P. Stabile

Once a scrap-wrangling nobody from Phoenix, Arizona, Juliet Bianchi's life was forever changed when fate handed her a hyper-advanced AI chip that launched her into the arena of high-powered, high-stakes operators. To her surprise—and everyone else's—she had a natural talent for cybernetic-enhanced mayhem and mercenary work. Now, that work will take Juliet where she's always wanted to go: off world. Unfortunately, the reason is that her faithful friend Honey and a child prodigy she was caring for have been kidnapped.

In the year 2107, the world has both made astounding leaps forward and reduced humanity to its most basic existence. While the megacorps and those who rule them enjoy lives of extraordinary comfort and ease, most people barely scrape by, doing whatever they can to keep going. Juliet Bianchi is one of the latter. She works cutting metal in a scrapyard and doesn't have much to show for it except for a small group of equally bereft, fiercely loyal friends. Still, she maintains a bright disposition, possessing more hope and optimism than anyone would expect her to—and she's going to need it.

Juliet Bianchi was once just another working drone, struggling to survive in a world where megacorporations reigned, information was power, and that power was worth killing for. Then she stumbled upon a kidnapping gone wrong and ended up with a stolen AI chip that took her from the bottom of the barrel to a top-tier realm of mercs, freelancers, and assorted unsavory folk.