Publisher's Synopsis
The age of exploration had been replaced by the age of war. The Tarden Republic lay fractured. The rebellion on Brakk had been brutally beaten down for a second time leaving the race near extinction. Ducis Iratus's assassination of most of the members of the Senex failed to cower the core worlds. As he fortifies the solar system against an attack from the Republic, a shadowy presence at the star closest to Earth grows in strength. With humanity refashioned as his personal slave army, Iratus above all dreams of conquest. On the colony world in orbit around Sigma Draconis, Captain Brad Rutherford and the crew of the Beagle are about to become pawns between the Republic and the Empire.
