The First Peacemaker

Rejected scientist Alexander Hawke is down to his last chance. Brilliant but sheltered, every banker in New York has refused to finance his ideas. Enter the Russian—charming, dangerous, and offering an Antarctic expedition that promises answers to all of his questions. Now, Alexander stands at the edge of a bottomless chasm. With a helpful shove from his foreign benefactor, he plunges into adventure. Landing in darkness, Alexander finds a portal to destiny—weirder than New York, colder than Russia, and filled with the ruins of an empire that once spanned the galaxy.

After a fateful expedition to Antarctica, Alexander Hawkes finds himself catapulted across the stars into a galaxy in chaos. The Emperor is assassinated. The Eternum Empire, already fading, has collapsed. But he has a starship now. And friends. Alongside a crew of unlikely allies—Ban Tarro, an honorable Barundi soldier; Diliseth, a genetically-engineered Nacendo handmaiden; and Four, a sentient AI—Alexander witnesses the brutal aftermath of imperial collapse on the planet Twilight. Driven by an innate sense of justice, Alexander proposes a radical solution.

The Charter is signed. The Galactic Knights Uniformed is born. And yet, Alexander faces a whole new challenge: success. With the galaxy drowning in the chaos of the Afterfall, the fledgling Galactic Knights Uniformed is stretched thin. Trade agreements need mediation. Border disputes require careful observation, while the greatest conflict looms above it all.

Alexander Hawkes built the Galactic Knights Uniformed to be different. Not mercenaries. Not enforcers. Peacekeepers. But ideals don't pay the bills. Now the Charter Directorate speaks a new language—one of revenue targets and moral flexibility. While Alexander patrols shopping malls, the galaxy's ugliest truths fester in the shadows. The Nacendo are being herded onto transports like cattle. Planets are harvested for profit. And entire ecosystems are poisoned for mineral rights.

The Afterfall was just the beginning. The Sorcerers struck their killing blow. The galaxy has collapsed. With communications and logistics crippled, trillions of souls are left adrift in the dark—isolated, abandoned, and desperate. This isn't just a blackout, it's a catastrophic reset...