By the year 2177, humanity has left the bounds of Earth's solar system, called the Home Sector, and settled amongst the stars. In that time, no government has discovered any intelligent life in the hundreds of light years travelled from Earth through the vast sections of space. Man is a creature slow to change, and as a result the governments on Earth and other worlds still fight brutal wars and compete for precious resources. Without warning, a beautiful and idyllic French Frontier world called Lorraine is attacked and occupied by an alien civilization. The nations of the Earth have agreed to put aside their differences to fight the new race the Chinese Empire has named Mo Tian, loosely translated as "demons from heaven." Follow the adventures of an untested American Army officer as he prepares for the invasion of Lorraine, a Seattle based corporate mercenary who will do anything for money and power, and a New Zealand ranching family on a primitive world in the farthest reaches of space called the Outward Frontier. Their fates are woven together with one of America's leading scientists as they scramble to execute a desperate plan for the salvation of not only the United States, but for Earth and its numerous colonies.