The Cacas have been driven out of human space, or at least the space that the Empire knows of. On the other side of the Ca'cadasan Empire another power fights against the huge aliens. A mission has been sent to contact this other power, to find an ally against the Cacas. Three enormous exploration vessels, led by Commodore Natasha Sung, travel the thirty thousand light years to the home of this power. What they find is a shock. A power that has been fighting the Cacas for decades, a seemingly ideal partner in the war. But this power holds a dark secret, one which may sabotage the alliance...

The Ca'cadasan are no longer knocking at the door of the Empire, which doesn't mean they have forgotten the humans who have handed them the first defeat in the history of their Empire. The Cacas are learning from their mistakes, and are retooling their war machine in the face of their greatest opponent ever. The Ca'cadasan Emperor is not satisfied with the state of his military, and changes will be made. New technologies are in the forefront of his plans, and a major covert strike is planned against the humans. He plans for this to be the death stroke to the human Empire, the preliminary to...

The Ca'cadasans are not the only threat in the Empire during wartime Nature itself, run away science, environmental hazards, all take their toll. Six tales of the threats on the frontiers of the Empire, whether at the edge of civilization or the edge of science, and the brave people who face them. The Mountains: Two explorers look in one of the most inhospitable places in known space, the mountains of Everest, for the find that will set them for life. But is a find like that worth their lives? The Hunted: When a young man betrays the mob, only the deadly swamplands of his planet offer a place...