The Shiva Option, published by Baen Books, is the sequel to David Weber and Steve White's military science fiction novel In Death Ground.

The Grand Alliance of Terrans, Orions, Gorm and Ophiuchi has suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Bugs during the Pesthouse Campaign.

After finding a hidden route into one of the Bug home systems, the new military commanders of the Grand Alliance invoke Directive 18 and carry out a series of devastating attacks on the planet, launching massive waves of antimatter missiles against the surface in order to sterilize it.

Eventually, they stumble across the Star Union of Crucis, a multi-species polity that fought the bugs more than a century ago and have been in hiding ever since, rebuilding their forces.

With one exception – a small Bug colony, isolated from its home world by a hidden warp point, remains undiscovered by the Alliance... An excerpt of The Shiva Option is available for download or reading online at the Baen Free Library here.