In the Noble Brightness of the near future, there is only peace. The year is 2180. A small colony of humans have established themselves in the far away reaches of the inner rim. But contact with Earth has never been established. The United Planets stand alone against an increasingly inhospitable sector, alone against the infinite darkness. And it is not just the local fauna they must fight. As with any large enough group of people, they began to segregate themselves from one another. A rigid caste system split the populace, and in the twenty years hence its institution, relations have only soured. Tensions have reached their peak, and hostilities have erupted on the outer colony Howoz. And there is another, far darker threat, looming to corrupt them all.
