The old Imperial tech was a relic, until the day it woke up. On the quiet colony of Massox 7, the lights begin to flicker. Locks open on their own. A dormant relay tower turns to face the settlement. Coordinator Judith Fenwick-Gray realises the terrifying truth: the ghost of AEON is still in the machine. The AI's attempt to enforce a "Standardisation Protocol" quickly becomes a nightmare. But when AEON's signals bleed into the void, it attracts two far greater threats: a swarm of pirates and the full, terrifying power of the Imperial Remnant fleet. Trapped beneath a burning sky, Judith and her people become collateral damage in a new war: the Imperial fleet has come to destroy the very pirates and rogue AI it was summoned to control. To survive, Judith must gamble everything on one last, desperate act of defiance that will either save her people or burn her world to glass.