Search Worlds Without End

A strange unyielding body that used to belong to Crown Prince George; a weird game you can't quit until your contract expires; a world teeming with powerful and very real enemies. The game in which your reputation and faction relationship are the only things that matter.

Ruslan - a young ambitious gamer - agrees to these terms without hesitation. All that he knows is that he's been contracted to command a space fleet in a brand new game he knows nothing about. Objective: to survive for six months. He can't tell anyone about the swap. After having made some inevitable newb mistakes, Ruslan has to rethink his strategy, dropping traditional gaming conventions.

Very soon Ruslan starts playing the part of the Crown Prince by his own rules. He replaces his quarrelsome Great House allies with sentient insects and chameleons; he even ignores the Prince's wife, preferring the company of a friendly droid and a young artless princess. The aristocratic Empire is in shock, scheming against Ruslan and even trying to bring him before the Royal court. Still, Ruslan can do very much what he wants as long as he does what he signed up for: lead his victorious Sector Eight Fleet to new triumphs.

Playing by the book? That's not good enough for Crown Prince Georg! In his attempt to delay his appearance at the Emperor's court, he triggers an alien invasion of his own star system. The whole of the Empire watches the live broadcast with bated breath as his fleet battles the awesome invaders. The Iseyeks - gigantic sentient praying mantises - are suitably impressed too, so they promptly remind the Crown Prince of his allied duties. The Sector Eight Fleet hurries to the Swarm's aid... but sadly disregards the insects' hive mentality.

Desperate to prolong their own existence for a few extra months, the insects unflinchingly sacrifice the human fleet. What is Georg supposed to do? He can't turn back - not with a doomed fleet in his wake! So he battles through armadas of alien starships, ignoring the "Victory impossible!" system messages and laying an elusive path to freedom across yet unexplored star systems. Georg is bent on breaking free - and no amount of enemy can stop him!

The enemy's at the gate, busy seizing Terran and allied star systems. The situation is getting worse by the second. The star system Unatari - the seat of Crown Prince George - is under threat from the Aliens. It's high time Ruslan came back in order to rescue everything he holds dear from imminent destruction and save Perimeter Defense - the game that has become his life.

Realizing he can't stop the enemy with brute force, Ruslan asks the Swarm to send some of their starships to attack the Aliens' home planets, thus forcing them to turn back in order to protect them.The problem is, the Swarm Queen doesn't like the plan: this sentient insect refuses to believe that Ruslan can win. Which leaves our hero with only one option: to prove his ability to command a united fleet of galactic races, then face the Alien armadas in one decisive battle.

The Empire is splitting at the seams. The Great Houses refuse to obey the Throne World and have begun to conduct increasingly independent politics. Sensing the weakness of the central government, even the most loyal star systems of the Imperial Core are refusing to take orders from above.

Is this just a string of coincidences, or a coordinated campaign? Can a disjointed humanity rally around a strong leader to deflect an alien invasion? Who of the many figures in intergalactic politics can rise to this challenge? And is there a basis to the creeping rumors that some influential aristocrats have joined forces with the enemy and allied with the aliens?

This book will be the last in the series and will give the readers the answers to all their questions, including the most important of all: "What is Perimeter Defense?"