The Feds call them insurgs. They are the survivors of a widespread conflict on the US eastern seaboard. The Feds used robots and drones to mangle and incinerate their enemies. Those that escaped flowed west, one particular group led by a former Fed named Skid. He built an underground installation in the US Southwest desert, and started salvaging Fed military technology. He and his compatriot Skip devised a rocket powered lizard that could attach itself to the back of Fed transports. On the other side is the Fed commander Steele, a man of lethal efficiency, who employs and dog and cat robots, as well as flying cyborgs with bladed arms. As both sides prepare for a huge battle, a mysterious force, perhaps extraterrestrial, announces itself with the wholesale destruction of a mountain. Meanwhile, back east, strange, silvery beings called Flat Men appear. From the red canyons of Arizona to the glass towers of NYC, humans and machines struggle for survival, wondering how much of their humanity will remain.