Blood Service

Two young men on opposite ends of the military on a distant world - one freshman commander of all he surveys; the other a teenage criminal worth less than the uniform he wears -- pulled into conflict with one another. And the fate of a planet caught between them.War has broken out on the far side of the galaxy and all garrisons are being summoned to the front. Withdrawal from the remote mining colony of Vanguard would leave fifty thousand civilians at the mercy of the hostile native aliens that occupy the surface. The losses are deemed... acceptable. Just a few months out of Command College, Colonel Marcus Riley elects to defy his orders, choosing instead to hold his post with a small detachment of willing volunteers. But to defend this colony, he will have to make a devil's bargain with the over one thousand criminals serving out their sentences in the Mining Pits: give one tour of service and get a clean slate. They are criminals to the last, convicted of Capital offenses. Now, they are the only thing standing between mankind and the wild. But Riley could not have expected one unassuming Capital - Aaron Havenes -- would overturn everything they thought they knew about their enemy.