The Confederated Worlds lost the war. Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace? By the terms of the peace treaty, the citizens of the planet Arden will vote to stay in the Confederated Worlds or join the victorious Progressive Republic. Newly-minted Lieutenant Tomas Neumann leads his overstretched and demoralized Confederated Worlds Ground Force platoon in a mission that pushes men and machines to their limits, against elusive, deceptive foes out to tilt Arden to the Progressive Republic-and turn the Confederated Worlds against itself.

After New California's founder committed suicide, two men vied to rule the colony. Ashwin George, supported by the colony's elite and Tian Quan, the Chinese company whose hyperdrive ships and intelligent robots dominated half the settled galaxy. Desmond Park, nanotechnology engineer, armed with a shrewd intellect, the loyalty of the colony's disaffected youth, and the most formidable weapon of all. A single idea.