Vortex is the seventh book in Chris Bunch

Chris Bunch

Christopher R. "Chris" Bunch was an American science fiction, fantasy and television writer, who wrote and co-wrote about thirty novels....

 and Allan Cole

Allan Cole

Allan Cole is an American author and television writer, who has written or co-written nearly thirty books.The son of a CIA operative, Cole was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East...

's The Sten Adventures.

Plot summary

Sten, former covert ops team leader and close friend of the Eternal Emperor, is sent on an ambassadorial mission to a far away planet resembling a Middle East-like war zone. Various ET and human factions are trying to kill each other and take control of the planet and all of them hate and blame the Empire.

Over Sten's objections, the Emperor (who is showing signs of instability) assigns a banished member of one faction as ruler of the whole cluster. This new ruler proves as big a despot as the former ruler, the Khaquan.

While Sten and Alex are collecting evidence to compel the Emperor to rescind his decision, the Emperor is planning to make Sten a martyr. The situation on planet continues to spin out of control (thus the title of the book) until Sten and his entourage are forced to flee under fire after the death of the new ruler.

As they are leaving, Admiral Mason, whom we met in an earlier part of Sten's career, is ordered by the Emperor to use a planet buster to destroy the central world of the cluster. We leave Sten and his fleet in shock after Sten and a tacship pilot destroy Mason's ship, making Sten and company mutineers and rebels, declared outlaw by Imperial forces.