Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose.

"The Solarian League lies in defeat, crushed by the Grand Alliance of Manticore, Haven, and Grayson. Obedient to the Alliance's surrender demands, the League is writing a new Constitution, to prevent the reemergence of out-of-control bureaucrats, like the "Mandarins" who led it to disaster. Frontier Security has been disbanded, the Outworlds' have regained control of their own economic destinies, and multiple star systems will soon secede from the...

A master sergeant prowling the back country of the Balkans and a firearms instructor and former Marine find themselves at the center of a growing network of resistance against an invading force of alien, carnivorous Shongari intent on annihilating the human race.

When Bornstellar becomes obsessed with the past, his father sends him to live among the Miners, where his destiny and the fate of the entire galaxy changes after crossing paths with two humans.

Astrid seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within, while, on an outlaw colony station deep in space, Hiro val Akira seeks to bring a dangerous ally into the rebellion, and Lito sol Lucius continues to grow into his role as lead revolutionary.

A new group of former Jedi decide to serve the Empire under Darth Vader, including Iskar, who survived the destruction of her old Order to claim a new destiny in the Force and hopes to uncover her hidden past, which the Jedi refused to share with her.

A confrontation between General Adolphus and the fleets of Diadem Michella Duchenet is compromised by a shadow-Xayan mental blast, an imminent asteroid collision in the outer Candela system, and a fanatical band of rogue telemancers.