Awakening from cryo sleep after barely surviving the Tarrant System Battle, Captain Hazard King begins working on restoring the wrecked Imperial Fleet. The Swarm forces smell blood and press their victory, sending a strike fleet to attack the Fleet base at Icarus. In the past, the Empire had ten years between attacks. This time, they’ll only have two. Even worse, the Empire doesn’t have the forces or the technology needed to stop the massive Swarm fleet, and Hazard is stymied at every turn by an entrenched bureaucracy that is unable to give Hazard the resources required to win the war. Unable to put together the force necessary to stop the Swarm, Hazard is compelled to send an old friend forward to buy him the time he needs… knowing he is likely sending her—and all her forces—to their doom. The final battle is fast approaching, and Hazard is aware the fleet he is assembling must win at all costs, or the Empire will surely fall. It’s a battle he must personally lead… not as Hazard King but as Prince Henry, War Leader. Can Henry put his alter ego behind him and become the leader he was destined to be, or will the Empire lose everything to the Swarm?