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They’re so powerful that they dominate this region of the Trans-Species Union. The White Knights are in charge. The masters. Or mistresses? Do they even have a gender? After all, we’ve already seen Pedro who is fascinated by the whole concept of gender because it’s so alien to him [see the Trog novelette, ‘My Extended Death’ if you haven’t already].

Who are the White Knights? How did they get to be so powerful? What is their civil war all about? What do they even look like?

The next book is called War Against the White Knights, and I didn’t just grab the name because it sounded cool. That cover image is taken from their world. Way back in Marine Cadet when the Detroit base has to carry out the Cull, there’s a release of imitation flek clouds in honor of the world where the White Knights evolved. That’s real flek you see in the background of the cover.

We know that the human characters we’ve seen so far are descendants of the million five-year old children the White Knights took as payment for their protection.

Communication with Earth is closed to the Legion, at least for now, but there are rumors and information offered by other species. Five centuries earlier there was a violent scramble to claim the Earth and humanity. There are tales told of invasions, of entire continents being sterilized to teach the inhabitants of Earth their position in the galaxy: as slaves.

Did the White Knights get their name from their appearance? Or because they appeared to ride to Earth’s rescue like shining paladins, and deliver them from evil tyranny? For chivalrous knights they seem to be cruel masters, but perhaps the alternatives to the peoples of Earth at the time were even more horrific.

But that’s rumor and the result of AI data-mining, recombination, and interpolation.

What you will see in War Against the White Knights will be the real deal.

A historical paladin, from which the real term white knight is probably derived via troubadour Romance. The chief paladin’s name is Roland and he’s the guy on the horse attacking the castle. As you can plainly see in the illustration, in those days castle walls were much lower, often no more than shoulder height. A mounted attacker standing high in his stirrups could strike down at the defenders from above. It took many years for fortification technology to overcome the military threat posed by stepladders.