The Colonial Wars have exploded across the face of Omaru ... the unknown, unknowable Zunshu have begun to devour the worlds beyond the storms of the Rabelais Drift ... the Confederacy can only try to tighten its grip on the Deep Sky ... the last of the Resalq fight a covert battle for the survival of all ... and Harrison Shapiro’s war — the desperate struggle for the liberty of the every soul on the ‘deep frontier’ — might die stillborn. Curtis Marin and Neil Travers are at the spearhead of action which will take them from the heights of On’rabi to the deepest pits of city bottom, on a world under siege ... and the future of the new worlds of the Deep Sky will be found in the dark heart of Hellgate itself.