Kaleb Hugo is every­thing an offi­cer of the Ser­vice should be: loyal, expertly trained, unques­tion­ing. He has done every­thing ever ordered of him and has done so with a pride that comes from know­ing you are fight­ing for the good of humankind… until the day that he made a decision to go against orders to obtain victory and save lives. The bat­tle was won, but Hugo was con­demned and dis­hon­ourably dis­charged by Ser­vice com­man­ders for defying regulations. There is no place in the Service for heroes. Their soldiers serve and obey. Officially, anyway. Unof­fi­cially, Hugo is re-​​assigned to cap­tain the crew of the Zero, an eight-​​man craft clas­si­fied as, at best, a pri­va­teer ship and at worst a smug­gling and crim­i­nal enter­prise vessel. But what very few know is that the Zero, and her crew, are con­tracted by the Ser­vice. Their role is to inves­ti­gate and infil­trate the less savoury lev­els of soci­ety. They sell on, buy in, bar­gain, threaten and report back on every­thing the polit­i­cal lev­els the Ser­vice don’t offi­cially want to know about. The Zero’s rag-​​tag crew look to their com­man­der, Ezekiel Webb, as their leader and mid­dle­man between the reg­i­mented expec­ta­tions of the Ser­vice and the harsh and unpre­dictable demands of the under­world of colo­nial space. He has lived in both worlds his whole life and has trouble adjusting to Hugo, as he has every captain before him. Hugo has to find a way to manage this unruly ship and unruly crew as they are pulled deeper into an orbit-​​wide game of pol­i­tics, deceit and cor­rup­tion which will threaten to tear them apart as well as throw human­ity back into a cycle of war and destruc­tion. Hugo, Webb and the crew will have to over­come per­sonal tragedy, insur­mount­able odds and every depraved twist of fate that the Orbit can throw at them in order to survive and prevent events that could threaten the lives of millions. For Kaleb Hugo, nothing will ever be certain again.

Blast off into orbit once again with Kaleb Hugo and Ezekiel Webb! It is a few years since Lunar Independence League's rebellion against the Service was defeated, taking the Zero and everything she stood for with it. Her former captain, Kaleb Hugo, set himself on a new path and a lot has changed under his watch. And yet, not enough. Despite everything, circumstances will drive Hugo back to an underworld full of fears he thought he'd left behind. Ghosts of pain, betrayal and guilt haunt Hugo after the shocking and brutal torture of the woman he loves, forcing him to seek out his ex-commander from the Zero, Ezekiel Webb, to help him get revenge. Together they must gain entry to Haven, an off-world colony where those with nothing left to lose end up, but where the answers they need are hidden. But Haven is a place with its own rules. Rules which are harsh, brutal and unforgiving. On the edge of Service-controlled space and outside the boundaries of civilised society, Hugo and Webb will come face to face with enemies old and new, and once again will have to fight to save their own skins as well as secure what they need to deliver justice. Will they prevail against all the odds stacked against them, when sometimes their own worst enemies are themselves?