Operation Iago

"Military science fiction [concentrating] on the psychology and politics of societies in conflict."-Analog, on the Confederated Worlds seriesThe Confederated Worlds lost the war.Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace?The ceasefire holds by a thread. Under the fragile peace treaty, citizens of the strategic world Arden will vote to remain with the defeated Confederated Worlds-or defect to the victorious Progressive Republic.Newly-minted Lieutenant Tomas Neumann leads his battle-scarred, undermanned platoon on what should be a routine peacekeeping mission. But when Arden's rebels launch coordinated strikes backed by shadowy Republic operatives, routine becomes a nightmare. His overstretched Ground Force unit faces enemies who vanish like smoke, using tactics that blur the line between insurgency and invasion.The stakes couldn't be higher. If his mission fails, Arden falls to the enemy-triggering a domino effect that will shatter what remains of the Confederated Worlds and plunge the galaxy back into total war.Sometimes the hardest battles come after the shooting stops. Raymund Eich files patent applications, earned a Ph.D., won a national quiz bowl championship, writes science fiction and fantasy, and affirms Robert Heinlein's dictum that specialization is for insects.In a typical day, he may talk with university biology and science communication faculty, silicon chip designers, patent attorneys, epileptologists, and rocket scientists. Hundreds of papers cite his graduate research on the reactions of nitric oxide with heme proteins.He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter. A thousand years from now, while Earth sleeps in virtual reality, three polities-the Confederated Worlds, the Unity, and the Progressive Republic-strive to connect the scattered, terraformed worlds of humankind by artificial wormholes. When they meet, they clash, in a decades-long struggle of arms embroiling the settled galaxy, in which dedication to duty liberates worlds-and oneself.