The Emperor’s child Mercedes is the first woman ever admitted towards the High Surface, the elite training academy from the Solar League’s Star Command, and she must graduate if she is to have any hope of taking the throne. Her classmate Thracius offers more humble goals-to defy his humble origins and rise towards the rank of captain. However in something rocked by political division, where women are governed by their husbands and fathers, the indegent are kept in their place by a rigid course system, as well as the alien races have been conquered and subjugated, there are plenty of who want them to fail.

A civil war is arriving and the machinations of those who craving for food for power threaten the cadets. In a time of politics intrigue, class discord, and alien invasion, they will be tested as they never thought possible .