Kill Chain

After years of wandering through the galactic wilderness, Cameron Alvarez is home. But home isn't there anymore. While the Orion mission was gone, an alien virus brought the Commonwealth to its knees and killed billions. All that's left is a provisional government on an isolated colony and they need Cam's help. The new Commonwealth is teetering on the edge of survival and one push could send it over the brink. That push might be the movement known as the Confluence.

Led by an intrepid cyborg called Marakit, the Confluence is trying to bring together the rejects of the old society—cultists, Tahni warriors and the cyborg Evolutionists—in a united front to help the colonists stranded by the apocalypse. But with that carrot comes a stick, in the form of an old and highly illegal sentient AI called Illyana. Illyana controls a fleet of drone warships that can take on anything left in the Commonwealth. And Marakit controls Illyana. She hopes.

While Cam and Vicky investigate the Confluence, the threat of the alien Unity hive mind still looms, one more menace to the fragile remnants of humanity. One more link in the Kill Chain.