Hope dies in Captain Arcturus when he discovers the first radio signals.             There’s not supposed to be anyone in this solar system. If poachers have beaten them to the system’s asteroid field, there might be nothing left for his crew to mine. The interest their overlords charge for their ship, equipment, and neural implants is ruinous, and his people have already spent generations trying to work off their loans. If this system is a bust, it will add years to their balance sheets. Years that will weigh heavily on Arcturus’ already graying shell and scales.             But the signals coming from the third planet don’t match anything they’ve seen before, and the asteroid field appears untouched. Arcturus makes a desperate decision and rebels against his distant creditors. He’s betting that the unknown race on that pale blue dot can offer them a better deal. It’s a gamble that might spare his crew, including his daughter, from a lifetime of servitude. Hopefully these “humans” can supply his crew with better neural implants. Ideally, ones that come without his masters’ pesky control protocols.             When the first translations are worked out, they discover a world at war with itself. It’s a situation that requires a little more patience than Arcturus’ daughter, Reel, is willing to exercise. She takes matters into her own claws and heads to the planet’s surface to deal directly with one of the warring factions. These “Nazis” she’s heard about seem like a likely candidate to her, but the Germans have little interest in honest negotiations… Thank you for taking the time to visit! I hope you enjoy reading my story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  Current Update Schedule: New chapters every Monday and Thursday! (Novel is complete--no additional chapters at this time) Total Novel Length: 126 thousand words Average Chapter Length: 3000 words Cover art by Jared Salmond