With the Scorpio assignment complete, all roads lead to the homeworlds.
The Scorpio data-trail ... the Michiko dossier ... all data points in one direction, and Jarrat and Stone can only follow it to Earth. Mars. They find themselves in the timeless cities of ancient worlds, which have grown dark, wicked. Corrupt. For the outsider -- stranger, colonial or mutoid -- it's a mean arena that can seem oddly alien, and is undeniably dangerous. For the 'Earther' headed back in, like Stone himself, it's not what one expected, nor a place where one would choose to be.
Duty takes Jarrat and Stone to Chicago, Marsport and the incredible skycities of the Jupiter system -- new-old worlds on what was once known as the high frontier. These worlds have become new battlefields, but Death wears the same old face.
Aerosports and Angel packwar -- the launch of a super-carrier, the death of a friend -- nothing is as it seems. Very soon Jarrat and Stone learn to trust only those they know and believe only what they see, as they and the key elements of the Athena's crew bend the rules to breaking-point -- and beyond.
