The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism. T For five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to only one thought: Raj Whitehall must die. Planted by interstellar probes on hundreds of human-occupied worlds, the downloaded personalities of Raj Whitehall and the ancient battle computer known as Center work together for planetary unity. On Visager, a nation-state of vicious militarists is about to start the final war that will bring their fatal racist infection to the stars. Now two young men once at odds in war must unite and, with the aid of the disembodied voices of their mentors from the stars, stand against exporting eternal tyranny to the galaxy itself. “[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action . . . devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”— “[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”— “[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank ... rivals Crane and Remarque ...” – “Drake couldn’t write a bad action scene at gunpoint.” – S. M. Stirling David Drake Eric Flint Tony Daniel Contains and