Vengeance hunts them. Rebellion seeks them. Loyalty commands them. The shadows will fear them. Captain David Rice and Mage Maria Soprano have made their choice, signing up with the Martian Interstellar Security Agency and converting Red Falcon into a covert operations ship for the Protectorate. Their new duties drag them back into the very underworld they once strove to escape, intentionally provoking the Azure Legacy into a renewed conflict. They find unexpected allies with secret agents from Legatus's rebellion against Mars as they seek to stop Mikhail Azure's Blue Star Syndicate from being reborn. The Azure Legacy wants revenge. Legatus wants blood. David and Maria are bound by the overriding duty of all officers of the Mage-King's Protectorate: Protect the innocent.