The Dauntless—an Imperium Navy starship–vanished while answering a distress call outside the borders of imperial space. Ship and crew: gone.

The Red Kestrels, paramilitary activists and outer-sector thugs, are thought responsible. But, for a small, fringe group like the Kestrels, pulling off a heist of this scale and risking the wrath of the empire isn’t just unlikely, it defies reason.

Imperium field-operative Samantha Mori is hunting down a Kestrel lead when startling new intelligence offers a more plausible—and damning—explanation, one which threatens not only her mission, but the stability of the empire.

Starview Station orbits Kestris in ruin, a tangle of wreckage and jettisoned bodies. Yet, alleged perpetrators, the Red Kestrels, remain silent…

Samantha, Decker, and the crew of the Matilda have narrowly escaped into jumpspace after the attack, their destination the Fringe as they return to the only lead Samatha has: the Red Kestrel leader, Kat Basara. Disavowed by the Imperium and without support, Samantha must win over a crew who has no reason to trust her.

Rogue agents working from the outside. Duplicitous officers working from the inside. In the shadow of the Terminus, it’s unclear who is predator and who is prey.

Samantha, Decker, and the crew of the freshly repaired Matilda are on their way to Senali with Red Kestrel leader Kat Basara in their sights. She has the answer to Samantha’s question: who is the leak within the Imperium that sacrificed The Dauntless and its crew?

The Lord Ascendent appears to be unstoppable. The crew of the Matilda — chased back into the Fringe — cannot stop Gallow’s march forward.

Samantha is battered and beaten. The Kestrel threat was a lie. She knows her real enemy now, but must face the fact that she may have no way to fight back.