Learning Experience

Earth is not alone. There is a towering civilisation out in the galaxy, far greater than anything we can imagine. But we are isolated from the galaxy ... until now. When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth, intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship – and their lives. To Steve, the captured starship represents a great opportunity, one to establish a new civilisation away from Earth and its increasingly oppressive bureaucracy. But with the aliens plotting their revenge and human factions suspicious of the new technology, it will be far from easy to create a whole new world ...

Fifty years after Steve Stuart and his friends captured an alien starship, the Solar Union is a thriving interstellar power, while Earth is increasingly backwards and falling into barbarism. For two youngsters from Earth, the Solar Union offers the only chance they will ever have to make something of their lives ... But humanity's involvement in Galactic affairs has not gone unnoticed. The enigmatic masters of the universe have put together a fleet to crush the upstart humans before they can threaten the precarious balance of power. Pushed to the limits, the Solar Union must fight to defend its freedom – and the existence of the human race.

The third stand-alone book in A Learning Experience ... In the wake of Earth's collapse into chaos, Captain Hoshiko Stuart made the mistake of speaking her mind - and was exiled six months from Sol to a naval base in an unexplored and uncontacted sector. Placed in command of a single squadron of starships, she expected nothing but boredom. But when she discovers an alien race threatening to exterminate all other races within the sector, Hoshiko and her squadron are drawn into a war to stop them, even if it means forging an alliance with aliens who may themselves become a threat to humanity and building an empire that may alienate her from her family once and for all.

In the wake of the Solar Union's stunning victory over the Tokomak - the masters of the galactic community - humanity has been invited to send a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Harmonious Order, one of the oldest and most significant races in known space. It is an opportunity that cannot be missed, a chance to forge ties with a powerful ally. And so a lone starship is dispatched to the galactic core to open discussions ... ... But when that starship runs into a deadly trap, she and her crew must battle their way home before they are merely the first casualties in a renewed war.

The gloves have finally come off ... The Tokomak, the unquestioned masters of the galaxy, have dispatched a massive fleet to crush the Solar Union - and the fledgling Galactic Alliance - before the human race and its alien allies can tear the galactic order asunder. Hundreds of thousands of starships under the command of an alien tactical genius, bent on exterminating the entire human race ... the darkest hour is truly at hand. Admiral Hoshiko Stuart has a plan. The Solar Union will dispatch a fleet of its own, with the objective of smashing the alien fleet before it reaches Sol. But, as human technology clashes with alien treachery, experience and sheer numbers, it becomes clear that there can be only one victor ... ... And whoever loses will lose everything.

Humanity has won a great victory, shattering the alien fleet that would have destroyed the Solar Union and exterminated the human race. But the war is not yet over. The Tokomak still have a huge fleet and an immense industrial base, large enough to crush the human race once and for all if they have time to bring it into action. The war may still be lost.There is only one way to win. Admiral Hoshiko Stuart and her fleet must take the war deep into enemy territory, to the very heart of the Tokomak Empire. But with the Tokomak gathering their forces and rallying their allies for one final battle, the outcome still hangs in the balance ...... And whoever wins will dominate the galaxy for thousands of years to come.

To stop a war, they have to start one.The Solar Union has honoured its debt to the Belosi by sending a covert fleet to liberate their homeworld and free their people from a rapturous alien power, but now the Galactics are mobilising, intent on crushing the Belosi as an object lesson to any other slave race thinking about making a bid for freedom. Given time, they will bring their immense power to bear and the Belosi will be exterminated.Caught between the certainty of annihilation and the dishonour of abandoning humanity's allies to the fire, isolated from the rest of the Solar Navy, the Firelighters come up with a desperate plan to trigger the long-feared war between the major powers, a plan that can have only two outcomes. They will win the Belosi time to secure themselves Or they will start an inferno that will burn the galaxy to ashes.