A battalion of convicts...

Fifty secondhand armored vehicles...

A desperate scramble to hold the line...

The Vasilov Worlds are on the edge of human space. They have fought a war for 35 years against the insectoid Kadan that they have no intention of ending. It's too essential to a society where the only social movement is via battle promotion. Then it all changes when the Kadan nearly annihilate the front lines.

Vasilov Officer Colonel Cole Clarke has just returned home from service with the Sigg Military. Now that he has learned how the Sigg fight, he's bringing that knowledge to the Vasilov Military, plus an entire battalion of secondhand Sigg armor purchased on the scrap market. But instead of a fresh battalion of troops, he's assigned a penal battalion filled with convicts. The Vasilov Military doesn't accept change easily, even when they need it.

What would happen if an entirely new style of warfare came onto the battlefield? Could a strike force of secondhand armor trump the defensive doctrines they'd used for 35 years, or would they be doomed to failure and death on the icy planet Lishun Delta?

One squadron of armor. One colonel. A thousand of the worst convicts in the Vasilov Military. Will they be up to the task?