Three years after legendary Mobile Infantry ace Vance, the Hive-Breaker, vanished blowing up an alien hive, he hides as a janitor, bound by a neural collar and a vow to his dying adoptive mother. His sister Cora, a rookie, despises his apparent cowardice while idolizing the legend. But the Gene Warfare Division, secretly led by the underestimated Silas, has twisted that legend into a gene-harvest trap. To protect Cora, Vance enters the trials, concealing his strength as allies fall to traitors. When the truth surfaces, he fights Silas by raw instinct, yet a deeper horror begins, an infected traitor's final mutation..
