It all started with a prank, but when Axel stows away on the Titan Mark Three, he gets caught up in an urgent mission that could mean peace between Altia and Calor—or turn tension into war.

As if that weren't enough, Axel is also distracted by the Pilot in charge of the mission: Ivan Daletsky, the greatest Titan pilot of the age, whom Axel has wanted for a long time and isn't likely to ever get. Then the treaty is stolen, and time is rapidly running out, and it will take all the ingenuity Axel can muster to prevent a war.