Book excerpt: FLIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN… 100 million dead. 500 million wounded. One billion homeless. The worst war in human history is over—and has left the Star League shattered. Jealousy and infighting from the five Great House Lords over who will be the next First Lord has the entire Inner Sphere already teetering on the brink of all-out conflict again. Against this grim backdrop, Aleksandr Kerensky, commanding general of the Star League Defense Force, faces a terrible choice. Stay, and see the mightiest military ever known subsumed into the Great Houses, lighting a conflagration that may burn even brighter than the terrible Amaris Coup. Or do the unthinkable… To save the Inner Sphere, Aleksander—along with his sons, Nicholas and Andery—must leave it behind. He marshals the largest fleet ever assembled to carry millions of people on thousands of JumpShips to head into the unknown. Exodus! But though the Great General strives to make a fresh start for his people far from the Inner Sphere, old habits and allegiances are difficult to leave behind. Soon the Kerenskys and their followers face threats both external and internal as they search the endless black for a new world upon which they can forge a Star League-in-Exile…or die trying.