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Shadow Puppets (Dropzone #3)

Sometimes natural selection could use a helping hand.

In a remote corner of the universe, a group of battle-weary Elemental soldiers has just had a radical idea: why not let someone else do their dirty work?

When they uncover two primitive species locked in a deadly struggle, they jettison their species’ moral code – no battle droids, no bioengineering – and begin weaponising insectoids to create a powerful foot soldier.

Now it falls to our brave but bickering squad of human, Avion and Elemental misfits, and one extremely anxious uplifted rat, to stop them – before their controversial bioweapon alters the course of the Great Expansion War forever… 

For fans of Aliens, Starship Troopers and Old Man’s War – if you enjoyed those stories, you’ll love Esa Ortega’s Kassini universe, starting with the Dropzone series.

This is not a standalone tale, so don’t forget to read Fleet Rats (Dropzone #1) and Parasite (Dropzone #2) before strapping in for this instalment!

Parasite (Dropzone #2)

Contact lost. Trouble found…

The Vektor’s Landing safari park has rare animals from all around the galaxy. It has lush forest bathed in ultra-golden sunlight. It’s a paradise – and it’s one of the most exclusive tourist destinations in the whole of the Elemental empire. 

Or at least it was, until it went completely quiet… 

Something has gone seriously wrong: which makes this a job for the Sleeper Agency. Fresh from the baptism of fire that was their first mission, Hoffman’s Revenants – a band of misfit human and alien soldiers led by the enigmatic Virgil Lovell – have been sent down to the surface to investigate.

Their mission? Rescue as many breeding pairs of the park’s priceless lizards as they can… oh, and find out what happened to the 1,500 tourists who have completely vanished. All of which would be fine if the Agency didn’t keep changing their mission orders every five minutes. 

It would probably also help if someone hadn’t just sent a fleet to nuke the park from orbit…

Strap in for the second instalment of the Dropzone series of military sci-fi adventures set in the Kassini universe, for fans of Starship Troopers, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Aliens and other classic sci-fi.

NOTE: If you’re interested in the story but haven’t yet read Fleet Rats, please do so first… as this is not a standalone tale!

Fleet Rats (Dropzone #1)

Protecting the universe from the scum of the Earth…

It’s 2841 and after an uneasy and short-lived truce, three expanding stellar empires – the humans, the Avions and the Elementals – are now descending into an ever-more-brutal turf war.

The Sleeper Agency’s squads exist to stop the empires from crossing the line. They go where conventional forces fear to tread; they steal back ships, rescue lost personnel, investigate strange phenomena in secret. But mostly, they get their hands dirty doing the jobs no one else can, or wants, to do.

The Agency recruits from the wrong side of the tracks, finding its troops anywhere from cyberpunk slums to military prisons. It offers them a new life, with a new identity – no questions asked. All it asks in return is they do their jobs and complete their tour of duty of 10 combat drops… it’s an offer they can’t refuse.

Only problem is, will a dropship full of Avion, Elemental and human criminals hurled into the battle zone be more of a danger to themselves than the enemy?

Strap yourself in… because this is not just another bug hunt.

For fans of Starship Troopers, Band Of Brothers, Aliens and SAS Rogue Heroes, this is Book One of a new military sci-fi series set in the Kassini universe.

Rise Of The Exiles (Kassini #2)

Every civilisation has the right to rebel. But is every rebellion in the right? 

To say the Battle of Barnard’s Star was full of surprises is a huge understatement… and now Kassini and her feuding shipmates are the Galaxy’s Most Wanted crew.

On the run, low on fuel and with every bounty hunter and patrol in the Borderlands desperate to bring them in, they need to find somewhere to hide, and fast.

Meanwhile, the newly discovered Qualii race is warning of an unspeakable threat that’s fast-approaching. The human, Avion and Elemental empires call a temporary truce, to ask themselves: should they trust this many-tentacled stranger at their door?

The empires believe; the Exiles doubt. Hard facts are the only thing that will break the deadlock, which means someone is going to have to venture into the Forbidden Zone…

Join the crew of the Anomaly for the second instalment of this fast-moving mil-SF space-opera series, packed with politics, action, intrigue and deeply sarcastic droids.

“Esa Ortega delves deeper into the politics behind the three empires, but don’t worry, there are still plenty of gripping space battles, action, plot twists and wisecracking robots.” – Amazon reviewer