My platoon's going to be getting orders to form a firing squad soon... Mine. Corporal Janice Skelling's mission definitely isn't the walk in the park they briefed her on. Her platoon's assault shuttle is blown out of the sky by an enemy base equipped with a downright suspicious amount of firepower, leaving her team stranded on a challenging alien world that wants to kill them. Just another day in the 1st Frontier Assault Brigade for Jan, but she has a bigger problem, a lethal problem: her lieutenant. They're not getting off this planet unless they can take the base, but the line between valor and recklessness is lost amidst the chaos of a military operation gone badly wrong. The lieutenant wants them to charge straight in for death or glory. The way this base is armed, Jan knows that means they'll all die. Military orders have to be obeyed. Plain common sense demands a refusal. Time's run out. Something's got to give. What's it going to be?

All for one and one for all. An ancient saying, but Jan and Bjorn have lived by it. Carrying the burden of their mission to save an ungrateful home world, they and the oddball crew of the Acid Penguin must deal with uncertain friends and unwelcoming space stations as they mix trade and rescue missions, while battling with pirates on their journey into the Margin. But on their path is a major star system about to be convulsed with revolution and war. A star system with a navy on the lookout for the Acid Penguin. It’s a fool’s errand, but Jan has made a commitment, even though she knows the Dark takes fools. Every spacer knows this truth. The crew of the Acid Penguin have cheated the Dark at every turn, but the Dark always wins in the end. What will this all for one commitment cost? Her ship? Her crew? Her life? Or everything?

A deal with the Dark Both Jan and the Penguin need to rise like phoenixes from the flames. There’s only one way to do it, and that’s to make a deal with the Dark. Jan and Bjorn must continue their mission, pursued by both pirates and officials, and diverted by other demands. Everything seems to come together unexpectedly. A daring theft gives them the key to succeed, but to unlock the data, they need to travel to a place that they thought only existed in bar-room tales. There, Jan must listen to voices from her past, look into the mirror of her soul… And lay her life on the line again.