The middle of the 22nd Century was a time of prosperity and opportunity, the War of Unification twenty years in the past, most of the Milky Way had been mapped and explored and boasted fifty thousand populated worlds. Almost accidentally, Senior Admiral Richard Johnson discovers a threat from an alien race and makes plans for the galaxy's defense. Not knowing whom he can trust, within the government and without, he goes it alone with his band of rogues and cutthroats and a young commander of a Navy battle group in an effort to save the galaxy from those whose mission is to destroy it all.