Attack of Shadows (Galaxy's Edge, #4)

by Jason Anspach

That, he thought, summed up the very nature of this decrepit and dying Republic he was about to destroy. Warships that weren’t supposed to threaten. Leaders that never led. And citizens who were really slaves.

Yet one more opportunity, staged by the House of Reason, to shirk work and enterprise in a near-constant effort to reward themselves for the accomplishment of nothing. To make the people think they were part of something grand, instead of just a cheap carnival show run by huckster

carnies who never tired of performing for power and power alone. Liars lying in order to maintain cheap power, they would give away anything they could in order to have that power for just a little while longer. And they often preferred to give away what others had worked, bled, and died for.

the House of Reason had classified slug throwers as weapons of mass destruction and outlawed their use, production, and ownership.

She’d made rank on brains and guts instead of favored-alien-species-of-the-week diversity promotions.

To bad today's military can't figure this out.