Ten months of total war have taken their toll on humanity.

The unrelenting pace of combat operations is whittling everyone down. Liam is fed up with always being on the defensive. Chi and Jericho’s relationship is beginning to fray at the edges. Even Whimsby is beginning to show signs of (heaven forbid it) insufficient bandwidth.

As the Deathbringers flit from one end of the universe to the other, pushing back against constant probing attacks by the Ferox, Liam is required to be on nearly every operation. His ability to sense and locate Wraith Graves is integral to the war effort. And yet, Liam still feels like he’s not doing enough. Mainly because Command says he’s too valuable to risk, and therefore won’t let him fight.

No. He just has to sit there and watch everyone else die.

Amid those ever-rising casualties, new generations of Deathbringers are being pushed into combat with less and less training. Seres Champlain, reinstated and recently promoted to chief, knows the perils of this strategy. Because while it might bolster their ranks in the short term, it’s really hard to keep a squad of barely trained newbies alive. In fact, she’s failing pretty badly in that regard.

Humanity needs help, and they need it fast.

Following a particularly devastating loss, Liam learns that the All-Kind have found a suitable candidate species to become humanity’s allies: a species called the Sulti. This might seem like a stroke of luck, except the Sulti have fought the Deathbringers before, and there is no love lost between them.

But they’re going to have to put all that behind them. Because the Sulti Empire, which spans thousands of populated worlds, is where the Ferox have chosen to mount a full-scale invasion.

As everything begins to unravel amid lies, betrayal, and intergalactic politics, Liam and his fellow Deathbringers–as well as one very old AI–must prove what they’re made of, or the very fabric of existence may be torn ... and all hell will quite literally break loose.

The end isn’t coming. It’s already here.