They thought they could force her to conform. They were wrong. Inside a dystopian school in the Singularity, the twelve-year-old girl known as One Twenty-Four struggles to survive. Failure to conform means death at the hands of her teacher. Assuming her clone sisters don't kill her first. The Terran Empire has tasked Imperial Marine Lieutenant Grace Tolliver to lead her platoon into the Singularity as a privateer. Her mission: to tear a great bloody strip off their enemies and to take anything that isn't nailed down. The collision of this unlikely pair will change the humanity in ways that no one could predict. If they survive. Author's Note: This novel takes place more than five centuries before the Empire of Bones series and the events unfolding here have implications there.

Andrea Tolliver—a genetically designed human from the Singularity—has finally earned a spot in the Imperial Marines. If she makes it through training, she’ll earn citizenship. If not—well, best not to think about that. With ruthless enemies willing to do anything to stop her, she’ll need all the help she can get to survive. Even with friends working from the shadows to keep her safe, will that be enough to keep her alive?

Know your enemy like you know yourself. Andrea Tolliver and her friends are now Imperial Marines, sworn to protect the Terran Empire from all enemies. Too bad she hasn’t even had time to make friends in her new unit before civil unrest sees them deployed. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Separated from their unit, they must discover who is really behind the unrest and stop them by any means necessary. When the enemy strikes from the shadows, they must stand and fight. If they fail, the Empire will never be the same. Three times is enemy action.