Book excerpt: In the Badlands, everyone has their own agenda. System governments, planetary authorities, and large corporations want to expand their power, wealth, and authority. They use killing, robbing, and intimidating as methods of persuasion and governance. Slavery has big profits and low overhead. The Goldenes Tor Imperial Empire borders the Badlands and play by the same rules while working to annex this wild region. The Aurora Empire opposes the Goldenes Tor policy and maintains a small Royal Navy Badlands squadron under the command of Captain Skyler Mallory to dispute their claim. Raferty Hawkins, captain of the pirate vessel Predator, also has an agenda. He wants to drive out the hated Goldenes Tor, rein in the local governments and big corporations, and give local natives control of their own destiny. He is quite willing to kill people to achieve these ends. With crew members such as Tactical and Baby Doll and the support of Captain Shane Delacruz of Vindictive and the crazy Captain Killian O'Hare of Nemesis, Hawkins had been fighting the oppressive Badlands forces for years. But now the status quo is about to be turned upside down. The Orion Confederation is far away with no interest in the Badlands. However, an Orion squadron has entered the region to destroy Mallory's command as part of a campaign of surprise attacks on the Aurora Empire. The Orion squadron and their Goth escort ships make one fatal mistake. They destroy a pirate settlement of women and children. Now Hawkins and the ships of Pirate Flotilla One ally themselves with Captain Mallory against a common enemy. Two forces of unlikely allies maneuver for advantage across a cold, dark battlefield. The outcome of this campaign will shape the Badlands for decades to come.