Inheritance of the Fallen Series

The Shikar Imperium, a bastion of peace upheld by its formidable Navy, holds strong under the Immortal Emperor's command.   Kaia Marinoch never imagined herself in the Shikar Imperial Navy, let alone fighting to prove she belonged. Hailing from a pacifist colony, the Navy was the embodiment of everything her people rejected. For years, she has faced scorn and prejudice, all the while being denied the rank she deserved. On the brink of abandoning her calling, a mysterious Admiral presents Kaia with an unexpected opportunity: the chance to qualify for a new and elite Special Forces program. Seizing this lifeline to salvage her career, Kaia is thrust onto a barely habitable world on the Imperium's fringes.  There, the trials are harsher than anything Kaia has ever faced, pushing her to her physical and mental limits. But the greatest challenge comes from within, where her demons tear at her belief in the Immortal Emperor himself and threaten her survival.

10,000 years ago, humanity was almost wiped out. Now they've returned to claim their inheritance. After a series of attacks by mysterious ships threatens the Imperium's plans to expand, the Admiralty sends out Kaia Marinoch to investigate. A newly minted Lieutenant Commander and one of the Imperium's first special forces Viper operatives—a blend of starship captain and commando—she is given the Imperium's most advanced warship and sent off to confront their enigmatic foes. From clashes with her XO to dealing with Admirals who want to scrap the V.I.P.E.R. Initiative, the maiden cruise of the warship SIN Assured is filled with more dangers to Kaia's career than just death. Still in mourning after the murder of her sister at the hands of pirates, Kaia must learn to temper her anger and prejudice against her non-Human Zahex crew as she battles competing pirates and corporate interests. She soon finds that things in the Opherian Expanse are not as expected. Now she just has to make it back alive!