The machines were never empty.
Earth's most powerful mechs are failing.
Pilots hear voices inside their cockpits. They experience memories that are not their own. Some lose control of their machines entirely, just as a coordinated creature assault begins dismantling the planet's transportation, communications, and defenses.
Veteran pilot Jack Mercer is assigned to protect four young commanders who may be humanity's best chance of understanding the invasion. He operates B-232, a classified assassination frame designed to disable rogue mechs and eliminate their pilots. Unlike every modern combat machine, B-232 contains no biological core, making it one of the only frames still capable of obeying its pilot.
As Jack and the commanders investigate, they uncover evidence that Earth Defense Command has hidden for decades. The biological systems powering humanity's mechs are not passive components. They remember the laboratories, the restraints, and the hands that transformed them into weapons.
The invasion is being directed from Mars by Mara Mercer, Jack's daughter.
Eight years earlier, Mara survived a catastrophic neural-link experiment that forced years of creature memories through her mind in less than two minutes. No one believed what she experienced. Now she commands an alliance of the beings humanity harvested, and she intends to make Earth understand their suffering, even if innocent people must share it.
Jack has been ordered to destroy the Martian coordination network and assassinate Mara.
To stop the war, he must confront the institution he served, the pilots he once hunted, and the daughter he failed to protect.
B-232 was created to kill rogue pilots.
Jack is beginning to understand who made them rogue.
