The Terran Gambit (Book 1 of The PAX HUMANA saga)

Hey there! I'm looking for some science fiction fans to be advance reviewers for this book. Basically what that means is that I'll email you the entire book free, in exchange for an honest review. So go ahead and read this sample and see if it's something you'd like to finish, then email me saying that you'd like the free book! (authorendiwebb@gmail.com)

The book will be released on March 20th, 2014 on Amazon. 

Here's the book description:

The Corsican Empire, or New Rome, as it styles itself, extends the reach of the "Pax Humana" across the thousand worlds, ruling with force and fear.
40 years ago, they returned to Earth, subjugating it and claiming the ancient home of humanity for the Empire.

Now, in 2675, Earth fights back.

Lieutenant Jacob Mercer likes fast motorcycles, faster women, and screamin' fighters. As a reckless space jock in the Resistance fleet he lives for the thrill, and to take out as many Imperial bogeys as he can. At least, more than his buddies.

But with victory in sight, the Imperials thwart the Resistance in a surprise show of devastating force, and Dallas burns from a thermonuclear blast—millions die—a merciless example of what happens to upstart worlds in the Pax Humana. The Resistance goes underground to rebuild its strength, and in the shadows, the leadership devises a daring plan to strike right at the Empire's heart in a final, desperate bid for freedom.

A plan that will send Jake Mercer right to where he doesn't belong: The captain's chair of the most advanced warship in the galaxy, facing down a psychopathic Imperial Admiral bent on utterly destroying the Resistance, and Earth itself.

I hope you enjoy it!

"Ten seconds to impact!” yelled the balding gunner, but the pilot maintained his steely grip on the controls. There was only one fighter flying away intact from this little game of chicken, and Jacob Mercer would be damned if it were the enemy Corsican’s bird.

“Jake, buddy, they’re not pulling away! If we hit them, we’re all goners!”

“Explain it to them.” Jacob held the enemy fighter in his sights. The ship still only appeared as a tiny dot nearly washed out by the shimmering blue atmosphere far below, but it quickly grew larger, and streaks of ion beams erupted from it straight at their own fighter. He gripped the controls and veered side to side to avoid the fire, but held his course straight at the enemy ship, unshaken by the deadly onslaught. At the edge of his awareness he heard klaxons indicating several hits by the ion beams, and answering gunfire erupted from his own ship’s guns, but he hardly heeded them.

The guns didn’t matter. The alarms didn’t matter. All that mattered was winning this showdown. He would not blink. He would not yield to the empire.

He would not lose this fight, dammit.

“Three seconds,” yelled Kit, Jake’s frazzled gunner.

He held his breath and wanted to close his eyes, but he didn’t take his gaze off the enemy ship, now looming large through the front viewport. Ramming the gravitic accelerator, he began a full-throated battle-cry.

Kit winced. “One se—” he gasped, “—they pulled off,” he said unnecessarily as Jake was already yanking up on the controls. In one fluid motion their fighter flipped one hundred and eighty degrees from its previous course, and Jake blasted the gravitic drive to full power, effectively reversing course in less than a second. The gravitic field, of course, accelerated all parts of the ship and every cell and molecule of their bodies at the same rate so they felt no g-forces, but it was disorienting all the same.

“Kit! Go!” Jake yelled out. The gunner squeezed his trigger, getting a lock on the enemy ship, and letting out a sigh of relief as it exploded into a brief fireball, extinguished soon after by the near vacuum of the exosphere. “Bastards,” Jake muttered. “Nice shot, Rooster.”