The Javan War. The Cruel Stars, #0

The Javan War plunges readers into a war that shatters not only bodies but memories and time itself. Sub-Lieutenant Lucinda Hardy, tethered to a strike team on the enemy warship Jakarta, feels every shot and death through her neural link. But as gigaton blasts tear through space, they rip apart more than fleets of giant warships-they fragment Lucinda's perception of time, unravelling her memories and erasing the line between past and present.
Between the chaos of battle, the story pulls readers into Lucinda's past-a corporate dystopia where a young girl loses her father to debt collectors and is forced into a military career for survival. Each moment of combat sends shockwaves through her fractured mind, where the echoes of her brutal childhood merge with the deadly reality she faces. As war dismantles her sense of self, Lucinda Hardy must fight not just to survive but to hold on to the pieces of who she once was.