High Ground

Soldier 52B was bred for war.
Silence was his oath. Loyalty was his purpose. Survival was never in question.
Until the day his empire fell.
When he wakes beneath twin suns on a desolate plateau of an unfamiliar planet, his ship destroyed and his crew missing, 52B learns a truth more devastating than his injuries: the Zecht Empire has been annihilated. The royal family is in hiding. His fellow soldiers are presumed dead. And the Onyx crystal he was sworn to deliver may be the last relic of a kingdom that no longer exists.
Stranded on Tallulah-an alien world of crystal-lined shores, telepathic engineers, sentient Bots, and villages shaped like the folds of a brain-52B's only ally is Dendru: a sharp-tongued native with unnatural strength and secrets of her own. She saved his life. She also destroyed his only protection.
Above them, the colossal Befarian Mothership scans the planet, hunting for survivors.
To reach the wreckage of his ship, 52B must cross a brutal wasteland beneath poisonous twin suns, evade the empire that eradicated his own, and decide what loyalty means when there is no throne left to serve.
Because if the Onyx crystal still holds power...
the war may not be over.
And Soldier 52B may be the last weapon Zecht has left.