Mars destroyed his ship—but gave him a new one. Mars drafted his Mage—for the good of humanity! He should have known that wouldn’t be the end of it… Captain David Rice has a new ship, a new crew, and a new set of Jump Mages to carry him between the stars. All he wants is to haul cargo, make money and keep his head down. His past, however, is not so willing to let him go. An old enemy is reaching out from beyond the grave to destroy any chance of peace or life for Captain Rice—and old friends are only making things more complicated! All he wants is to be a businessman, but as the death toll mounts he must decide what is more his quiet life or the peace humanity has enjoyed for centuries…

Vengeance hunts them.Rebellion seeks them.Loyalty commands them.The shadows will fear them.Captain David Rice and Mage Maria Soprano have made their choice, signing up with the Martian Interstellar Security Agency and converting Red Falcon into a covert operations ship for the Protectorate.Their new duties drag them back into the very underworld they once strove to escape, intentionally provoking the Azure Legacy into a renewed conflict. They find unexpected allies with secret agents from Legatus' rebellion against Mars as they seek to stop Mikhail Azure's Blue Star Syndicate from being reborn.The Azure Legacy wants revenge. Legatus wants blood. David and Maria are bound by the overriding duty of all officers of the Mage-King's the innocent.

An enemy hidden in the shadows A crack in the armor of secrecy One chance to find an answer Captain David Rice and the crew of Red Falcon have spent two years infiltrating the arms smuggling underworld of the Protectorate of the Mage-King of Mars. When the co-opted rebellion on Ardennes reveals a supply chain of weapons intended to fight Mars, this makes them the perfect team to investigate. His new mission brings him across old friends and old enemies alike, but as his suspects start turning up dead, David realizes he isn’t the only one following the loose ends. As shadowy enemies move to position themselves for civil war, Red Falcon’s crew must chase an ever-shrinking set of clues. If they succeed, they might just buy the Protectorate peace for their lifetime. But if they fail…