Kaine's Retribution

The gates went dark ten years ago. He gave the order.Hayden Kaine destroyed the jump-gate network to stop the Malliac. He saved Earth — and stranded a thousand worlds. Now he scrapes by as a salvage pilot on a wreck-strewn moon, drowning in guilt, officially listed as dead.Until his ship comes back.The Scimitar, lost for a decade, reappears crewed by the survivors of his old life — and she is now the only ship in human space with faster-than-light capability, rebuilt around a stolen Glenatat drive. Her engineer Cora didn't survive the transformation intact: she chose to merge with the ship itself. She is the Scimitar now."e;We are the only ship in human space with faster-than-light capability."e;And the crew found something else out there: the cynosure, an ancient locator pointing to a portal — and to powers greater than even the Glenatat. Every faction left standing wants it. A warlord wants it to rule. A rebel general wants it to forcibly reunite humanity under one banner. Kaine's old captain wants to sell it to the highest bidder.Kaine has a chance to undo what he did. But repairing the damage means deciding who gets to own the future — and who pays for it.Knowledge isn't power. It's a moral trap.What you will find inside:Fast-paced military science fiction, ten years after the CollapseA guilt-ridden commander dragged back to the decisions he swore offThe only FTL ship in human space — and everyone hunting itAn ancient device that points beyond anything humanity understandsFactions, betrayals, and a hostage exchange with no clean exitEvery book resolves its story — no cliffhangersFor readers of Battlestar Galactica who understand that command is a moral burden and survival never comes clean.Kaine's Retribution is Book 2 of Shattered Empire.The question was never whether the empire could be saved. It was who would be left to save it — and what saving it would cost.