'The AFS might have the navy, a constitution and a civil militia, but it was a fractious and small population spread out over a vast continental state, half of whom still had an anarchic frontier mindset only held together by The Code and a common enemy in the physical environment. Captain Dmitry Beardmore was old enough to remember the world before and after the near eradication of most technology. He didn't want that kind of chaos to happen to his new home.' Senator Valentina Torres is onboard the MS Mercer, flagship of the Antarctic Free State's new navy, when they spot the smuggler vessel Iron Prestige. Capturing it leads to an increasingly complex web of intrigue. At the heart of it all is President Gordon Murcheson now running for a second term in office as head of the AFS, and his competition, Senator Christine Frome. Together they jeopardise the security of the AFS. Or at least that's how Valentina sees it...