Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. Jiden's parents barely scrape out a living on the dry, dusty world of Century. Jiden wants more for herself and she is ready to step into a bright future, one which may lead her far from the frontier world of her birth. She has no dreams of following in the footsteps of her military family's heritage, no desire to live a life of hardship. She's just got one obstacle in the path to her dreams: five months of military school. She'll be away from her friends, subjected to long hours and a crushing work load. She'll learn to shoot, to fight... and how to kill. Jiden will need every skill she's learned, because her family's enemies have put her in their sights. She's going to have to rise to the challenges in order to survive. She soon learns that her dreams might not be as good as she imagined. With her life on the line, Jiden will need to fall back on the skills she learned and prove that she's a child of valor.

The past calls you back. Jiden made the decision to join the Century Military Academy after her attempt at a normal school ended in disaster. She's embraced this new chapter in her life and she's ready to do her best. But this new start isn't all that she expected. Her relationships with her friends have changed since she's been away, her classes are harder than she expected, and things aren't quite what they seem. Jiden learns that she made enemies when she chose to return to the Academy, and those enemies will settle for nothing less than her death. Jiden is going to have to dig deep, she's going to have to fight with everything she has, not just to succeed, but to stay alive. Jiden isn't afraid of the challenge, because the military life isn't just a simple decision, it's her calling in life.

Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather. Jiden's life at the Century Military Academy is forever changed when she is asked to volunteer for a special program. They want to implant her and other cadets with a special, prototype neural computer. It will make them smarter, more capable, and able to split their attention between dozens of activities. Her friends jump at the opportunity... but Jiden isn't so certain. She sees it as her duty to volunteer. Despite all of her doubts, it's a duty she owes to her world and to her friends. But as things begin to go wrong, as her life is put in danger once again, Jiden quickly realizes that she may have shouldered a duty that she can't bear. The implants might be driving her fellow cadets violently insane... and Jiden may be next. She will need to muster every ounce of courage, every bit of intelligence, in order to save her friends. Even then, her own survival might be too much to ask. But Jiden doesn't know how to back down, and she'll do her duty no matter the cost

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” -Norman Cousins Jiden Armstrong has seen death and destruction, visited upon people around her. She has spent the past three years attending the Century Military Academy in the hopes that she can protect her people. Now, though, she has lost those most dear to her. Worst of all, the people who did it were coming after Jiden. She's going to have to rebuild her life. Jiden will have to fall back on her friends and her family to recover. She's going to have to find a new reason to live and come to terms with her losses... and her enemies haven't given up. To them, Jiden Armstrong is another pawn in the game... one that is inconveniently placed. They're going to keep coming after her so long as she stands in their way and if Jiden can't stop them, then the people paying the cost of Jiden's valor may well be those closest to her.