Admiral Kurt Vickers is on fleet maneuvers in the Newton System when a heavily damaged Earth light cruiser appears. The captain tells a horrific story. Earth has been invaded, and the defensive fleets in orbit have been annihilated. For decades, humans have been exploring farther and farther away from Earth and Newton searching for signs of intelligent life. Now that intelligent life has found them, it comes as an invader.

Captain Caleb Card and his crew are on a mission to investigate a transmission believed to be from the lost ship. Ambushed upon arrival, they immediately fear the worst. But the beacon isn’t only active, it’s on the move, and where it leads will change everything they thought they knew about the universe. Cast into a distant galaxy brimming with unknown dangers, they’ll need to adapt quickly if they want to survive long enough to help the missing colonists.

Once, Master Commander Carter Rose was the Union’s secret weapon. An augmented, bio-engineered officer in command of the most powerful warship ever devised by human minds, Rose brought them victory against the post-human Aternien Empire. Then they cast him aside. A century later, living alone on a distant forest moon, feared and forsaken by the people he fought to save, Rose has grown bitter and resentful, while his superhuman body refuses to age.

Idealistic Navy Lieutenant Jacob Grimm just wanted to honor his mother’s sacrifice in the last great war. When he’s forced to return fire and destroy a squadron of ships to save his own, he thinks he’s the hero...until they discover the ships are full of children. Disgraced and denied promotion, Jacob’s career is over. That is until the head of ONI needs a disposable officer to command a battered destroyer on the rim.

The Trellixian Empire was constantly expanding, seeking new worlds for its ever-increasing population. If worlds were discovered with existing sentient populations, they were cleansed to make room for colonization. Hundreds of budding civilizations had been eliminated by Trellixian battle fleets. On Earth, years in the past, a scout ship fleeing from the Trellixians crashed. Scientists investigating the wreckage discovered what the Trellixians had done to the world the scout ship escaped from. They also discovered it was only a matter of time before the Trellixians reached Earth.