The crew of the Earth ship Behemoth has been busy. Their latest assignment against the Orion’s Light terrorists has given them valuable insight into the workings of this new threat and boosted their already substantial credibility with Alliance High Command. Returning to discover when they might participate in the invasion of their true enemy’s home world, they find themselves brought into the shadowy world of Alliance Intelligence. Captain Atwell and his ship are directed to the Novalat system where a civil war rages. Their primary mission is to help settle the conflict so their allies can join in the real fight to come but secondarily, they are looking for signs of an intelligence officer who has failed to send word back to his superiors. Even with the secretive part, the mission seems fairly straightforward until they arrive and find the real hand behind the chaos raging throughout the region.