He was ordered to hold a meaningless position while peace was negotiated. Then a dead channel came back online: the peace treaty was cover. The enemy was already inside.
Commander Ren Kashar commands the ICV Ardent, one of three ships surviving from a fleet of forty. Humanity has been losing the war with the Keth Collective for three years — pushed back to six inhabited systems. Kashar is assigned to hold the Verath Corridor, a tactically meaningless position between two dead moons, for sixty hours while a peace treaty is negotiated on Earth. The mission makes no sense. He follows orders because soldiers follow orders, and because the missions that make no sense are the ones that turn out to matter. Then a transmission arrives on a channel that has been dead for eight months: the peace negotiation is cover. A Keth insertion team is already inside Earth's orbital defense network. Kashar cannot leave the Corridor without violating direct orders. He cannot stay without letting Earth burn. His XO, returned from Keth captivity in a prisoner exchange that Fleet Command still has doubts about, argues for the mission. His chief engineer argues for Earth. The Ardent is failing. The Keth commander on the other side of the Corridor is not what he expected. And every hour Kashar holds position is another hour the insertion team has to finish its work.
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