Pity's Prelude

Stephen Bates is desperate. Paid by a foreign superpower to leave Earth and sacrifice his life, he finds that ritual suicide isn't that simple when the planet he lands on erupts into civil war. He and local war hero, Titus Sirocco, struggle to discover who's trustworthy and who's gunning for them. As two different wars rage around them, will Stephen and Titus find what's worth dying for, or will the rebels choose their fate first? And what's with those shapeshifters?