions; a ragged cloth scroll on which is written the words, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Elsewhere in the galaxy, the fledgling ASW is struggling to bring peace to a universe filled with rivalry, hatred, corruption, bigotry, and much more. In the midst of this political infighting, some of it merely figurative, and some of it quite physical and literal, Phyland and Finch encounter several representatives from the nine, namely a [[Yandian] delegate, an Angalorian named Gray Fant, and Nahn of the Trepedor. In the process of speaking, they find a commonality in their purposes, and quickly strike up a friendship. Later on, at a meeting of the major and most powerful members of the newly formed ASW. They begin their meeting by picking up a conversation about the Crassians and their roll in the dilemma the galaxy is currently in. It's soon learned that, due to the inaction of the other races, the Angalorians have stepped forward and hunted down the Crassians, wiping them from existence. This angers the others, but not enough that they do anything more than complain.

Back on Earth, Grand Admiral Mike Clayton and Chancelor Nordham are busy cleaning up the mess left behind from their encounter with Black Orchid, the destruction and subsequent abandonment of Command One, and the revelation of their existence to the people of Earth, much to their dismay. In order to lessen the impact of this, they discuss a way to ease Earth into the reality of what's out there, and all of the incredible, advanced, mind blowing technology that the Society has to offer. Elsewhere, Lars is informed by his boss that, despite the best efforts of the Angalorians, some of the Crassians have survived. So he sends him and Vlad to Dotus to find more information, and their possible whereabouts in the galaxy. Back on the ASW homeworld of Verblin, Phyland continues his growing friendship with Gray Fang and Nahn and, working with his best friend Finch, tries his best to work with them to find a solution to the growing peace issues in the galaxy.

Out at the planet of Dotus, Lars and the Ontario land at the central library and are greeted by a Yandian Librarian named Patch, who becomes their guide, and their eventual traveling companion as well. However, in the meantime, Patch goes out of his way to help them locate any information they can to help them identify the location of any possible Crassians, on the off chance any of them should remain. Over at Vocrac, word arrives to Sevok that a number of their monitoring outposts, along the border with the Tragarians has gone dark for no explainable reason, and the MO is the same in each case. This raises grave concerns for peace within the galaxy. Back in Sol space, Dr. Rasmussen is introduced to an old Inter Dimensionsal Jump Drive recovered from a crashed Razkor starship found during a recent planetary survey in a nearby sector. Out in Gayik'Von territory, Commander Moses of the Ontario, on assignment from Earthfleet, as part of a diplomatic effort by both the Society and the Gayik'Von to show the galaxy that the Gin are not the threat that they've been made out to be for so long.

However, while they're there, the Gayik'Von come under attack by the same mysterious enemy that have attacked both the Angalorians, and their own outposts before, and destroyed them entirely without leaving behind a single survivor. Realizing the potential danger of the situation, Moses phones home to Earth as the local Gayik'Von commander calls for assistance as well. It's not long before Sevok joins the fray, along with Moses and his squad of four Shipkillers, as well as a surprise, additional squad of Pegasus class shipkillers that were hidden nearby. The battle is pitched, and hangs on a knife's edge, but eventually the Gayik'Von and Earthfleet ships drive back the attackers, forcing their remaining ships to flee. The Earthfleet ships then turn and head for home, but not before gathering up samples of wreckage from the destroyed enemy ships for examination back home in Sol. Later on, back at Mike's quarters, Nordham comes in and speaks with him, expressing his exhaustion and how he's growing to dislike his job. Mike tries to convince him to take a break and hand over his Vice-Chancellor while he takes a vacation.

Nordham considers the idea. He then gets checked out by the Chief Medical Officer who temporarily relieves him of his post while he gets some rest and puts the work over on the Vice-Chancellor, who is revealed to have brought Nordham to this place as part of a plot to unseat him. Elsewhere, Dr. Olm and Rasmussen receive the wreckage from the previous battle and are intrigued at what they hear about the battle. Later on which examining the Razkor Jump Drive, Rasmussen discovers that the ancient salvaged FTL drive uses the same identical technology as the ships that attacked the Gayik'Von. Back on Verblin, word reaches the other delegates about the mysterious attacker who's been going around randomly and maliciously attacking races all over the galaxy in an attempt to exterminate them. This causes lots of finger pointing in the senate, fighting, arguing, and each race blaming each other for recent events. Nilk tries to calm things, but to no avail. Eventually a number of delegates, including Gray Fang, Nahn and and a number of others abandon the senate, along with Phyland and Finch, and seek out a solution on their own.

Meanwhile, back in Sol, Vice-Chancellor Larry Penfield, who has taken over for Nordham, talks with Mike about the Razkor ID drive that they've recovered and the potential implications this has for the fleet. However, as they're discussing this, a mysterious attacker enters Sol space. While this is occurring, Lars and the Ontario arrive at Crassia and, after a bit of exploring, discover that, despite the best efforts of the Angalorians, the Crassians have 'not' been destroyed as many believed. Even Phillip and his chief officer, Licinius are still alive, although somewhat the worse for wear. Back in Sol sector, Earthfleet fights a very pitched and desperate battle against the mysterious attackers, the same ones they encountered during the attack on the Gayik'Von, and suffer heavy losses before finally driving them into retreat. Back on Vocrac, Shanomar appears to V'sin and reveals that the Crassians are not as yet dead, and as such, it's time to bring Sol into their plans. A bit more is also revealed about who Sarah truly is.

(this summary is a work in progress, so please be patient.)