Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire. Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void. Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

At long last, humanity has moved beyond Earth and begun seeding new worlds. Colonies extend across the solar system, from Luna to Mars to Saturn's satellite Titan. Even Jupiter's moon Europa has become home to a couple thousand brave souls willing to risk their lives adapting to its frozen and deadly landscape.

Idealistic Navy Lieutenant Jacob Grimm just wanted to honor his mother’s sacrifice in the last great war. When he’s forced to return fire and destroy a squadron of ships to save his own, he thinks he’s the hero...until they discover the ships are full of children. Disgraced and denied promotion, Jacob’s career is over. That is until the head of ONI needs a disposable officer to command a battered destroyer on the rim.

Kai of the Sorcerer's Tower was one of the last Mages left, barely surviving in a world contaminated with dead mana and ruled by creatures of the dark. To save his world and fulfill his master's last wish, he puts himself through a forbidden ritual, risking his soul being ripped into pieces to make his way into the past, to a golden era with abundant mana. But things go wrong. He overshoots and finds himself in an ancient time thousands of years earlier, within the body of a young lord named Arzan.

Aliens ripped a hole above Earth, arriving with a massive space station. I sorta figured we'd be enslaved to fight in their wars or exterminated for our resources. Nope. The hip-high Iglax were merchants with ugly squished faces and thick blue fur. While they weren't much to look at, they sure did have some wonderous technology. Humanity bent over backwards to appease our new merchant overlords. The boorish aliens wanted cheap labor for precious metals, and honestly, I didn't blame anyone for their hunger to be among the stars.