In a grim future of corporate tyranny and deep space combat, Samuel Hyst has endured his life as a factory laborer, daring not to dream of a life beyond the polluted industrial planet of Baen 6. Everything changes when his young wife, Sura, reveals that she is pregnant. Now Samuel is faced with the harsh reality that his child will be born into the same debt servitude that he was. Determined to create a better life for his growing family, Samuel and his best friend Ben Takeda sign up for the hazardous life of a salvage marine, the foot soldiers of a militarized deep space operation.