In 2019, I wrote a prequel novella set in the Federation Chronicles universe. Ever since then, I’ve felt that Elias Browning’s story was incomplete. That novella needed to become something larger. For years, I let the idea sit on the back burner while I worked on other projects, but Elias Browning wouldn’t leave me alone.

This year, I finally decided it was time.

If you’ve read my other books, you probably know what drives me as a storyteller: characters worth caring about, relationships worth fighting for, and the belief that life is worth living and saving. Across more than forty books, I’ve explored the tension between good and evil, the hard decisions that define us, and the sacrifices people make for those they love.

That’s what I look for as a reader, and it’s what I try to deliver as a writer.

With Federation Chronicles, I explored the aftermath of a galactic war that changed everything. With Browning’s Gambit, I wanted to go back and explore the career of one of the most influential figures at the heart of that history. Elias Browning begins here as a newly minted captain facing impossible choices, but his journey will reach far beyond a single ship, a single battle, or a single world.

My plan for this series is to follow Browning through a time of enormous change in a far-future galaxy. Alliances will be made. Star nations will rise and fall. Friends will become legends, enemies will become necessary allies. But how does one newly minted ship captain become one of history’s most hated figures?

At its heart, this is a story about courage, loyalty, sacrifice, and the cost of defending freedom when the lines are not always as clear as we wish they were.

Commander Elias Browning’s career was all but over. Then command of a warship was thrust into his hands at the worst possible moment.

He wasn’t supposed to be in charge. But abandoning his crew was never an option.
When a powerful enemy discovers a hidden colony world, Browning is ordered to stand down and let it fall. Millions of lives sacrificed to keep the peace.

He refuses.

Outgunned and alone, Browning breaks from the chain of command and takes his ship toward a confrontation he isn’t expected to survive. Victory will cost him. Failure will cost more than the colony.

But the colony holds more than civilians. Somewhere inside, a brilliant young scientist has built something no one fully understands. Something that could be Browning’s only edge. If the enemy gets it first, everything that follows is already decided.

Now he has to hold together a crew that didn’t choose him, work with an intelligence agent he doesn’t trust, and face an enemy that has never lost.

Somewhere ahead, the enemy’s most dangerous warship is already hunting him.

And winning will take the kind of thinking that nearly ended his career.

Dive into the first book in a new military science fiction series from bestselling author Ken Lozito (First Colony), packed with desperate fleet combat, impossible command decisions, ancient technology, and a defiant crew fighting for a colony no one else will save

Available July 15, 2026

Pre-Order the Ebook by clicking the button below.