Five months after the liberation of the world of Talveras, Federal Commissars from the NUSA have arrived. Their goal, and desperate hope, is to convince the native populace -the novum- to join the ongoing fight against the HILEAN EMPIRE under their banner. Among them is a veteran warfighter named RUAN ALTMAN; a man whose reputation shall precede him even on this distant world. From the shadows watches a young novum woman; one FA'ASHI ORRIN. Her fight under the rule of the empire was very different from Altman's...and it is not yet over.