Slip Runner

Cole Riker is a Slip Runner. A contractor tasked with finding alien salvage in exchange for credits. For an ex-smuggler like Cole, there’s a catch: Don’t break the terms of parole. That means doing things by the book. Find salvage, turn it in, get paid. But everything changes when a retrieval mission lands him in a previously unknown sector. There, he finds the material he’s been sent to recover, along with something more. A brand-new form of ancient alien life.

Cole Riker is a free man. Or close enough. He no longer has the weight of his past hanging over him, threatening to put him away for the rest of his days. All it took was finding an unknown alien lifeform and agreeing to escort it back to its homeworld. Except his newfound luck doesn’t want to last. Gray doesn’t remember how to get home, and all the evidence says his people abandoned him after an unknown threat came calling. And that’s only the beginning.

After escaping from the colony ship in a faraway system, Cole has uncovered sinister evidence of August Walton's oppression: a castoff civilization living in the past and forced to comply with the Eternal leader's unjust edicts. It doesn't take long for Cole to realize that the planet has its own secrets. Navigating lies and half-truths leads to a brewing rebellion led by the one person who might hold all the answers he seeks. But, as any good Renegade knows, nothing's ever easy.

Now that August Walton is dead and new information has come to light, Cole Riker and his team of misfits are finally back on the cosmic highway to another unknown location. This time they might actually have a shot at completing the mission and getting back home in one piece. Victory isn’t all it seems, however.

Gray has been taken captive and become the host of a Controller. But not for long, not if Cole has anything to say about it. Determined to recover his hijacked crew member, he sets out to do what he does best: raise hell and kick a-s.