The brutal Ben-Mek Empire rules a thousand star systems and enslaves hundreds of races. Living machines with a firm belief in their superiority over organic beings, they hold power with an iron fist. And these are the good guys. Holden has spent most of his long life defending the Empire from the voracious Xanth, first as a soldier then as Lord Admiral of the 13th Sector Fleet. No one knows his true identity, isolated and cloaked by his exalted rank. A mobile society made up of several saurian species, the Xanth travel from system to system in massive worldships made from hollowed moons,...