War on the Cheap--now available on Amazon!

War on the Cheap is free if you've got Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime, and it's only $0.99 if you don't.

Here's why you should check it out:

It's easy enough to sign up with a mercenary company, but organizing one is an entirely different proposition.

That's what Sub-Major Arras ak Winsen and her partner, Major Khom Khomarys, discover when they are abruptly dumped out of the Xinquess Reach Armed Forces (XRAF) during the massive demobilization after the indigenous, four-armed Xinqs toppled their Terran minority government.

Arras had been an assassin in uniform, and she's a bit worried about what will happen when Xinq bureaucrats start using all four hands to go through the XRAF personnel records. Khom's a born staff officer with no patrons and no prospects. Both of them figure they'll do a lot better (and live a lot longer, even in combat) off-world.

So they decide to create a mercenary outfit prepared to do all those embarrassing little tasks that both governments and multi-system corporate interests sometimes need done--like seizing a key mining complex from old former allies that they'd trained themselves.

What could be simpler? Put together a company and strike out for profit and glory?

Not so fast. That contract for forty million, which looked so gigantic when they signed it, makes them responsible not just for recruiting and leading troops into battle, but also for their own transport, their own orbital artillery support, and even for supplying their mercs with boots, communications gear, and survivor benefits.

Then there's the matter of finding the right commander. What do you do when the best person available for the job is close enough to a certified war criminal that even a trained assassin finds him repulsive?

War on the Cheap is a fast-moving novella that introduces a new kind of SF mercenary story--one in which the leading lady(killer) knows she's not competent for command, and paying for pulse rifles is just as big a challenge as avoiding death on the battlefield.

Written by the author of the widely praised alternate history MacArthur's Luck (complete in Parts One and Two) and its soon to be released sequel Stalin's Wager (Part One is already live for pre-orders), this initial tale of the Xinquess Reach opens up its own new dimension in military science fiction.