Book excerpt: FOUNDATIONS OF BLOOD... Julian Davion—Prince’s Champion of the Federated Suns—is a warrior who has lost his way, struggling to find his destiny amid political turmoil and the shifting fortunes of war. But while Julian's First Davion Guards have restored order on Terra, the Republic is closing its borders, keeping its core intact while leaving farther-flung worlds to fend for themselves. But the Republic is not only being attacked by external threats—it's being undermined from within, and the hunt for the seditionists continues. Ex-knight and now-Senator Conner Rhys-Monroe still leads the fight to destroy the Republic from within. To stop him, Julian must pull together a disparate band of warriors from across the Inner Sphere, and keep them together long enough to achieve victory. Terra lies at the center of their titanic tug-of-war, where Julian struggles to keep his political and military footing in a shifting situation that could explode into all-out war at any moment...