When Laksha wakes up as a middling recruit on an Academy training ship, she knows something has gone critically wrong. A Barbarian spy, for the past five years, she’s been infiltrating the soft-bellied Coalition in the hopes of striking a blow that counts. For too long, the Coalition has lorded over the Milky Way. That’s meant to change with her. But someone else gets there first. Dale Simpson is a state-of-the-art cybernetic. Half-man, half-machine, it’s taken him a long time to come to terms with the accident that almost killed him and the science experiment that saved his life instead. An ex-pilot, he’s now a top-level Coalition spy with skills no one else can match. He can seamlessly integrate with nearly all technology he faces – and, when necessary, punch right through it. For the past five years, he’s been after a Barbarian psychic known only as First Strike, and finally he finds her in the heart of the Academy High Command. But when a glitch occurs in his program, he ends up throwing her mind into another body. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse like no other. As Laksha learns the ability to jump into people’s minds, Simpson must find her before she strikes. Falling for her along the way shouldn’t be on the cards. But he’ll soon find out no matter how much he melds with machines, he’ll always have a heart. … First Strike follows a Barbarian psychic weapon and the cybernetic soldier sent to stop her fighting to save the galaxy from a powerful empire. If you crave space opera with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab First Strike Book One today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series. First Strike is the 22nd Galactic Coalition Academy series. A sprawling, epic, and exciting sci-fi world where cadets become heroes and hearts are always won, each series can be read separately, so plunge in today.