It's the year 2277.For fifty years, Earth has received mysterious data transmissions from seemingly random locations in deep space. The streams include advanced technology, ultimately providing Humanity with the means to achieve faster-than-light travel. As we prepare to take our first, tentative steps into interstellar space, we know almost nothing about our alien benefactors, and their motivations remain unexplained.As the first Terran Fleet Command starship, TFS Ingenuity, completes its shakedown cruise, Captain Tom Prescott and crew stumble into a first contact situation. They learn that Earth is not the first civilization granted access to the stars before their time - and how this Faustian gift has led countless other worlds into centuries of interstellar war.Humanity's existence soon hangs in the balance as a powerful alliance assembles a preemptive military strike, believing it to be their only option to protect themselves ? from us. Prescott and his small, initially unarmed starship must serve as our only line of defense. Ingenuity is our only hope.