This war was inevitable. After two brutal, bloody struggles for their very existence against implacable alien foes, humanity is victorious, but not at peace. As distrust and accusations consume the political discourse between the two major factions, the Eastern Star Alliance military has already begun executing small raiding missions into United Terran Federation space. The Federation fleet, still reeling from the last war, is in no shape to try and protect its own borders. Now, as diplomacy crumbles and tensions escalate, the ESA has moved into a Federation star system and declared it for themselves. Desperate, the Federation deploys a full task force commanded by Admiral Jackson Wolfe to try and defuse the situation, hoping his reputation forces calmer heads to prevail. Wolfe knows that even if he can stop the ESA here, the die has been cast. Humanity's march to war with itself cannot be stopped. Battleground is the first book in the final trilogy of the Black Fleet Saga.