Book excerpt: A BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL... The Federated Suns have long been held as the pinnacle of military professionalism and skill in the Inner Sphere, a reputation earned across centuries of combat on hundreds of worlds. But when the Word of Blake launches their Jihad and attacks the Suns capital world, New Avalon, even that reputation will be put to the test. Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion is the heir to a centuries-old tradition of martial excellence, but even he may not be enough to stem the tide of invasion. Precentor Geoffrey Zucker is an idealist of the Word of Blake, a man who fights not for flag but for ideas. Forced to attack his homeworld, he chafes beneath the conflict between duty and family. Avitue is one of the Word of Blake elite, a Manei Domini—a hand of the Master. Blessed by the Word of Blake’s leaders, imbued with cybernetic enhancements, and driven by a fanatical zeal to succeed, she will go to any length to capture New Avalon. Among such icons, can the everyday soldiers and citizens of New Avalon survive? This edition includes the entire novel originally published serially on the BattleCorps fiction website, as well as companion in-character journal entries, and a new foreword from the author.