Steg de Coeur, his friends, and the mercenary Ebony Company are collected by a superdreadnought sent by the Glass Complex. Xesset are threatening a major attack on the Western Star Empire, the Alliance, and a number of free, unaligned systems, including Djii. Homeworld and Djii have formed a naval task force to defend their planets from this threatened alien attack, and the Glass Complex has created high-level AIs to manage the flagship of the new fleet. Steg rescues his friend Denke from an ImpSec takeover and captures his old enemy, Marius of the House of Aluta. Denke joins Steg to make overtures to the Emperor where they are attacked by ImpSec. They succeed in escaping and make their way to the headquarters of the Alliance government where they also persuade the military to support their task force. Battles with Xesset starships threaten their AIs. Steg has the fleet he needs to counter-attack the Xesset. This battle and subsequent events - including another duel - bring the trilogy to a close.