CDR Jackson Flynn and the crew of RSS Repulse return to Fletcher Point following the successful Dolan IV engagement. Flynn expects the fleet will have time to repair and resupply before their next action, but the gods of war have other ideas. The Han Grand Fleet has a new commander with orders to win the war, and win it fast, before hostilities on the secretive Kr'ih front erupt once again. 1ADM Turgenev's plan is bold, audacious, and if kept hidden behind a veil of operational deception, might end the war with a single, decisive battle, piercing the very heart of the Republic.His counterpart, ADM Riker Jameson, prepares to take Second Fleet and a small force of rebel Han ships deep into enemy space to lure Turgenev away from his safe haven at Maxis III, but Jameson has more worries than just the Han Bloc. The Republic has descended into political chaos, with President Ellison ushering in a new government - the Third Republic - which barely resembles the noble body it replaced. The entire Republic - to include the Combined Fleet - seems ready to schism.The old Republic, however, has a champion in waiting. ADM Shane McClusky has vanished, and GEN Maeng Seoyoen - the new Chairman of the RDF - wants him captured to conceal the crimes against the Republic she, Ellison, and Rahm Antinori have committed. Jameson struggles on two fronts - to out-maneuver the new Han commander, and to keep his own corrupt superiors from finding McClusky - and he places Repulse right in the thick of it. Jackson Flynn knows he must do everything in his power to protect McClusky and safeguard Jan Fuchida's secret from the Third Republic...And that might include firing the opening salvo of a Republic civil war.