A standalone story set in The Fractal series world, which began with the much lauded Fearless and Resilient, hard-sf masterpieces which Analog called "Rigorous hard SF with a powerful but flawed protagonist." 2121 AD. Three years after the first Mars conflict and the colony is still struggling to recover. Corporations fight to hold on to their investments. Old secrets resurface and new faces appear. Magnus Sirocco should never have been allowed to come here. He is a vigilante turned revolutionary who has been given a cause. He doesn't lose. Ever. Peter Iskander leads a new religious mission to deliver the promised land to their people. And after being investigated, exonerated and promoted, Commodore Ellisa Shann returns, but when a ship is stolen, she is drawn into another deadly duel. AUTHOR: Allen Stroud (PhD) is a university lecturer and Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writer, best known for his work on the computer games Elite Dangerous and Phoenix Point. He was the 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023 Chair of Fantasycon and was Chair of the British Science Fiction Association from 2019 to 2025.