Subtlety is a game Joe is capable of, but he always preferred a more hands-on approach. Unluckily for him, the Komran are no longer satisfied with a war of attrition and there’s no choice but to play. After intercepting the Komran battleplans on his last suicide mission, Joe gets the request to take on the most challenging mission to date: diplomacy. The team are sent to the outer fringes of the Vale system, where the Komran have planted traitors among the populations of three planets. If their plans succeed, the planets’ defenses will be taken down and a Komran invasion force will get easy access to stage landing points for a much more expansive push into Vale territory. There’s no room for failure. The team must prepare to divert a war that could be ended in a day, or risk the start of a new level of subjugation. For once, Joe needs to rely on his wits and his version of “diplomacy” to accomplish the mission and save the galaxy. Sometimes, he wonders if he would be better off back in the freezer.