In Valor’s Choice, Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr and her crew get yanked from a well-deserved shore leave in order to participate in an ‘easy’ mission. They are to act as an honour guard for a diplomatic visit to the world of the Silsviss, reptilian aliens with a strong appreciation for war and conquest. In The Better Part of Valor, Torin Kerr’s outspokenness gets her in a load of trouble. After she tells a two-star general what she really thinks of him, she finds herself separated from her platoon and sent off on a perilous assignment.