Mutton, Greg: Hunt for Balerophon

The sedition forces launch a new assault on humanity. An ancient weapon is put into play - one that could decimate the entire human race. To combat this evil, a new hero must arise - but will the cost be too high? Peace has reigned for nearly a year with inter-realm travel and commerce growing. Aaron and Petra's wedding approaches and everything starts to fall into place. JT's obsession with an ancient technology - automobiles - is giving new hope for Earth's embattled economy and his plans for a renewed tourism industry have even excited the terrestrial bureaucracy. Then task force Paladin, four of the Coalition's most powerful cruisers, return from the Badlands decimated by Raiders; something thought impossible. When Mondrac sees the damage to them, he races to the 12th Realm to investigate. Next, one of the five Peace Planets, Caprica, is attacked by a Raider force. It's a soft, strategically unimportant target but the Raiders lose two ships; to an armed private yacht. This pointless action is at odds with the Paladin incident, but are they connected? A new threat from the Sedition forces could decimate the human race, and military intervention is impossible. Aaron and Petra lead a rag-tag group of volunteers to infiltrate a secret facility and neutralise the threat. A simple job, sneak in, steal the data, and leave - undetected! What could go wrong? The action, drama, and intrigue build until the final confrontation with evil, and the climax of this trilogy.

Greg Mutton lives on the mid north coast of New South Wales, Australia in a quiet bayside village with his wife, son and 3 cats. He spent most of his working life in engineering and management, but when forced to retire he began writing in earnest. When he presented his first manuscript to an editor, the advice was "it's too long and should be a trilogy". Another year later and Chronicle of the 12th Realm was born.His stories are about people who are forced to tackle situations -who rise to the challenge. He believes that no matter how advanced we become, no matter what technology we invent, human beings will always define their existence by their actions, both individually and collectively. His stories don't have superheroes but explore the real physical and metaphysical abilities people have, or have forgotten over the ages. Real examples from life - emotions, love, despair, romance - are infused these into the characters and plots.As a science fiction author, he enjoys using literary license to enhance stories, describe alien species, and design future technologies; as one of the greats of Science Fiction once said "whatever man can imagine, he will eventually do"