Sergeant Jerry Harper recently caused an interstellar incident. As a result, tensions are high, and the Reliants of the Mentarchy have offered to host a conference to settle the matter peacefully. Jerry is ordered by his government to attend the talks and testify. He travels with the rest of the Agrarian diplomatic delegation to the planet Cortex, home of the Mentarch. Cortex is supposed to be neutral ground, but that changes when an assassin targets the Agrarians. Jerry chases the shooter, but the pursuer quickly becomes the pursued, and he's forced to go on the run. While Jerry's wandering in the wilderness, the Mentarch activates its anti-gravity jammer, blockading space travel. The Agrarian delegates are now stuck on the planet, and Jerry is the only one in a position to do anything about it. He's tasked with disabling the jammer. Jerry has no idea how he's going to do it, but he sets out anyway. Along the way, he starts to get a strange feeling about Cortex, some weird interaction between the planet and his psychic gift. He's not sure what's going on, but he suspects the Mentarch is up to something. Jerry must find a way to disable the jammer while also dealing with the Mentarch's mind games. And if he wants to get his people off Cortex alive, he must do it before the place turns into a war zone.

Sergeant Jerry Harper left the military nine years ago. The four Breeds of humanity are at peace, and he's just a landscaper now. He spends his days mowing lawns and his nights playing gigs with his band. Civilian life in the Wheel of Fire galaxy is quiet and steady, and that's the way he likes it. That steady life is interrupted when a colonel from military intelligence shows up. Jerry's old war buddy, Brandon Woods, has gone missing, and the colonel is assembling a motley group of rescuers. He wants Jerry to join the team. Jerry owes Brandon his life, so he agrees to help. He travels to another planet and soon finds himself mired in interstellar politics. There's something psychological going on, too, a legacy of his last battle nine years ago. Finding Brandon is challenging enough by itself, but now those secrets from the past threaten to drive Jerry insane. He hopes he can grab his friend and get out without attracting too much attention, and he certainly doesn't want to risk starting another Breed war. But he's on a hostile planet now, and it won't give Brandon up without a fight.

Jerry Harper is back on Homestead recovering from his ordeal. The galactic political situation is deteriorating, and it looks like war betwen the Agrarian Commonwealth and the Reliant Mentarchy is inevitable. Jerry's ordered to report in, and the military puts him back into action. He's a spaceborne Rifleman once again. The last hopes for peace are dashed. War is declared! Jerry and his men begin their first war patrol. But the Mentarch hits fast and hard, and its atrocities leave the Commonwealth reeling. Jerry's electrokinesis is Homestead's not-so-secret weapon, but he's still just one man. He can't be everywhere at once, and the defeats start to mount. The Commonwealth desperately needs a victory, something to boost morale. Jerry knows his ability is powerful enough to swing a battle. But he still has orders to follow, and his options are limited. If he can't find a way to help turn the tide soon, it might never happen. Because the Mentarch is relentless, and it's determined to reduce the Commonwealth to a collection of ruined worlds.

Jerry Harper is back home, recovering from his injuries. It won't be for long. He's a strategic asset now, and the government is eager to send him back into action. They want to protect him better on his next war patrol, so he's assigned to a new station: the Agrarian Commonwealth's new battleship. He and the fleet soon jump out and begin their mission. While in space, horrifying news arrives. The Reliants have invented a doomsday weapon, a virus that targets the Agrarian genetic code. They begin deploying it, and Agrarians are killed by the billions. Jerry is tasked with using his electrokinesis to find the virus's production facility so that a coordinated attack can be made. It might be the only chance the Commonwealth gets before the galaxy's Agrarians are exterminated. Jerry's health is in rapid decline due to his electrokinesis. He can't afford to push himself. But a Rifleman does his duty, even if it kills him.

Dale Kinmont recruits Martian volunteers to travel to Venus and aid in its defense. He assembles an army and dispatches them ahead of schedule. They'll beat Nat there with time to spare, and Dale is optimistic. The plan is soon derailed. Nat and his army of convicts aren't going to Venus as planned--they're on their way to Mars. Dale's army's ship can't turn around, and they will never make it back in time. He must find a way to defend his uncle's space station, as well as the Martian cities on the surface. He must do it without Mars's best fighting men, and he must do it quickly. Because Nat Leland is coming, and the most brutal men in the solar system are coming with him.

Dale Kinmont spends his days helping the new government of Venus adjust to independence. He is comfortable there, and certainly doesn't want to go to some horrible place like the Crater prison colony on Mercury. But when Uncle Zack goes there and winds up missing, Dale knows he's the only one who can find him. Crater is too big for him to search for Zack by himself, so he must enlist the aid of the local partisans. Their assistance comes at a price, though, and paying isn't easy. Dale's presence there stirs up trouble for everyone. He hopes the civil unrest on Mercury, like that of Hesperus, will have a happy ending. But when a prison planet has a revolution, no one leaves unscathed.