Apex Strike

The Wraith hypersonic platform was designed for one thing: a kinetic strike delivered at Mach 7 with zero margin for course correction. Major Jax Jagger flies the only airframe rated for the mission, carrying a tremor in his right hand that oscillates at 0.48 seconds. Nerve damage from an ejection at ninety-seven thousand feet that the flight surgeons called temporary. The targeting package changes forty seconds before release. His damaged nerves do not just shake. They resonate, catching frequencies that healthy hands filter out, reading the airframe's stress like a broken antenna tuned to destruction. The question is not whether Jax can deliver the strike. The question is what the strike costs when the tremor tells him the target data is wrong. Book four of the Brooks Hammer series introduces a new protagonist whose body is both his weapon and his liability.