Can you fail so badly you save the last of the Earthicans?
Lee is an addict pilot who bungled his last big heist.
Drea is an underemployed engineer who regrets developing the human's most devastating weapon.
The Saurothrop destroyed Earth, leaving the duo trapped together on a stolen starship they have to pay for. The fastest way to pay off the ship and their debtors on a dystopian cloaked Mars is to salvage crystalline weapons or drag back some intact Saurothrop corpses. They are outgunned, outnumbered, and any other species they seek to form an alliance with doesn't even have the basics in common, like breathing air or having liquid water on their homeworlds.
Long flights, terrible rations, and psychic monsters abound on their quest to fail upwards, accidentally making the human animal a known player on the galactic stage while trying to collect a paycheck.
Hope of Arilon by Simons Folly is a scifi exploration adventure into the unknown whose universe is as strange as a human mind can deliver. It's perfect for fans of Ian Douglas, Frederik Pohl, and Marko Kloos.