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 a series of unexplained attacks that exterminate entire colonies or planets, leaving behind nothing but 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, Earth's Ambassador Phyland Renwald meets an Angalorian named Gray Fang, and Nahn of the Trepedor. In the process of speaking, they find a commonality in their purposes, and quickly strike up a friendship that will prove mutually beneficial later on. Back on Earth, Grand Admiral Mike Clayton and others are busy picking up the pieces from their fight with Black Orchid. During this time, 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. As the random attacks continue, Dr. Rasmussen is introduced to an old Inter Dimensional Jump Drive recovered from a crashed Razkor starship found during a recent planetary survey in a nearby sector. He quickly begins researching it in great detail.

As this is happening, the Gayik'Von are attacked, of which an Earthfleet observational party is present and helps drive off the mysterious enemy. After the fight they collect some of the wreckage and bring it home where Dr. Olm and Rasmussen discover that the ancient FTL drive they salvaged uses the same technology as the ships that attacked the Gayik'Von. Not long after, Sol is attacked by the very same people who mysteriously find their way inside of the Sol Perimeter. After fending them off, it's discovered that the Crassians are still very much alive and still very dangerous. Hearing of the attack on Earth, Phyland and his new friends begin to formulate a plan to bring the galaxy together to battle their common enemy, who they have now discovered to be the Crassians. Not long after, representatives from the nine appear in Sol space and ask to speak with Mike and Pennfield. It's revealed that they've arrived as part of a plan set forth by Shanomar and the Nyuishians to destroy, once and for all, the Crassians, and the new super weapon, known as The Haven, that they've acquired. It's soon learned that this station is a creation of the ancient Razkor before their fall, and that it fell into the hands of the Crassians through trickery and deceit.

Realizing that he has no choice but to go along with the plan, Mike agrees to help them with their mission to stop Phillip, and destroy the Haven at all costs. Back at the Haven, Phillip gets a status report on the war, but doesn't like what he's hearing. It's at this time that it's discovered that Licinius, who had previously been very loyal to Phillip, is beginning to have second thoughts about his loyalty to him. He soon betrays Phillip and instead helps Bofianes, one of the last remaining Razkor, to find a way to destroy the Haven and save the galaxy. Earthfleet, and the fleets of The Nine Ancient Races head for the Haven and succeed in entering the bubble of space it lives in. A battle soon ensues, both inside the station, and outside, with the ultimate goal of destroy the Haven and ending the Crassian reign of terror. Eventually the Sergenious and the Appalachia enter the Haven station and attack its core, eventually destroying the containment field around it, causing the singularity inside to destroy the station. Everyone who's still alive then escapes the collapsing dimensional bubble of the Haven as it rapidly collapses into the singularity. With The Battle of the Haven over, and the Nyuishians gone back to their home, everyone tries to go back to life as usual again. However, despite their best efforts, nothing will be quite the same again. Even so, the threat of the Crassians is over, and peace can hopefully return to the galaxy once more. Although much work is still required before that will be possible.

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