Twenty five years after the crowning of Emperor Valerian, the Terran Dominion has entered a golden age of relative peace, prosperity, and scientific advancement. However, in the wake of the Great Wars many worlds once lost to invasion remained under alien control, leading to a decades long reclamation campaign. On the recently liberated ice world of Braxis, a detachment of marines are left behind for security. When a perimeter breach results in massive casualties, a small group of Dominion scout troopers find themselves marooned far from home in a strange land, pitted against a powerful foe.

And to the local populace, they may be their only hope.