An untried captain. A battle-hardened marine. A hidden enemy. As a boy, Ian Hadrian used to look up at the night sky and dream of commanding a starship. As a man, he’s one of the Interstellar Compact Navy’s youngest battlecruiser captains—but dreams rarely match reality. His command, the Belisarius , is a star-leaping stallion leashed to a solitary and remote sun, watching over a long-suffering world the enigmatic Ciphers abandoned after the Great War. Far from straining at his leash, Hadrian has come to accept his posting, even at times to enjoy it—perhaps because the heroic official record behind his rapid promotion to captain hides a much darker truth. Whatever Sorăna Mirra’s childhood dreams were, she’s long since forgotten them. Twenty-five years as a marine will do that. Mirra commands a team of marine special operators, hand-picked to fight humanity's oldest foe—the Kyrans. Time and again they defeat the vicious saurians, knowing they'll get no credit for their victories. Hadrian and Mirra are separated by half a galaxy, by service, and by a lifetime’s experiences. But when each of them is targeted in ruthless attacks, their hunt for answers sets them on a collision course. Their clash will decide the fate of an entire world—and reveal a shadowy new enemy that humanity and its allies are not prepared to fight.