The truth will cost him everything. Silence will cost the galaxy more.

Senator Kael Arden has spent eleven years working within the system. Then classified documents land on his desk—evidence that the Empire’s government authorized the orbital bombardment of a civilian population and buried the proof under its highest classification tier.

He reads the evidence into the Senate record. Within hours, he’s a fugitive.

Rescued by a smuggler with a fast ship and questionable motives, Kael is drawn into the Outer Rim’s fragmented resistance, a loose coalition of defecting officers, frontier militia, and desperate civilians who lack the one thing they need most: a reason to fight together. As Kael works to forge a political compact that can unite them, he uncovers a secret that dwarfs the massacre he exposed.

The hyperspace lanes that connect every world in the galaxy are not natural. They are maintained by an ancient alien infrastructure, and the Empire is racing to seize control of it. If they succeed, they can shut down hyperspace travel to any system they choose. If they fail, the network’s automated guardians will shut down everything.

Now Kael must build an alliance from people who don’t trust each other, crack an alien communication protocol that has defeated the Empire’s best researchers, and fly into the heart of the most heavily defended space in the galaxy, all before a countdown he cannot stop reaches zero.

Galactic Empire Rising is the first book in The Fractured Empire Saga, a space opera for readers who love political intrigue, fleet-scale combat, ancient alien mysteries, and characters who choose the harder right over the easier wrong.

Fans of James S.A. Corey, Ann Leckie, and Timothy Zahn will feel at home.