It has been fifteen Terran months since Colonel Rodger Murphy and his Lost Soldiers were dropped in the 55 Tauri binary system. Since then, they have forged an uneasy alliance with space-dwelling descendants of the Ktor, liberated the earlier human inhabitants of the planet R'bak, and driven their oppressors from the neighboring system back into a few fortified cities. But there's another pivotal battle looming before them. With the cooperation of both indigenous R'Baku and the mutually suspicious Spindogs and Rockhounds, the Lost Soldiers have pulled off a delicate scheme to capture an advanced Kulsian corvette. Murphy's worsening multiple sclerosis is becoming impossible to hide, and the corvettes are proving far more difficult to replicate than anything the Spindogs have ever attempted. The only chance to bring all those forces together? Ex-Navy fighter jock Kevin Bowden—now known as "The Admiral"—who has his work cut out for him. Not only is the Harvester fleet coming earlier than expected, but it's bigger than ever before. And its objective is clear: to reassert complete control over the system and annihilate Murphy's Lawless, their allies, and any who would stand with them.