U.S. ARMY VETERAN • AUTHOR
STORIES FORGED
IN REAL SERVICE
Military sci-fi written by someone who actually wore the uniform.
7POINT62.COM
SCROLL TO BEGIN
Military sci-fi written by someone who actually wore the uniform.
Robert Pendland is a U.S. Army veteran and military science fiction author. He served during the Cold War, training at Fort Dix before being stationed at Camp Hovey, Korea, and later commanded detachments in both the Kansas and Missouri National Guard.
Rising from Private to Captain, Pendland brings a perspective shaped by both following orders and giving them. That experience informs how he writes about soldiers, leadership, technology, and the decisions people make when the mission stops being simple.
His fiction focuses on authentic tactics, believable military culture, and characters who have to live with the consequences of their choices. He is the author of The 13th LRF, a twelve-book military science fiction series that begins with Operation Briar Harvest. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri.
A hardened strike team from the 13th LRF. Advanced tactics, real firepower, and no-bullshit missions. Leadership forged in blood and experience.
Larger scale. Ancient threats. Modern soldiers dropped into conflicts that span systems. Brotherhood, betrayal, and the cost of victory.
Exploration, first contact, and the terrifying realization that humanity's greatest threat might be its own history repeating among the stars.
"Combat was clean. Measurable. In a firefight you run the numbers. Leading former teammates… nothing added up. That was the sum of leadership."
The 13th LRF unfolds across 12 books, each building on the last to tell one continuing story.
Staff Sergeant Reed just made rank, and his own team isn't sure he's earned it. MilCom hands him a sterilization order: six operators, no backup, and a warlord named Vale who already knows they're coming. He walks out with a target on Vale's back and the first thread of something MilCom never wanted him to find.
Vale should have died on Briar Ridge. Instead he's back, and MilCom has handed Reed's team something worse than another mission: an asset called EMBER. Fast. Precise. Built to follow orders without hesitation, and never once asking a question it should be asking.
Six weeks after the validation site, the 13th is still standing, and that's the problem. MilCom doesn't know what to do with a team that saw everything and survived. So they watch. They restrict. They wait. Reed still believes in the military. He's losing faith in the people running it, and EMBER hasn't forgotten him.
Reed came back from Vanguard with a conclusion he cannot document and a team that believes him anyway. The record says everything was handled correctly. Proving otherwise means asking the one institution that owns the record.
The saga continues. Titles and covers in development — rolling out through 2026–2028.
BOOKS 01–02 AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON & KINDLE UNLIMITED
Gear and prints from the 13th LRF universe, plus original veteran and patriotic designs. Join the list below to hear first.
Occasional dispatches from the author. New excerpts, behind-the-scenes from the writing process, and early access to drops. No spam. Ever.
POWERED BY YOUR INBOX. UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME.
"So what's the play, Staff Sergeant?" He put extra weight on the rank. "You really gonna stand there and pretend this doesn't smell like a one-way ticket?"
Brick shifted his weight, armor plates creaking. "Six of us. Full sterilization. No backup. No real intel. Feels like they're sending us in to count bodies before they glass the place."
Sparks exhaled sharply. "Yeah. Why risk us at all if it's just confirmation? Unless we're the confirmation and the cleanup."
Reed met Reaper's stare head-on. He didn't raise his voice.
"You want the truth?" he said evenly. "This mission is shit. We all know it. Sterilization order. Unknown enemy capability. And yeah… It feels like we're the ones they're willing to lose if it goes sideways."