Thousands of years of progress left humanity scattered across the stars, splintered into hundreds of child cultures. The New Ottoman Empire started a grand project, the Human Polity, to re-unify all of humanity under one consistent culture, controlled from the imperial throne.

Vasco Alcazar al Madina del Goya was a gyrene-a soldier-in the Polity’s Unification. He’d retired from the service to start a new career as a fencing instructor. But after a lifetime of making Long Drops, multi-year FTL conquest missions, he found himself restless for new adventure. So when an old friend showed up, it didn’t much convincing for Vasco to sign up for one more Long Drop.

Rumi is the destination. One of the last human worlds still unsaved, it’s also the only bridge to the Laconians, sole suppliers of the super-computers that run the empire. And beyond the Laconians, the Pook, an enigmatic race that once destroyed swathes of the galaxy in a relativistic was.

All Vasco wants is one last shot at proving himself the warrior he always knew he could be. But the Anubis War will push him farther than he ever imagined.