Earth, 2512 A.D. Humans have spread across the six arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Unified Authority controls Earth's colonies with an iron fist and a powerful military—a military made up almost entirely of clones. But four centuries of relative peace are about to be shattered...
Lt. Wayson Harris is one of thousands of clones born and bred to be the ultimate soldiers. But unlike the others, Harris is an outlawed model—one with independent thoughts and an addiction to violence.
Presumed dead after his troops were massacred, Harris—who blames the U.A. for the slaughter—has gone AWOL as a bounty hunter. Still, it’s hard for a clone to overcome his conditioning, and Harris finds himself drawn back into the U.A.'s service by his mentor and creator, Fleet Admiral Bryce Klyber.
Now, with separatists rebelling throughout the galaxy, the fate of the U.A. depends on Admiral Klyber’s plans for the Doctrinaire—the largest, most powerful battleship ever constructed. But there are those who would do anything to stop Klyber, and Harris must decide whether he should fight against them…or work for them.
The fuel of violence
Every clone, including me, believed he was natural-born. We grew up in orphanages, surrounded by 36,000 identical beings. Each clone believed that he was the lone natural-born on the premises. They were programmed to see themselves as having blond hair and blue eyes. When three clones shared one mirror, they all saw themselves with blond hair and blue eyes, while recognizing the brown hair and brown eyes of their comrades.
But I did not see myself as having blond hair or blue eyes. I was a Liberator-Class clone. Other clone soldiers were built to be strong, patriotic, and ignorant of their origins. They were boy scouts and a little gland inside their brain would release a deadly hormone if they ever accepted the unnatural nature of their origin.
I was built to be fast, ill-natured, utterly deadly, and addicted to violence. I did not have the death reflex built into my brain. Instead, I had a gland that released an addictive combination of endorphins and adrenaline into my blood to clear my head during combat…
