One hundred and eighty years in the future, humankind has expanded across the cosmos. On the dangerous frontiers of Dawn, the Atek descendants of the lost colony ship Ariadna struggle to hold on to what little they have, and none are more vicious and backwards than the Caledonian Highlanders. Lieutenant Wilhelm Gotzinger III gave everything to PanOceania, and in return, he was court-martialed, demoted, and disgraced. Assigned to a diplomatic attaché at a remote outpost on Dawn, he's holdin...

Sub Officer Kyle Hawkins is two days out of his training as a Knight Hospitaller when he is sent to the jungle planet of Paradiso. After four years of gruelling training as a warrior of the NeoVatican, criticised by his superiors for his liberal, pacifistic theological views, he volunteers for the Paradiso assignment in an attempt to prove his worth. However, after arriving he finds that it is little more than a simple security detail, attached to a platoon of Fusiliers of the PanOceanian ...