<B>The Empire is dead!</B><br><br><br><br>And Captain Josiah Bleys smuggler and charmer though he may be is likely to soon follow unless he is willing to at least pretend to be something he loathes: a hero. His 'pal' Chief Ragnar Kane one of the Emperor's finest warriors likewise harbors no aspirations toward gallantry just increasing his kill count.<br><br><br><br>Fate however has other plans. The mighty galaxy-spanning Terran Empire is mortally wounded brought to its knees by a terrifying intelligent plague from hyperspace. The core worlds are mass graves and the government lies in ruins. Outlying colonies suddenly isolated and without support are on their own.<br><br><br><br>Luck (the bad kind) has both men stuck on the icy mining facility on Cerberus an installation that won’t last long without resupply. Bleys and Kane must mount a daring raid on a neighboring planet to retrieve a legendary scientist in the hopes that he can reconnect them to civilization or they and everyone else at their frozen outpost are doomed.<br><br><br><br>The trouble is that the scientist isn't exactly willing nor is he exactly . . . alive.
