On a routine training flight, Major Vincent Pirelli's damaged fighter is sent spinning into deep space. Is he dead, or did RAM forces pick him up for interrogation? To find out, NEO agent Jovanna Trask must assemble a mismatched team of pirates, spies, and crack commandos to raid the RAM military base of Phobos!

Meanwhile, from the icy depths of the Outer Planets, a strange city and its even stranger inhabitants are hurtling sunward, bearing a long-lost secret. Soon the destinies of RAM, of NEO, and of Earth's struggle for freedom may all depend on the mysterious artifact.