The war amid the stars is over and Captain Fremont McMannus is moving on to a staff job. His entire Microgravity Strike Team is going to be disbanded, struck from the rolls of the Terran Marine Corps. No more daring raids on Charee orbital stations or assaulting Grausian battleships. Never again to risk the combat spacer's fate worse than getting spitted on a Legionaries' vibrosword, drifting through the void while your air ran out and silent violence danced around you. Then again, a staff job and a transfer over to Fleet HQ in peacetime might also be also worse than death. His rescue comes in the form of note from an old commanding officer, Colonel Thomas Meagher. who has started his own mercenary company, operating in the Peace Treaty Demilitarized Zone. Dozens of worlds left outside the borders of the remnant political units of the Old Empire, with gold and enemies to spare. Reaching out to the men and women he led in combat a just a few short months ago and who will soon be out on the unemployment line, Free puts the 76th MIST out for hire. Another entry into the best selling Fallen Empire series created by J.F. Holmes; Michael Morton brings his decades of experience as an Air Force officer to a thrilling tale of future combat in the silent depths of space.