Sixty years ago, seventeen human colonies were cut off from Earth and left to survive on their own, with minimal resources. Corporations and genetically engineered elites took control. They created a new kind of government, authoritarian, monopolistic, an oligarchy. But now, that system is falling apart. The corporations are approaching war, the elite families are losing control, and the people are caught in the middle.

Just when things couldn't get worse, an alien race appears. They attack - or do they?

Some everyday people - a restaurant entrepreneur, a professor, an asteroid miner, a brilliant introverted kid, a philosopher, victims and heroes and volunteers all - are forced to choose. Will they conform to the oppressive government and oppose the aliens, or oppose the developing fascism only to risk annihilation by the aliens?

Fight for freedom, or for survival?