THE LAST WAR is a trilogy collection of the complete text of the novels IN HER NAME: FIRST CONTACT, LEGEND OF THE SWORD, and DEAD SOUL. FIRST CONTACT Led by Commander Owen McClaren, the TNS Aurora is embarked on an extended survey mission, searching for new worlds that could support human life. Drawn to an uncharted star system by the discovery of potentially habitable planets, the crew of the Aurora discovers something entirely unexpected: the planets are already inhabited, but not by humans. Approached by gigantic alien starships, Aurora's crew makes ready for humanity�s very first contact with another sentient race. But nothing could prepare them for what fate has in store. For they have entered the domain of the Kreelan Empire, which has waited thousands of years to find another spacefaring race against which to wage war to honor their Empress. With all but one of the crew killed in bloody close combat, the aliens send Aurora home bearing the sole survivor: the Messenger, a young crewman who carries with him an alien artifact that is humanity�s only sign of how much time remains until they are plunged into an interstellar war... LEGEND OF THE SWORD Six months have passed since the destruction of the human colony on Keran by the alien Kreelan Empire. Earth and other human worlds band together to form the Confederation of Humanity to provide a mutual defense against the alien invaders. Unfortunately, not all human worlds want to join the Confederation. Some, like Saint Petersburg, would rather see it destroyed. With a powerful navy built in secret and armed with nuclear weapons, Saint Petersburg is preparing their own offensive against the Confederation when the Kreelans attack. Led by Tesh-Dar, an enigmatic Kreelan warrior priestess, the Kreelan Empire has begun its quest in earnest to find the One, an alien - a human - who might be able to lift the ages-old curse upon their race, a curse that will leave her species extinct in but a few more generations. But to find the One, they must bleed the humans in war... DEAD SOUL Three years after the brutal first contact encounter with the alien Kreelan Empire, the human Confederation is desperate for a victory. With over a dozen worlds under siege by legions of Kreelan warriors, President McKenna orders the Confederation military to deliver a victory to give humanity hope. Roland Mills, Valentina Sikorsky, Ichiro Sato and his wife Steph, along with the irrepressible General James Sparks are once again at the sharp end of the spear in a mission to take back the colony of Alger�s World from the alien invaders before it�s too late. But overwhelming firepower may not be enough. For leading the invasion of Alger�s World is Ku�ar-Marekh, a Kreelan warrior priestess with dreadful powers, whose spirit is trapped between life and death. Feared by the warriors of the Empire, she is known as the Dead Soul...